Pattern and Flow - Handmade ornamental paper at the Grolier Club

Peacock pattern marble paper, Robert Wu, no date, detail.

In February DH and I viewed "Pattern and Flow: A Golden Age of American Decorated Paper, 1960s to 2000s" at the Grolier Club in New York City until April 8, 2023.  The exhibit, glowingly reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, presented two families of decorated paper: marbled paper and paste paper.  Marbled paper is made by manipulating pigments sprinkled on thickened liquid - surface tension allows the pigments to float on top of the liquid - and then placing paper in contact with the floating pattern.  Paste paper is made by manipulating a thickened paste, with colorants, on paper.  Both kinds of decorated paper were used historically in book-binding. 

Video display, gallery.

The exhibit was initiated by Mindell Dubansky, the preservation librarian for the Metropolitan Museum's Watson Library.  Her efforts in documenting  decorated papers became the Paper Legacy Project, and now encompasses paper samples, as well as books, tools, studio records, catalogs and all manner of documentation of this craft from its revival in the 1960's to the present day.

I have a small personal connection to this material, having taken a paper marbling class with Faith Harrison at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education back in the 1980's. She was an excellent teacher and produced beautiful papers. One of her designs was licensed by Kleenex for a facial tissue box, seen below.

 

Wave pattern, Faith Harrison, 1980's.

Licensed patterns created by Faith Harrison, c. 1980's.

Vitrine with marbled papers and related books.

I loved seeing the innovative tools, many made by the artist themselves to achieve specific forms and shapes; many artists also mixed their own proprietary paint and pigment formulas, and used a variety of papers.  There was no depiction of the marbling or paste processes, however, but there are many Youtube videos showing the steps involved.

Some of the tools used by the artists.

A tool made by Claire Maziarczyk from plastic hair picks.

Ms. Maziarczyk manipulating colored paste on paper with her home-made tool.

 

 

Gallery at the Grolier Club.

Marbling can be done on cloth, as documented in my earlier post.  In addition to licensing for paper products, decorated paper designs have been translated into quilting fabrics.

Paste paper, Marie Kelzer, 2005.

Kelzer designs licensed for quilt fabrics, 2005-6.

The profusely illustrated catalog for the exhibit is a beautiful book; ISBN 978-0-300-26619-1. 

Landscape paste painting, Madeleine M. Durham, 2016.

Rainbow Spanish, Iris Nevins, 2014.

Shades of Spain, Mimi Schleicher, 1991.

Daisy Garden, Robert Wu, ca. 2015.

Weavers' Guild of Boston Show and Sale

Beautiful rug, Johanna Erickson.

A friend clued me into a wonderful sale of woven items by the Weavers Guild of Boston, whose annual sale took place November 4 and 5, at the Weston Art and Innovation Center, the "maker space" of the Weston public library system. Lots of wonderful items for sale - accessories such as scarves, wraps and jewelry, and textiles for the home too.  And we were allowed to touch!  I purchased a scarf for my daughter-in-law - hope she likes it.

I wasn't able to record every weaver's name for every item, but there was a lot of skill on display and exciting use of color.

Scarves in glowing hues.

Scarves in shades of white, black and gray.

Scarf - reminds me of the Drunkard's Path quilt pattern.

This year, 2022, is the 100th anniversary of the Guild. An interesting display board gave a bit of history of weaving and a bit about the craft today. From this display:

Weaving is the action of making fabric by interlacing threads.  This ancient process involves intertwining two distinct set of yarns or threads -the warp and the weft - at right angles to form cloth.  Warp threads are the length wise fibers that are stretched tight on a loom, and weft threads are laced horizontally through the warp threads.  (Weft is an old English word meaning "that which is woven.")  By crisscrossing the fiber strands in this way, a weaver can create textiles, such as cloth, carpets, tapestries, and more.

The display also included the graphic below, just about the best illustration I've seen of warp and weft.

Clear and concise explanatory image.

One room of the sale, with items for kitchen and dining table.

One room featured domestic textiles: dishtowels, runners, place mats, hot mitts, etc. Designs were both traditional and contemporary.

Dishtowels for sale.

Another area with wraps, jackets and scarves.

More from the display board on weaving:

Before the textile weaving process emerged, its underlying principles were applied in the creation of everyday necessities like fences, shelters, and baskets.  These construction relied upon the interlacing of small materials, such as twigs and leaves, to form stable objects.  Once ancient humans discovered how to spin plant fibers to create thread (some 20 or 30 thousand years ago), basic weaving principles were put to expansive use, providing woven textiles for both utility and expressions.

A towel by Marjie Thompson, based on a very old draft, or weaving pattern.

The weavers had to suspend their monthly meetings due to the pandemic.  Twenty-four members determined to make a community quilt, using small woven bits and pieces. From the project description:

Home Sweet Home 

The COVID-19 Closet Cleanup Collaboration 

by members of the Weavers' Guild of Boston

What does home and security mean to you in the time of Covid 19 pandemic? 

This theme brought our guild members together as we faced national quarantine in March 2020.  Zoom meetings began with small talk, and we laughed about the frenzy of cleaning closets. It was a time when going to the store was not possible.  By using pieces from previous projects, and reimagining them in a small format, our community quilt project came alive with joy and colorful expression. 

 

The individual blocks represent views from our own window to the world.  Featuring familiar snapshots, like a house, a partner, a pet, a good book, a windowsill with flowers, a fantasy portrait with a bag of craft supplies, are all rendered with handwoven fabrics.  As each block found its place in the panel, it was clear that the answer to our theme question revolved around love.

Home Sweet Home quilt created with hand-woven fabrics.

Block detail - the house wears a mask.

Detail of one block - wash on the line.

Weaving and embroidery combined.

My favorite block, simple but evocative.

Paper Bag Hats by moses at the Mingei International Museum

 

Hats on heads.

Hats on display.

Remember "paper or plastic?" at the grocery check-out? Making puppets out of paper lunch bags? The all-time maestro of paper bag upcycling may be moses (born Murray Odessky, 1931-2015) and his moniker is indeed all lowercase.

We viewed this wonderful display of his work in the exhibit "Fold-Twist-Tie" at the Mingei International Museum, part of the art complex in Balboa Park the cultural center and garden in San Diego.

 moses moved to Hawaii and according to the exhibit wall text:

According to moses, his journey making hats began serendipitously on a New Year's Eve in 1979 when he brought some things to a party in a paper bag.  When he went home, he emptied a size 12 bag and turned it over his head.  It fit, and he formed it into a hat. The original concept for the hats was to create protection from the strong Hawaiian sun, but ideas kept coming, each hat inspired by a person, thing or idea over roughly a decade. moses created over 250 hats in total, ranging from relatively simple designs each made from a single bag to elaborate examples that transformed a hundred or more bags each into fanciful headdresses.  His past career experience as an package and graphic designer for Mattel and other firms informed his work, as did his love of literature, poetry and travel.  He was clearly influenced by the brilliance of other cultures just as he was inspired by the mundane.  He worked daily and diligently, either from a "studio" at the public library in Waimea or with a borrowed camera on the beach, photographing willing participants who somehow served as the perfect characters to model each hat.  He also visited schools all over the Big Island, teaching workshops to hundreds of children.  He also hosted countless workshops for adults.  Today, over 20 years since his first exhibition at Mingei, moses' hats continue to radiated prodigious talent, perceptive humor, his love of humble materials - and unexpected beauty.

The Mingei museum, which collects and displays what we commonly call "folk art," holds a collection of over 200 of moses' hats. In addition to the displays, a continuous video loop featured portraits of willing volunteers modelling the hats.  moses took snapshots of his hat models - some are shown in the first image in this post and more images can be admired at the website of his daughter, artist Kira Od.

Imaginative hat designs.

Shangri-la hat.

Image of Shangri-la on model.

Off to the races hat. Shades of Royal Ascot!

Off to the races hat on enthusiastic model.

Wall of hats.

Exhibit title on wall.

 

As the exhibit title indicates, many of the hats were made by simply folding, twisting and tying bags, but more elaborate  creations involved scissors, twine and white glue.

There was wall text with moses' instructions for making a paper bag hat; I would have loved a hand-out of this to learn more about his methods but will just experiment on my own, if I can find the bags in this era of reusable grocery totes.

 

More hats.

Artichoke hat.

As Halloween is Monday, I'll share a Halloween craft, made with a paper bag and tempera paint by my son some time ago in kindergarten. Believe it or not, this item is in mint condition.

 

Happy Halloween!

Heritage in textiles - The Press Hotel, Portland Maine

 

Weathervane atop Portland, Maine, City Hall.

 

We are venturing out a bit more, as we learn to live with the pandemic, and recently visited friends in Portland, Maine. Having enjoyed a wonderful exhibit of weathervanes at the American Folk Art Museum last year, I am now on the look-out for these special sculptures and spotted this one at City Hall, very near our hotel. 

 

The Press Hotel, our home away from home for a night, was very comfortable and is so-named as the building was the production headquarters for the Press Herald newspaper, part of the Gannett media empire, founded by Gus P. Gannett in 1923. A quote from a plaque mounted on the exterior of the building includes a quote from Mr. Gannett:

I have never regarded the newspaper as merely a piece of private property to be conducted for mercenary ends, but rather as an institution to be managed for the public good, and to be made a force in the community, for the promotion of the welfare of our city, state, section and nation.

The dcor of the hotel references its history and includes a collection of vintage typewriters mounted in a stairwell wall, below.

 The print theme continues in textiles too, including custom carpet in the hallways, and, literally, writing on the wall - actual headlines from the newspaper.

Hotel hallway, with the alphabet underfoot.

Detail of carpet - I'd like a rug, please.

Detail of hallway wallpaper.

 

You'll notice the headline "Weary fishermen can now get dinner at Becky's" - we weren't weary fishermen, but we nevertheless caught lunch at Becky's, a fun, busy waterfront diner.

At the counter at Becky's.

Portland is still a working port, with many lobster fishermen.

 

Wharf with lobster boats and stacks of traps.

 

 

Seafaring needs lots of rope.

 

The exteriors of some historic brick buildings still advertise the wares of former business occupants. The fading remnants of these old advertisements are called "ghost signs".

Ghost sign, Portland.

Ghost sign, Portland.

Words and letters can show up in unusual places too. The Press Hotel continues its typesetting theme even on its vehicles and directional signage.

Press Hotel, company car.

Interior signage directed us to our room.

Finally, I can heartily recommend this bakery. We brought back delicious treats to eat at home.

The Standard Bakery - go early for best selection.