OPEN HOUSE on Sunday, October 30, 2016 from 4:00 PM-9:00 PM

                                                                                                                                             
Khandroling Paper Cooperative will host an Open House on Sunday, October 30, 2016 in our Basement Studio for a traditional Dia de los Muertos installation, and refreshments from 4:00 PM-9:00 PM or earlier if you want to help in dressing the altar. Come meet some of our members and see our most recent woodblock prints and paper items. A gift for everyone! Refreshments and lively conversation!

WHERE:  18 Schoolhouse Road, Conway, MA 01341 in the KPC studio
WHEN: Sunday, October 30, 2016 4-9:00 PM 
OTHER: Free 


Bring a photo or artifact to add to the altar. Come earlier if you would like to participate in the installation. 

We are nearing the thin time, that magical twilight moment when the veil between this world and the other is more transparent. 

Khandroling Paper Cooperative to Participate in the 4th Annual "Cheap Art" Fair

Khandroling Paper Cooperative is pleased to be part of the 4th Annual 2016 CHEAP ART SHOW produced by Creative Community Connections (C3) on Sunday, November 6 from 2-5pm at the Polish American Club at 46 South Main St in South Deerfield.


This is a one day show that celebrates financial accessibility to art and is based on the famous Bread and Puppet Cheap Art Manifesto and model. Come join us for a magical event. 

Name: 4th Annual Cheap Art Show
Where: Polish American Club at 46 South Main St in South Deerfield.
Date: November 6, 2016

Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM EST

Website: https://www.facebook.com/C3Deerfield/


Event Description:

This exhibit is based on the Bread and Puppet Cheap Art Manifesto: “Art is FOOD. You can’t eat it but it FEEDS you. Art has to be CHEAP and available to EVERYBODY.” Local artists of all ages will sell a range of art and crafts for no more than $15 per piece. Free refreshments and cash bar.

[Cheap Art Graphic reprinted from Bread and Puppet  Why Cheap Art?  Manifesto]

Fibers For Papermaking: KOZO, MITSUMATA, AND GAMPI

Kozo bundles in the background ordered from Carriage House Papers

I came across this great site called True Art for the Creative Process in the context of Dharma Art put together by  Steven Saitzyk. I found this section on oriental fibers useful in papermaking particularly useful.

These are the most common fibers used in making Oriental papers. Only the inner bark, or bast fiber, of Broussonetia kazinoki for kozo, Edgeworthia ehrysantha for mitsumata, and Diplomorpha shikokiana for gampi, is used to make paper. When these fibers are used without wood pulp or other fillers, they are as permanent as cotton and, in the case of gampi, even more permanent.
Kozo, known in North America as mulberry, makes the strongest and most durable of the Oriental papers. It has the longest fibers, will not shrink or expand when wet, and produces a paper with an uneven surface. This fiber is used alone to make paper and is added to other fibers to give them additional strength and durability.

Mitsumata is traditionally described by the Japanese in what they feel are female terms. They say it is the most beautiful, softest, most absorbent, and the weakest of the three fibers. It is often used to balance kozo fibers, which are described in male terms, to increase the absorbency, even the surface, and add beauty to a paper. 

Gampi is described by the Japanese as having both male and female characteristics. Its fibers are long, thin, somewhat shiny, and very tough. The fibers are so durable that paper made of gampi is referred to as “paper cloth.” Gampi paper is smooth, lustrous, and has its own natural chemical resistance to papereating insects. It is nonabsorbent, damp-resistant, and may well be the most permanent paper in the world. The best paper is made from uncultivated plants, but the plant is rare because it was overused to the point of near extinction. Most available gampi papers are made from a species of the plant found in the Philippine Islands and processed in Taiwan.
Many Oriental papers available in the West are made from one of these three fibers. They are called Japanese papers, or Japanese-style papers, even if they are made in another country. 

Tan-hi is the Chinese version of kozo fiber and is the primary ingredient in such traditional Chinese papers as gasen. Today, tan-hi is more commonly referred to as tampi.

Cooked Kozo in various levels of preparation from hand beating

Reprinted from True Art on this page: http://www.trueart.info/?page_id=331


Photos by Jacqueline Gens

Current Open Studios for October 2016

Kaylee, Jane, and Pam meeting the Critter for the first time

These days a group of us meet each Sunday 12:30 PM and Tuesdays 10:30 AM for Open Studios at Khandroling Paper Cooperative located at 18 Schoolhouse Road, Conway MA in the basement of the old Conway grammar school now housing the Community of Tsegyalgar East, North American seat of Tibetan Teacher Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. 

Participants are introduced to all aspects of papermaking including cooking fibers, hand beating fibers (hence Kaylee's beating stick) beating rag and fibers in the Critter, and drying. We are also preparing our 2016 swatch samples due October 15.

Upcoming events include:

Kichung Lizee's  Calligraphy workshop on October 23, 2016

Brenda Lilly's Mindfulness of Origami Club beginning November 10, 2016 5:00-6:30 PM

The Critter at work transforming Cotton rag, Abaca, and Kozo into high end pulp to make perfect paper.

Photos by Jacqueline Gens