INTRODUCING THE āPAPERMAKERāS PACKā ā A STUDIO AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
Inspired by The Mobile Mill and developed by Better Decisions, I am pleased to announce that a first edition of Papermakerās Packs are now available for sale atĀ PAPERMAKERSPACK.COM
Originally invented as a smaller iteration of The Mobile Millās paper-studio-in-a-truck concept, I built the original Papermakerās PackĀ as a practical means of taking my mobile hand papermaking practice abroad to Sarajevo, Bosnia for collaborative work on artists Melissa Potter and Adam Panticās project āPulp & Pastryā, an interdisciplinary artwork exploring the intersection of food and the art of hand papermaking.
After this Papermakerās Pack prototype made its debut abroad, the fully functional studio-in-a-suitcase was introduced to persons in the United States via a series of pay-it-forward style papermaking workshops that I taught while on a solo cross-country tour with The Mobile Mill project from September 2015 to April 2016. Roaming about with the Papermakerās Pack, I discovered that a hand-carried studio enhanced my physical mobility and reduced my operating budget, which in turn widened my geographic reach as an independent practitioner, a socially engaged artist, and an arts educator.
My mobile hand papermaking inventions have undoubtedly increased the accessibility of rare craft tools and resources through the transportation of professional paper studio equipment into public realms for community use. That said, in the process of bringing my students how-to knowledge of - and a unique opportunity to use - the tools I have available on hand, my transient roadwork has revealed a widespread public call for specialized papermaking tools:
āWhere can I buy a mould and deckle?ā
āHow can I make paper on my own at home?ā
āHow can I press my paper without hydraulic power?ā
āWhere can I source felts and pellons?ā
If youāre practiced in the field of book arts then you very well know the sort of time and energy it takes to track down and acquire the bare necessities.
My yearning to provide solutions was met by my brother Maxumās inclination to manufacture. Now living in the same city, we have fused our minds and energies to reimagine the future of mobile hand papermaking. Working together as a creative development team self-dubbed āBetter Decisionsā, we are pleased to introduce our first joint venture ā the production of Papermakerās Packs ā created with the aim of disseminating high-quality tools for hand papermaking.
The Papermakerās Pack is an all-encompassing, easy-to-use toolkit for hand papermaking that offers papermakers ease and convenience of practice, equipped with all the necessities for turning pulp into handmade paper. Our handcrafted professional tools have been paired with the highest quality process accessories, housed in a lightweight portable carrying case that doubles as a papermaking vat.
It is my intent to develop The Mobile Mill project in such a way that it will grow with, as well as beyond, me. Inspired by a spirit of activism and a passion for movement, the Papermakerās Pack is a logical continuation of the work that I do as a traveling teaching artist. As I explore this new vein of The Mobile Mill trajectory, I am thrilled by the potential of so many mobile paper studios out there moving about the world. The Papermakerās Pack is a practical instrument. It is an artisanal invention. And it is a functional artwork. With aims of perpetuating an ancient handicraft practice and promoting an ethos of tool-sharing, it is my hope that our Papermakerās Packs get into the hands of persons who wish to use them.
An international paper exchange emerged organically as an offshoot of this teaching work with the Papermakerās Packs, taking the form of a traveling handmade paper archive ā due to be exhibited in the āPulp as Portalā show at NY Center for Book Arts in February 2017, co-curated by Jessica Cochran and Melissa Potter. The collection contains postcard-sized recycled paper artworks made by public workshop participants. This community-generated archive is in constant rotation as papers are taken from the collection as well as added to the collection during workshop happenings, the making/sharing cycle permanently sustained as labor is exchanged for labor.
As these papers leave the collection carried away by the hands of others, I think a lot about where they may go, what future lives they may take on, what purposes they might serve, what meaning they might bring to others. Just the same, itās delightful to consider the future route that each of the Papermakerās Packs we send out into the world may take.
tangentwithtanner
stormborns