How My Hand Marbled Feathers Relate to My Japanese and Western Papermaking

I sometimes use my handmade Japanese paper as a background to showcase my hand marbled feathers. Yes, I guess it can be a bit distracting, but also visually I enjoy the fact that both together show the same sensibility.

The next pictures show my self-folding stationary. It too is double sided, one side Japanese paper and the other side is sized Western paper. This piece folds into an envelope shape so that you have to seal the little tab on the front side and don't  need a separate envelope. I am hoping this summer, not only will I have my metal type shop up and running, but I will be able to make paper, marble paper and create marbled parrot feathers.

double sided Japanese~Western stationary self folding envelope

The inside and outside is sized. The fiber I use is Kozo and 100% cotton

In the background are the note cards I make. Double sided, painted with luminescent paint colors

Folded into envelope shape, ready to be addressed

You can see how it folds

Hand Marbling, Japanese & Western Papermaking, Letterpress, and QuillnAros

Along with reclaiming my print shop, I am hoping to go back to my original love~papermaking and setting metal type. Setting type came first in my pursuit of the 2-dimensional art that to me is actually like creating sculpture. Setting metal type and using typography to illustrate a meaning sent me on the quest for a piece of paper that would be part of the interpretation. That started my papermaking adventures. From there I went on to Japanese bookbinding, creating doublesided stationary, collecting one drawer at a time of metal type (going to auctions on Printers Row when I lived in Manhattan), gearing my gardening adventures toward my papermaking, marbling feathers, marbling paper. The photos I am showing are my Japanese papermaking. This is a slight detour from my marbled feathers.

each sheet is 13-1/2" x 9" with matching envelopes. This is a combination
of Western and Japanese papermaking

my Japanese paper has incredible texture created by the Kozo fiber I use
I then incorporate the Western papermaking technique for the
other side of the stationary and I size it so that  the portion
you write on is stable for pen and ink.

In this picture you can see the double sided stationary, the matching
envelope is made out of cotton with Western papermaking technique.

 The texture of the Japanese paper is enhanced by the Western paper.
The cool thing is that it is now one sheet of paper, with the ochre side being the
side you can write on.