Papermaking with Plants of the Laguna de Santa Rosa

Two-day workshop with Jane Ingram Allen

Saturday & Sunday, December 3 & 4, 9:30am-4:00pm each day

Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401

$150. Pre-registration required: www.lagunafoundation.org

Participants will learn to make handmade paper from Laguna de Santa Rosa plants and create unique handmade paper artworks using all natural materials from the Laguna. During a walk around the native plant garden, we will identify plants suitable for papermaking and gather dried leaves and bark from trimmed branches or fallen twigs and also invasive plants that can be used for papermaking. The process will include preparing plants, cooking, beating and sheet forming with Asian and Western papermaking techniques. The emphasis will be on creative problem solving and use of waste materials to make handmade paper with sustainable methods that do not harm the environment. 

The handmade papers can be used for drawing, painting, printmaking and collage as well as for creating greeting cards -- just in time for the holidays! Each participant will also make a sample book with papermaking recipes for the plants used in the workshop. The instructor will introduce unique hand papermaking techniques that she has developed from her experiences as an artist in residence in Japan, Taiwan, Tanzania, Indonesia, Nepal, Brazil, Thailand, China, England and the Philippines, as well as at art centers and nature parks in the United States. This workshop is suitable for all experience levels, from novice to experienced papermakers. 

Jane Ingram Allen is originally from Alabama and lived in Taiwan from 2004-2012, and in Santa Rosa since August 2012. She is an environmental artist who creates sculpture installations and community public art projects using handmade paper made from local plants and other natural materials. She is also an independent curator and arts writer and has taught art courses at colleges and universities as well as papermaking classes all over the world. Jane has received awards to do artist in residency projects in the USA, Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan, Nepal, Brazil, China, Bali, Indonesia, and Turkey, and she exhibits her art around the world and teaches workshops and creates site-specific public art installations. For more information, visit Jane’s website and her blog.

For more information, visit www.lagunafoundation.org 

Or contact Anita Smith, Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation (707) 527-9277 x 110, anita@lagunafoundation.org 

The Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation works to restore and conserve the Laguna de Santa Rosa, 

and to inspire public appreciation for this Sonoma County Wetland of International Importance.