Updated Simple Gifts Workshop on Saturday, December 14, 2013

Join us for another Holiday workshop to make Simple Gifts from paper taught by Brenda Lilly and Sheryl Jaffe.  You can visit last year's workshop here. 

This season we will continue with our butterfly theme and make paper butterflies taught by Brenda Lilly who studied with origami master, Michael LaFosse in his   studio here in Massachusetts, Origamido. Michael is among the foremost Origami artists in the world. 

Sheryl will expand our repertoire of folders and checkbook folders or wallets made from her beautiful fiber papers. See her message below:

"I could bring some paper and stuff to make different size templates, even teach template making for custom-sizing covers for calendars, tun books, checkbooks, or ??? Also, people are always interested in momigami, the crumpled paper, I could bring some papers, maybe you have some too that we could coat with konnyaku, which makes the paper very flexible and you get that crumpled paper* but strong cloth-like."

Here's an image of  a laptop computer bag made from paper cloth!

Some of our Japanese batik donated to KPC we can use:

Visit our members page for their bios. 

WHERE: Yellow Schoolhouse (Dzogchen Community) at 18 Schoolhouse Road, Conway, MA
WHEN: December 14, 2013 All day
HOURS: 10-5:00 PM
COST: BY Donation
Here's a slide show of last year's workshop:

Sacred Calligraphy by Lama Tsultrim Allione

Calligraphy of  HUM seed syllable by Lama Tsultrim Allione reprinted from her  Facebook  page earlier to day. KPC specializes in making hand-made calligraphy papers with sacred substances. 

KPC to Create a Festschrift in honor of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu as Part of Taegyalgar East's 30th Anniversary Celebration and the Inauguration of the Vajra Hall July 11-13. 2014

Khandroling Paper Cooperative cordially invites international Dzogchen Community members to submit their writings, dreams, photos, calligraphy and visual arts works about the Vajra Dance to be part of a Festschrift in honor Chögyal Namkhai Norbu during the Tsegyalgar's 30th Anniversary Celebration: Come Join the Dance and the Inauguration of the magnificent Vajra Hall to house the only Universal Mandala on earth. Details about the celebration will be posted  in the coming weeks.

We especially invite Vajra Dance teachers to pass this message on during their courses internationally. 

The Festschrift will be a handbound leather book covered in part with Khandroling papers made with many sacred substances presented to Rinpoche as an honorifc gift  to him sometime during the Vajra Hall Inauguration July 11-12, 2014. The selection of the Vajra Dance as an appropriate topic was approved by Prima Mai.

If sufficient funds are raised we may duplicate the project for internal distribution to the community in order to share the communications. The content of the Festscrift will serve as a chronicle for future generations.

To stream line the process of collecting the works without any fancy software requirements or logistics, please apply the following guidelines:

1) All written text of dreams, stories, poems etc must be submitted as a word document fully formatted and with your name and date of composition on each page. Complicated formatting can be submitted as rich text.

2) Each person is limited to one (one sided)  OR two (one-sided) pages that can be printed vertically or horizontally on  8 1/2 x 11 standard paper.

3) Please send a high resolution jpeg (only) of your art work and/or photos that can also be printed vertically or horizontally on 8 1/2 x 11" paper

4) Email to me at jacqueline.gens@gmail.com with your attachments (save your attachments with your name). PLEASE indicate in the subject line   "KPC FESTSCHRIFT" which will help me search your email efficiently among my sea of emails.

The above  materials will be tipped into the completed album(s). Khandroling Paper Cooperative will do all the final printing on archival acid-free paper.  

The deadline for submissions is in February AFTER the VD teachers meeting in Tenerife on February 14, 2014. Please write me if you have questions at jaqueline.gens@gmail.com

Sincerely

Jacqueline Gens

Khandroling Paper Cooperative

Naomi, Sheryl, Margherita, Kathryn, Tatiana, Brenda, Madeline

The following video explains what a Festschrift is. In this particular instance, the Festschrift is dedicated to Calligraphy Teacher and Artist Lloyd Reynolds who was a teacher of the poets Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen at Reed College. It exemplifies the kind of creative documents we would like to gather and then present to Rinpoche on the occasion of the Inauguration of the Mandala Hall for the only Universal Mandala on earth. 

2013 Swatch Book Arrived!

Our 2013 Swatch Swap books arrived today with Khandroling Paper Cooperative participating with members of our Hand Papermaking Yahoo Group. Our end papers were by Jennifer Meyer and Wanda Spangler. By an auspicious coincidence Sherely Jaffe, KPC founding member, got our random end papers for her book. 

Here's our selection with KPC chop--paper looks good. Around 50 papermakers from North America, including Canada were represented. We each sent 2" x 3" swatches. In the end we  received a book with each other's samples.  We also sent two 8 1/2' x 11" papers to make the covers which were randomly distributed. Thanks Beth Heesacher for curating and making these wonderful  books  for 2013. 

Click here to read our recipe for KPC calligraphy paper made with sacred substances in a previous post. 

Making Black Walnut Ink with Diane Part 1

One of the projects I've wanted to do for some time was make Black Walnut Ink as an organic ink for edible mantras on our handmade paper with sacred substances. 

So when my friend Diane called to say that she had lots of hulls--we went for it on a chilly November day. Part one shows the process. Part two will be about perfecting the consistency of the ink--forthcoming soon. 

See our side show below:

Interview with Jacqueline Gens on Catalysta

To read the following interview with KPC founder and director, Jacqueline Gens on Catalysta, click here. 














[photo of Jacqueline Gens with Dr. Trogawa Rinpoche by Allen Ginsberg]

First Pigment Garden Project Group Meeting at Greenfield Community College

Nearly forty years ago I attended Greenfield Community College for about a year before transferring to the Ada Comstock Program at Smith College. The campus is as gorgeous as I remember it. The most significant change--a huge food court and student lounge, the presence of computer labs and cell-phone use.

At Soledad Suarez's suggestion I went to check out a newly formed Pigment Garden Project initiated by GCC faculty, Kelly Popoff and Tony Reiber--seen below in the slide show.  The group will meet in a collaboration between the art department and science department to research, grow, and process different fibers with a diversity of mordants to explore their efficacy as light fast dyes for fabric and paper. 

Our 2nd Annual Holiday Workshop, Saturday, December 14, 2013

Join us for another Holiday workshop to make Simple Gifts from paper taught by Brenda Lilly and Sheryl Jaffe.  You can visit last year's workshop here. 

This season we will continue with our butterfly theme and make paper butterflies taught by Brenda Lilly who studied with origami master, Michael LaFosse in his   studio here in Massachusetts, Origamido. Michael is among the foremost Origami artists in the world. 

Sheryl will expand our repertoire of folders and checkbook folders or wallets made from her beautiful fiber papers. See her message below:

"I could bring some paper and stuff to make different size templates, even teach template making for custom-sizing covers for calendars, tun books, checkbooks, or ??? Also, people are always interested in momigami, the crumpled paper, I could bring some papers, maybe you have some too that we could coat with konnyaku, which makes the paper very flexible and you get that crumpled paper* but strong cloth-like."

Here's an image of  a laptop computer bag made from paper cloth!

Visit our members page for their bios. 

WHERE: Yellow Schoolhouse (Dzogchen Community) at 18 Schoolhouse Road, Conway, MA
WHEN: December 14, 2013 All day
HOURS: 10-5:00 PM
COST: BY Donation

Here's a slide show of last year's workshop:

Khandroling Paper Cooperative will be at the Conway, Festival of the HIlls

Join us in the Craft Tent on October 6, 2013 for the annual Conway Festival of the Hills where Shang Shung Institute US will share a booth with Khandroling Paper Cooperative.

Come make some paper, get a mini-massage, and enjoy lots of good eats like momos from Northampton's Lhasa Cafe and an array of great international foods.

It's the traditional hill town harvest festival : Join in the bounty if you live nearby!

[photo by Paula Barry]

2013 Swatch Swap Samples on their Way

Last year Khandroling Paper Cooperative was able to participate in the 2012 Swatch Swap. 

I made simple kozo sheets while on retreat in August 2012--cooked on Khandroling with pond water and soda ash, then hand beaten outside on a picnic table, made with a small Lee McDonald mould and deckle and then pressed in an antique book press before air drying.  I called the results "Plein Air." I wake up early, so each morning I walked from Rinpoche's cabin where I was doing retreat down to the beaver pond where a silky little lady met me on her morning swim. After breakfast at the camp kitchen over looking the pond, I liked to beat the kozo a few minutes every day. 

That's us on the left -- a real plain jane paper.  


This year I was able to offer some of our experimental calligraphy paper made with Kozo, Ping Tang, and linen beaten in the hollander beater with sacred substances and recycled texts from Tibet. The wet papers were pressed in our antique iron bookpress then restraint dried for several days. The results are good but we are still in the  experimental stage.

For the 2013 Swatch Swap, here is our recipe:

Khandroling Paper Cooperative Calligraphy Paper Recipe

Kozo and Ping Tang beaten for thirty minutes in Mark Lander’s Critter with added inclusions of sacred substances from Tibet and recycled Tibetan texts and prayer flags. Previously beaten linen was added. Sheets made with a custom-made mould and deckle approximately 23” L x 6” W, the size for traditional doorway mantras. Each sample stamped with our KPC chop.

The two end sheets are fiber left-overs one of a kind or failed pulp painting but, nonetheless, robust for a cover!

Now cooking Kozo for our  Festival of the Hills papermaking this Sunday.

Northampton High School and visiting artist, Milan Rai

Invited to visit Northampton High School by Art Director, Sheryl Jaffe,   our visiting artist, Milan Rai, wowed students with his simple message of sustainability and collaborative art installations using white butterflies made from recycled trash as a symbol of personal and collective transformation. As one student was heard to comment, "Who wouldn't want a white butterfly?"


[Photo by Naomi Zeitz of Milan and Sheryl]

Many of the students themselves come from a multicultural background and could relate to Milan's "magic," as he travels the globe.

The results outside the classroom were stunning. 
A slide show and article by Sheryl are forthcoming. 

A Visit with Lama Tsultrim Founder of Tara Mandala

Informal photo of Lama Tsultrim Allione (right) Founder of Tara Mandala and her Executive Assistant, Anna Raithel outside Chez Albert in Amherst, MA. We met up for drinks on their way back from the Garrison Institute Conference on:

Contemplation, Collaboration, and Change: A Workshop for Lenz   Foundation Grantees and their Partners in Impact .....Read more here

As it was nearing Lama Tsultrim's birthday, I presented her with lots of Khandroling Paper Cooperative products including calligraphy paper containing sacred substances. Among these substances---mandala rice she gave me 20 years ago from her ngondro. I am hoping she does more calligraphy on paper we especially make for her. 

She is among the foremost Western Teachers and proponents of Buddhism and the Sacred Feminine. Her book, Women of Wisdom, opened the doors to recognition of the female lineages in Tibetan Buddhism generally relegated into obscurity. You can read about Tara Mandala at www.taramandala.org 

Thanks to Kathryn O'Connor

[photo of Kathryn O'Connor by Joey Solero]

Thanks Kathryn for supporting Milan Rai's guest artist visit to

 Khandroling Paper Cooperative

Haiku Class

I will be teaching a morning haiku class for Write Action in collaboration with the River Gallery School as part of the Brattleboro Literary Festival on Saturday October 5, 2013 from 9:30-12:00 PM. The cost is $25 for the morning session. 

The really cool part about this workshop is that in the afternoon for free, River Gallery School faculty will be on hand to help you transform your words into images using a variety of media such as bookmaking, collage, calligraphy, letterset or any combination. For a complete description of the workshop visit here.  Register through the River Gallery School.

Hope some of you can make it. Click here for a full schedule of the Brattleboro Literary Festival 

HANGING THE SHOW: A Slide Show by Naomi Zeitz

Join us for the opening of our first Khandroling Paper Cooperative Show "Interconnections and White Butterfly" at Ursa Major Gallery in Shelburne Falls, on September 14 from 2-8:00 PM as part of the SF Art walk. Come make paper, meet the artists, have some refreshments and visit with guest artist from Nepal, Milan Rai. (Scroll down to read about The White Butterfly City)
Outdoor Papermaking demonstration and instruction 2:00PM-5:00PM on September 14. 

The show will be open weekends until the 29 September from 1-5:00 PM



 ALL PHOTOS BY NAOMI ZEITZ

White Butterfly City

Milan Rai's White Butterfly City



Portrait of an Artist - Milan Rai from Shashank Shrestha on Vimeo.

Khandroling Paper Cooperative Group Show at Ursa Major Opens September 14, 2013-September 29, 2013

Ursa Major Gallery presents

Interconnections
September 14-29, 2013

Ursa Major Gallery and its home of Shelburne Falls, MA will provide the landscape on which Milan Rai’s White Butterfly will first alight on North America. Interconnections explores paper and the role of connectivity it plays within society. 

Group show to feature Nepalese guest artist, Milan Rai’s internationally renowned work White Butterfly, and select works by exhibitors of the Khandroling Paper Cooperative, Buckland, MA.

Artists include: Sheryl Jaffe, Brenda Lilly, Naomi Zeitz, Kathryn O'Connor. Tatianna Shannon, Max Shannon, Jacqueline Gens and guest artist Milan Rai from Nepal, among others.

PLEASE JOIN US ON SEPTEMBER 14, 2013 2:00-8:00 PM FOR ART walk in downtoun Shelburne Falls with a Papermaking Demo and an opportunity to speak with the artists.

About Milan Rai’s 

WHITE BUTTERFLY 
If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies. Some truth can be as simply put as the sentence above. Milan Rai, a visual artist based in Kathmandu, Nepal, understood this and decided to do something about it.

Before the ‘White Butterfly’ movement propelled him into the attention of media and activism, he was an artist who lived a quiet life in search of finding ways to bring art to the public. 

The concept of a ‘Butterfly City’ was a beautiful coincidence. While working on an entirely different project with new ideas in his studio, a fluttering butterfly landed on Milan’s paintbrush. “It was a kind of revelation!” Milan says. “At that moment, I became aware. This small butterfly, one of the most vulnerable creatures in the world, was there in front of me…teaching me so much.”

Milan installs white butterflies everywhere in the city…it could be a broken and time-battered crossway, a fragmentary wall, a busy street or a tree trunk along the pavement. He uses white butterflies in his installations as a symbol of pure transformation , He believes that every individual, like a butterfly, has the power to transform themselves and when this transformation happens collectively, we can observe miracles in their truest form. 

He started in his City’. Now, he wants his butterflies are travelling around the globe, creating a ‘Butterfly World’ - spreading the message of love and happiness, creating a world that is aware and ready to tap into its inner power and lift itself from the daily drudgery and for once open its eyes and see how wonderful and miraculous it is…and indeed live life like a butterfly.

http://blog.meld.cc/2013/05/24/milan-rai-and-his-white-butterflies/
 
http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=47224
 
http://nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Buzz-the-butterfly-effect,523


http://vimeo.com/73718291  Beautiful video that some film-maker friends just finished and sent to him September 3, 2013.

 

Personal Note by Milan Rai
About the Journey

"There was never a particular point in time when I declared to myself or 
anyone that I would be an artist. While many of my friends compromised 
what they loved for what they ought to do in order to be financially and socially stable,  I found myself to be lost and without ambition and I could not bring myself to give in to the pressures of good academics and a stable job. However, painting was something I loved and so I did it without any plans of where I would take it as a profession. I started off with figurative painting and then shifted to abstract expressionism with an influence of modern painters , gradually  I began to experiment with a wide range of artistic practices like performance art, installations and conceptual art. During this period I came to terms with the fact that contemporary art was becoming increasingly complex and the element of shock seemed to be taking over to the extent of alienating the audience from the work. I felt I had to do something about this emerging disconnect between the general audience and art. So I began to simplify my work in order to seduce the audience and create ways to touch them emotionally and perhaps spiritually. I wanted to connect with the alienated audience and through works devoid of the ego- try and move them. I execute my work out of a pure desire to reach out to the people and connect with them, nurse them and hopefully heal them somehow.  In order to achieve that I create works that are accessible, simple to take in yet potent with a strong message of love, hope and change."



Ursa Major Gallery 1 Deerfield Ave Shelburne Falls MA 01370                         413-824-0502 ursamajorgallerysf@gmail.com            
Lauri Marder, director     ursamajorgallery.com

Milan Rai at Sheryl and Walter's House

[photo by Kathryn O'Connor]

Step 2-- in recycling Apple/Verizon Boxes or Making Altered Books

Now begins the arduous process of multiple layers of gesso and sanding to prepare the surfaces for collaging with our delicate Khandroling papers. Lower right are a pair of children's books from the local transfer station ie., dump which will used for an altered book.  At least one of these pieces I would like to experiment using encaustic techniques.

Historic Photo of Papermaking In Tibet- Keeping the Connection Alive

I was very excited to see this floating mould on Wikipedia that shows a floating mould so similar to ours, I was really amazed. I wonder what they did with those long scrolls of paper.

Here is our floating mould for comparison:

The center dowel is actually to keep the mould from caving in with the weight of water when pulling the sheet from the pool (or river as in Tibet) after adding pulp. We came up with using a kiddie plastic pool to float the mould in. Traditionally, a river or pond would have sufficed.  The pulp above is a mixture of cooked and beaten Kozo, Ping Tang, and Linen beaten in our "Critter" the Hollander Beater. The Linen pulp contained many sacred substances.

The mould was constructed by Sheryl using ordinary curtain material attached with brass tacks that could be remounted to reposition the curtain material when sagging or stretched.

Here is the scroll we gave to Chogyal Namkhai Norbu. Sheryl for her recent show used these moulds to construct the marvelous hanging triptyque where she used the scroll paper for making monoprints at Zea Mays where she is a member of their printing
collective.

The dark blotches here in this work are splashes of beaten Iris randomly floated in the mould used to add texture and coloration to the paper.

The Beginning - Recycling Apple Product Boxes & Other Boxes

{world traveler adapter kit, keyboard, I phone, flip video, Verizen phone, magsafe Power adapter, IPad Smart case}

There's nothing like an IPhone box for sleek 'gravitas." The flip video box by design seems to invite travel shrine. Stay tuned for the transformation.

Example of a Terma (Treasure) written by Yeshe Tsogyal

The photo of a Terma (Treasure) fragment on paper above is a part of an Exhibition on Buddhist Relics in Denver, CO 

WHO WAS YESHE TSOGYAL?

Yeshe Tsogyal (757–817), was the consort of the great Indian tantricteacher Padmasambhava, the founder-figure of the Nyingma tradition ofTibetan Buddhism. Nyingma tradition considers her equal in realization to Padmasambhava himself. The meditational practices related to her, stress her enlightened aspect, and are similar in form to tantric deity practices in general. She is variously equated with Vajravārāhī, Tārā or Sarasvatī.

Both the Nyingma and Karma Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhismrecognize Yeshe Tsogyal as a female Buddha. The translators of Lady of the Lotus-Born, the namthar or spiritual biography that Yeshe Tsogyal left as a terma observe:

To read more visit the Rigpa Wikipedia site. 

For some time, I have been fascinated by the ancient origins of the paper on which these Terma are written--often described as a yellow scroll with dakini script. See the interesting website on Dakini Scripts prepared by Georg Fischer.

Coming Soon Our First Khandroling Paper Cooperative Group Show---

pulp painting by Naomi Zeitz on abaca 

Khandroling Paper Cooperative show at Ursa Major:  September 14-29, 2013

Ursa Major Gallery

INTERCONNECTIONS

Paper connects people, be it cards and letters, old books and photographs, historic and sacred texts, drawings, poetry and calligraphy. Khandroling Paper Cooperatives invites artists who have made paper with us to show your work. The theme, Interconnections make it your own, it could be your connection to nature, to someone of significance in 

your life, and create a piece from paper/handmade paper, plants, prints, poetry....

Works by Sheryl Jaffe, Brenda Lilly, Naomi Zeitz, Kathryn O'Connor. Tatianna Shannon, Max Shannon, Jacqueline Gens and guest artist Milan Rai from Nepal, among others.

Milan Rai and Kathryn O'Connor (rt) meeting with gallery owner, Lauri Marder (left) ouside Ursa Major Gallery in Shelburne Falls.

Milan and Kathryn on the famous Bridge of Flowers, Shelburne Falls

So many amazing flowers...

Visiting the Khandroling Farm Coop on East Buckland Rd in Buckland, MA and hanging with farm manager, Nary Mitchell- Left to rt: Nary Mitchell, Sheryl Jaffe, Milan Rai and Kathryn O'Connor. Nary was installing the beginnings of a branch arch by digging deep holes when we arrived. There are the bee hives in the background.

Sean Quinn tinkering with the tractor blades.

Sheryl and Kathryn back at the gallery discussing the upcoming show opening September 14

That's Brenda Lilly--origami artist. I don't know how to make a still photo out of my accidental movie mode. Brenda stopped by the farm to meet Milan and we all had a picnic lunch.

Milan and Kathryn on their way to NYC. Milan will be back on September 9 to begin his amazing butterfly installations.