A Bit About Paper
The papers you will find beneath the pressed plants in my artwork (soon to be yours) come from India, Thailand, Nepal, Japan, Egypt, and Mexico. They combine beautifully with plants since they are made from gampi trees, mulberry trees, amate bark, Daphne shrubs, lokta bushes, banana and mango trees. Many are laced with inclusions of leaves and wildflowers. The range of colors is as infinite as those in the flowers I pick and press.
Paper making dates back to ancient Egypt, probably around 3,500 BC. Egyptians discovered that the papyrus plant could be woven into a thick sheet. The word ‘paper' is derived from papyrus.
With the invention of paper, people were free to record their thoughts in ways that would last for generations and spread around the world.
Later, on another side of the globe, T'sai Lun (about 105 AD) learned how to make paper by breaking the mulberry bark into fibers and pounding them into a sheet. The process was improved by adding rags, hemp, and old fish nets to the pulp. Soon after, paper became widely used throughout China and slowly spread west along the Silk Road.
Today, despite mass production, the art of paper making by hand is celebrated throughout the world.
I first became acquainted with the process of making paper when I took a delightful class at the Lyon Arboretum in Hawaii. We cut down a banana trunk, chopped it into chunks, immersed them in a huge vat of hot water, ladled the pulp onto screens, and dried it into sheets. Later, I invented my own paper using bougainvillea flowers and experimented with my own papyrus stems.
As The Seasonal Collection has evolved, so has my selection of gorgeous papers from around the world.
—Jane
Paper making dates back to ancient Egypt, probably around 3,500 BC. Egyptians discovered that the papyrus plant could be woven into a thick sheet. The word ‘paper' is derived from papyrus.
With the invention of paper, people were free to record their thoughts in ways that would last for generations and spread around the world.
Later, on another side of the globe, T'sai Lun (about 105 AD) learned how to make paper by breaking the mulberry bark into fibers and pounding them into a sheet. The process was improved by adding rags, hemp, and old fish nets to the pulp. Soon after, paper became widely used throughout China and slowly spread west along the Silk Road.
Today, despite mass production, the art of paper making by hand is celebrated throughout the world.
I first became acquainted with the process of making paper when I took a delightful class at the Lyon Arboretum in Hawaii. We cut down a banana trunk, chopped it into chunks, immersed them in a huge vat of hot water, ladled the pulp onto screens, and dried it into sheets. Later, I invented my own paper using bougainvillea flowers and experimented with my own papyrus stems.
As The Seasonal Collection has evolved, so has my selection of gorgeous papers from around the world.
—Jane
