The Mobile Mill

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Maxum and Jillian bring The Mobile Mill project and @papermakerspack to the East Bay Mini Maker Faire, October 2018. https://www.instagram.com/p/BpN85s3l4pZ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=pmgycfg628ix

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The Mobile Mill will be at the East Bay Mini Maker Faire this Sunday, October 21 - Park Day School in Oakland, CA ⭐️⭐️⭐️ https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo-sAe6Fd1_/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=16xt9c21fy1ut

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Gelly prints made during a Mobile Mill paper + print workshop at @vergeart

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Geared up and getting going. Free, public papermaking workshop TODAY at Santa Clara City Library from 10a-3p in Santa Clara, CA.

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Introducing ‘Papermaker’s Pack Projects’ - free, online education in hand papermaking now available on the Papermaker’s Pack YouTube channel at:

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvTbZLbrQ5Q)

Content created by, and courtesy of, The Mobile Mill, Papermaker’s Packs, and Better Decisions.

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Now selling 'wastemade' handmade paper online at etsy.com/shop/wastemade. Sales support The Mobile Mill.

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Hand tools made by hand; recently completed commission of mahogany mould and deckle sets with all brass hardware. #papercraft #mouldanddeckle #handpapermaking #papermakingtools

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Pick up your pack today. #makepaper #mobilepapermaking #DIYpaper #handmadepaper #papermakerspack @papermakerspack

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INTRODUCING THE ‘PAPERMAKER’S PACK’ – A STUDIO AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Inspired by The Mobile Mill and developed by Better Decisions, I am pleased to announce that a first edition of Papermaker’s Packs are now available for sale at  PAPERMAKERSPACK.COM

Originally invented as a smaller iteration of The Mobile Mill’s paper-studio-in-a-truck concept, I built the original Papermaker’s Pack as a practical means of taking my mobile hand papermaking practice abroad to Sarajevo, Bosnia for collaborative work on artists Melissa Potter and Adam Pantic’s project ‘Pulp & Pastry’, an interdisciplinary artwork exploring the intersection of food and the art of hand papermaking.

After this Papermaker’s Pack prototype made its debut abroad, the fully functional studio-in-a-suitcase was introduced to persons in the United States via a series of pay-it-forward style papermaking workshops that I taught while on a solo cross-country tour with The Mobile Mill project from September 2015 to April 2016. Roaming about with the Papermaker’s Pack, I discovered that a hand-carried studio enhanced my physical mobility and reduced my operating budget, which in turn widened my geographic reach as an independent practitioner, a socially engaged artist, and an arts educator.

My mobile hand papermaking inventions have undoubtedly increased the accessibility of rare craft tools and resources through the transportation of professional paper studio equipment into public realms for community use. That said, in the process of bringing my students how-to knowledge of - and a unique opportunity to use - the tools I have available on hand, my transient roadwork has revealed a widespread public call for specialized papermaking tools:

‘Where can I buy a mould and deckle?’

‘How can I make paper on my own at home?’

‘How can I press my paper without hydraulic power?’

‘Where can I source felts and pellons?’

If you’re practiced in the field of book arts then you very well know the sort of time and energy it takes to track down and acquire the bare necessities.

My yearning to provide solutions was met by my brother Maxum’s inclination to manufacture. Now living in the same city, we have fused our minds and energies to reimagine the future of mobile hand papermaking. Working together as a creative development team self-dubbed ‘Better Decisions’, we are pleased to introduce our first joint venture – the production of Papermaker’s Packs – created with the aim of disseminating high-quality tools for hand papermaking.

The Papermaker’s Pack is an all-encompassing, easy-to-use toolkit for hand papermaking that offers papermakers ease and convenience of practice, equipped with all the necessities for turning pulp into handmade paper. Our handcrafted professional tools have been paired with the highest quality process accessories, housed in a lightweight portable carrying case that doubles as a papermaking vat.

It is my intent to develop The Mobile Mill project in such a way that it will grow with, as well as beyond, me. Inspired by a spirit of activism and a passion for movement, the Papermaker’s Pack is a logical continuation of the work that I do as a traveling teaching artist. As I explore this new vein of The Mobile Mill trajectory, I am thrilled by the potential of so many mobile paper studios out there moving about the world. The Papermaker’s Pack is a practical instrument. It is an artisanal invention. And it is a functional artwork. With aims of perpetuating an ancient handicraft practice and promoting an ethos of tool-sharing, it is my hope that our Papermaker’s Packs get into the hands of persons who wish to use them.

An international paper exchange emerged organically as an offshoot of this teaching work with the Papermaker’s Packs, taking the form of a traveling handmade paper archive – due to be exhibited in the ‘Pulp as Portal’ show at NY Center for Book Arts in February 2017, co-curated by Jessica Cochran and Melissa Potter. The collection contains postcard-sized recycled paper artworks made by public workshop participants. This community-generated archive is in constant rotation as papers are taken from the collection as well as added to the collection during workshop happenings, the making/sharing cycle permanently sustained as labor is exchanged for labor.

As these papers leave the collection carried away by the hands of others, I think a lot about where they may go, what future lives they may take on, what purposes they might serve, what meaning they might bring to others. Just the same, it’s delightful to consider the future route that each of the Papermaker’s Packs we send out into the world may take.

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Clue #2

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The Mobile Mill has got a special project in the works, due for a big reveal in early 2017. Here is Clue #1.

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New work for the new year. Handmade paper and collage pieces, made on the road; organizing for show at NY Center for Book Arts' 'Pulp as Portal' exhibition in 2017.

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In the SN&R paper. "Milling About", write-up by Trina L. Drotar (thank you!).

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Prepping pulp for papermaking @berkeleyartcenter - drop by between 1-3p today for some free, hands-on fun.

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Upcoming FREE, public workshop featuring The Mobile Mill’s “Papermaker’s Pack” at Berkeley Art Center. Check it: http://www.berkeleyartcenter.org/publicprograms/

About the workshop: The Papermaker’s Pack is a “classroom” in a briefcase. Working with miniature tools and recyclable materials, this one-hour DIY-style papermaking workshop teaches participants how to make paper at home - making pulp for papermaking with a blender. In this crash-course, an unlimited number of participants can step up and try their hand at pulling a simple postcard sized sheet of paper. In ‘pay-it-forward’ fashion, participants will make a sheet of handmade paper but leave with paper made by someone else. Being part of this exchange process means surrendering authorship/ownership and donating individual efforts to relative strangers in the larger project work-flow. To elaborate, a workshop participant does not actually see the results of their own paper-making: all papers made during the workshop will be dried overnight and travel onwards to the next venue as to continue the on-going national public paper exchange.

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Thanks to everybody who came out to Chalk-it-up! over the weekend in Sacramento, CA. We enjoyed meeting locals (and their dogs) as we begin to plant some more permanent roots in the area.

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The papermakers @penland_wood came to play in the woodshop/concrete classroom. Here is the funky mix of abaca and concrete they whipped up, for sculptural application.