Paper Making

BTEC Art and Design, 2 year College course that I have just finished. Thought I'd share some of the work that I had created while I was there. 

Paper Making and Print Making Unit

This had to be my favourite unit that I was given, it just seemed so different and it was great fun to make the paper. I'd never done this before so it started off pretty messy and wrong. The only thing that I don't like is waiting to see the result, letting the paper dry. We had to leave it on a board somewhere in the class room so it took roughly about a week for the paper to dry. I'd recommend doing paper making though! :)

I got a task sheet at the start, like every other unit. This was the main task:

The Crafts Council is planning an exhibition that demonstrates the versatility of paper as an art form. They are looking for works that push the boundaries of handmade papers – artists’ books, structural forms, assemblages – the Council wishes to promote works that move away from the traditional idea that paper is merely a support/ carrier for other media, and is asking for works that combine papermaking and printmaking in an innovative fashion. There are no size constraints on works submitted.

I wanted to make something very simple, like a book! So that is what I did.. Only once I got close to the end, I realized it was the simple after all. When paper making, you need to learn to make the pulp loose so it isn't thick. I made that mistake..

I decided to create these hangings instead, with stitched in photographs from my makeup designs and then with Alice in Wonderland and song lyrics to finish it off. To be fair, I actually prefer this layout more than what my book would have turned out like.

I decided to add coffee splashes and mug stains to the paper which was inspired by Alice In Wonderland, the Mad Hatter. I thought it went well with the colours in the paper. 

Cutting throw the paper to see what it'd look like, thought it looked pretty cool. 

Embedding photographs into the paper, this was something I was going to do a lot of but the time and difficulty of having to embed photos on both sides seemed to difficult. I did find that it looked great and I might go back to doing something like this again. 

This was a part of my final, cut throw the paper and added photographs. Similar to a photo frame, as I added a back piece to hide the back of the photograph.  

These are just a few bits from my Unit, I might add more later and maybe some other art work that I did on the course.