Paper Talk

By Helen Hiebert StudioArts Visual Arts

Paper Talk episodes

October 30, 2018 Hedi Kyle & Ulla Warchol
In this episode, I talk with Hedi Kyle and Ulla Warchol about their new book called The Art of the Fold. We talk about Hedi’s childhood in postwar Germany, when she made paper dolls and paper chains, among other things and how she ended up in the US after her studies in Germany. Ulla is Hedi’s daughter and grew up in and around Hedi’s studios in the Bay Area and New York City, where she went to the Cooper Union to study architecture. We talk about how this book came about, the process of creating the book – Ulla rendered the illustrations from Hedi’s hand drawn diagrams; her husband Paul Warchol did the photography; and there was a lot of discussion about the belly band – a term I hadn’t heard before! Hedi tells me about a paper made in the Netherlands from the sails of old windmills, and I ask her about the storage system for all of her models. And we talk about some of the clever inventions that are found within the pages of the book. Continue reading Hedi Kyle & Ulla Warchol
1 hr 14 min
October 30, 2018 Hedi Kyle & Ulla Warchol
You can listen to this episode by clicking on the white arrow above, or subscribe to the Paper Talk podcast in iTunes so you never miss an episode. If you enjoy the show, tell a friend about it! Thank you so much.
Hedi Kyle was born in Berlin, graduated in 1959 from the Werk-Kunst-Schule in Wiesbaden, Germany, with a degree in graphic design, and shortly thereafter emigrated to the United States. In the decades since, Hedi has spent her career revolutionizing the field of book arts, teaching workshops throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.
Trained as an architect at the Cooper Union, Ulla Warchol worked in the field while developing a multidisciplinary approach to structure. She leans toward a broad exploration of materials and techniques in both large-scale works—interiors, buildings, and set design—and small-scale works—books, fabrication, and collaborations with artists.
++++++
Hedi & Ulla have collaborated on a book, The Art of the Fold, which we discuss in great detail on the podcast.
We also chat about French Paper Co., which carries a variety of great papers for the structures in the book. I ordered their sample books right after the interview!
And we talk about Zaansch Bord, which was originally made from the old windmill sails in the Netherlands. Hedi is particularly fond of this paper.
And here are a few of the projects that you’ll find in the book!
1 hr 14 min
October 11, 2018 Paper For Water
Paper For Water is a non-profit organization that raises money to build wells around the world so that everyone will have access to clean water. Listen to Isabelle and Katherine describe how they started the organization with a goal of raising $500 by folding origami ornaments and accepting donations for them when they were 5 and 8 years old. They ended up raising $10,000 and never looked back. Paper for Water has now raised more than $1.3M and has helped fund over 150 water projects in fourteen countries. Trinity talks about how she invented the Candy Dish, which is featured in the 2019 Twelve Months of Paper Calendar. Their father Ken taught the girls origami, which he learned as a child from his Japanese mother and then from the books of Tomoko Fuse, whose modular origami led to the ornaments his girls now create. And their mother Deborah tells us about some of the projects, the volunteers and just how much of a difference kids can make in changing the world. Continue reading Paper For Water
47 min
October 11, 2018 Paper For Water
You can listen to this episode by clicking on the white arrow above, or subscribe to the Paper Talk podcast in iTunes so you never miss an episode. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on Itunes. This helps other people learn about it. Thank you!

Isabelle, Katherine and Trinity Adams are the three sisters behind the non-profit Paper For Water. They fold and sell origami products, raising money to bring water and the Word to the thirsty. When the sisters learned about girls world-wide who do not get to go to school because they spend their days hauling water, and that a child dies every 20 seconds from unclean water, they wanted to make a change. Paper For Water seeks to empower the youth in developed countries with skills in leadership, philanthropy, and entrepreneurship. It also wants to improve their understanding, compassion, empathy and to broaden their knowledge of the world around them.
Trinity designed the June project – an origami candy dish – for the Twelve Months of Paper Calendar, and she shows us how to make it in the video above.
View some of Paper For Water’s modular origami ornaments here and find out more about their collaboration with Neiman Marcus stores.
Watch Paper For Water on Nickolodeon’s Halo Effect. You’ll see the special pottery-like origami paper they had printed at Spoonflower!
Watch The Gift of Water
47 min
September 21, 2018 Melissa Jay Craig
Melissa Jay Craig is a Chicago artist. In this episode, she explains how her first artist’s residency coincided with having just learned about papermaking, and how instead of lugging 400 books to the residency to create the type of work she had been making, she took just two books and some kozo fiber and was able to cast paper-shaped books instead. We discuss a nomadic artistic life comprised of a period in which she traveled around the country doing residencies and teaching gigs. And we touch on one of her works, S/Edition, that ended up going viral by being featured on This is Colossal. Continue reading Melissa Jay Craig
41 min
September 21, 2018 Melissa Jay Craig
You can listen to this episode by clicking on the white arrow above, or subscribe to the Paper Talk podcast in iTunes so you never miss an episode. If you enjoy the show, tell a friend about it! Thank you so much.
Melissa Jay Craig makes books, objects and installations using plant-derived materials. She is 96% retired from teaching and lives in Chicago where she grows milkweed, raises the Monarch butterflies it hosts, then harvests, processes and works with the fiber.
Here’s a photo of the installation S/Edition that went viral on This Is Colossal.
++++++
Music featuring excerpts of Makin’ Paper folk song by Peter Thomas. Listen to the full song and find out about other paper and book arts folk songs.
Gary A. Hanson did the sound editing for this episode. You can find him making audio magic with his podcast series, I’ll Have a Beer and Talk, a show about tech news, culture, weird animal stories and of course, beer.
41 min
August 12, 2018 Matt Simpson
Matt Simpson is founder and CEO of Green Banana Paper in Micronesia. We talk about how Matt ended up on this remote island as a teacher, his desire to stay there and surf, and how he put two and two together when he realized that all of his students were leaving the island to find work and that the banana fiber that had been used to make clothing in the distant past could also be made into paper. Listen to how Green Banana Paper creates jobs through sustainable practices on the tiny island of Kosrae, with a people population of 6000 and a banana tree population of 250,000. It’s fascinating! Continue reading Matt Simpson
52 min
August 12, 2018 Matt Simpson
You can listen to this episode by clicking on the white arrow above, or subscribe to the Paper Talk podcast in iTunes so you never miss an episode. If you enjoy the show, tell a friend about it! Thank you so much.
Matt Simpson is CEO of Green Banana Paper, a social-enterprise he founded to address the scarcity of job opportunities in Micronesia, that is forcing younger generations of islanders to trade their beautiful home and families for minimum wage jobs in the USA. Green Banana Paper sustainably and ethically manufactures handmade vegan wallets and paper products from recycled agricultural banana waste in Kosrae, Micronesia. The company exhibits at trade shows and festivals, including the Hawaii Ink & Art Expo, ASD Market Week in Las Vegas, and Pacific Trade & Invest in New Zealand. Matt lived on Wotje Atoll in the Marshall Islands as a volunteer high school teacher with the WorldTeach program in 2007. The following year he moved to Kosrae, Micronesia, and coordinated the WorldTeach program there. He taught at the single high school on the island for four more years. Through this cultural immersion he learned local languages, customs, and lifestyles. Green Banana Paper has been featured on Mashable, One Green Planet, Pacific Daily News, and other online platforms.
++++++
52 min
July 19, 2018 Melissa Potter
Through her practice, which includes art making, writing, curating and teaching, Melissa Potter focuses on traditions that are endangered, underpaid and under-recognized due to industrialization, war, gender bias, and globalization. In this episode, we discuss her Quaker upbringing in New Jersey that instilled her desire to be an activist, how she has expanded upon The Papermaker’s Garden (that I initiated at Dieu Donné Papermill in the mid 90’s) and has continued to develop it as a socially engaged practice. We also discuss her career path – as an advocate for artists at the New York Foundation for the Arts, her work through the Fulbright Program to build paper studios at the University of Serbia and the University of Sarajevo and her current position as Associate Professor of Art & Art History at Columbia College Chicago, where some of her goals are to give students who may never have access to a papermaking studio after college a transformative experience and to document the legacy of hand papermaking as a craft form in the United States. Continue reading Melissa Potter
37 min
July 19, 2018 Melissa Potter
You can listen to this episode by clicking on the white arrow above, or subscribe to the Paper Talk podcast in iTunes so you never miss an episode. If you enjoy the show, tell a friend about it! Thank you so much.
Melissa Potter is a multi-media artist whose work deals with women and their rites of passage from marriage to motherhood. She exhibited at venues including White Columns, and Bronx Museum of the Arts, as well as film festivals including the VideoDumbo Festival and the Reeling International LGBT Film Festival. She is a three-time Fulbright recipient to Serbia and Bosnia and Hercegovina. Through these programs, she built two papermaking studios at university art departments. She has been the recipient of other awards and residencies including the Soros Fund for Arts and Culture, ArtsLink and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. Potter co-curated exhibitions including Social Paper, the first exhibition considering hand papermaking in a socially engaged art context, and Among Tender Roots, the first retrospective of Mexican artist, Laura Anderson Barbata’s work. Her critical essays have been printed in BOMB, Art Papers, Flash Art, Metropolis M, Hand Papermaking, and AfterImage among others. She is founder of the blog, Gender Assignment.

She is currently an Associate Professor in the Art & Art History Program at Columbia College Chicago.
++++++
Music featuring excerpts of Makin’ Paper folk song by Peter Thomas. Listen to the full song and find out about other paper and book arts folk songs.
Gary A. Hanson did the sound editing for this episode. You can find him making audio magic with his podcast series, I’ll Have a Beer and Talk, a show about tech news, culture, weird animal stories and of course, beer.
37 min