Higham Hall College

near Bassenthwaite Lake in The Lake District : A residential college in the north of England .

A Papermaking Course
for 7 adults which ran from the 28th of February until the 4th of March 2010. Tutor: Jonathan Korejko

Preparing a string laminate on the couching table

The programme began in typical fashion, with everybody learning about the basic tools and equipment involved in papermaking. Our first papers were made in plain white. We quickly progressed onto colours using a liquidiser to recycle various discarded papers, which blended well to make primary as well as secondary colours. Students learned how to become independent right from the start, which meant not only forming the paper, but pressing and drying it so that it could be used later in the course. Once the students had a good understanding of the process, they began to move onto more complicated tasks. They learned how to laminate two pieces of coloured handmade pieces together, and then how to "sandwich" something in between the two layers .This method of embedding, using string, felt, cloth, leaves and photographs produced some stunning results which were all very unique.
Jonathan Korejko2010 T: 01526 378222 E: jj.ck@zen.co.uk W: www.timberlandand.co.uk Page 1 of 3

The morning of day two was spent exploring different plant material, deriving fibres from things as diverse as hop bines, pineapple and palm leaves, jute and sisal string. This involved beating some of the pre-cooked plant material in mortars, and then liquidising it to expose the fibres inside the stems. There was also some lovely moss growing on the stones around Higham Hall, which was used as an "inclusion": combined with some marigolds from Jonathan's garden it made a beautiful paper. After creating paper from plants, students experienced "cloth" paper, using recycled cotton and denim, combined with silk and woollen threads for decoration. This was prepared in a similar way to the plant material, to teach the students how much time and physical effort went into making papers in a pre-mechanised age. Jonathan supplied a lot of prepared pulp from his studio which had plant and cloth fibres in it. Otherwise, there would not have been enough pulp to form the sheets, as hand beating requires long, hours of hard work to produce results!

Learners finished the second day of activities in a much more creative way, by designing and cutting stencils in sheets of acetate. These incised designs, when held on top of the mould, allowed coloured pulp to settle onto the mesh in the shape of the hole which had been cut out, thus producing a "picture" in loose fibres. When laid on top of another piece of plain, freshly couched paper, this design became amalgamated into the new paper. After this successful session, everyone learned how to "paint with pulp" whereby a thin solution of coloured fibres were squirted onto the mould, generating energetic, colourful, and unique one-off papers. A sculptor's banding wheel was also used to make paper with spiralling and swirling patterns in it.
Jonathan Korejko2010 T: 01526 378222 E: jj.ck@zen.co.uk W: www.timberlandand.co.uk Page 2 of 3

THE STUDENTS' GALLERY

The third day of the course gave everyone the opportunity to make use of their own sheets of handmade paper in a variety of ways, starting with a simple bit of papier mch work, to get a feel for how the unsized paper and Pva work together. This colourful bowl project then led the students onto more individual work, which ranged from greeting cards to boxes to decorated animals and even a lamp shade. Papers ranged from white through to all the colours of the rainbow, as well as brown hops paper, grey cloth paper, and blue denim. Each student made about 35 sheets of very personal and unique paper during the three days !

Jonathan Korejko2010

T: 01526 378222

E: jj.ck@zen.co.uk

W: www.timberlandand.co.uk

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