Paste Paper (Albuquerque, NM)

Paste paper had its origins about 450 years ago when printers, wanting a less-expensive decorative paper for end papers than marbled paper, added paint to their paste and made patterns on paper with it. Many of us were first introduced to paste paper in primary school where it is known as finger painting. More recently calligraphers realized that paste makes an excellent surface on which to write.

Day one: Participants will systematically prepare pages with assorted pastes and tools to create personal paste paper reference books.

Day two: Paste paper clinic. Participants are invited to bring in unsuccessful paste paper pages and apply new layers or techniques to enhance and improve them, thus turning them into successful paste papers. OR participants may choose to continue to work on their samplers with inspiration from the other participants. OR participants may choose to work on new paste paper with their knowledge gained on day one. OR all of the above.

At the end of day two we will bind our books and make simple pouches for them using some of our fresh paste papers.

To register: Send a check for the full amount (see below) as soon as possible to:
Elizabeth McKee, 320 Amherst Dr SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106
Phone 443-527-0550
Email alphabeth55@gmail.com

Location/Venue: Santa Fe Book Arts Group (McKee's studio?)
For more info & pictures: https://santafebag.org/2019/12/01/paste-paper-workshop-with-elizabeth-mckee/
Cost/Fee: $150
Material/Studio fee: Included

Instructor and bio: Elizabeth McKee is an award-winning book artist. Her nomad’s life has carried her from New Guinea to Australia, Iowa, Japan, Zambia, Canada, Malaysia, Florida, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Maryland, Russia and Albuquerque. Not exactly in that order. In August 2015 she moved to Albuquerque, NM where she is putting down roots. She discovered calligraphy in Japan in 1970. Was happy to rediscover it in English in 1980. In 1983 she took her first bookbinding class at the international calligraphy convention in Chicago. In 1984 she helped establish the Calligraphy Society of Ottawa and was made an honorary life member in 1990. She has studied paste paper with Nancy Culmone and Madeleine Durham. Running a marbling studio in Nairobi, Kenya for four years gave her an intensive color theory education. Her books are included in the collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC, Harvard’s Houghton Library, Queen’s University’s Douglas Library, Kingston, Ontario, the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Bowdoin College’s Hawthorne-Longfellow Library as well as private collections around the world.

Although paste papers were originally developed to be used as decorative endpapers in books, McKee‘s paste papers are multi-layered creations meant to enhance backgrounds for calligraphy.