06 October 2014

Sorting paper in Studio136

Sorting through the piles/boxes of paper is really difficult. That old whisper-in-the-ear is constantly there: "it could be useful" ... but honestly, how much paper does one person need, how much time is available to use it all? Sorting through it does keep alive in your mind what you have, and keeping it all in one place makes it easier to find, but as with so many things, Less Is More.

At time of writing, the worktop is increasingly gridded with categories of paper from the main box -
Black paper; dense card; "interesting" papers; bits of bookcloth etc
Among the "treasures" -
Waxed collage from a project about sewing tools (2003?)
Offcuts from a printmaking workshop, West Dean, summer 2010
Bad photocopies of family photos ... can't remember what the project was
Photocopies from that sewing-tools project
The tutorial report includes this comment:
"What is the meaning of stitching? (text)"
Even as the volume of paper diminishes, further categories arise: bookmaking materials,
remnants of half-alive projects,  things on the verge of being discarded
Not everything that came out of the box was paper:
Offcuts from the Bookwraps (2013)
A simple box, a pleasing idea ... pulled back out of the bin, it can hold something...
It took the best part of two days, off and on, to go through that box, which is ridiculous. It can go on and on if you let it - so I'm setting a stopping time of noon Friday - a time limitation does rather focus the mind and efforts ... and it gives you permission to stop.

No comments: