Tarapore's stunning piece features a brightly-colored handmade leaf front-and-center, standing in stark contrast to the darker background.

Artist's Statements: "Card stock handmade with coffee husk, leaf cast with paper handmade from milkweed husk and dyed."

Tarapore's stunning piece features a brightly-colored handmade leaf front-and-center, standing in stark contrast to the darker background.

Artist's Statements: "Card stock handmade with coffee husk, leaf cast with paper handmade from milkweed husk and dyed."

In "Lightning Storm Over Prime Hook", LoFaso reminds viewers that even in dire circumstances (a pandemic), beauty and vivacity can still be found if one looks hard enough.

Artist's Statement: "Materials/Process: Cyanotype on Japanese Masa paper.

Date: 2021

As is true for many of us, the year 2020 was very challenging. During this time I moved my home and studio from Chicago to my current residence in Santa Fe just prior to the inception of the pandemic. After many months of separation from my family and with no vaccine on the horizon, in July of last year we rented a house together on the Delaware shore, about equidistant from our distinct locals of CT and NM.

The backyard of the rental home borders the Prime Hook Wildlife Refuge, which offers sanctuary to many animal and plant species on the western shore of the Delaware Bay and includes a safe habitat for migratory birds along the Atlantic Flyway. The notion of spending time in a home that borders a sanctuary has great appeal - physically, emotionally, and psychically.

On the second evening of our stay the skies opened to an intensely dramatic lighting storm and the refuge offered and expansive view of the cloudburst. I captured several images of the lighting that lit up the sky with each successive strike. The storm's outburst seemed to mimic energy released from the stress of this past year. It was exhilarating and had a cleansing effect.

Concerning the theme "Fluid Practices", combining cyanotype with photographic imagery establishes a new direction for my work. I had worked with this 19th C. process in previous projects that did not employ photographic negatives. There are many variables in the process that make it impossible to predict exact outcomes; each print is distinct and I enjoy this aspect of the practice. The color blue has multiple meanings, inspired by my recent relocation to a state that has substantial wide-open space and an expansive blue sky. As the color of the spirit, blue has a healing effect on the body and is associated with intuition, tranquility, and imagination."

Purdue's delicate piece demonstrates the beauty that can be found in fragility and texture.

These two beautifully crafted pieces from Jackie Radford help remind us that new life can be found and repurposed from almost anywhere.

Artist's Statement: "[Materials:] 100% Cotton Rag, torn into 2-3" squares and soaked in water for 2 days. Beaten in a Critter beater with roller in lowest position for 2.5 hrs. Roller raised incrementally for 1 hr to remove lumps. Internally sized.

An old friend from contacted me during COVID to offer the costumes she had purged from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. The Theatre Department was using the time during quarantine to clean out their costume storage area. She sent three huge boxes filled with textiles from the 1900-1920's! These vintage fabrics have told me many stories and their mere presence enriches my studio. Enjoy these fibers as they being their second, new life as beautiful, cotton rag paper."

In this engaging piece, Hope has painted and dyed a thin sheet of styrofoam and etched a fascinating abstract face into it.

This highly textured piece from Stephanie Damoff features a unique topographic landscape with various splashes of walnut dye scattered across.

Artist's Statement: "Recently I stumbled (literally) on some walnuts in the Catskills. I collected a bagful in order to figure out how to make walnut dye. I played with various paper surfaces to learn about what the dye could do. The play opened up a new world to experience and enabled new discoveries of form and image.

For this exchange, I cut up two large paper pieces to dip in the walnut dye. I made the pieces in 2019 using kozo, bleached abaca, and recycled watercolor paper, including some rusty bits, some semi ink, possibly some aqua pigment (don't remember quite), and some lilies. Dipping the paper in the walnut transformed the heavily textured pieces into geological forms. On some of them, I then explored more deeply into the landscape with ink."

This highly textured piece from Stephanie Damoff features a unique topographic landscape with various splashes of walnut dye scattered across.

Artist's Statement: "Recently I stumbled (literally) on some walnuts in the Catskills. I collected a bagful in order to figure out how to make walnut dye. I played with various paper surfaces to learn about what the dye could do. The play opened up a new world to experience and enabled new discoveries of form and image.

For this exchange, I cut up two large paper pieces to dip in the walnut dye. I made the pieces in 2019 using kozo, bleached abaca, and recycled watercolor paper, including some rusty bits, some semi ink, possibly some aqua pigment (don't remember quite), and some lilies. Dipping the paper in the walnut transformed the heavily textured pieces into geological forms. On some of them, I then explored more deeply into the landscape with ink."

Shaull's incredibly layered and complex piece features sheets of leaves and a map of a place significant to him.

Artist's Statement: "Material: Base sheet and veil are blend of 50% 2nd cut cotton linters and 50% premium abaca. Natural inclusions include leaves, grass clippings, ferns and other "Ohio backyard" botanical materials.

The inspiration for my piece of handmade paper came from several of the conference speakers whose papers, knowingly or not, were a unique reflection of time and place - paper that could only have been created on that day and in their particular location. Specifically, Amanda Thackray and her monoprints from beach debris, Henry Obeng and his nature photos printed on paper made from fibers taken from each place, and Ingrid Schindall's papers made with ocean water and directly on the surface of the sands of south Florida.

My paper is a reflection of my own place and time at this moment in October 2021. It's a 50-50 abaca-and-cotton-linters-blend base sheet with a map of my neighborhood from my property deed (imprinted on 50-50 handmade paper made separately and laminated to the base sheet wet), and plant inclusions taken from my backyard on a typical Ohio afternoon. You'll find bits of maple and cherry tree leaves, hydrangea blossoms, fern curls, grass clippings, etc...

I bought the pulp from Carriage House in dry board from, hydrated it overnight and beat it 4 hours in my Mark Lander Little Critter Hollander beater. I formed the sheets in a vat on an 8.5 x 11 mould and deckle split in half by masking tape to form two 5.5 x 8.5 sheets. As a last step, I couched a thin veil of the same blend on top of the sheets to better hold and preserve the inclusions. I did not press the sheets, instead drying them outside for two days on the pellons. I then removed them from the pellons (still slightly wet) and dried them between newspapers weighted with heavy books for an additional 2 days, changing the newspapers every 12 hours. I'm surprised (and pleased) by how much the natural dyes in the leaves and other materials colored the paper."