Year of Paper

One of my main focuses throughout 2025 has been to bring more sustainability and eco-friendly habits to my practice. It has brought an expanded understanding of making paper with the goal of sourcing more of my materials close to home. Paper has always been my main medium - as a surface to draw on, a material to weave into sculpture and a base layer to collage and embroider. The journey is far from over - paper has many mysteries to still reveal - but I am closer to finding how I want to incorporate my own hand made paper into the aesthetic and themes I currently employ in my artwork.

Throughout the year, I’ve made paper with recycled scraps, bamboo toilet paper rolls, blue jeans and even mixed berries. Adding pigments and dyes have brought even more color to the process and certainly more learning as “failures” have led to a better understanding of what works and doesn’t. While the year is coming to a close, the paper making journey is really just beginning. In addition to sharing what I’ve learned with other artists, I am venturing into casting paper on objects and finding ways to incorporate my hand made paper and process into the artwork that I make for exhibition.

The year of experimenting also included my first outdoor display, “Sown,” which was on view during Spirit of the Lake Community Art’s Apple Cider Fest in early October. The handmade seed pods were made with my own recycled paper, natural dyes, organic thread and are embedded with local pollinator seeds like milkweed and goldenrod. They are currently planted in the garden at SOLCA with the hope that they will break down and grow into plants.