Volume 11, Number 2
Mar 1987

Speakers' Bureau, Pt. I

Carriage House Handmade Paper Works is both a paper-making studio and a research facility. The studio is actively engaged in technical research in papermaking fibers, pulps, colorants, and permanence of paper. Proprietors Elaine and Donna Koretsky have traveled widely to remote areas of the world, exploring old methods of paper-making that are still being practiced. They have documented their experiences with extensive photography, as well as with the collection of actual papermaking tools, materials, and unusual papers.

Either Donna or Elaine is prepared to give a presentation on many aspects of papermaking, in the nature of a slide/lecture, demonstration, or a participatory workshop. A few suggested topics, some of which they have already presented to groups in the U.S. and abroad, follow:

1. A Papermaking Odyssey Through the Himalayas, focusing on Nepal, Sikkim, Bhotan and Tibet.
2. The Gold Beaters of Mandalay. This covers the unusual bamboo and rice straw papers produced for the gold beating process in Burma.
3. Killing Green--The Origins of Papermaking in China.
4. Nagashizuki: Japanese Papermaking. This is a slide/ lecture illustrated by visits to a number of Japanese papermakers, each producing a highly specialized paper. A workshop includes the entire Japanese process, from the tree to the finished paper; also, each student makes an actual Japanese mould, and learns a variety of techniques, such as the making of "cloud paper" and "raindrop paper."
5. Papermaking in Western Europe. This includes the old mills of Richard de Bas in France; Barcham Green in England; De Schoolmeester mill in Holland; and Hahnemuhle in Germany.
6. In the Footsteps of Dard Hunter, 50 Years Later. This covers the fate of the Kashmiri papermakers of India; and the last papermaking family of Bangkok, where Elaine wades into a canal to make paper with the Thais.
7. A Search for the Wild Stellera in Central Tibet. Elaine's hunt for an unusual plant, the root of which was used by the former Tibetan papermakers.

Carriage House Handmade Paper Works is at 8 Evans Road, Brookline, MA 02146 (617/232-1636).

Other experienced speakers are invited to send lists of presentation topics for inclusion in the Newsletter.