For some artists, it’s not a choice at all.
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the start, their ambition was to operate a small papermill that could offer intense customer service. The couple moved to Indiana in 1973 to be with a sick relative and decided to relocate their operations to the family farm, where they’ve been ever since.
It is now one of two notable custom-paper handmills in the United States. Twinrocker starts a custom-paper job by asking the artist to describe the surface, color, size, and thickness preferred. Sizing and texture are considered next.
“We then make a trial so the artist can experiment with it,”
explains Clark. “We make adjustments until we produce the perfect paper for them, and then we save the formula.
Once we know the specifications, we can make it again and again.” The cost of the custom order depends on the size and thickness of the paper. A setup fee of $200 applies to papers created from a customized pulp, and the minimum order of sheets is $500.
In New York City, the Dieu Donné Papermill has worked closely with artists since it first began beating pulp and pressing paper in 1976. For years, Dieu Donné supplied handmade paper to outlets such as New York Central Art Supply, but the organization filed for not-for-profit status in with, ‘I want this weight,’ ‘I want more tooth,’ ‘warm up
this color.’” Stone ended up with a parchmentlike paper with a brownish, middle value, which he named Toledo, because he had noticed that it was the same color as the buildings in that Spanish city.
Twinrocker attracts drawers and discriminating water-colorists, but it also makes stationery and decorative
papers. “If it starts with P and ends with R, we make it,”
says Clark. Most of their output is sold directly to artists, among whom it enjoys considerable word-of-mouth praise—but it also sells a small amount to retailers such as Kate’s Paperie, Dick Blick, Daniel Smith, and New York Central Art Supply. The papermill, which is now located two hours outside of Chicago, was founded in 1971 by Clark and her husband, Howard, in San Francisco. From
Twinrocker co-founder Kathryn Clark making a 22"-x-30" sheet of paper at her papermill.
“[Handmade paper] adds significance to the work. It’s significant in itself.”
—Melanie Nerenberg, Kate’s Paperie.
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THE BEST OF DRAWING 39 New York artist Jeffrey
Ingram Stone asked Twinrocker to make this sketchbook to his specifications.
BELOW
A detail of Stone’s sketchbook made from handmade paper from Twinrocker.
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1988, and now focuses on working directly with artists at its mill on 36th Street. “We’re not so much a production mill,” says Paul Wong, Dieu Donné’s director. “We’re usu-ally more involved with the artist and their project. Our focus is custom-paper orders—we’re here when you can’t find a particular color or some other trait in a paper avail-able in the marketplace.” Like Twinrocker, Dieu Donné’s minimum order is $500 and an artist may send specifica-tions to the papermill for a unique product.
PR I NTMAKE R AN D PAPE R ARTI STLaurence Barker once called handmade paper the hyphen in “sup-port-medium,” stressing its assertive role in the creative
process. Those who sell both handmade and machine-made paper are also quick to point out handmachine-made paper’s collaborative personality. “The main difference between the two is that handmade has more character; there’s more of a sense of the person who made the paper,” says David Aldera, the paper buyer at New York Central Art Supply, an artist, and something of a paper guru in New York art cir-cles. “The main reason someone would choose handmade paper is for the aesthetics. It is for people willing to work with the inconsistencies that handmade paper is more like-ly to have, inconsistencies in texture, absorbency, weight, and other traits. Papermaking is like baking a cake—you can follow a recipe, but it won’t always come out the same
This laid paper from Dieu Donné is a cotton-linen blend.
This is a sample of abaca, from Dieu Donné, a paper made from the abaca plant—a close relative of the banana tree—found in the Philippines. Its slippery, long fibers create a slightly uneven surface, but its admirable durability is shown by abaca’s use in the production of marine ropes.
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way. It’s an issue of human error and skill.” Adds his co-worker and paper-department manager Kathy Hyde, “You might notice a richness to the surface. I think you can build a relationship with the surface of a handmade paper.”
Hyde and Aldera both say the appeal of handmade paper is largely aesthetic and perhaps even romantic.
At Kate’s Paperie, Melanie Nerenberg, the retailer’s mar-keting director, also sees both sides to the handmade paper issue. “Once you put the human hand in it, you allow the possibility for human error,” she says. “Conversely, there is something incredibly enticing about a unique surface. It may excite the artist. It may remove someone from their comfort zone. You know paper from Arches is going to