https://linktr.ee/nahpapermakers

North American Hand Papermakers, P. O. Box 8693, New York, NY (2026)

10/22/2026

Photo highlights from the conference! ✨

10/10/2026

Highlights from Maddi Green’s amazing Pre-Conference Workshop!!🌟

“I Hope This Message Finds You Whole: Paper and Correspondence”

09/24/2026

SATURDAY DAY 3 OF THE CONFERENCE 🌿

11:00am-11:30am
Maria Patricia Tinajero
20 minute presentation with 10 minute Q+A
Walking Fibers: Papermaking as Relational Practice
“In this presentation, Maria Patricia Tinajero explores fiber not only as material, but as a relational structure—linking land, migration, memory, and voice through the processes of walking, talking, and papermaking. Grounded in the ongoing project Walking + Talking: Stories in Motion, the presentation weaves together artistic practice and agricultural knowledge through a layered narrative that moves between field, fiber, and paper. Drawing on collaboration with flax grower Leslie, the lecture traces the life of flax from cultivation to its transformation into paper, situating papermaking within broader ecological and social systems. By positioning papermaking as a relational and archival practice, this lecture invites audiences to understand fiber as both substance and structure—an active medium through which interconnection is made visible, felt, and shared.”

11:45am-12:15pm
Raluca Iancu
20 minute presentation with 10 minute Q+A
Common Threads: Bridging Fashion and Papermaking through Reclaimed Fiber
Textile waste is an increasingly urgent global concern, yet it also presents an opportunity to reconsider the lifecycle and potential of fiber. Through the Iowa State University Bridging the Divide grant program, Raluca Iancu collaborated with Dr. Rachel Eike, Associate Professor in Fashion, on a cross-disciplinary research project that transforms discarded textiles into pulp using traditional hand papermaking techniques. Collected campus waste is reconstituted into non-woven sheets, reimagining paper not only as a surface, but as a viable, sustainable alternative to synthetic textiles. This presentation will share the outcomes of this ongoing collaboration, including artistic works, curriculum development, and expanded research initiatives. Ultimately, it positions hand papermaking as a site of radical material rethinking, where fiber becomes a catalyst for sustainable practice, interdisciplinary dialogue, and renewed relationships between makers, materials, and environment.

1:00pm-3:00pm
Mar

09/21/2026

FRIDAY DAY 2, PRESENTERS AND WORKSHOPS INFO 11:00am-11:30am
May Babcock
20 minute presentation with 10 minute Q+A
Place, Plants, Belonging: Contemporary Sculpture Using Resonant Natural Materials
“May Babcock is a papermaking artist who uses foraged natural materials to craft spacious sculptures and installations shaped by coastlines, rivers, and forests. As a multiracial artist of Taiwanese-Chinese descent, her process is a search for belonging and intimacy with plants and seaweeds arriving from other places. Recent works include a living installation of hybridized chestnut trees commissioned by The Trustees of Reservations, and a solo exhibition of novel plant ecology sculptures at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Babcock’s art invites people to slow into deep connection with the land, plants, and waters, giving opportunities for nourishment, joy, and healing in a crisis-filled world.”

1:00pm-3:00pm
Veronica Pham & James Ojascastro
Workshop
Vietnamese Papermaking
“For centuries, traditional Vietnamese papermaking communities across the country made handmade paper for spiritual and mundane use. Fiber use is dependent on what is grown regionally in their areas, and paper is unique to their function. In this workshop, we will learn traditional Vietnamese papermaking techniques using the liềm seo (bamboo woven screen) and khung seo (two-part wooden frame) to make paper. Instruction will cover fiber preparation, hand beating, and sheet formation.”

1:00pm-3:00pm
Andrea Peterson
Workshop
Pigments, Chemicals & Pulp: How they work together
“In this hands-on workshop we will make, use and discuss the pros and cons of each paper making chemical associated with the paper making process. I will be sharing traditional processes and historical information of the chemicals and materials used. Andrea Peterson will take participants through clear and concise procedures concerning pigmenting different fiber types with varying lengths and the agents and chemicals used. We will discuss the “why and when” to use chemicals and/or pigments to achieve the desired result. We welcome any problems or questions of participants to be solved if possible, during the workshop or set you

09/14/2026

Friday, day 2 of the conference!

9:30am - 10:30am
Anita Lynn Forgach Keynote - Mina Takahashi, Michael Durgin, Amanda Degener

MINA
Since 2005, Mina Takahashi has served as editor of Hand Papermaking, a biannual nonprofit publication dedicated to advancing traditional and contemporary ideas in the art of hand papermaking. From 1990 through 2004, Takahashi was executive director of Dieu Donné in New York City. She received her traditional papermaking training in Japan, Korea, and Thailand, and credits Paul Wong and Susan Gosin at Dieu Donné for teaching her about the artistic applications of hand papermaking and the skills required for artist collaborations. Presently Mina Takahashi lives in Delhi, New York, on the territories of the Haudenosaunee, where she maintains Round Top Paper, a papermaking studio for artist collaborations and custom sheet production. She is honored to have been inducted in NAHP’s Hall of Papermaking Champions in 2024.

MICHAEL
Michael Durgin grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, two blocks from Amanda Degener. The two of them co-founded Hand Papermaking magazine in 1986. Michael stepped down as editor in 2004 and was replaced by Mina Takahashi. Now retired from his position as a software developer for the US government, Michael has volunteered since 2013 for charities in Beijing, Washington, and Frankfurt, selling used books.

AMANDA
Amanda Degener is a leading figure in the field of production hand papermaking and paper arts. Accomplishments include exhibitions, publications (writing and publishing), collaborations, commissions, residencies, and grant awards. Degener taught color theory in Foundation classes at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Now she continues to teach and lecture in the US and internationally in places like China, Sweden, Taiwan, Italy, Japan, and Korea.

09/01/2026

The Kent State University Museum announces “Aimee Lee: Every Last Scrap,” a solo exhibition featuring internationally recognized artist and scholar Aimee Lee. Opening Aug. 14 2026 and will run till May 24th 2027. The exhibition features garments created entirely by hand from hanji (han = Korean; ji = paper), traditional paper made from the bark of mulberry trees.

Through labor-intensive papermaking, natural dyes and the careful reuse of every scrap of material, Lee transforms traditional hanji into sculptural garments that connect centuries-old Korean craftsmanship with contemporary artistic practice.

Aimee Lee recently had a profile written about her on The New York Times that you can read linked in our bio! As well as Aimee was just awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize!

Congratulations Aimee!

08/28/2026

🌿THURSDAY DAY ONE 4:45pm-5:15pm
James Ojascastro! 🌿
presentation with Q+A
A Tale of Tule: Tropical cattails and the redefinition of “bark paper” in Mexico
“Amate, a type of anhydrous paper, was first invented in Mesoamerica some two millennia ago. Over time, the fibers used have varied depending on the availability of local plants. For much of its history, the favored type of fiber has been the inner bark of several strangler fig (Ficus) species, resulting in common adoption of the term “bark paper.” However, at certain times (e.g., the decades immediately following Spanish conquest), amate makers also used leaf fibers of herbs like agaves to yield sheets that are not, by definition, “bark paper.” Since 2000, some amateros in San Pablito have been using the leaves of a tropical cattail—locally called “tule” (Typha domingensis)—to make a unique kind of amate art depicting icons that reflect syncretic Otomi beliefs. Today, the practice of making amate from tule is critically endangered, and just three makers are still active. In this talk, James Ojascastro will present the process of making amate from cattail leaves, and then discuss how its dynamics and tenuous survival could provide clues and context on the history of agave amate manufacture during the sixteenth century.”

08/28/2026

🌿THURSDAY DAY ONE 4:45pm-5:15pm
James Ojascastro! 🌿
presentation with Q+A
A Tale of Tule: Tropical cattails and the redefinition of “bark paper” in Mexico
“Amate, a type of anhydrous paper, was first invented in Mesoamerica some two millennia ago. Over time, the fibers used have varied depending on the availability of local plants. For much of its history, the favored type of fiber has been the inner bark of several strangler fig (Ficus) species, resulting in common adoption of the term “bark paper.” However, at certain times (e.g., the decades immediately following Spanish conquest), amate makers also used leaf fibers of herbs like agaves to yield sheets that are not, by definition, “bark paper.” Since 2000, some amateros in San Pablito have been using the leaves of a tropical cattail—locally called “tule” (Typha domingensis)—to make a unique kind of amate art depicting icons that reflect syncretic Otomi beliefs. Today, the practice of making amate from tule is critically endangered, and just three makers are still active. In this talk, James Ojascastro will present the process of making amate from cattail leaves, and then discuss how its dynamics and tenuous survival could provide clues and context on the history of agave amate manufacture during the sixteenth century.”

08/18/2026

Last day to apply for early registration for our annual conference!

Rooted in Fiber: Celebrating 40 Years of Hand Papermaking Magazine

08/16/2026

🌿DAY 1 THURSDAY 3:15pm-3:45pm Alyssa Sacora
20 minute presentation with 10 minute Q+A🌿

Material Choices Matter: How Working with Locally Abundant Plants Builds Community Resilience
“ In this presentation, Alyssa Sacora will share about some of her favorite locally abundant fiber plants (in Western North Carolina), and how working with these fibers helps her to engage her community in creative problem solving and collaboration while providing free fibers for papermaking. Habitat restoration, making use of waste products, and hands-on community education are threads that run through her work. She’ll share about the seasonality of her process, how microbes and fermentation are collaborators in material preparation, and how her relationships with neighbors, environmental stewards and local organizations have deepened through shared plant resources. Using kudzu as an example, Alyssa will also walk us through her process to turn this infamous vine into paper, sharing her excitement and curiosity about variables along the way, as a way to inspire us to add a new layer or consideration to our papermaking journeys.”

North American Hand Papermakers

10/22/2026

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