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| Florentine marbled paper which I brought home |
Whenever I visit somewhere new I'm always on the lookout for interesting handmade paper, which is why I was in my element in Florence a few weeks back after finding a gorgeous little paper making shop called
Il Papiro
Marbled-paper making originated in the Orient, as early as the 10th
century in China. A similar method called suminagashi also existed in
Japan in the 12th century. In Europe, the art form arrived in the 17th
century. Today it survives almost exclusively in Florence. Il Papiro uses these ancient techniques to produce in the back of the shop the most beautiful paper. The shop also sells handmade repeat printed papers.
Easyjet baggage allowances are very mean and I could have brought back far more than I did, but here are a few sheets I found....
Inspired by these repeat prints I thought i would use one of the lino print blocks I made a couple of weeks ago to see if I could use lino print as a method of hand printing paper.
First using water soluble ink I printed my ivy leaf pattern, I deliberately didn't press on too hard to print the image as i wanted the print to be fairly faint.
Then I used Conte crayon pastels to colour over the top of the print once it was dry.
Then I used the paper to make a little collage!
Then I had a go at printing on thinner mulberry paper to see if I could print an image which I could tear out and possibly collage.
Yay!! It sort of worked. Now I'm in the process of using these printed dragonflies in a separate collage which hopefully I'll post soon.
Gorgeous papers, Morag! I love both the Florence finds and the one you printed yourself to make the beautiful butterfly collage. Such a spring feeling!
ReplyDeleteI hope to make some lovely finds myself on my visit to my neighbouring country's capital Tallinn later this week. There's a paper shop I've been recommended to visit. I might do a blog post with travel inspirations too, later on!
Thank you Salla! I think Tallinn looks a very interesting city, I went to Riga in Latvia a few years ago but not as far as Estonia. I'm looking forward to seeing lots of photo inspiration and some lovely Estonian paper on your blog soon :)
ReplyDeleteOh how I'd love to go into that shop - and watch what is going on in the room at the back. The papers are beautiful, I love the turquoise one.
ReplyDeleteYour own printed paper is gorgeous too, and the collage painted over with the red really works. Looks like you had fun, and lovely memories of Florence encapsulated in the papers you made yourself.