Helen Hiebert Studio

Papermaking Soup to Nuts

2011-06-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

I spent the past five days teaching a small group at Oregon College of Art and Craft almost everything I know about papermaking. We began by constructing our own moulds & deckles to use at home. I showed them how to make paper using linters and abaca sheets in a blender and in the Hollander and how to prepare Japanese fibers (we cooked, stripped and beat Phillipine Gampi by hand). We played with inclusions, collaging, embedding, watermarking and pulp painting. We colored pulps, did a wee bit of casting and stretched a few sheets of paper over armatures.

All of this took place Wednesday through Sunday, which doesn't give me a weekend to catch up! Tomorrow morning, my intern from the Savannah College of Art & Design arrives for 3 weeks full-time in the studio.

Mother's Day Blog Hop!

2011-05-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

I'm typing today for the Mother's Day Blog Hop. Click on the title to read all of the great recent posts by artist mothers! I have a book by Anne Mavor called "Strong Hearts, Inspired Minds", which tells the stories of 15 artist moms and how they structured/juggled their lives. It is a good read.

I woke up to breakfast in bed on Mother's Day... of course I forgot to take a picture, but I got scrambled eggs with homemade salsa (okay, I made the salsa) and strawberries with whipped cream. We packed the car, the kids, the dog, the sled, the gear, etc. and headed up to Clear Lake Fire Lookout near Mt. Hood. We skied and snowshoed uphill the 3-1/2 miles to the lookout with windows on all sides.

I was a Mother's Day baby, and this year my birthday fell on Monday, so this was a nice little Mother's Day/Birthday retreat.

And I spent the morning on Saturday with some friends crocheting roots for my Mother Tree Project, which is now visiting Newberg, Oregon.

Then to round out our mini-vacation, we picked up our new puppy as soon as we got home. Toby is a sweet little labradoodle.

Newberg & Sofia

2011-04-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

The reception for the show in Newberg on Friday evening was lovely. About six of us crocheted strands and got to know each other. Conversation ranged from being new in Newberg to the local art scene. I enjoyed it and was happy that Jillian, a current intern and Monet, who will start interning this week, both came down.

I'll be going back on May 7th from 10am-1pm for more crocheting and a Mother's Day/Birthday party!

On another note, there is a paper biennial in Sofia, Bulgaria, which I am participating in, or rather, my film The Secret Life of Paper is (http://www.filmbaby.com/films/3550). It opens soon, and other international artists have traveled to the site to set up installations. I look forward to seeing pictures.

Paper Faszination opened in Germany last week, and I hear that was well attended. My book, Alpha, Beta, ... (pictured here) is in the show.

Poetry Reading by Carl Adamhick

2011-04-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

I went to Spints tonight to hear Carl Adamshick read from his new book, Curses and Wishes. Carl received the prestigious Walt Whitman Prize which included the publication of this book. Carl also wrote the poem, Similar Lives, which accompanies my suite of knot drawings, String Theory. It was a packed event with Oregon's poet laureate Paulann Peterson introducing Carl with a clever poem of her own.

Mother Tree in Newberg, OR

2011-04-10T22:13:00.000-07:00

I installed the Mother Tree at the Chehalem Cultural Center in Newberg yesterday. It is good to have her back in Oregon! I got to see the lovely crate that was built with funds donated by my lovely supporters. The armature went together easily.

The inscription in the roots is in honor of Earth Day and Mother's Day, which will both occur while she is on view.

Opening reception is April 22, from 5:30-7pm, and I'm planning a special Mother's Day/Birthday party for May 7th.

String Theory Opening on Friday!

2010-11-02T10:40:00.000-07:00

I'm excited about my opening at 23 Sandy Gallery this Friday evening. We hung the show yesterday, and the on-line catalog is up on the 23 Sandy Gallery website. If you are in Portlland, there are more items to see in person in the gallery! Please stop in, the show is on view through December 18th.

Shadow Lantern Workshop at 23 Sandy

2010-10-29T20:52:00.000-07:00

I'm teaching a workshop at 23 Sandy Gallery, where my work will be on view November 5-December 18. Join me on Sunday, November 21 from 1-4pm and make a Shadow Lantern.

In this workshop, participants will create a shadow lantern, composed of lightweight wooden panels featuring cut-outs that cast shadows onto a second layer of paper. The unique flexible Japanese hinge flexes in both directions, creating a versatile structure that can be assembled as a book, lantern or screen.

Portland Fashion Week!

2010-10-07T12:05:00.001-07:00

Mother Tree and a handful of my other dresses are on view at Portland Fashion Week now through Sunday. Lam from HiiH Gallery and I went down to see the show last night. Anna King from ANKA did a fabulous job curating the art for this event (well, perhaps I am biased, but there was other great work there too).

Alpha, Beta, ...

2010-09-22T22:32:00.000-07:00

I'm working on an editioned alphabet book featuring an arts & crafts font by Dard Hunter, but more on that later. Today, I've been making a deeply pigmented burgundy paper, with a watermark of a "made up" alphabet.

The pigment will (hopefully) run to the edges of the letters, so that when dry, you'll see a subtle alphabet pattern on the sheet.

Radio Show Taping

2010-09-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

My art group pals Diane Jacobs and Shu-Ju Wang (Anne Greenwood couldn't make it) taped a radio segment today with Kristie Lesser on her show Everyday Cooking on AM 1360 KUIK. It was 30-minute taping, so we all got to say quite a bit. Kristie was a great hostess, and she had good questions. We talked about the genesis of the project, our individual pieces, what we think about food and our reasons behind our installation. I think we all enjoyed it! The program will air on Saturday at 11am. After it airs, I'll post a link to the segment.

Back in the studio, I prepared my traveling papermaking kit for The Paper Club, a once-a-week after-school class which begins tomorrow! There is a whole art to figuring out how to manage seven children making paper at once!

I also had a nice conversation with the program director at Ethos. They are the new tenants of the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, and I hope to offer some workshops there next spring. I might also be able to screen the Mother Tree documentary in their theater!

In The Studio

2010-09-17T17:53:00.001-07:00

I had the pleasure of working with Tobi Taboada in the studio today... she's in Portland all the way from Yucca, California, also doing some work with fellow papermaker Marilyn Wold. Tobi wanted to learn what she could about overbeaten abaca in a few hours, so we pulled sheets, embedded strings and wires and did some experimenting with air vs. restraint drying.

Sound Blocka

2010-09-16T22:25:00.000-07:00

I'm designing five block letters (the vowels). I've got four done... and the "O" is my last challenge. Here's a partially cut out "A". I'm still pondering the five papers for the five letters. I'll have these laser cut at Leaf Display, and then I'll be a busy bee assembling them. I'm working on a design for a box to house them all, and then there are dreams of making them really big so that you can walk through them.... they are very architectural.

Fertility Dress

2010-09-15T23:59:00.000-07:00

Thanks for clicking on my blog! Here's a photo of one of the dresses that will be featured in my Dress Mobile, which will be on display at the Oregon College of Art & Craft next month! The opening reception is Thursday, October 7th, from 4-7pm.

A Papermaker's Garden

2010-06-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

I just took this show down today at the Kenton Library. It was the culmination of a year-long project I did with 3rd and 5th graders at the Portland Village School, where we planted, grew and harvested papermaking plants, took a field trip to Ariadne Garden in NE, made handmade paper ornaments and more.

Here I am with the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition (which funded the project) co-chair Dennise Kowalczyk and NoPo artist Bonnie Meltzer, who attended the opening reception.

The 5th graders made these lovely botanical illustrations and wrote poetry and prose on their own sheets of handmade paper.

Pop-up Paper Sundial

2009-12-12T13:24:00.001-08:00

I'm working on this project for Hand Papermaking Magazine's Paper in Motion portfolio. Betsy Cluff is my collaborator and she will letterpress print on the sheet. The image you see here is a watermark. We had fun getting inspriration from Robert Adzema's The Great Sundial Cutout Book, which is full of great designs. It is a bit of a challenge for me to make 160+ sheets of paper – I have to beat 6 loads of pulp, try to match the color each time and my drying box can only dry 40 sheets at a time.

Human Powered Hollander Beater

2009-10-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

Last week I attended the annual meeting of The Friends of Dard Hunter in Atlanta, GA. I missed this demonstration because I was doing one of my own, but it is definitely worth checking out!

Follow the link at the end of the video - these guys are working with veterans and having them turn their old army uniforms into handmade paper.

Ceiling Lamp Complete

2009-10-21T21:17:00.000-07:00

I finished my ceiling lamp at long last, just in time for Portland Open Studios. It is hard to tell the scale here, and I was going to include another photo but I Photo is not cooperating. It measures 3' in diameter and is about 12" in height.

It was fun to tidy up the studio and house for Open Studios. One woman brought a skein of yarn for The Mother Tree Project, another stayed to crochet and many people came through the house and studio throughout the weekend.

I attended the Friends of Dard Hunter annual papermaking meeting in Atlanta last week. While there, I gave a lecture at Emory University (a student of mine from Penland teaches there). I also had a chance to meet with the rare book librarian.

The conference was a reunion as always. Lots of old friends and some new ones. Sukey Hughes was the keynote speaker. Her book was the first papermaking book that I bought - $100 back in 1990 - that was a fortune then!

"The Way It Is"

2009-09-23T21:42:00.000-07:00

My first edition is hot off the press! Sandy Tilcock of lone goose press in Eugene printed an edition of 50 of a William Stafford poem on a handmade piece of translucent abaca with an embedded thread drawing. This project was quite involved, from making a jig to tie the knots and embedding them between the sheets; to 3 press runs with special taping to prevent the ends of the strings from getting inked. I'm delighted with the results.

From Farm to Paper

2009-09-19T13:30:00.000-07:00

Hats off to Rogue Brewery for being creative and thinking that Hop Bines could be turned into paper (yes, that is the correct spelling, and they are just like vines). The flowers, which are used in beer making, are harvested in the summer and the rest of the plant is basically waste material. I received a delivery of bines straight from the farm in Independence, Oregon.

Now, I'll have to admit that stripping the plant material from the bines was a chore, and I'm guessing that is why I'd never heard of paper made from hops. Still, it was possible, and after cooking and beating, the patrons of Rogue Ale House in Portland had a chance to make their own paper coaster while they sipped a new brew last Wednesday night.

A New Lamp!

2009-09-17T22:26:00.000-07:00

People who take lampmaking classes with me tell me all the time, "your house must be FULL of lamps that you make." I am embarrassed to say that this is NOT the case, but soon that will change. The lamp over our dining room table broke recently, and I'd made a makeshift replacement which looked nice, but didn't work in the space. Then the fixture broke and my husband replaced it and took the shade off. Now THAT was the incentive I needed. We couldn't have bare bulbs in the dining room! Well, we do at the moment, but not for long. I'm working on an octopus-like tentically wire and paper sculpture that will hang below the ceiling fixture and splay out onto the ceiling. Picture is coming in a few days.

Sitka Center for Art & Ecology

2009-07-07T19:53:00.000-07:00

I just taught a 2-day workshop at Sitka, a wonderful art community on the Oregon Coast.

We are on a family working vacation. Sunset Magazine asked Ted to write a little piece about Pacific City, which is just a short drive from Sitka. So far, the kids have tried fishing (caught a newt, no fish yet) and horseback riding on the beach. There is a huge dune in Pacific City, where we will try sandboarding tomorrow.

Custom Lampshade

2009-07-05T21:50:00.000-07:00

I don't usually do this type of project, but this one sort of fell in my lap, and my intern Ainsley helped out. My client had an old Japanese-style lampshade that needed to be re-covered. She couldn't just go to Ikea and get a new one, because this particular shade had a special cylinder in the middle of it where it connects to the lamp. So there really was a need for someone who could recreate the shade. Hooray for handmade!

I removed the old shade, made a foam core armature in the same size and shape, wrapped it with rings of reed, figured out the pattern for the paper panels, and recovered the shade. After applying the paper panels, the foam core armature gets removed -- you just lift off the top and bottom rings and the spokes collapse and fall through the holes.

I'm assuming the client was pleased because she hasn't called to say otherwise (her assistant picked up the shade). It looks quite different than the original -- the reed is spaced differently, the paper is thicker, etc. but all in all, I was pleased with the results.

Papermaking with Plants

2009-07-05T21:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I taught papermaking with plants for the first time in MANY years, and it was really fun. We processed kozo from cooking all the way through drying the sheets. I brought wheat straw, which I'd cooked and beaten in my blender, and we compared those sheets with pulp we processed in a blender and beat by hand. One student brought cattails, which we cooked, hand beat and made into sheets.

We also made vegetable papyrus from daikon, carrots, peppers and onions.

Books Rock!

2009-06-21T22:29:00.000-07:00

I'm teaching at the Focus on Book Arts Conference in Forest Grove, OR next weekend and had a lot of fun designing this little pop-up. It is 100% cotton handmade paper, ink jet printed and it really rocks (literally)! I'll have them at the trade fair on Friday evening and all-day on Saturday. http://www.focusonbookarts.org

Paper from Hops

2009-06-19T20:37:00.001-07:00

I had someone from Rogue Brewing call me up and ask if paper could be made from Hop Bines. She came to the studio yesterday and we processed a couple of bines (yes Bines) and made some lovely brown sheets. Extracting the fiber was a daunting task, so I doubt that she'll be able to process her 42 acres into handmade sheets of paper, but what a great idea!

Knot Drawings

2009-06-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile, but I'm going to try to be a more consistent blogger. It occurs to me that I could blog about other people doing wonders with paper, so if anyone like that is reading, let me know what you are doing, or if you have something you would like to read about, leave a comment.

I am in the process of working on my first edition project. Here I am embedding an untied knot in between two sheets of translucent abaca paper. I'm making 6 different editioned pieces, and an additional piece which will become a broadside with a poem by William Stafford letterpress printed on it. I am also producing a suite of the knot drawings which will be housed with the broadside in a handmade box (ed. 10).

Lost Harmonies

2009-05-31T20:52:00.000-07:00

My friend and sister artist (sounds better than fellow artist, right?) has a lovely installation up for another week at Disjecta here in Portland. She did these giant papercuts based on the four cycles of creating using Tyvek, which she suspended from the ceiling like banners. They are painted on both sides by 4th graders at her daughter's school. These same kids visited my studio last fall and made paper. Anne put together a sweet little book that you can look at (and buy) through Lulu.com. There are pictures of the kids and me in the studio on pages 7 & 8.

Papermaking on Sesame Street

2009-05-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

I just discovered that the Sesame Street video I was in many years ago is on Youtube. I worked with filmmaker Josh Selig to script and create this video, which was produced at Dieu Donne Papermill. I love the lyrics he wrote. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pId8pKyt9rE

Pacific University Residency

2009-05-03T21:53:00.000-07:00

This week I did a residency at Pacific University. I visited the papermaking class, introduced them to overbeaten abaca, and had each student do a shrinkage experiment. I also lectured, screened my film and did critiques with a handful of seniors. I was impressed with their work and felt it was much more professional than way back when I received my BA at the University of the South. My exhibition, "Line Dried", which is pictured here, was on display in the library.

Here is my statement about this body of work:

I work in collaboration with my medium -- handmade paper. This installation was made by draping wet sheets of paper over a clothes line. As the sheets dried, they contracted and twisted into these forms. I then stitched the washers onto one side of each form, creating thread patterns on the other side. The images resemble constellations, plant forms, fireworks, the big bang, etc. – metaphors for conception, growth, birth, life. I see all of these things as magical and mysterious, and this ties into my fascination with paper and the magical and invisible occurrences which take place throughout the papermaking process.

Watermarks

2009-04-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

I made paper today for the first time in a LONG time. It felt good. I'm working on the design for a sheet that will be used in a collaborative project with my art group. The design is supposed to be a dinner plate, but I like how it also reads as a flower and even a sundial.

Tassie

2009-04-09T14:56:00.001-07:00

Tasmania was the true destination on this trip -- where I attended the International Association of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists congress.

I stayed with paper artist Jan Marinos in Sisters Beach, a little community right on the water. I had a nice run each morning on the beach, but I don't jog with my camera and we were so busy that we were never there when it was daylight! This picture of me is in Burnie, where the congress was held. It would be a bit more interesting if the penguins had waddled up on the shore while I was standing there... oh well.

Burnie is home of Creative Paper Tasmania, an inspiring papermaking facility which is home to these paper people and Wombat Poo Paper, which you might have heard about on NPR last month ago. During my stay in Tasmania, everyone kept telling me about the wildlife they'd been seeing. I didn't see a thing (including the penguins) until the last couple of days when I finally saw wombat and two wallabys.

I was honored to have my film, The Secret Life of Paper in a Tasmania-wide art festival called 10 Days on the Island. Here I am sitting next to the artist Ruth Faerber, a printmaker who uses handmade paper in her relief prints who also had a show opening that evening.

As part of the festival, I was asked to speak at the opening of this installation of cardboard tubes by the artist Tracy Luff, which was at city hall. I spoke after the mayor of Burnie.

At the Congress, I presented my film, Water Paper Time, gave a talk, and also had a table at the paper market. I met a lot of interesting Australian papermakers and paper artists, and I attended a field trip to Cradle Mountain where I did a workshop with the artist John Wolesley. He's a charming fellow who takes paper (not handmade) out into the Australian bush, where he rubs it over plants, puts it in puddles and even buries it to add markings to the sheets. He responds by drawing and painting on the marred sheets. We had a good time talking about the nature of paper.

I got to hang out with some of my American paper pals in Tasmania, too. Paper artist Lynn Sures did a pulp painting demonstration on this huge sheet of poured paper.

Sydney

2009-04-08T03:47:00.001-07:00

It was quite a journey from Portland to Sydney. The trans-Pacific flight was 14 hours from Los Angeles and the time change is 18 hours ahead. When I arrived, my host, Jean Riley from Primrose Paperworks picked me up and took me and took me to visit Primrose before we went she dropped me off at Cremorne Manor, the lovely guest house where I stayed the first two nights and caught up on some sleep.

Just to prove that I was really there, a picture of the Sydney Opera House which I took from a ferry.

I taught a weekend workshop on lampmaking at Primrose over the weekend. This is Marta's little shadow lantern. I had a lively group of students who all made wonderful objects. And by the way, Helen is a very common name in Australia. I met at least five Helen's :).

Holding Space Photos

2009-04-08T03:23:00.000-07:00

I had the installation photographed by Dan Kvitka. The colors at dusk were amazing. Dan had a little fun with his panoramic camera.

Here is an image to give you a sense of scale.

Holding Space installed

2009-03-15T20:49:00.000-07:00

The installation is up and the opening was fun. I got a little write-up in the paper and several people stopped by the opening as a result. My favorite comments were a comparison to Fred Sandback (a minimalist hero of mine) who did amazing string pieces, much simpler than Holding Space but quite incredible. I saw a piece of his in person at the Dia Beacon a few years ago.

My friend and fellow paper artist Uta was looking at this model and exclaimed that it would look really great in a two-level building. I agree!

Several people commented on my dress, which has pleats which are reminiscent of paper. A lucky find two days before the opening...

Installing Holding Space

2009-03-01T20:23:00.000-08:00

I began installing my installation at Ogle, Inc. in Portland today, with the help of three lovely women (Diane, Terri & Claire). I got there attach the strings to the perimeter of the skylight (after realizing last night that I'd had them cut to the wrong size - fortunately it took only an hour or so to correct).

We placed the wooden platform and begun stringing, alternating who got to be the spider (the one who "dropped" the threads from the sky).

Quest Center Workshop

2009-02-22T21:40:00.000-08:00

I had a delightful weekend teaching a great group of women how to make paper lanterns at the Quest Center here in Portland. The women are all in various stages of cancer recovery and I was honored to spend time with each and every one of them. The Quest Center provides this amazing resource (monthly free art workshops) for members of the community.

This weekend, everyone completed three projects: a shadow lantern, a collapsible reed lantern and a woven shade. All are meant to be covers for small tea lights or votive candles. Here are images of some of their creations.