Paper. It's all around you. If you're sitting at your computer, odds are a stack of bright white 8.5" x 11" is nearby in the printer. Maybe you're in a library surrounded by reams of bound paper, or in your office where an endless sea of paper abounds in your in and out boxes.
When you woke up this morning with a full bladder, maybe you used paper in a ritual of daily hygiene. Your toothpaste may have come in a box made of cardboard. The cereal you poured for your morning bowl came prepackaged in decorative stock. The coffee filter you filled with ground beans is yet another type of paper.
Each of these papers has a function, and an aesthetic. You may buy laser jet paper for your printer because it has a better text presentation for your meeting. You may have chosen your toilet paper in a shade of blue to match the bathroom. Perhaps you tried out a new cereal because of the cheerful graphic imprinted on the box. You may take these papers for granted, and forget them as you toss them empty into the trash where they will later relocate in a landfill. Or perhaps you sift and sort newspaper from magazines, carefully placing them into recycle bins.
Everywhere you look are the materials needed to create your own papers and recognize the beauty in a material most people utilize everyday but rarely think of in terms of art. There are only three things anyone needs to make their own papers: water, fibers, and a sieve or paper making screen. By looking around your home, work and leisure environments you can find many sources of interesting textures, colors and possibilities for paper making.
In the age of modern technology when papers of all shapes, colors and sizes are readily available, you may wonder why bother taking the time and effort to make your own paper. Here function takes a backseat and aesthetic becomes dominant. You may be able to go to the store and purchase a perfectly acceptable Valentine's Day card for your husband. It costs anywhere from $1.50 to $5.00 and he'll smile when he reads it. However, instead of monetary investment, you could invest your time and creative impulse in a card that would both please him for it's message but also show him you cared enough to carefully craft, cut, paste and design your own message of love.
For me, and the illuminators and scribes of ages past and present, there is nothing quite like giving or
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