We are open today 2-7PM and tomorrow Saturday 12-6PM. We hope to produce several hundred more sheets for next week's paper sculpture workshops. We had a good turnout yesterday; returning participants and first-time participants all produced papers and enjoyed their time here.
Today we will pull more paper, and we aim to beat enough pulp to meet our needs for both today and tomorrow. Saturday will be our last day of the wet process, so come out if you haven’t already, as we will only be pulling paper until the last of our pulp runs out. Next week we will clean the gallery meticulously and move onto the dry phase, starting the process of stitching, folding, weaving the sheets of paper together. This collaboration with the public will produce a voluminous installation in the gallery reflecting participants' ideas of creating and working together. If you haven't tried your hand at papermaking, but curious about how it is done, come today 2-7PM or tomorrow, Saturday 12-6PM.
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It's 3:30 pm and there's still plenty of time to come to Satellite Project Space to beat pulp, pull paper or sandwich strings between wet paper before we close up shop at 7 pm. Even if you only have a little time, you are welcome to stop by and see what’s happening or even pull a sheet of paper (it takes only a couple of minutes). We are at 121 Dundas St, and our gallery space is air-conditioned, a special bonus in today’s extraordinary heat.
One bucket of cooked plants produces three buckets of pulp. The fibre needs to be beaten multiple times to break down the fibre completely. We start with a bucket of cooked fibre, beat them by the handful while adding more water to it, and then transfer them to another bucket, usually more than one, as adding water increases the volume. We start the process again, this time with the already beaten fibre, breaking down the fibre even more while adding more water, increasing the volume and filling more and more buckets. It’s amazing how many buckets we need for papermaking. We need them for storing and soaking the plants, rinsing cooked fibre, draining water, and storing pulp. We started our project with seven buckets then bought three more last week and plan to purchase an addition three from Home Depot again today.
How do we know when the fibre is done and we have the perfect pulp? There is a simple test. We put a pinch of beaten pulp in a jar half full of water and shake it up. If there are no clumps or strings of visible fibre, and it looks uniform, then the pulp is done. We do this test regularly, and it's very motivating to see how the pulp becomes finer and finer. Whoever does the beating in the backroom is very much in need of motivation as it feels like a never-ending part of the paper making process. We dream of a Hollander beater, a machine the Dutch invented in 1680 that produces superior pulp in a mechanized way, but with a price tag of $5000 and up, it’s beyond our grasp. We had a wonderful evening of learning while enjoying the outdoors with Becky Ellis from Earth Magic Permaculture. We met at Cavendish Park, very close to downtown, and soon headed to Cavendish Trail. Becky's introduction to the walk was very informative. It was interesting to hear her nuanced view on invasive, or as she calls them, opportunistic species. Becky is also a beekeeper, and as we walked along the trail, she pointed out that some species we consider weeds are important for bees.
At the beginning of the walk, we distributed paper bags to the participants to collect plants, leaves or flowers they find interesting that can be added to the pulp as decorative elements. This week we continue to make paper at Satellite Project Space to produce several hundreds of sheets that will be used next week to create paper sculptures. We hope many Londoners will try their hand at papermaking. Come out on Monday, July 4th at 7 pm and learn about a variety of wild plants growing here in London. Becky Ellis of Earth Magic Permaculture will lead a foraging walk, where we will identify plant species and harvest materials for papermaking. Beyond collecting materials for artistic purposes, this walk hopes to elevate people's understanding of the diverse ecosystems prevalent here in London.
Meet us at 7 pm in Cavendish Park located at the end of Wyatt St just off Wharncliffe and Riverside. Wild carrot, burdock, pawpaw tree, milkweed - edible species in the Carolinian Food Forest7/2/2016
Jessica started the walk by talking about responsible foraging and harvesting food in the wild. In fact, we can forage in the Carolinian Food Forest but we should do it responsibly, both with respect to the plants as well as ourselves.
During the walk, Jessica identified edible species such as plantain herb, wild carrot, pawpaw tree (a tropical tree but native here), and burdock a biennial plant that we also tasted, but it is only edible in the first year. We tasted wild garlic (fantastic!) and milkweed as well. Milkweed flowers are edible while they are small and firm, but toxic for humans when big and soft. Monarch butterflies like it either way, as it’s a food source they can’t live without. The Carolinian Food Forest is maintained by volunteers and you can join them to care for the forest. Visit londonfoodforest.blogspot.ca
Today we go for a walk—rain or shine—around the Carolinian Food Forest with Jessica Robertson of Wild Craft Permaculture. We start our walk at 3 pm at the Dillabough Community Gardens.
If you are bussing, come down to the gallery by 1:45 pm and catch the #3 bus with us to the event. The gallery is open today from 12pm, we still have grass to cut and cottonwood to prepare for cooking, then we close at 1:45pm to go to the Carolinian Food Forest Walk. It will be a fun-filled educational event. Today is Canada's 149th birthday, and we celebrate it in our papermaking workshop at Satellite Project Space. What could be better than escaping the rainy weather outside, than making beautiful handmade paper at the gallery?
In this project, we aim to bring together a diverse public through collaborative art making and shared learning. We want to connect with London’s ecological heritage, our surrounding natural environment and with one another. We hope to see you this afternoon between 2-7PM. Grass and cottonwood collected on the foraging walk last Monday has been turned into pulp and is ready to be pulled from the vats. Whether you have 15 minutes to drop by or hours to spend with us, you are welcome. Papermaking is fun and suitable for all ages and abilities.
We haven’t pulled paper from the foraged plants yet. Papermaking is a long and laborious process as our visitors experienced yesterday but a truly enjoyable one too. The tasks were many, from cutting grass into small pieces and separating the cottonwood from the bark to measuring the dry weight of plants, followed by cooking and rinsing.
Today we continue to cook the plants and beat them both manually and in a blender. We will start pulling the first sheets of foraged plant paper. There’s still lots of grass and cottonwood to process so we need helping hands at every stage. We hope many people will join us today to work together while being enveloped in the sweet smell of boiling water mixed with soda ash and cottonwood. |