Monday, November 27, 2017

Update on our November Lantern Making Workshops


We almost cancelled when several people were a no show for our November 4th papermaking workshop for Lanterns, Instead, Sheryl, Amanda and myself made dozens of fine pieces of square paper each of us contributing a variety of old and newly beaten fibers. Amanda cooked up her wonderful rainbow corn stalks outside. Sheryl manifested her usual magic with layers of flax/kozo and


unique fibers like Siberian Iris (see backdrop above picture), and whatever else she had around her home studio. I cooked up my mitsumata which I will hand beat tomorrow when making new lantern paper. We also fulfilled our 2018 Swatch commitment with a variety of pulp including a red sateen bed sheet, Flax, Abaca and Kozo. Here it is in its wet sheet formation before pressing:


When it came time for the lantern origami workshop on November 18, again we almost canceled due to low enrollment but KPC members gathered together anyway to learn from Brenda our origami genius how to make the beautiful lantern above. Not the easiest fold but we practiced a lot with ordinary commercial origami papers before folding our own papers made on November 4 and ended up with some excellent results. 


I've been using my own personal lantern every day with the special timed LED tea light that is on for  8 hours, then off for 18 hours before going on again. I love the flickering quality that gives it an authentic feel, Here I have it on my Shambhala Ashe shrine:



More to come tomorrow!