Papermaking at Arrowmont

I was lucky enough to spend the past week at Arrowmont in a 3D Papermaking workshop with the talented and downright awesome Melissa Jay Craig. I have been stalking her since I first discovered her intensely-colored paper sculpture works last year, and I’m very thankful that The Friends of Arrowmont offered me a scholarship to have the opportunity to work with her.

Melissa demonstrated several different techniques with unbeaten kozo and high shrinkage abaca, as well as the use of fabric dyes for creating the rich, intense colors I love. I was really taken with the possibilities of wet-casting onto stuffed armatures and ended up focusing on creating a population of fungi-inspired “spores” (above). Melissa was great fun to work with; below she is demonstrating how my sculpture could also be a performance piece. Check out Melissa's "BLAHG" for more photos of Arrowmont and other students’ work.