INFORMATION about TREEWHISPERS

ABOUT TREEWHISPERS

Treewhispers is an installation of an international collaboration involving paper, art and stories relating to trees as a symbol and resource. The artists, Pamela Paulsrud and Marilyn Sward are gathering from participants around the world, round pieces of handmade paper. This paper is bound together to create large tree assemblages-and ultimately a forest. The work of professional artists is displayed alongside elementary school class projects. Some include abstract imagery suggesting tree rings, some depict leaves or a personally significant tree, others are imprinted with a poem or meaningful story relating to trees.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Marilyn Sward is Adjunct Associate Professor for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Fiber Department, and is the founder and former Director of the Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts, Chicago, IL. She is on the board of advisors of Haystack, Hand Papermaking Magazine and member of the International Association of Hand Papermakers. She is a visual Artist who creates work using handformed paper and photographic processes for sculpture, book forms, and site specific installation. Her work is in private and public collections in the U.S. and abroad.
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Pamela Paulsrud, visual artist and calligrapher, received her MFA from Columbia College Chicago in Interdisciplinary Arts with a concentration in Book and Paper. She investigates the interface of the concept, process and calligraphic nature of handwriting with the linear features of the landscape using artist books and handmade paper. She freelances and teaches workshops in lettering and book arts. Her work can be seen at the Field Museum, Chicago, IL on the ceramic floor map in the exhibit Traveling the South Pacific , in the Letter Arts Review, in the Rockport publication Making Memory Books by Hand and in the permanent collection at the Newberry Library, Chicago having been a recipient of the 1997 Newberry Library Purchase Prize. She is currently exhibiting her work internationally.

RECYCLED PAPER YOU CAN MAKE AT HOME!

SUPPLIES
plastic to cover your work surface
paper (newspaper, junk mail, yellow pages, paper bags, colored construction paper, old homework)
water
bucket
blender
round papermaking mold=embroidery hoop and synthetic window screening (*keep the screen taut between the hoops)
vat or tub large enough to accommodate papermaking mold and your hands around the mold (otherwise here known as the embroidery hoop)
*optional: large cookie tray to contain water when making sheets of paper
cotton sheeting or linen towels cut to a size slightly smaller than your large cookie tray
sponges to press paper and absorb moisture
iron and aluminum foil /or heat press and blotters /or laundry line and clothes pins for drying paper

PROCESS FOR MAKING SHEETS OF ROUND PAPER
1. Prepare surface for wet paper. Cover work surface with plastic
2. Place cookie sheet next to vat
3. Place first layer of cotton sheeting or linen towels on cookie sheet
4. Shred or tear paper into 1? pieces
5. Fill blender 2/3 full of water and add 1 handful of shredded paper
6. Cover the top of the blender and blend in short bursts on med-hi for a few seconds until consistency of oatmeal. (*If you add a little more shredded paper and blend again for a couple of seconds you?ll get a confetti look to your finished paper)
7. Pour pulp into bucket until you have desired amount of pulp
8. Fill vat or tub with water and pulp mixture (*greater proportion of pulp = thicker sheets of paper)
9. Swirl the pulp and water to disperse evenly
10.Dip embroidery hoop (with screening taut) into back side of vat
11.Pull hoop down into vat under pulp and toward your body
12.When mold is parallel to bottom of vat, lift straight up out of water and gently shake sideways and front to back before all water drains and pulp settles
13.Let water drain off for a minute
14.Turn upside down onto prepared surface with cotton sheeting or linen towels
15.Sponge back of embroidery hoop screen to press paper onto pellon and absorb moisture
16.Slowly lift embroidery hoop by one edge....the paper should now adhere to the pellon. *It's paper!
17.If ironing dry: layer damp paper between cotton sheeting or linen towels and press with iron until dry
If air drying: hang cotton sheeting or linen towels containing damp paper on laundry line. Drying time is about three hours depending on conditions
If using heat press: place paper between blotters and press until dry.
18.When dry write your personal tree story, draw your favorite tree or trace a leaf, compose a silly tree poem...think of trees, be creative and surprise us! Mail to treewhispers.

We look forward to hearing from you!