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These artworks
are created of cast or mouldmode, handmade paper and sometimes other media including acrylic paint and metal leaf. They may
also include acrylic sheets, metal, bamboo, rattan, suede and other elements
such as minerals or shells.
The design process works backwards from the image in my mind of the completed
sculpture. First I choose or create the theme and make the mold patterns.
On my computer, I determine the size of each piece that will go into
the construction. Each thick, textured piece is a single piece of paper that
is created from 100% cotton rag. Sheets of compressed cotton fiber are pulped (mixed
under pressure with a large amount of water), sized, and poured into custom
molds that I make. Thinner sheets are made with papermaking molds that are dipped into the pulp. The textures are created from flexible molds that I create
and press into the surface.
These very wet, heavy pieces are drained, then dried over a period of days
or weeks and shaped just before completely dry. 
Each
piece is then primed on both sides to seal and stiffen it, then backed
with fabric and the hanging assembly and sometimes sawed into shapes.
Pieces may be painted with eight or more layers of translucent and opaque acrylic paint to develop the surface and enhance
the pattern. If painted, metal leaf is applied and the surfaces are varnished. Other sculptures are soaked in encaustic to color and stiffen the shapes.
Other elements are now prepared. Metal, acrylic, bamboo, rattan and
suede are sometimes used. A hanging system is created. The art is then signed, named
and photographed.
Currently, my work with handmade paper is the series "Secrets" in which I coat mouldmade handmade paper sheets with encaustic and include wire and found objects in the completed work.
I am no longer making the large cast paper sculptures although I still have a few of these deeply textured artworks at the studio for sale.
return to mixed media sculpture
