Rembrandt’s Etchings and Echizen Paper

Sugihara-san and Fukui paper makers attended the opening of the much anticipated exhibition: Rembrandt’s Etchings and Japanese Echizen paper at the Rembrandt House Museum!

The exhibition will be open to the public until September 20th, 2015.

The Rembrandt House which once was his home is now a historical monument and museum, commemorating Rembrandt’s life and work located in Amsterdam. He lived and worked in this house from 1639 to 1658. Although the interior has been reconstructed since then, the overall architecture remains the same as it was in his time.

Woodcut-printed lantern workshops in Sleepy Hollow, NY

Bridge Lights Woodcut Workshop led by Jeff White (totemic17)

Dates: Saturdays 6/20, 7/18, 8/1 and 8/22
Time: 1 – 4PM
Location: Warner Library, Sleepy Hollow NY
(121 North Broadway, Tarrytown, NY 10591)

Create a woodcut to honor a person or heritage you care about that will be made part of a lantern for public display.

Artist Jeff White will provide instructions during the workshops! Paper used for the lanterns is Bhutan paper from Hiromi Paper.

Did we mention that the workshop is F R E E ?

Japanese papermaking as UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage

On November 27^th, UNESCO officially registered “Washi: handmade Japanese papermaking and techniques” into the ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’. The specific types of washi that were recognized were: Sekishu Banshi (Shimane prefecture), Hon Mino-shi (Gifu) and Hosokawa-shi (Saitama).

(Original Japanese article can be found here)

What is significant about these three types of washi?

1) Made with 100% kozo

Japanese papers (washi) are primarily made using kozo, gampi or mitsumata fibers. Other materials such as wood pulp and hemp are used, to create different textures of washi. The three papers that were chosen for UNESCO only use kozo, which has longer fibers, which creates a beautiful and strong paper.

2) Using only domestic materials

Nowadays, many papermakers rely on foreign-grown kozo (Philippines, Thailand, China, etc) because of the availability and low cost. Though these foreign-grown kozo fibers are similar to those grown domestically, there are issues of them leaving flecks of oils within the finished paper; lowering the overall quality of the papers.

Sekishu uses kozo grown locally, Hon-Mino-shi uses the highest quality Nasu kozo and Hosokawa-shi uses local or Kochi kozo.

The continuing decrease of kozo farmers is another existing concern. They can be cultivated, but the return of income is so much lower compared to other industries. There have been efforts to cultivate Japanese kozo on foreign land using planting stock, but the quality of course will not be the same.

3) Whitens over time

Usually, chemical additives are used in papermaking to bleach the fibers to create a whiter paper. However, the three selected regions do not add any chemicals during their process, which makes the paper become whiter and whiter over time.

Papers that have been chlorine bleached are a pure bright white color in the beginning, but after being exposed to sunlight over time, the ultra-violet rays turn the papers yellow.

4) Water

The quality of water is also an important element in papermaking. The kozo fibers are usually immersed in water to wash away dirt and impurities, or “chiri”. This is why all papermaking regions have close access to natural water.

5) Nagashizuki method

The three selected regions all use the traditional Japanese papermaking method of nagashizuki. Contrary to the tamezuki method where the water is simply drained from the papermaking screen, nagashizuki is done by moving the mold, creating a weave of fibers.

6) Wet strength

It is said that handmade papers are much stronger to water compared to machinemade papers. Papers that have been carefully dried in the sun are especially resistant to falling apart in water.

It is fantastic news that washi and the techniques have been recognized internationally by UNESCO, and would hope that Japanese papermaking and related industries will attract more attention from this.

Laura Viñas: Whisper project

Whisper by Laura Viñas

” Whisper is a project developed by Laura Viñas at The I-Park Foundation during her July 2014 Residency.
The installation is made of watercolours on Tengucho paper. It is inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ Afterglow.
The boundless spaces and unique horizon of the Pampa landscape are subtly portrayed in this beautiful poem. “

Laura used the MMN-1 Tengucho 5g papers for these watercolors.

Check out this video to see the papers in action!

From Japan: All-Japan Handmade Washi Association

50 Years of the All-Japan Handmade Washi Association

by Satoshi Hasegawa/Translated by Yuki Katayama

Mino papermaker Satoshi Hasegawa in his early years

The All Japan Handmade Washi Association is an organization constructed of Japanese papermakers from around the country. Established in 1963, this group has acted as a prime spot for information exchange for 50 years. Though our activities and members have decreased since establishment, the association is still striving to preserve handmade washi.

Back in March, we all gathered to look back on the past 50 years. We were surprised to realize that many of the past records and documents had not been organized or even stored, so there was almost no records of the first 25 years of association activity. There was one individual we came across while organizing data that caught my attention. From the documents I could tell that he was a very devout ‘washi-lover’, who put much effort into succeeding the washi traditions to further generations.

He also greatly contributed to Hon Mino paper being chosen as an Important Intangible Cultural Asset, stating that “We must make (Hon Mino) an Intangible Cultural Asset, before we lose the paper forever”.

I feel that these countless efforts from past individuals is one of the main reasons handmade washi has survived for all these years.

Handmade washi has been proposed to UNESCO for their Intangible Cultural Heritage candidate as “Traditional Japanese washi”, but there are many existing problems in washi production and well as succeeding the traditions.

I wonder what the dedicated, washi-loving individual would say about the current situation of handmade washi. Though I can never meet him, I can’t help but want to exchange thoughts and ideas with him.

From Hiromi Paper:
Like Hasegawa-san, we at Hiromi Paper are also concerned about the decrease in papermakers that are able to make high-quality washi. We hope that we can be of help to those Japanese papermakers and preserve their traditions.

Thank you, Hasegawa-san, for always sending us your lovely and wonderful Mino papers!
See them here: HP-01 Hon Mino, HP-02 Usu Mino, HP-04 Usu Mino Thin, HP-05 Chochin, HM-54 Usu Mino Thinnest.

Jennifer Moon x The Fire Monkey for Hammer Museum

Artist Jennifer Moon and bookbinder George Busby of The Fire Monkey have collaborated on a book project, a part of the “Made in LA” exhibition at Hammer Museum!

This is an especially interesting collaboration for Hiromi Paper as well, because when Jennifer had been searching for a local bookbinder, we were the ones that first recommended George at The Fire Monkey; whom we’ve had a close relationship with for many years. We are so glad this collaboration worked out, and together they created such a wonderful book!

The book itself is a half leather-binding with a gold leaf pressed emblem on the front, a logo that Jennifer had made especially for this show.
Inside papers are inkjet prints on all Amate Solid Natural.

Koinobori along Niyodo River

May 5th is Children’s Day in Japan, when traditional carp-shaped koinobori are flown in the air for children in the hope that they will grow up healthy and strong.
These carp patterns are usually drawn onto paper, cloth or unwoven fabric.

Although the traditional way of displaying koinobori is to hang them from high poles outside of homes, the people of Inomachi do things a little differently…
Since 1995 when the event started, hundreds of koinobori are gathered at the famous Niyodo River, where the townspeople and people around Japan come together to enjoy this annual celebration. The koinobori designs are all on unwoven cloth made locally, which are durable enough to be flown in the wind and ‘swim’ in the streams of Niyodo River. This unwoven cloth is an “in-between” of paper and cloth, since the synthetic fibers are bound together randomly like the characteristic of Japanese papermaking.

People can choose to see the swimming koinobori up-close on small boats!

The event is usually from April 24th – May 5th, throughout the long Japanese vacation of Golden Week.
I personally would love to see this in person someday!

Thank you Chinzei-san (Hidaka Washi) for the amazing pictures!

Larry Bell: custom-made papers

Last week, we delivered special ordered papers to artist Larry Bell, and saw his new studio space!

Larry, with his new work on red Japanese papers

These thick papers were dyed especially for Larry, by a papermaker in Fukui, Japan.

His beautiful new studio space!

Feel free to contact us about custom sizes or colors of papers!

Wayne Montecalvo at International Encaustic Conference

Artist Wayne Montecalvo will be giving a demo at the the International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, MA, combining digital color separation and silkscreen printing.

He will also be teaching his technique at a workshop after the conference at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill.
Wayne has developed a unique method of using color separated images that are screen printed on separate sheets of Tengucho.
The individual colors are then layered with wax to complete the image.

For more information see the link below and look for the workshop titled “Digital color separation and encaustic workshop”.

https://www.castlehill.org/post-conference.html

Hiromi Paper will not be at this conference, but we hope all that attend will be able to see how Wayne uses the Japanese papers for his encaustic work!

Be sure to sign up for the workshop, seats are going fast!

Pam Posey: “Ungrounded”

Pam Posey
@ Craig Krull Gallery

March 1 – April 5, 2014

Pam Posey is a Los Angeles-based artist whose paintings draw from and reinterpret nature.
Her recent solo exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery features a large scale linoleum print on Kawashi paper.

“Traced and Remembered” Linoleum prints on Kawashi

Pam Posey became interested in stones while making paintings of the plants that were growing out of little holes in her driveway. Her gaze was soon diverted to the concrete itself and the realization that it was composed of millions of tiny stones. She began to see stones as molecules that were everywhere, and understood that each stone contained the history of its own creation. This led to a series of small stone paintings. Then, in the summer of 2012, Posey spent 5 weeks at the Nes Artists Residence in Iceland, and then returned again in March of 2013. It was there that she began the Stone Dislocation project. In her travels, Posey transports stones, carrying a white quartz rock from a Greek island to a black lava field in Iceland. Her exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery contains the evidence of her geologic displacements in the form paintings and hand-drawn maps. Posey revels in the Zen irony of an act so purposeful, yet so purposeless. She is echoing Michael Heizer’s Double Negative, but on a smaller, and at the same time more global, scale. In addition to displacement and replacement, her small gestures are also about re-contextualization and the wonder created when finding something out of its place. (Craig Krull Gallery, 2014)