North Country Shifu @ Washi Arts
May
21
to Jun 2

North Country Shifu @ Washi Arts

Join us for a rare workshop with paper and book artist Velma Bolyard in conjunction with Linda Marshall of Washi Arts. Learn to spin and weave handmade Japanese washi into paper cloth using Velma’s unique techniques.

North Country Shifu will introduce you to a version of shifu making. You'll learn how to mark, cut, and prepare handmade Japanese papers for spinning, and spin it into thread (kami-ito), and to fabricate a simple ‘stump’ loom. Using the loom and a long needle you'll weave your kami-ito into shifu (paper textile). You will try your hand at stitching with kami-ito on lovely Japanese papers and you'll have the opportunity to color your papers with a variety of mark-making techniques prior to spinning. Velma will be teaching an atlas book structure that she’s re-worked to house your shifu and other workshop samples, which features dyed paper fold-out pages and a wrap around accordion spine cover.

This workshop will also include demonstrations of different types of Japanese papers and techniques for treating and decorating them, including dyeing, marking, printing with dyes and inks and local flora. There will be many side trails to explore as we deepen our shifu experience.

Workshop Date: May 2024

Hours: 10:00am — 4:00pm each day

Workshop Location: Washi Arts, Blaine, Washington

To register: North Country Shifu (Paper Cloth) with Velma Bolyard | May 31 — June 02 2024

View Event →
May
6
to May 10

The Book of North Country Shifu/ CANCELLED due to Covid-19 pandemic

May 6-10, 2020

Maiwa East, 1310 Odlum Dr, Vancouver, British Columbia

Shifu is the Japanese art of spinning and weaving handmade paper into a cloth that is surprisingly lightweight, yet warm to the touch. It originally provided rural Japanese people with an inexpensive, locally-made cloth. “North Country” refers to Velma Bolyard’s textile studio, located in the North Country of New York State.

North Country Shifu is Velma’s take on traditional technique, directed toward textile, paper, and book objects that demand haptic exploration and enjoyment. The class will make, spin, weave, and write on paper with stitch and colour.

We will learn to evaluate and prepare a sheet of fine, long-fi- bered kozo or lokta paper, to spin into kami-ito. The kami-ito is the thread that we will weave into shifu. Students will work with drop spindles and then weave on ‘stump looms’ that we build ourselves.

The class will also work with raw flax pulp and ochre pigments to create a substrate paper for our bookish explorations. We will bind our papers into a commonplace book, housed in a strong stationer’s binding, the medieval version of a three ring binder. This book will provide an expandable housing for our paper ex- plorations from class and beyond.

View Event →
Aug
29
to Dec 12

Sustainable Papermaking at St Lawrence University

AAH-3060SUS Papermaking: A semester class learning to make paper from local plants gathered at the Sustainability Farm and donated cotton, linen, and hemp cloth from Zone 4’s growing stash. We’ll be working at the farm and at SLU’s Zone 4 Papermaking studio, St Lawrence University, Canton, NY.

Few of us think about this thing we use everyday: paper. This class will focus deeply on learning how to identify, evaluate, and harvest, plants appropriate to process into pulp and make paper. You'll be able to have an understanding of and ability to evaluate plants for paper making. We will make paper from indigenous local and cultivated plants and plant fibers from other sources, including, perhaps an old T shirt or your worn out cotton work clothes.





View Event →
North Country Shifu, teaching
Mar
29
to Mar 30

North Country Shifu, teaching

Space is limited: Please RSVP with Naomi Velasquez at velanaom@isu.edu 208-282-3527

Community members, students, alumni, faculty and staff are welcome!

Shifu is a spun and woven paper textile, a Japanese tradition born out of poverty and making-do. North Country Shifu is my take on that Japanese tradition, mixing my understanding of textile, paper, and book into objects that demand haptic exploration and enjoyment. In this two-day workshop you will process handmade kozo, lokta, or other similar papers into a thread, making kami-ito. You will build you own small loom, a stump loom, and thread and weave your kami-ito into a textile. We will explore ways of displaying and using your kami-ito and shifu, including book structures and other objects. You will leave the class with a passel of knowledge, new spinning and weaving skills, and ideas to put shifu into practice in your work.

Velma’s visit is funded by grants from the Cultural Events Committee and the Bistline Foundation. 



View Event →
Speaking of Shifu, lecture
Mar
28
4:00 PM16:00

Speaking of Shifu, lecture

Shifu is a spun and woven paper textile, a Japanese tradition born out of poverty and making-do. North Country Shifu is my take on the Japanese tradition, mixing my understanding of textile, paper, and book into objects that demand haptic exploration and enjoyment.

View Event →
Aug
29
to Dec 12

Papermaking: A Sustainable Practice, teaching

Papermaking: A Sustainable Practice

Few of us think about this thing we use everyday: paper. This class will focus deeply on learning how to identify, evaluate, and harvest, plants appropriate to process into pulp and make paper. You'll be able to have an understanding of and ability to evaluate plants for paper forming using both Eastern and Western traditional methods. We will make paper from indigenous local and cultivated plants and plant fibers from other sources, including, perhaps an old T-shirt or your worn out cotton work clothes. This course is taught by Prof. Velma Bolyard.

Fall 2018 course being taught at St. Lawrence University 

 

View Event →
May
24
8:00 PM20:00

Paper & Book Intensive, teaching

Paper and Book Inten­sive is an annual work­ing sab­bat­i­cal in the book arts, paper­mak­ing, and con­ser­va­tion for sea­soned prac­ti­tion­ers and moti­vated begin­ners. For more than thirty years, par­tic­i­pants have gath­ered together from around the world for two weeks of daily work­shops to pro­mote unusual lev­els of exchange, knowl­edge and inspi­ra­tion.

SESSION ONE: Paper Threads: North Country Shifu

Shifu is a web of threads spun from paper and woven into cloth. This weaving tradition emerged from rural Japan in the early 1600’s simultaneously with the proliferation and popularity of handmade paper. Cloths were woven for both rustic or everyday use and for very fine textiles, often kimono. Shifu clothing exhibits many of the characteristics of washi; it can be both a cool fabric for summer wear or, when spun and woven thickly, a warm cold weather textile. In this class, we’ll explore the beautiful technique of spinning a continuous thread called kami-ito from a sheet of handmade, long fibered paper. We’ll then use our threads to weave shifu on small looms we make, to stitch on other papers, and to use in other fiber techniques. Working in the paper studio, we’ll make papers that complement our kami-itoand shifu, combining pulp, page, and line.

View Event →
North Country Shifu, teaching
Jul
8
to Jul 9

North Country Shifu, teaching

  • University of Washington Odegaard Undergraduate Library (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Why would one take a perfectly beautiful piece of paper, and cut it up in order to spin the strip into a thread
to weave into cloth? North Country Shifu will introduce you to shifu making, answering this question.You will learn how to prepare a piece of appropriate handmade paper for spinning, spin it into thread (kami-ito), fabricatea simple loom, and needle weave your kami-ito into shifu. Shifu is defined as a spun and woven paper textile, in which at least the weft (but sometimes also the warp) of the textile is made with paper.This textile technique was developed in rural Japan as a way to make a warm cloth. From that humble beginning it has been refined into exquisite textiles often viewed as art. In our class, you can expect to work a bit with color as well, making marks on papers that will be spun up into secret-keeping textiles.

Spinning and weaving paper is a unique experience for both paper and textile artists, facilitating crossover and encouraging new thinking and making in both fiber and book arts.This class is open to students of all levels, although having previous spinning experience will be helpful.

View Event →
North Country Shifu, lecture
Jul
6
7:00 PM19:00

North Country Shifu, lecture

  • University of Washington Odegaard Undergraduate Library (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Velma will discuss her journey into the gentle art of shifu: spinning and weaving paper thread. Shifu is made from fine handmade paper, traditionally kozo fiber, that is folded and cut into narrow continuous strips, spun into thread called kami-ito and woven into cloth. The technique can be adapted to applications bridging the textile, paper and book arts. To accompany her presentation, Velma will bring a plethora of samples, including artists’ books and textiles.

View Event →
Sep
5
9:00 AM09:00

Papermaking, teaching

Sustainability House

Arts Across The Curriculum
Presented By
Arts Collaborative

POETRY GARDEN

Papermaking Workshops with Velma Bolyard of Wake Robin
Saturdays, September 5th, 12th
9:00am – 1:00pm
Each participant will make handmade papers from the plant pulps. Waterproof footwear and an apron would help keep you clean and dry!

Making botanical papers for writing poems on, poems will be planted in the fall for spring 2016 bloom at the SLU's Sustainability Semester Farmhouse.

View Event →