FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY
Timothy Barrett, Professor Emeritus at the University of Iowa, demonstrating dyed kozo fibers being separated by the naginata beater at RISD's paper studio
Jaffe Center for Book Arts’ very own Studio Coordinator Daniel Zaccardi attended the North American Hand Papermakers (NAHP) conference, Paper Tides, held at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI. The NAHP is the largest organization of hand papermakers in North America, with over 300 members.
Held on October 19 – 21, the conference brought together artists, researchers, historians, conservators, and printers from all over the world including France, Japan, Belgium, and England.
“My perception of paper has grown wider thanks to the conference. I have gained a keen awareness of the needs and interests of a diverse range of artists, researchers, historians, and professionals in the world of papermaking,” Daniel said.
Daniel added that meeting other young papermakers and understanding where they're coming from and what excites them about the field helps them find their own way in the papermaking world.
Some lecturers were artists, one was a professional botanist, and another a toolmaker. Daniel said the conference gave them a more inclusive understanding of the desires of papermakers, professional and burgeoning that can be used In future teaching opportunities at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts.
"After attending this conference and other recent professional events, I feel I understand different segments of the papermaking world, often parts I do not occupy, and my outlook on the world of papermaking is now less narrow, and grows with every session of papermaking, with every hello exchanged with another papermaker, with every article I write and read," Daniel said.
The conference is already leading to potential collaborations, with Daniel corresponding with NAHP leadership on behalf of the Jaffe Center, discussing the possibility of the traveling exhibition of artworks on handmade paper curated by the organization making a stop at Jaffe in the future.
"I am bringing a lot of what I learned from the demonstrations and lectures to how we instruct at the Diving Pelican Papermill, and using that insight to develop new programming," said Daniel, adding that they got especially inspired by Kristi Farrier, a papermaker from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, who demonstrated how she grows her own flax, harvests it, processes it, and forms it into handmade sheets of paper.
"It’s a laborious process, and she brought her equipment and samples of flax in various stages of processing to the conference, with differing approaches to preparation, demonstrating the degree of control given to the papermaker during processing. The resulting paper radically changes depending on processing, what time of year it is harvested, and the condition of the soil. It was eye-opening."
Kristi generously allowed Daniel to process some of the flax using her equipment, and they brought the small sample home with them. Flax can be grown in South Florida, and it is an experiment Daniel plans to approach at the Jaffe’s Diving Pelican Papermill.
Daniel said another fantastic lecture consisted of Nicholas Cladis and four Iowa MFA students he had taken for two weeks to Echizen, a papermaking village in Japan. The first week was spent in a mill making Japanese Kozo paper in a production setting, and the second in making unique works of art based on the experiences of the first week. "The papermakers in Echizen have been making paper for decades, and are the children and grand-children of papermakers. I also briefly met Mina Takahashi, editor of Hand Papermaking magazine, about writing an article on the Diving Pelican. We shall see!"
