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I built this large deckle box with guidance from about 10 years ago. It has served me well, but alas I cannot take it to Colorado with me. I am hoping to find a new owner who will put it to good use!

Recently, I ran into an acquaintance in the elevator on the way to presentation coachÌý workshop on writing elevator speeches (how appropriate!). Her first comment to me was “I thought you knew everything about talking about your workâ€�. I have to say that I was flattered, but I immediately told her “there is always something new to learnâ€�. As a freelance artist working outside of the traditional gallery scene, I spend a lot of time looking for places to show my work, seeking funding opportunities, and coming up with schemes for marketing and promoting my work. It isn’t easy, so I welcome the opportunity to glean bits of information from experts, and to hang out with other artists â€� I always learn something from them as well.

The here in Portland hosted Gigi’s workshop, which was just one in an affordable and informative series they offer each year. I first talked to Gigi a couple of years ago when an artist friend told me Gigi was looking for artists to interview for her book, . I felt I had a story to share, so I contacted her and she ended up interviewing me about one of my fundraising projects. The interview didn’t end up in the book, but when I saw Gigi at this workshop, she told me she’d recently sold it to a magazine (stay tuned).

In the workshop, Gigi gave us tips on writing an elevator speech and giving an artistsâ€� talk. I’d written a basic elevator speech about a year ago, when I took an on-line course with another artist coach,Ìý. It was great to hear Gigi’s tips, and I had the opportunity to share my elevator speech with the group (FYI, I get really nervous just imagining speaking out loud, so it was super helpful to be sitting next to a friend who prompted me to raise my hand).

It is great to speak up in a situation like this, because you get feedback from your peers and the facilitator (plus people learn about what you do!). Both and Alyson have great blogs with weekly tidbits about the business of art. In fact, Alyson’s post today was about fighting complacency. and, as Alyson says, be courageous!

There is a lot to be desired for my little studio (more natural light, wall space to hang work, less clutter) but I have grown really fond of it. And having an intern here for three weeks (thanks Megan Welch!) and preparing for the last film shoot for The Papermaker’s Studio Guide were two great incentives to clean it up! Now if only I can manage to keep it clean. This will be my challenge!

was here yesterday, filming the instructional video that captures the written instructions in my book, , in real time. I have this garage door which I can roll open when the weather is nice. As you can see, it wasn’t so nice yesterday�

My studio is in a detached garage behind my house. Thankfully, nobody ever used it as a garage (which is quite common in Portland) so all I had to do when I moved in was blow insulation into the walls, run water and gas out from the house and add a bit more electrical power.

I have a Davis Hodges Hollander beater, a Howard Clark press and I built my drying system myself. Many parts of my studio fold up and tuck away, like the Ikea laundry racks, which I use to dry my felts. People always ask me where to get good felts, and they are hard to come by! Mine came from a paper mill here in Oregon. The first time they turned on the papermaking machine, it snapped and was rendered useless. An acquaintance acquired the entire felt, rolled it out on his street and cut it into pieces. I was the lucky recipient of my own set cut to size!

Thankfully, the grade of the garage takes the water I spill (and dump) onto the floor out the door to a nearby drain. I reserve the back half of the space for a dry work area.

What are your favorite studio tidbits?

I am so fortunate to have interns who seek me out, and this summer I have two interns who are traveling to Portland to help out around the studio in exchange for learning what they can through hands-on training, day-to-day activities and osmosis!

Megan Welch will be a senior atÌýTroy University in Troy, Alabama and sent me an e-mail last fall inquiring about an internship. Before Megan started college, she learned to make paper at a summer camp where she assisted the papermaking instructor. When camp ended, she asked how she could learn more, and the instructor told her that she’d done an independent study in college. So Megan asked her professors about doing this, and one of them, who had some basic papermaking experience, agreed to be her advisor.

Using the skills she acquired at summer camp, the knowledge of her professor and some research from books, she set up a papermaking space in the school’s printmaking studio this spring. She used a blender as her beater, made paper from recycled and sheet pulps, pressed in a c-clamp press and using the etching press, and dried them on a clothes line.

Megan came across myÌýÌýduring her research, looked at myÌýÌýand noticed that I hostÌý. I interviewed her over the phone and was impressed with her enthusiasm and motivation to learn something that wasn’t offered at her school.

During her three weeks in Portland, Megan is working with overbeaten abaca, helping me make a custom watermarked luminaria for a wedding, assisting with the production of a couple of artists� books and much more. She’s also exploring the city: she’s staying in two different hostels; and each day has something interesting to report about her activities outside of the studio, including learning how to ride a bike! I’m delighted she’s chosen to learn how to make paper first, and I look forward to seeing how Megan takes what she learns and applies it to her goal of becoming an art therapist.

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I’m teaching at the Chicago Center for Book & Paper Art this weekend. What a treat to work in a studio that is designed specifically to papermaking! Here’s a snapshot of their equipment. And mind you, this is only the papermaking studio� there is also a bookbinding studio, a letterpress studio and more!

This is the beater room, equipped with 7 lb and 2 lb David Reina Hollander beaters. Not pictured are the valley and critter beaters! Wow. Notice the buckets on wheels which slip right underneath the beater drains and can easily be rolled around the studio.

This is the fridge for storing pulp.

and the hooded stove for cooking plant fibers.

A washing machine for cleaning felts.

These are fancy hose rollers that are all over the studio for easy vat filling, mould cleaning, felt wetting and water fights!

Mould & deckle storage:

Drying racks for felts.

A huge electric hydraulic press, with a couching stand that rolls right up to it, connects and Ìýallows the post to be rolled right into the press bed.

Drying walls!

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A cool system for spraying off pulpy moulds and keeping the pulp from clogging the drains.

This is a great storage system for student pulp. Each student has their own labeled bucket which fits conveniently on this rack.

And theses are the cutest scissors I’ve ever seen. One of my students brought them!

I’ve just finished my latest artists� book, Cosmology. This project began twenty years ago, when I took a trip to Japan and was inspired by the way light filtered through traditional shoji screens in the Ryokan (Japanese Inn) where I stayed.

Cosmology features a laser cut shoji window, and I used this one-sheet book structure to create a space in the middle of the book.

Here is an early model of the book.

During the papermaking process, I created the imagery using a watermarking technique. I adhered a thin adhesive-backed rubber to the mould and pulled a very thin sheet, so that the pulp slipped off of the rubber, leaving only a thin whispery vail.

Next, I couched the blue image onto an off-white base sheet.

Diane Jacobs letterpress printed the text. The poem, by Carl Adamshick (pictured below) reads:

Cosmology

Silence is a window

open to the mountain air.

The window, a map,

moonlit, showing

an ocean floor

and the lost city

where your child grew tall.

Memory is the water

you hear falling

on the mountain

as you push

the silence closed.

The windows were laser cut by Joe Freedman.

And the book is housed in a handmade paper slip cover.

This is an edition of 50.

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I had the pleasure of meeting and hosting British pop-up book artist when he was in Portland recently. He was on a West Coast tour: teaching four workshops at the San Francisco Center for the book, a weekend workshop at Oregon College of Art & Craft and working with students at Mills College in Oakland.

My own initial interest in paper was through , and this is one of the principals that Paul has used and developed throughout his career. He is an avid pop-up book maker, and has written almost on the subject, mostly for teachers. He travels around England teaching book arts in schools, and he comes to America about once a year to teach.

The timing of his visit was perfect! Once I learned a little more about Paul’s work, I asked him to contribute a project for my book, , and he agreed and constructed this interlocking pop-up paper castle.

Paul’s construction techniques are unique because he uses paper tabs to interlock his ‘pages�. This allows his book structures to collapse very flat, because there are no folds that want to spring open.

Paul is also an prolific sketcher. He drew a lot around my home and studio, and this is a lovely little book he created with drawings of my studio. And it is one of those one-sheet book folds � one I’d never seen!