Helen Hiebert's Blog

The Sunday Paper #572

September 14, 2025

I was given a few moments to speak about my work at the opening of the Legacies in Paper exhibition in Atlanta last week, and I spent part of the time talking about a new piece called Same/Not Same. The title has a double meaning:

1. All 39 components were created in the same way (a video is coming soon to reveal the process), but they differ by color (obvious) and shape (more subtle).

2. These pieces serve as a metaphor for all of us. I believe that we humans are all the same, and our differences are what makes the world beautiful. I have been confounded since a young age by the many troubles in our world that stem from how we view our differences.

Same/Not Same will be on view at the Robert C Williams Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta through January 30, 2026. Join all me and the other two artists for a conversation that explores our careers, our relationships with handmade paper, and our current explorations. We’ll be speaking on Wednesday, October 15, 2025, at 7 PM Eastern ( on Zoom). Free to attend—advance registration required.

© 2025, Helen Hiebert, Same/Not Same, artist-made abaca, escutcheon pins, 15″ x 65″ (dimensions variable), Photo by Nancy Cohen

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Check out the opening credits for Queen of Mystery, featuring pop-ups by David Hawcock. Thanks to a reader for sending me this, and for digging deeper to find these credits: Pop-Up Book Designer: David Hawcock, Illustrator: Garry Walton, Compositor: Mark Ford, Titles Supervisor: Peter Haddon, Assosciate Producer: Savannah James-Bayly.

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Your Stories. Your Art. Your Book. You’ve carried your stories for years, now it’s time to give them a beautiful home. Join Nicole White on Monday, October 6th from 2–4pm MST for the Introductory Session of Creativity Memoir Studio Circle for Women. This live, online class is your chance to explore what’s possible and discover how your words, art, and memories can begin to take shape on the page. In this warm, welcoming space, you’ll start imagining the book you’ve always dreamed of… one that blends your stories, creativity, and life experiences into something meaningful, tangible, and uniquely yours. Your Voice, Your Stories.

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I’m looking forward to visiting the COllage exhibition at the Arvada Center this fall. The dynamic world of collage and assemblage comes to life in this exhibition through bold patterns, unexpected materials, and striking visual narratives. Far from random layering, each work reveals a careful design of elements—scraps, textures, sounds, and objects—brought together with deliberate intention. These artists use the act of layering to explore memory, identity, passion, and place, transforming everyday materials into powerful statements.

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Many of you know of Arnold Grummers papermaking supplies, and you may or may not know about his wife Mabel, who passed away recently at the age of 99.9. Mabel Grummer’s obituary is posted online and found its way onto TikTok and Instagram under @tipsfromdeadpeople. Rest in Peace, dear Mabel.

Paper TidbitsThe 2026 Taos Paper Retreat is now open for registration. The theme is Capture the Light, and the retreat will take place July 19-25, 2026 in Taos, NM.I interviewed Mabel Grummer (mentioned above) in 2018 on Paper Talk.

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Author’s Corner

We’re getting closer to pub date (December 16th). I’m opening pre-sales on my website for Weaving With Paper on October 1st. The first 50 orders placed will receive a FREE weaving tool. And there will be other special offers if you pre-order from me. Stay tuned!

I’m doing a few fun events leading up to the book release.

10/6: I’m hosting a free mini workshop on Zoom to launch pre-sales for Weaving With Paper AND to kick off registration for The Paper Year, which will be open to new members October 1-12. Sign up here.10/7: I’m participating in Spinning & Weaving Week, a 7-day celebration of the fiber arts hosted by the Handweaver’s Guild of America, Inc. I’ll be teaching a one-hour online paper weaving workshop on October 7th.1/6/26: I’m hosting an official book launch party on Zoom. Details coming soon!

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About our Sponsor: Nicole White is a best selling author, artist, clinical hypnotherapist, and creativity mentor who helps people turn their stories into beautiful, tangible books. As the former President of the Libros Book Arts Guild and a current member of the Santa Fe BAG (Book Arts Group), she combines a love of handmade books with a passion for personal storytelling. Nicole’s teaching style is warm, encouraging, and practical, helping each person find their unique creative voice while keeping classes small so everyone receives personal guidance for their one-of-a-kind project.

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper?

Tell 4000+ paper enthusiasts about your work by promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in these posts – to products that I receive a small commission on if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post Same/Not Same appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

The Sunday Paper #571

September 7, 2025

I’ve been in Atlanta all week (I’m flying home today), installing the Legacies in Paper exhibition with Nancy Cohen and Sara Garden Armstrong at the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta. The museum houses the collection that Dard Hunter traveled the world to assemble during the first half of the 20th Century, and there are exhibits dedicated to the history and processes of making paper by hand, along with the contemporary galleries, where our works are on display through January 30, 2026.

This post is bit different, with highlights from the trip, instead of the regular Sunday Paper.

I plan to create a video about my work in the show soon, but in the meantime, here are images of the three rooms, each featuring an artist in the show. We all work with abaca in distinctive ways.

The museum helped us prepare slide presentations about the trajectory of our work. These can be viewed in the museum, but you can also watch them at the links below.

Nancy Cohen: (Nancy’s presentation: 13:27)

Sara Garden Armstrong: (Sara’s presentation)

Helen Hiebert: (Helen’s presentation)

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We were able to spend a few hours behind the scenes, viewing papers and artifacts that are held in the collection. This is a watermarked bank note, and the text on the facing page (in gorgeous script and ink) reads Three Dippings and Three Couchings.

To round out the week, I taught a workshop at the museum yesterday. We created expandable, inflatable, illuminated forms.

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I’ll be back with a regular edition of The Sunday Paper next week!

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper?

Tell 4000+ paper enthusiasts about your work by promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in these posts – to products that I receive a small commission on if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post Legacies in Paper appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

The Sunday Paper #570

August 31, 2025

As you’re reading this, I’m be on the plane(s) to Atlanta (via Dallas). I remember riding in my first glass elevator in Atlanta when I was a kid; and coming from behind to win a 500 yard distance race at a college swim meet (perhaps at Georgia Tech, where I’m headed. My memory is fuzzy on the details, but I’ll never (I hope) forget the adrenaline rush from the event, which was enhanced by the reaction from my teammates).

Memories aside, tomorrow morning I’ll hit the ground running to install my work at the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking, along with my co-exhibitors Nancy Cohen and Sara Garden Armstrong. We hope to see some of you at the opening reception this Thursday, September 4th!

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I’m delighted to see Gina Pisello’s altered book in this exhibition – she wove into the pages during the month of February back in 2024 during my Weave Through Winter online class. Click here to see all of the pages in her book.

Woven Dialogs by Gina Pisello, 2024.

The University of South Dakota presents “Bound and Unbound VIII”, an altered book exhibition, now through January 5, 2026. It is open to the public for viewing during library operating hours and can also be viewed online in the Digital Library of South Dakota.

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Woman Made Gallery (WMG) in Chicago is proud to unveil the 8th Midwest Open, a dynamic group exhibition featuring work by 33 women and nonbinary artists from across the American Midwest. Laurie Breton’s piece, “River Song”, an installation of 20 handmade abaca paper sculptures, is in the show.

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I had a lovely conversation with Dorothy McGuinness, a contemporary basket weaver who lives and works in Everett, Washington. McGuinness took her first basketmaking class in 1987 and has studied basket-weaving techniques that have been handed down through the centuries. She has worked extensively with Jiro Yonezawa, a contemporary Japanese basket maker and teacher and discovered her medium of choice in 2000, when she took a workshop with Jackie Abrams, who introduced her to watercolor paper as a basket-weaving material. McGuinness now works exclusively in diagonal twills and mad weave, creating contemporary sculptural baskets, and enjoys exploring the interplay of weaving, color, and design in her sculptural woven paper pieces. Enjoy our conversation! ​

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Special thanks to a reader for sending me this profile of , the architect of the project Paper Dolls: stories from women who served which contains 20 stories spanning more than 40 years of service and all branches of the military. These stories represent the collective experience of women in the armed forces. Using paper created from military uniforms as a starting point, DeLuco asked women veterans to share personal stories, donate uniforms, and participate in the hand making of these carefully conceived limited edition books in an attempt to change people’s preconceived ideas of women in the military.

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Paper TidbitsIf you’re in NYC next weekend, check out the Booksmart Fair as part of Art in Paper. 

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper?

Tell 4000+ paper enthusiasts about your work by promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in these posts – to products that I receive a small commission on if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post Booksmart appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

The Sunday Paper #569

August 24, 2025

I am both stimulated and exhausted from the 10th Red Cliff Paper Retreat, which wrapped up on Friday. It was wonderful to have participants who traveled from Santa Fe, Quebec, Oklahoma, California, Michigan, Denver, North Carolina and Washington state! We folded paper in many ways, exploring hypars (from the Bauhaus), wall paper and masu box books, and a tesselating lantern form, along with papermaking techniques, which included wet pleating. Next year’s retreat will focus on paper weaving, in celebration of my new book Weaving With Paper (coming out December 16, 2025).

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This looks like a fun workshop at Sanborn Mills Farm in New Hampshire (September 24-28, 2025). Catherine Cross Tsintzos is teaching From the Fields and Rows: Seed to Hand Papermaking. Students will learn about making paper from seed to sheet, as well as traditional and contemporary papermaking techniques. Forage, gather, prepare, cook, pound, pulse and pulp, building experience through the process. Explore bookbinding and how to use papers for printmaking using all types of plates and transfer techniques. Discover mixed media and sewing, watermarks, overlays, masking, working with wheat pastes and Konjac root. The classroom will be an incubator of ideas and creativity. Sanborn Mills Farm dates back to the 1700’s and is preserved, restored and fully operational with attention to detail for the best educational experiences for their guests.  Depart the five days with a variety of papers from different pulps that connect you with the farm, along with the knowledge to continue the hand papermaking process at home.

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Look at me! I’m on a banner with two other Legacies in Paper (bug eye emoji). How flattering to be considered a legacy, and I’m so honored to be exhibiting work alongside Sara Garden Armstrong and Nancy Cohen at the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta. Join us at the opening reception on Thursday, September 4, 2025, 4-7pm.

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Thanks to everyone who sent this article to me from the NY Times this week. I hope you can take a look at the flat bloom patterns that scientists are exploring. Robert J. Lang, whom I interviewed on Paper Talk, is a consultant on this project and his thoughts made the headline: Bloom patterns could be useful, as engineers build folding structures to send to outer space. They’re also very pretty. “The real folded thing — he’s actually folded those — is really beautiful,” Dr. Lang said. “I would not be surprised to see that in a museum.”

Larry Howell, a professor of mechanical engineering at B.Y.U., left, and Kelvin Wang, a sophomore there. Photo credit: Brigham Young University

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Jessica Drenk upcycles objects like junk mail and pencils to create elaborately layered, sculptural pieces evoking banded crystals and colorful sedimentary stone. Her exhibition, Elemental Form – at Galleri Urbane in Dallas – runs September 6 through November 8, 2025.

“Agate 3” (2025, junk mail and used paper, 57 x 79 inches

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Paper TidbitsWhen I’m in Atlanta, I’ll be at the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking on Friday, September 5th (by appointment) with the other artists. Please reach out if you’d like to meet up or bring a group to tour the exhibition.I’m teaching a workshop in Atlanta on Saturday, September 6th. Details here.

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About our Sponsor: Catherine Cross Tsintzos is an artist who uses her knowledge and experience with her practice to create within the realms of both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary components for outcomes that focus on environmental and social issues, traditional fine craft and sustainability.

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper?

Tell 4000+ paper enthusiasts about your work by promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in these posts – to products that I receive a small commission on if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post Elemental Form appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

The Sunday Paper #568

August 17, 2025

Twenty-nine years ago this morning, my parents picked me up at the cooperative house I lived in and drove me to Grace Church in Brooklyn Heights, where Ted and I got married. We were featured in the New York Times Vows section because Ted’s office mate at the New Yorker really wanted that to happen. I’m not sure why, but it was fun to be featured, and we got written up again 7 years later, when the editor told us “you wouldn’t believe how many couples I called before I found one that was still together.” And just a couple of months ago, Ted was wondering about Anne Mortimer-Maddox (aka Dusty), his office mate. Sadly, we learned that she passed away last November. From her obituary: “Her great career joy was as a longtime member and eventual doyenne of the fact checking department at the New Yorker Magazine, on 43rd Street in Manhattan. She was beloved at the magazine, and many staff there remember her taking an interest and shepherding them through their early days.”

I dug out our wedding file (remember file folders?) and went down memory lane. Here you see the light green prototype for our wedding invitation (a one-sheet mailer with a tear-off response card that Ted and I made at Dieu Donné Papermill, where I was working at the time), our engagement announcement, the label for our home brewed wedding mead, and a drawing of a grapevine knot that appeared in the program – with a verse from Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, expanding on the idea of two being better than one. Our wedding rings are two bands woven together, like the grapevine knot.

Here’s to twenty-nine more years!

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This looks like a fun opportunity: Free Sketching Memories and Creativity Memoir Classes for Paper Lovers, Bookbinders, and Artisans (online).

Your handmade books deserve more than blank pages. In these two free live online classes — Sketching & Drawing Memories and an introduction to Creativity Memoir — you’ll learn how to bring your work to life with personal stories, sketches, and images. Perfect for paper lovers, bookbinders, painters, fiber artists, photographers, and creatives of all kinds, you’ll discover how to create a one-of-a-kind illustrated book or even self-publish and replicate your work. Guided by best-selling author and book arts mentor Nicole White, you’ll leave inspired, connected, and ready to preserve your stories and artistries for generations to come. Join a free class on Friday, August 22nd at 12 PM MST, Saturday, August 23rd at 10 AM MST, or Saturday, August 30th at 10 AM MST. Classes are live and online. We keep them small, so save your spot now.

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I’m honored to be exhibiting work alongside Sara Garden Armstrong and Nancy Cohen at the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta this fall. All three of us will be in Atlanta for the opening reception – please come if you’re in the area! We’d love to meet with interested groups/students in the galleries, and I’m also teaching a workshop at the museum – details below.

Reception: Thursday, September 4, 2025, 4-7pmThe artists will be in the gallery on Friday, September 5th by appointment. Please reach out if you’d like to meet up or bring a group to tour the exhibition.Workshop: Saturday, September 6, 2025. Details here.Attend our Virtual Artist Talk on October 18th. Register here.

From the back of the postcard:

What does it mean for an artist to spend years exploring a material? How deep an understanding and visual vocabulary can be created with time and extensive investigation? The three artists featured in the inaugural triennial series, Legacies in Paper, have spent a lifetime exploring the boundless qualities of handmade paper. The Paper Museum celebrates the endless and vast possibilities of hand papermaking and the dedication to the creation of meaningful art by Nancy Cohen, Sara Garden Armstrong, & Helen Hiebert.

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We moved to Portland two years after getting married, and shortly after that I met Barb Tetenbaum, who is a dear friend, and an artist working in letterpress and artist’s books. Throughout her career, she has nurtured students at the Oregon College of Art & Craft (OCAC) and Reed College. If you’re in the area, don’t miss her exhibition which opens tomorrow at Reed College.

Forward Fold is the first large-scale exhibition of Barb Tetenbaum’s artist books held in Reed College’s Special Collections. Spanning 1989 to the present, the work presents a multitude of physical forms: maps, scrolls, accordion-folded books, traditional codices, and other innovative forms. These works offer a new understanding of the book through experimental combinations of text, image, structure and materials.

The exhibition will also contain over 130 artist books and objects created by Tetenbaum’s students from both OCAC and Reed College, illuminating the strong connection between the questions the artist asks as part of her studio practice and the assignments she has created for her students over the past three decades.

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Check out the Reusable Book Covers members created in The Paper Year last month (watch the video). The range of approaches – from size to shape to papers and surface design (note the woven cover pictured below), not to mention stitching – was amazing. This is a warm and welcoming group of creatives. Registration will be open again October 1-10. Hold your spot.

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I’m going down nostalgia lane today… the Penland School was fundamental in my journey as an artist. It was one of the first places where I let my guard down and inspiration took over. They have curated a wonderful selection of Auction Experience Opportunities that will be available at their annual auction, which takes place August 22-23. Get your tickets here.

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Paper TidbitsHave you had a chance to listen to my interview with Matt LaBoone on Paper Talk?One spot has opened in my next Papermaking Master Class, which will be held in my Red Cliff Studio September 29 – October 3, 2025.

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About our Sponsor: Nicole White is a creator, mentor, and best-selling author who helps artists turn their work into meaningful legacy books. A former president of Libros – New Mexico Book Arts Guild and current member of both Libros and the Santa Fe Book Arts Group, she has a lifelong passion for handmade books, paper arts, and storytelling.

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper?

Tell 4000+ paper enthusiasts about your work by promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in these posts – to products that I receive a small commission on if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post Two Are Better Than One appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

The Sunday Paper #567

August 10, 2025

I had the pleasure of interviewing Matt LaBoone on Paper Talk, an origami artist and papermaker in Orlando, Florida, who has a focus on folding and designing insects as origami subjects, and has developed thin and crisp paper especially suited for folding them. Over the years, LaBoone has found that most commercially available papers, and even many origami specific papers are not well suited for what he likes to design and fold, which is what led him to pursue making his own paper. He de-mystifies the papermaking process on his instagram account.

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Oorjaa presents Shades of Green, a platform for dialogue, discovery, and design — a space to explore circular thinking and sustainable practice. This event, which is taking place now through August 13th in Sabha, Bangalore, India, brings together makers, thinkers, and ideas that reflect a more responsible way of creating. Through showcases, workshops, and conversations, it opens up new ways of seeing and making. Check out their handmade paper lighting.

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Seed Pod by Oorjaa

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Who has visited The Paper House? Special thanks to a reader who wrote to me about it this week. The Paper House is an actual house made from newspaper. It was built by Mr. Elis F. Stenman, a mechanical engineer who designed the machines that make paper clips, who began building his Rockport summer home out of paper as a hobby. That was in 1922.

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This is a touching story about the paper weavings of photographer Fernando Bengoechea, whose brother continues to create the work after Fernando passed away. The weavings are on display in my hometown, at a very sweet shop called Hygge Life (which carries some paper products). I’ll be visiting before the show closes on August 30th.

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Paper TidbitsOne spot has opened in my next Papermaking Master Class, which will be held in my Red Cliff Studio September 29 – October 3, 2025.Local Peeps: Join me at the Bookworm of Edwards on Tuesday. We’ll create Reusable Book Covers with pockets and slip mini-journals inside.

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper?

Tell 4000+ paper enthusiasts about your work by promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in these posts – to products that I receive a small commission on if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post Handmade Origami Paper appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

The Sunday Paper #566

August 3, 2025

I do most of my in-person teaching between early spring and late fall, when the snow isn’t flying. My studio – in Red Cliff, Colorado – is high up in the Rocky Mountains, just 1000 feet lower than the highest incorporated town in the country, Leadville. I’m busy planning for 2026 now, but there are still a couple of events left in 2025. 

But first, I’d like to share a video I created about my recent Taos Paper Retreat, which was held at the historic Mabel Dodge Luhan House recently.

Let me know if you’re interested in the 2026 Taos Paper Retreat, Capture the Light. Registration will open this fall.

Interested in hand papermaking? One spot has opened in my next Papermaking Master Class, which will be held in my Red Cliff Studio September 29 – October 3, 2025.

The Red Cliff Paper Retreat takes place the week of August 18th (full this year, express interest for next year).

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Susan Warner Keene’s work in handmade paper explores ideas about states of matter, ways of recording experience and, more broadly, the impact of experience on an individual narrative. The shaping forces of nature, history, and circumstance imprint themselves upon our lives, colliding with our sense of control and generating new realities. Her work will be on view at the Mississippi Textile Museum in Almonte, Canada, August 9 – September 27, 2025.

© Susan Warner Keene, Breathe, 2001, 11” x 25” x .5” / 27.9 x 63.5 x 1.3 cm, handmade paper: flax fibre, pigment

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On February 23, 1944, Anne Frank wrote in her diary, “I firmly believe that Nature brings solace in all troubles.” Inspired by the wisdom of a young girl who endured unimaginable fear and depended on the kindness of others for survival, this exhibition offers a quiet moment of reflection in turbulent times. Back to Nature features selected works from the Power of the Presses exhibition in the Sherry Grover Gallery at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, now through September 21st. My book, LandEscape, co-created with Karen Kunc, is in the show.

© Lucia Harrison, Stitching the Forest Together, 2019. Wire binding, letterpress, photo engravings, 9”h x 17w” x 17″d. Photo: Art Grice.

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Local Peeps: Join me at the Bookworm of Edwards next week. We’ll stitch paper to create these Reusable Book Covers with pockets, and The Bookworm is providing mini-journals to slip inside. Sign up here.

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Most of you know that I’m a huge fan of paper lanterns. Check out Chantelle Rytter’s work and lantern parade resources.

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Paper TidbitsHave you had a chance to listen to my interview with Galen Gibson-Cornell on Paper TalkDo you follow Jade Quek’s Books and Paper Arts Calendar Updates? It is a must for book and paper lovers!

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper?

Tell 4000+ paper enthusiasts about your work by promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in these posts – to products that I receive a small commission on if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post Paper/Practice appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

The Sunday Paper #565

July 27, 2025

This is a quick post – I just got home from the first annual Taos Paper Retreat, and it is already Saturday evening. I had a great week with 12 amazing women from around the country. Here are a few highlights featuring almost everything except paper weaving. I plan to create a more complete blog post or video soon that highlights what we created.

On Sunday my assistant, Sandie, and I set up the classroom, and then the Adams family, who run Paper for Water, drove over from Ghost Ranch to have lunch with me at Earth Oven Kitchen in Taos. 

I stayed in the historic building at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House. 

Our classroom for the week.

My artist friend Jaime Knight (whom I met at Penland in 2006) lives in Taos and had me and Sandie over for dinner one night. 

The food at the facility was amazing!

I invited Madeleine Durham, who lives in Santa Fe, to do a trunk show for us on Tuesday evening.

This was Day 1, and I was talking about our group project, a weaving in which each participant added a strip each day.

My godmother, Carolyn Lake, who lives in Santa Fe and sells her photographic cards at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House and Cid’s Food Market in Taos, took me to dinner at Medley’s one evening.

Sandie & I (along with about half of the group) did restorative yoga with Sonja Luz on M/W/F.

The Taos Paper Retreat gang.

On our last evening, several of us drove out to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge to watch the sunset.

On my way back to Colorado, I stopped by Priscilla Robinson’s Taos studio for a short visit. We share a passion for working with abaca.

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If you’re interested in the 2026 Taos Paper Retreat, fill out this brief survey.Listen to my interviews with Madeleine Durham and Priscilla Robinson on Paper Talk.

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper?

Tell 4000+ paper enthusiasts about your work by promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

———————————————————————————————––––––

SHARE THIS blog post with your paper-loving friends!

I occasionally have affiliate links in these posts – to products that I receive a small commission on if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post The Land of Enchantment appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

The Sunday Paper #564

July 20, 2025

By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be in Northern New Mexico, setting up for the first annual Taos Paper Retreat. Attendees are arriving this afternoon. I’m so excited to be in the Land of Enchantment, a place that has captivated me since childhood. My family lived in Los Alamos off and on due to my father’s research. My godmother, Carolyn Lake (who my parents met in Texas, where we lived the rest of the time) ended up in Taos, and then Santa Fe. She creates these gorgeous cards from with her original photographs and sells them through the Mabel Dodge Luhan House, where the retreat is being held (as well as at other venues around the state). Small world! I’m looking forward to having dinner with her one evening in Taos. As a child, I was enchanted by the farolitos, or luminaria – paper bags weighted with sand and illuminated by candles – and they certainly inspired my interest in paper and light.  

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Opening July 29th in Ohio: Fibers of Becoming: Contemporary Paper Works by Sarah Brayer, Aimee Lee, and Lin Yan opens July 29, 2025 at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College (through May 24, 2026). “At the intersection of tradition and innovation, Sarah Brayer, Aimee Lee, and Lin Yan transform handmade paper into powerful expressions of cultural memory and contemporary identity. Each artist works within distinct East Asian papermaking traditions—Brayer with Japanese washi, Lee with Korean hanji, and Lin with Chinese Xuanzhi—yet all three engage in a meditative dialogue between ancient craft and modern vision.”

Aimee Lee (American), Multi, 2023. Ink, printed beaten and laced mulberry paper bark, and natural dye on hanji, thread. ©Aimee Lee

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I had the pleasure of speaking with Galen Gibson-Cornell on Paper Talk.  He was born and raised in Maryville, Missouri and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking from Truman State University in 2009, (which included a 2007 study-abroad in Angers, France). He completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Wisconsin in 2013 and then set off on a year-long Fulbright fellowship to Budapest, Hungary. In the following years, Gibson-Cornell traveled to multiple international artist-residency programs, developing a creative practice based on urban exploration and repurposing found materials. His studio has been based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 2017. Enjoy our conversation!

Galen Gibson-Cornell in his studio in the Globe Dye Works building in Philadelphia.

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Did anyone see this installation by Ana Oosting? Breaking Waves was at the museum Beelden aan Zee in The Netherlands recently. The artist studied how waves break and then captured the expansion and contraction in paper using folded tessellations. Wowza!

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A note of passing: Patricia Grass, who ran Green Heron Book Arts in Forest Grove, Oregon, passed away on July 10, 2025 (read the announcement). She ran Green Heron Book Arts, a store and learning center that preserves and explores the art of handmade books, printmaking, papermaking and other paper arts. Patty welcomed me to the Oregon book and paper arts community when I moved there in 1998. Rest in Peace, dear Patty.

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Paper TidbitsIf you’re interested in the 2026 Taos Paper Retreat, fill out this brief survey.Two of my artist’s books are featured in the Back to Nature exhibition at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art this summer.

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The post Fibers of Becoming appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.

The Sunday Paper #563

July 14, 2025

I’m getting work ready to ship off to Atlanta for a group exhibition at The Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking with Nancy Cohen and Sara Garden Armstrong. One element in the show will be these abaca specimens. I hope you can come meet the three of us at the opening on September 4th – save the date if you’re in the area – an official announcement will be coming soon.

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I read about this exhibition in Hiromi Paper’s newsletter. Performance on Paper (May 3 – August 10, 2025) features prints and drawings created at the intersection of music and dance by twenty artists active from the 1960s to the present, exploring how works of art on paper can store sound and movement, becoming lasting visual records of ephemeral sonic and dance experiences.

Jason Moran, Touch 6, 2019. Dry pigment on Gampi paper. 25 1/4 × 38 in. (64.1 × 96.5 cm). UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Hammer Museum. © 2019 Jason Moran.

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I can’t wait to get my hands on Aimee Lee’s new book, As Good As Our Tools. “For over two millennia, humans have made paper by inventing, improving, and adapting a range of tools and equipment to effectively create the best product. In the 20th century, European-style hand papermaking experienced a revival made possible by specialized studios and tools. This field of creative hand papermaking is small but robust, enabled by a key group of people: the toolmakers. These skilled makers build the equipment and tools essential to making paper by hand but receive little attention.” Published by The Legacy Press; available from Oak Knoll.

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I enjoyed reading about this interview with Megan Cignoli, who is drawn to materials that feel fragile – paper pulp, raw clay, fabric, plaster, eggshells, glass – because they carry emotion and feel honest. She tries to hold onto a moment, like saving a note or a feeling. That tension between holding on and letting go is at the heart of what she makes.

RUOK, 2025, recycled paper, clay and pigments on Birch Board

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This headline caught my attention: What Happens When You Throw a Paper Plane From Space?

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Paper TidbitsHere’s a sneak peak inside my upcoming book, Weaving With Paper. Although you can pre-order on Storey’s website, you might want to wait until I announce my special pre-order in early bonuses in early October. The book comes out on December 16th.I so enjoyed the Jitterbugs created by members of The Paper Year in June. Watch the video!

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If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper?

Tell 4000+ paper enthusiasts about your work by promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.

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I occasionally have affiliate links in these posts – to products that I receive a small commission on if you make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

The post Performance On Paper appeared first on Helen Hiebert Studio.