Using wax on handmade paper

August 8, 2019 Barbara Landes

the unscientific method

Post about what we've learned about using wax on handmade paper to enhance its look, translucence, chroma, value, etc. The basic recipe we've settled on is beeswax, poppy oil and xylene (or odorless mineral spirits for those brain cell counters) (1:1:2) We look at abaca and cotton papers. We've varied the ingredients substituting paraffin, soy wax, safflower drying oil, turpentine.

We want to vary the basic recipe to address specific goals like removing the whiteness in partially restraint dried abaca or deepening light cotton colors.

We're artists so you know we have short attention spans and get happily derailed when we see a really artsy looking mistake. And you know you’re not going to see uniform sample papers with neat copperplate captions.

Coils that change planes

June 8, 2019 Barbara Landes

Up to now, the coils have stayed on one plane, fabricated and dried on a flat table top. Given abaca’s natural flex, some of the planar flatness is dispelled when used in a composition, but still, it’s a bent plane rather a truly 3d “line drawing.” Recently, we had some bright white rope piled on a work table. We wondered how we might make a coil act more rope-like and loop about in space.

Holed’ers

March 18, 2019 Barbara Landes

casting cotton paper, embossing, hand papermaking, how to cast negative space

casting handmade paper, abaca and cotton paper sculpture,

We like negative space, so we cast some. We laid down some odd shaped plywood pieces and filled in the space around them with wet sheets of lightly pressed cotton paper. The pebbles were pressed in for texture.

We like the thick flange-like, shadow-catching edges that run around the shapes. The resultant form invites entanglement.

We call them “holed’ers” because the pieces were initially, at least, holed by positive shapes.

Coils in flashing

January 31, 2019 Barbara Landes

Carving grooves in pink insulation foam board to cast coil designs seems clever, but it is not practical. You would have to gouge a busy road map of grooves to get much flexibility of design. Or go through a lot of pink foam.

Our next idea is to use strips of aluminum flashing held in position with kebab skewers. We liked our sample, but found it awkward to position the flashing walls and plunge them into place at the same time. Much easier to position the fences just so and then skewer them into place.

Coils that flourish

January 3, 2019 Barbara Landes

Afternoon, November 29, 2018, waiting on a coil to dry.

We rolled some 96” x 4” strips of 5 hour double-couched abaca into coils. Then we moved them around to find a design we liked. We traced the design onto the pink insulation foam in pencil. We used a cutter and carving tools to gouge out a groove to serve as a mold for the coils. With the help of some T-pins at the end, the coils shrank taut and stiffly structural. Even with a fan blowing across the surface, it took 12 days to dry - about 2x as long as expected.