Western Paper Making Curriculum (11 Weeks)
This curriculum will focus on teaching students’ western papermaking practices using sustainable studio practices. We will focus on utilizing natural fibers, collecting, and reusing water, and attempting to create a zero-waste environment in our studio. Upon the completion of this curriculum, students will be able to cook fibers, beat fibers, pull sheets, press sheets, transfer paper into a dry box, and understand contemporary media practices of papermaking. Students will understand the basic science behind papermaking and have a larger vocabulary that sustains conversation with a contemporary papermaker. Students will also have the knowledge that would allow them to set up their own contemporary papermaking studio, should they choose to pursue this media outside of my classroom. Themes include sustainability, consumerism, recycling, reusing, conservation, plant biology, chemistry, and studio practices. My teaching will be influenced theoretically, primarily through the ideals and constructs of constructivism as an educational standing point. I will also reference the choice-based art education and studio thinking models while creating lessons and learning environments for my students.
I believe it is important for students to construct a consistent studio practice to construct sound, researched backed, practice oriented, creative, conceptual work and consistent product. My classroom will be studio oriented in this manner, providing students with the time and materials to enact an efficient studio workflow within the media we are studying. Constructivism as an object of theory enables students to learn through the practice of making. This hands-on approach to learning enables students to learn through experience, rather than through spoken lectures, seated in a classroom. I believe the best way to learn contemporary papermaking is by making paper. Students will make several “bad” sheets before they figure out their chosen technique that enables them to create paper that they enjoy. Papermaking is a niche, contemporary, visceral process that is what the artist makes it. My goal is to provide my students with the knowledge I have of papermaking, and then facilitate their experimentation, supported by references and other contemporary papermakers who are also experimenting today. Regarding the overarching goal of a total sustainable classroom; my students and I will experiment together to discover the best way to reuse and recycle objects and resources in our classroom such as water, paper, inclusions, embossment material, and more, to streamline our making process in a way that works the absolute best for both the planet and our classroom.
Sustainable Papermaking aims to lead to total sustainable studio practices across media. Connection to our land, our world, and an overarching understanding of the chemical makeup of the objects that surround us will provide my students with a confidence in making that only background information and contextual richness can provide. At the end of this curriculum unit, my students will have the confidence and resources to create their own sustainable studio, and the knowledge base to continue creating paper wherever they may go next.
This curriculum will focus on teaching students primarily western papermaking practices using sustainable studio practices. We will focus on utilizing natural fibers, collecting, and reusing water, and attempting to create a zero-waste environment in our studio. Upon the completion of this curriculum, students will be able to cook fibers, beat fibers, pull sheets, press sheets, transfer paper into a dry box, and understand contemporary media practices of papermaking. Students will understand the basic science behind papermaking and have a larger vocabulary that sustains conversation with a contemporary papermaker. Students will also have the knowledge that would allow them to set up their own contemporary papermaking studio, should they choose to pursue this media outside of my classroom. Themes include sustainability, consumerism, recycling, reusing, conservation, plant biology, chemistry, and studio practices. I will use summative assessment as a tool on the daily to determine my student’s level of understanding through visual observations and a line of questioning to the students. Formative assessment will be used visually to determine whether the students objectively were able to produce a product by the due date. Each of these lessons will build on the lesson previous. There is no prerequisite knowledge necessary before students begin working through this curriculum. The last few lessons in this curriculum, although medium specific, are primarily choice based. Students will have the opportunity to build a thematically conscious body of work throughout this semester.
Resources for Teachers:
This process is one best learned through practice, as are most techniques in art. Papermaking is a finnicky process that will be bad until you get the hang of it and put your own twinge on the “traditional” process. I like to think that there is no strict right or wrong when it comes to papermaking. There is great, and there is more efficient. I highly recommend looking for a papermaking studio near you and getting some hands-on experience in a papermaking studio. This background knowledge will easily provide you with best practices for materials and workflow and will allow you to make strategically and knowledgably a modified, functioning papermaking studio with a space and budget that works for you. I highly recommend the following resources. Although I was trained in a papermaking studio, I learned significantly more about my process through extensive research through these resources:
Books—
Modern Papermaking- If you are looking for one book, let it be this one
The Papermaker's Companion- Another Favorite, this is a must have
Rag & Pulp- Beautiful Papermaking Inspo
Websites—
Carriage House Paper- order supplies, find resources, etc.
Neenah Papermaking Glossary- great for papermaking specific vocab
University of Iowa--Amazing Papermaking Facility, Great Resources