Paper, Glorious Paper

I'm still drooling over the pages of my latest read, The Found Object, by Cas Holmes. Her projects really encourage me to experiment. One new technique for me is momigami, or Japanese paper kneading. Holmes gives a great how-to in her book, but you can find all kinds of information on the web. There are lots of different methods, but I went with the easy one. Essentially, you put a little oil in the palm of your hands, grab a sheet of paper, and crunch it into a ball over and over again until you've got a soft fabric-like texture.

I decided to start with some monochromatic choices; a sheet of black cardstock and a few pages out of a Restoration Hardware catalogue (where everything is gray or brown!) The cardstock was a little rough on my hands, but so worth the effort. The end result looked a bit like a piece of worn leather.

The magazine pages were wonderful to work with. Go ahead, put some olive oil (just a few drops) into your palm and rip out a page from the closest magazine. Start crunching. You'll be amazed by the transformation that takes place. What was once slick and shiny is now soft, delicate, and almost a sculpture in itself.

Holmes also includes pictures of some wonderful little bowls and containers made from paper and fibers with stitched embellishment. I played around with this idea too. Using a yogurt cup covered in plastic wrap as a base, I collaged scraps of paper and fibers to create these delicate little cups.

These cups are very thin and I am not sure how I will use them, but they sit on my studio shelf and remind me that I want to try this technique again; next time thicker and with added stitching. For now, I just like to look at them.

Here's another Holmes-inspired creation. I've been playing around with the idea of sandwiching fabrics and papers between two sheets of rice paper, then painting, inking, stitching and cutting to create a textured piece. Here's a new pile.

Glue everything together using matte medium on a sheet of plastic wrap. Let it dry, then peel it up.

Sandwich this piece between two sheets of rice paper, using matte gel medium on the top and bottom.

Apply pressure to the front and the back of the piece so that all the textures can be felt. Allow about a day for the whole thing to dry. Once dry, add paint, ink, stitching, anything to play up the patterns and textures beneath the surface.

I decided to play around with the finished piece and my momigami pieces.

  Who knew paper could do all this?