Anya is a sweet friend of my neighbors. She spent a few hours with me a couple mornings during the summer to learn how to make paper. We had a great time together! Here are some photos from the session. She loved making paper! (Isn’t she just adorable?! And she’s just as sweet, too.)
I had the pleasure of teaching a 14 year old girl named Anandi how to make natural-looking hand-recycled paper a couple weeks ago. She was so sweet and full of creative ideas. Anandi also used a template of Mississippi that I made in graduate school to make Mississippi-shaped paper. Of course we had to mix color pigments together to find the right mix of Mississippi State University MAROON! We had a lot of fun!
Below are photos of the paper she made:
Hi everyone,
I haven’t posted any updates in too long. I intend to change that this summer.
I have great news! I am teaching papermaking workshops for kids and teens ages 7–14 in Starkville, MS this summer. Class size is limited, so pre-register soon to be sure to snag a seat! Each workshop is a 3-day event from 9:00 am–noon, costing each student $100. All materials will be supplied.
Students are encouraged to wear “paint clothes” as these activities can be a little messy! Parents and guardians are also welcome to attend, but are not required.
To give you an idea of what to expect, here’s a video featuring my little buddy Shivank making his first sheet of hand-recycled paper under my instruction.
The next workshop is an event for kids and teens that love Christmas so much, that they would enjoy creating tree ornaments in July! I taught this workshop over 2 years ago while in graduate school and it was a big hit. Visit the old blog post to see those kids at work: https://brittanyspencer.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/kids-paper-pulp-ornaments-workshop-photos/.
I will also have copies of my self-published children’s book A Girl Finds a Flower featuring my hand-recycled paper illustrations for sale at the workshops for $20. They are also for sale online at Lulu.com and Amazon.com.
I hope you can join me to create fun, exciting art! Please contact me to pre-register at brittany.liz.spencer@gmail.com.
Earlier in the year I had the opportunity to meet Brooke Foy, an Instructor of Art at University of Louisiana at Monroe, which is 30 minutes away from Louisiana Tech University. We were asked to help judge a middle and high school art exhibition (which was harder than we thought!). She heard my plea for help making multiples of paper casts, so she brought a car full of her students along one night to learn and help. Some of them had even tried making paper on their own in the past, but it didn’t quite work out. They were super focused and were very quick with the process. It was nice to hear that they knew papermaking would benefit them in future projects and were thankful to spend a night in my studio. Passing this process onto others is so fulfilling!
Very beautiful pieces of work!
Another group of undergrads volunteered to help me paper cast a lot of bouncy balls for my installation, and I taught them how to hand-recycle sheets in return! We had a great time. One girl that came was not even an art student– she was majoring in theater and biology! She was interested in the process to consider making her wedding invitations by hand. They were super helpful and produced beautiful paper art.
My biggest project that I will unveil at my MFA Thesis Art Show on April 24th has a bit left of getting done. I tend to get big ideas, and later realize they are bigger than I initially thought! For this particular installation, I needed some extra help to move along the process of paper casting. It’s amazing what five extra pairs of hands can do! Rosalynne, John, Catlin, Darby, and Lindsey are a few of my former design students that volunteered to spend Saturday with me to help paper cast a lot of bouncy balls, and in return I taught them how to pull sheets of paper.
Blending white paper scraps with Abaca (banana fiber) to add strength to the paper.
Draining a lot of the water through a colander so it won’t be completely soppy.
Patting the drained pulp onto the form like clay, and soaking up the excess water with a towel.
Working away to paper cast ball pit balls.
Once these paper casts dried, I applied a second layer of pulp to thicken the casts. Then after they dried once again, I popped the casts off the bouncy balls.
The beautiful hand-recycled paper they made! They colored them with pigments and tissue paper, and experimented with blending screen-printed scraps, food seasoning, and grass into their pulp.
North Central LA Arts Council & LaTech MFA Program Presents “Paper Pulp Christmas Ornaments Workshop”, taught by designer & papermaker Brittany Spencer at the Dixie Center for the Arts in Ruston, LA. Saturday, December 14th at 10:00am–Noon. Ages 7–12 years old. Class size is limited. Pre-registration is necessary. NCLAC members pay $10, non-members pay $15. Contact Jessica Slaughter, (318)255-1450 or nclac5@gmail.com.
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Brittany Spencer // Papermaking & Graphic Design 