COLLECTIVE PAPER RECYCLINGofa

fibremagazine.com

JANUARY 2011 • No 1.

IDEAS | TECHNOLOGY | DESIGN | BUSINESS | ANIMATION | NEW MEDIA | PRINTING | PHOTOGRAPHY

JANUARY 2011

WELCOME to the first issue of fibre! fibre focuses on the

sustainability of paper. We’ll be covering everything from

using recycled paper in art to new technologies used to

decrease paper waste all the way to obscure objects you’d

never thought would be made of paper.

We look forward to serving up many more issues in the

years to come.

For now, enjoy the first issue of fibre!

Micheal Howard

L E T T E Rfrom the

E D I T O R

04 10 16

YARD WASTE AND TOILET PAPER

JEN STARK’S COLOR-MINDED HANDS

NEWSPAPER WOOD

› Vivian Hua:Chris Crites’ new show

features 72 different mug

shots on toilet paper

tubes, and three mug

shots on yard waste bags.

› Cara Despain:Jen Stark creates

optically engaging work

that carries distinct

characteristics of both her

birthplace and her age,

even if these facets seem

mostly subconscious.

› A+. 29:“A reversing of a

traditional production

process; not from wood

to paper, but the other

way around.”

02 JANUARY 2011

18 24

INDO RECYCLED PAPER DISPLAY

JESSE MEYER’S PARCHMENT MAKING WORKSHOP

› Martin Jon: A challenge organized

by the City of Chicago’s

Department of

Environment that asks

property owners and their

tenants to improve their

environmental impact.

› Demetri Vital:Two appearances on

Discovery Channel’s

“Dirty Jobs” showcased

the messy glory of the

work done at the Meyers’

tannery.

09 SAVE GREENHOUSE GASES

› John R. Garnet: Does all that heavy lifting

really amount to more than

a hill of beans?

15 MODULAR STORAGE FROM PAPER

› Susan Johnston: 62 percent lighter than

particle board — 100

percent recyclable.

21 TUBE-FREE TOILET PAPER

› Bruce Horovitz: The toilet paper roll is

about to undergo its

biggest change in 100

years: going tubeless.

22 BUYING RECYCLED COPY PAPER

› Eric Bailey: An overview on the

resources one can use to

purchase recycled copy

paper reams.

03

by VIVIAN HUA

YARD WASTE- AND -

TOILET PAPER

Cocaine, Morphine, Australia, 1936 • oil on brown paper bag • 16 x 13 in • 2010

Portrait art is no longer what it used to be. Once considered to be of great social and skillful

importance, it has lost popularity through the years, with the focus of the general public shifting instead towards other forms of art. It seems

that modern-day portrait art simply needs to take on a more exciting presentation for it to be appealing to the masses.

Seattle artist Chris Crites manages to address this problem by creating portraits of an uncommon breed. Rather than creating pieces

for aristocrats or famous stars, he chooses to paint the lowly and the unloved by society. He paints deviants. And he paints them in bold colors.

Over ten years ago, Crites came across a book containing Los Angeles mugshots from the

05

1940’s. Each of the mugshots was accompanied by nothing more than a booking charge, and as a history buff, Crites became intrigued by these individuals. “I couldn’t stop wondering what the real story was,” he explains. “Been obsessed with mugshots ever since.”

Portraits of criminals make up the bulk of Crites’ works, but he also dabbles in painting nudes and firearms. Beginning with the Seattle’s Erotic Arts Festival years ago, Crites has continued painting nudes on an annual basis since, and going back and forth between nudes and mugshots presents Crites with a unique challenge. It challenges him to shift his focus between the often weathered and haggard images of criminals to the bulbous and voluptuous figures of women.

“I can’t really explain why it is that I focus my art on such deviant topics, other than maybe that they are such a draw [because they are] the deviancy that appeals as a dark side to our civilized side,” says Crites.

It seems only appropriate to pair such deviant subject matter with an atypical artistic approach. After all, Crites’ pieces are not photo-real Rembrandts or goofy illustrated caricatures. They fall somewhere between the highly illustrated and the photo-real -- living off of shade and contrast, but thriving off of color theory. For his style, preparation is of the utmost importance.

First is attaining the images of the subject matter. For his mugshots, Crites owns a few books -- mostly filled with older images from the 1800’s -- but he has found an even better resource in the Washington

State Archives. Government records, including criminal information, are public domain and paid for by tax dollars, which makes them accessible to Crites. He visits his local wing of the Archives and quite literally digs through boxes of photos until he finds the perfectly unanticipated individuals he’s looking for.

“They allow me to go in there and bring my laptop and a scanner, and they bring out big boxes of mugshots,” Crites explains. “Each one’s got like seven hundred mugshots in it, and I just sit there for hours. I have to go through and be like, ‘Oh, this is good,’ and scan it.”

Crites has been to the Archives four times. Despite the fact that some images are on slides or out of focus, his potential subjects are still so plentiful in number that he has room to be selective. By working only with criminal subjects from between the 1890’s and 1950’s, Crites purposely reduces the likelihood of art patrons recognizing someone they know in his works. He doesn’t even want the possibility of painting someone’s uncle or grandpa and being faced with legal trouble.

“When you see a mugshot [at the Archives], it’s usually just the mugshot. You don’t know what the booking charge is. Some of them do actually have the information on the back, which is really neat, but often times, I don’t have that information...” Crites reveals. “I try to keep [their booking charges] as real as possible, but if I don’t have the information, I’ll just make it up.”

Even the most basic of crimes like burglary and theft are worded differently from decade to decade, so

06 JANUARY 2011

Crites has lists of crimes from certain time periods to help aid with the description process.

Once the subject is chosen, Crites draws a loose sketch on his medium of choice. His original photograph is then adjusted and contrasted in Photoshop so that there is enough definition for him to work with. Not unlike a vector artist might do when illustrating a photograph, Crites pulls five clearly-defined shade groups out of each photograph. Those shade groups are then used as a guideline for his paintings, and five colors fill in the shade groups via a kind of paint-by-numbers approach.

goes into his pieces, it’s hard to tell if he’s joking or not.

The results are sometimes psychedelic and sometimes comic-book-like. Color absolutely makes all the difference in Crites’ pieces, which are rather unpredictable from start to finish. Even Crites often has no idea what each finished product will look like.

“I just pull out my paints, pick five colors, and work from dark to light. It’s exciting because I never what the full effect will be until the colors are completely in. It’s an ongoing experiment with color,” Crites says. He is particularly drawn to painting with contrasting, bright colors, and his hefty bin of variously colored acrylic paints is proof.

Crites originally started out painting on brown paper bags, and it became somewhat a staple of his work. The name of his website, www.bagpainter.com, is a reference to this. And while Crites still prefers brown bags as his primary medium, he’s looking to branch out as well. He sometimes works with wood, has recently begun working with watercolor paper and Okiwara paper, and hopes to work with a renewable wood created from sorghum husk.

“Did you ever see the Body Worlds exhibit? This stuff is weird. It looks like a cross-section of flesh,” Crites explains, describing the texture of sorghum husk. “I want to start painting on that, because it’s just so weird- looking.”

Also on the list of potential mediums Crites hopes to work is plastic bags. He has also considered taking up screenprinting again so that he can start create one image in

“you can’t just be creating beautiful work in a vacuum, hoping things will happen.”

Don’t be fooled, though, for this is no easy childhood activity. Using a 10/0 brush -- just about the smallest brush you can find -- Crites paints his pieces color by color, square by square.

“I don’t do any overpainting or any underpainting, so each color goes down by itself,” describes Crites. He details one piece which was completed with great difficulty and time that features the leg of a female model wearing fishnet stockings. “I work from dark to light, so I had the fishnet [stocking] down first, and I had to go into each diamond and fill it in by itself.”

“I guess I have OCD,” he adds. And with the amount of detail that

07

numerous colors. Lastly, he hopes to begin creating sculpture art -- 3D busts of mugshots which are then painted brightly, as he does with his paintings.

“I just need to take the time and stop accepting shows,” Crites explains. “[But] I can’t turn down commissions because they’re a guaranteed paycheck. Shows are not a guaranteed paycheck, but when I get offered shows out of state, it’s exposure, and it’s fun.”

Despite the expense of creating work, framing it, and shipping it to other states, Crites continues to participate in out- of-state shows, with an upcoming show in Portland, Oregon and one in Omaha, Nebraska.

“I love Portland. The last time I showed there, I think I only sold two pieces, but the response was amazing; I think it was the biggest turn-out I’ve ever had for a show. That was surprising,” he recalls happily.

For Crites, a full-time artist and part-time gallery curator, risks like participating in out-of-state shows are no doubt taken, but the pursuit of art as a full-time profession absolutely has to be paired with business savvy as well. Artists often shun the business side of art, hoping that their talent alone will take them to the top, but Crites is just as much a businessman as much as he is an artist -- if not more so.

“I can’t really understand when people say they can’t do the business

side of it. It’s like doing your taxes. You have to figure it out,” states Crites. “If you don’t do it, who’s going to do it? If you’re not out there making it happen, it’s not going to happen. You can’t just be creating beautiful work in a vacuum, hoping things will happen.”

“That’s what’s funny about art. Some people don’t really realize that if you’re going to do it full-time, like I am -- how much business it is. It’s over 50% business,” he continues. “It’s business, and it’s work, but it’s a job. I love it, and I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else, but it’s all work.”

General Jack D. Ripper • oil on brown paper bag • 16 x 14 in • 2006

08 JANUARY 2011

WHY RECYCLE PAPER?I T S A V E S G R E E N H O U S E G A S E S !Chances are you probably are already recycling most of your paper waste. But have you wonder what really becomes of it and what are the true carbon off-setting benefits of all your efforts? Does all that heavy lifting really amount to more than a hill of beans?

In the U.S., the paper recycling movement has grown every year since 1990 and now almost 90% of Americans have easy access to a local paper recycling program. This ubiquitous and easy access to a paper recycling program has lead to 63% of paper waste is now recycled in the United States and its been proven to be a foolproof way to reduce your carbon footprint.

If you still are not recycling paper, it’s time

to wake up from your hibernation slumber and step out of your cave. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) calculates that recycling versus harvesting new wood for virgin paper fibers realizes a 40% energy savings.

What actually happens to your discarded paper? Well it is first sorted and shipped to nearby processing plants that grinds it in into a pulp, pulls out the impurities, (staples, clips, ink) tosses in some virgin fibers and then reconstitute it into either recycled copier paper, newsprint, container board, box board, and tissue. Container board and box board are the two most frequent uses of recycled paper fibers. Paper fibers can be recycled 6-7 times, but each time the fibers further break down and eventually they become pap and are either pressed into kitty litter or hauled off to the landfill.

Recycling paper is important for a variety of different reasons. It drastically reduces the amount of waste we produce and the space it consumes at landfills. JOHN R. GARNET

09

JEN STARK’SJEN STARK’S

Photo by Elsa Roberto

There is something unavoidably charming and analog about Jen Stark’s work. The

tactile, precise-yet-handmade quality of her paper sculptures and animations is something that feels somehow influenced, in part, by her visual generation. In the arena of contemporary paper art, she is among the most notable young and prolific artists. Born in 1983 in Miami, Jen Stark creates optically engaging work that carries distinct characteristics of both her birthplace and her age, even if these facets BY CARA DESPAIN

10 JANUARY 2011

seem mostly subconscious. The bright and many colors

- perhaps reflective, she notes, of Miami’s diverse and colorful cultures, and a stop-motion, do it yourself approach - something contemporary art seem to have regarded more a couple of decades ago than now - to her constructs, animations, and drawings communicate a certain quality in these contexts. But, when all is said and done, the work is more concerned with the visual experience and this is where their impressiveness lies more so than in any conceptual underlay. If you have seen Jen Starks’ work, and if you live in Miami it is very likely that you have (she has shown at Miami MOCA, Carol Jazzar, Fredric Snitzer, Spinello, and 20/20 Projects galleries, The Art Gallery at Government Center, and more) you know that paper and all its qualities are critical to her aesthetic accomplishments.

Something colorful, pliable, and able to have clean edges but easy to cut with exactitude is necessary to compose her layered, gradient pieces. The choice to use paper was based largely on convenience and experimentation. While studying at Maryland Institute College of Art, Stark completed a study-abroad program at the Center for Art and Culture in Aix-en-Provence, France. “I didn’t bring any art supplies, and I tried to get the cheapest material I could find to experiment with,” she says, “so I got a stack of construction

paper. Now I use the best material I can find.” This alludes to another reason she found and has stuck with the medium.

“Paper is a very common material”, she says, “something that everyone uses and is exposed to in their everyday lives”. In many ways, it feels like Stark is carrying out some inclination or even fantasy that almost anyone has had when making paper projects - but of course, with the immaculate craft and visual sensibility of an artist. Although paper is common, and relatively easy to work with, her sculptures push the medium to a new level. A true sense of this comes when you consider that they are all completely hand-cut, and eyeballed, and are often of a relatively large scale. There is no-trade off for the level of topographical intensity - each cut and layer is perfectly executed. “The whole handmade thing is a part of my work,” she says regarding inquiries people have made as to why she does not utilize time-saving technology of some kind, “using a laser cutter would cause the work to lose a lot.” The process overall is similar to what, in her mind, her work is most concerned with: the collision of the mathematical and the organic form.

Much of Stark’s work, as she notes, is an exploration for her - she is inspired by shapes in nature, and due to the bold, fun, and folded design, this more science-based idea may not be readily apparent in

Above:Electric Medleyhand cut-paper59 x 20 x 4 in2009

11

Left:How To Become a Millionaire In 100 Days

1 million hand-cut pieces of paper2007

some of the pieces. The shapes she is interested in exploring are more elusive - mathematical, geometric, and organic forms that are naturally occurring, and the underlying, eventual structure that composes any and every thing in the natural world. The notion of this microscopic view, with its underlying order, lends itself to the way her work is created and functions. Layer upon layer, the pieces create undulating forms, exemplified in motion in the animations that are both macroscopic and microscopic in and of themselves. They seem to expand and collapse simultaneously, and although these layers are hand-cut and one of a kind, they ultimately amass into a larger form that is systematic , and requires structure. This is not unlike the molecular lattices or earth strata that comprise things far larger than any of their constituents.

Some pieces start with and follow a geometric or symmetrical shape from the beginning, and are folded or laid into complex twists and blooms that do begin to take on the anatomy of something you might encounter in a science book; this could account for why Stark has been featured not only in arts magazines, but also in craft and science publications. Other pieces start with a more formal shape and evolve into a drippy, amorphous embodiment. Putting the sculptures together is somewhat of a logistical puzzle, and this rather organic process interestingly yields a very

structured result. Although much of her work is of

paper sculptures and of animations created from the same process, paper is not the only material Jen Stark works with. The artist has recently been taking a foray into cut wood - working in much the same way. For her upcoming show in May 2010 at Carol Jazzar Contemporary Art, she is making some wooden pieces with an op-art thrust. The transition to wood for these works has been smooth, she says; stacking, tracing, layering, and the dimension of time are still the main mode of construction - although the shapes have become more basic and geometric, with less complicated details. With these pieces, she wants to play with the viewer’s eye; the extra dimension of the thickness of the wood means an extra surface area between layers that can be utilized for a different effect. By painting these side surfaces different colors than the top, the color of the piece appears to change as viewers interact with and walk around it. She will also be creating a piece that recesses into the wall - kind of like a geode, she explains, that, in contrast to most of her work, will have a cavernous effect as opposed to a raised one.

Periodically changing up media - or at least formats, going from 3-dimensional to 2-dimensional - is something that helps Stark reverse her process. “The drawings are a nice little break from the sculptures,”

13

she says, “I just sit in front of a blank piece of paper and start making marks.” This differs significantly from pre-meditated and sketched sculptures. They employ this sense of freedom in an obvious way, and are organic-meets-geometric in another way. They are brilliant, “plasmic”, and explode from all over the page - shooting bits of imagined living things and atomic particles across their compositions, strung together with sinewy lines. Although the drawings represent a different facet of her work, it is clear that they

inform the sculptural pieces and vice-versa. The palette, shapes, and line work are consistent, and you can see how they progress toward one another although ultimately taking very different routes.

By using paper in all its rigid forms, and using its 2-dimensional planar nature to create rather sophisticated forms that have depth and volume, Stark maintains a solid level of consistency. Although her work can be followed in a very linear way, it is constantly becoming more and more impressive and exquisite,

and it seems the healthy need for experimentation is a constant. This need is what propels the work forward, rather than allowing it to plateau, and what makes her so exciting to track. She plans to stick with paper and keep doing the drawings as well, but it is inevitable that, given the expansionary and exponential trajectory of her work, there will be many new and fresh surprises for Miami and beyond to look forward to.

Right:Speed of Lighthand-cut paper on wood backing12 x 12 in2008

14 JANUARY 2011

TO MODULAR STORAGE MADE FROM RECYCLED PAPER

YES WAY…

We love the look of modular shelving,

but we dread the thought of having to

assemble yet another piece of IKEA furniture

– you feel the same way? Enter the cute, eco-

friendly cubes from Way Basics. These cubes

come in a variety of colors (hot pink for a little

girl’s room, espresso for a grown-up living

room) and require zero tools for assembly.

These cubes come with industrial-strength

double-sided adhesive so you just need to peel

off the backing and stick the pieces together.

Of course, it’s recommended that they set

overnight before you add books or other items.

Plus, they’re made from recycled paper,

making them 62 percent lighter than particle

board (not to mention the fact that they’re

100 percent recyclable when you’re done with

them.) Our first thought upon hearing this was,

“so, can these shelves actually hold a full load

of books?” Depending on which kind you order,

the recommended maximum load per shelf is

50 pounds (or up to 100 pounds with a divider

to add stability). We also love the versatility

of Way Basics’ cubes. For instance, the cozy

bench can be used as a storage bench, a TV

console, or as shelves.

You can also customize kid’s furniture with

super-cute decals or fabric cubes. And (be

still, our bargain-loving hearts) they’re cheaper

than many of the similar options we’ve seen.

I’m seriously thinking that this would be a good

storage option in my new apartment...

SUSAN JOHNSTON

15

Debussystraat 2 5654 SC Eindhoven

+31 (0)6 245 275 31

info@Vij5.nlwww.Vij5.nl

Dit materiaal laat krantenpapier, dat van hout gemaakt is, weer tot hout terugkeren. Als basismateriaal wordt gebruik gemaakt van restpartijen en misdrukken. Het resultaat heeft verrassend veel overeenkomsten met de eigenschappen van (massief) hout.

KrantHout is bedacht door Mieke Meijer tijdens haar studie aan de Design Academy Eindhoven en is samen met Vij5 verder ontwikkeld. Na realisatie zullen de eerste producten aan de collectie van ontwerplabel Vij5 worden toegevoegd.

project | Mieke Meijer samen met ontwerplabel Vij5 (Arjan van Raadshooven & Anieke Branderhorst).

ontwerpteam | Jolijn Fiddelaers, Floris Hovers, rENs (Renee Mennen & Stefanie van Keijsteren), Christian Kocx, Greetje van Tiem, Suspacious (Breg Hanssen) en Tessa Kuyvenhoven.

Dit project wordt mede mogelijk gemaakt door het Eindhovens Dagblad en het SRE stimuleringsfonds.

KrantHout

KrantHoutThe Newspaper Wood is a collaboration between two Netherlands designers, Mieke Meijer of Mieke dingen and Vij5, the designlabel that was started by Arjan van Raashooven & Anieke Branderhorst. Mieke Meijer came up with the idea to use piles of discarded daily newspaper making it into a renewed material. The layer of paper appear like lines of a wood grain and the rings of a tree just like a real wood when the Newspaper Wood is cut. It can be cut, milled and sanded and generally treated like other type of wood.

Mieke Meijer

Designer of Mieke dingen, which she produces on a small scale in her own workshop.

Sustainability, utility and beauty are the guiding principles that define Mieke dingen. Mieke dingen matches the needs of the consumer long term and fit well into their environment. Mieke dingen objects therefore keep their value. Their timeless design, their subtly light-hearted character and their distinct functionality create a bond between people and the objects.

Flexibility is the key to the choice of basic principles for Mieke dingen: whether it is materials, everyday situations or certain specific techniques. By developing a well-conceived idea and sticking to it, Mieke dingen objects have a distinctive and very recognisable signature.

Vij5 (Arjan van Raadshooven & Anieke Branderhorst)

Both have totally different characters, resulting in a ‘perfect symbiosis’.

They started designlabel Vij5 directly after they both graduated in 2006. Since they work on their product collection together, their interaction seems even stronger. In fact it became one of the basic principles of Vij5, visible in the growing amount of collaborations with other young designers.

“We enjoy different visions at situations. But not until we both agree, a product is finished and approved.” A+. 29

( n e w s p a p e r w o o d )

17

DEMETRI VITAL VISITS JESSE MEYER’S PARCHMENT MAKING WORKSHOP

Jesse Meyer’s reputation for expertise in parchment manufacture certainly precedes him. Two appearances on Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” showcased the messy glory of the work done at the Meyers’ tannery. Binders and conservators use the Meyers’ products and rely on the family’s high-quality leatherwork. Among calligraphers, Jesse is well-known for not only the quality of his work but his attention to the scribal needs. And for our group of twelve book workers who descended on the Meyer tannery in Montgomery, New York, we could smell the tannery before we entered its aromatic halls.

As a sofer – a ritually trained Hebrew scribe – I write on parchment using medieval techniques and, like the binders and conservators in our group, have cultivated a great many questions about the history of parchment production. Of particular interest was Jesse’s firsthand experimentation with the variety of techniques available throughout history for parchment

aDYINGBREED

manufacture; it was amazing to not only learn about Jesse’s work with various medieval parchment manufacturing techniques, but to try them ourselves! During our time at the Pergamena tannery, we were given an accelerated hands-on introduction to this work, which taught us how difficult and, well, messy, Jesse’s job really is.

After a brief tour of the tannery and its odors, we proceeded through various stages of parchment manufacture – like a cooking show – prepared in advance by Jesse, beginning with a stack of goat skins preserved in salt. These butchered skins were covered in hair, bits of flesh, and the occasional ear, tail, or intestine. We enthusiastically cut off these unnecessary appendages and washed away the salt in order to prepare the skins for a chemical bath which removes their hair. Although traditionally a lime bath, a variety of chemical solutions are now available; Jesse uses two or three baths with different recipes to fully remove the hair down to the follicle.

Large quantities of skins are continuously churned in huge rotating drums designed to fully infuse the skins with the chemicals. After several hours, the drums were opened and we braved the stench of bloated, depilated skins to pull them out and prepare to remove their remaining flesh. The remaining slurry of hair and lime was easily scraped off the skin to reveal the bare outer layer, but the remaining subcutaneous flesh still needed removal. We first used a traditional, long, curved, and concave blade to slice the flesh from now-hairless skins. Then we watched Jesse use his defleshing machine with its large cylindrical blade to accomplish the same task much more quickly.

Whereas lime is a basic chemical, acidic solutions were also used historically. A tannery in Morocco that Jesse visited used an acidic slurry made from manure to dehair skins. These varied techniques partly explain, along with species of animal used, the variety of thickness and color of different parchments. Modern parchment making diverges most from historical techniques in the final stages of preparation wherein thickness and color are determined.

After another wash to remove

any lime and an enzyme treatment, the most disgusting work was behind us. We made a brilliantly dyed goat skin and an undyed and sanded calfskin. We soaked each and then stretched the wet skin as far as possible to remove excess moisture and oils, the main difference being that the goat skin was soaked in a tub of aniline dye, while the calfskin was soaked in water. Both skins were left to dry on stretchers overnight.

The goatskins were complete, but the calfskins needed to be thinned. This was accomplished historically by sanding the parchment down from the flesh side or by pulling these interior layers of skin off by slowly splitting it. Jesse demonstrated several techniques available for sanding. The first was the use of a lunellum or lunelarium, an eight-inch half-moon shaped blade, to scrape away thin layers of dried tissue from the interior of the skin. We could also use several medieval sanding blocks: flour bricks impregnated with glass shards of differing “grits.” We could also use modern electric hand-sanders, which made a long, arduous task a slightly shorter, arduous task.

I chose to work primarily with the lunellum, hoping to

replicate techniques described in medieval scribal treatises. After several swipes of his blade, Jesse’s parchment was thin and smooth; perfect for calligraphy. After several hours, my parchment remained velvety and a little nappy (I have written on parchment of the caliber I made, and I wasn’t happy). Eventually I resorted to the electric sander, a wise decision most of the others reached long before me. After wiping the skin with a damp sponge to lay the fibers flat, we had finally accomplished our goal.

Jesse showed us some of his more experimental parchment made of ostrich, horse, and bear. The ostrich parchment has holes corresponding to the feather shafts, echoing the commentary of a twelfth century scribe that holes on bird parchment are natural and acceptable for ritual calligraphy, but not holes on mammal parchment. Ellen Sigunik, another member of the Pergamena team, showed us fish parchment, which the same scribe said were off-limits

for writing because the fishy smell could not be removed. Ellen’s fish parchments did not smell at all, however. Karl Meyer, Jesse’s father, described the differences between leather tanning and parchment manufacture, explaining that some of the most ancient scrolls were made on skin more like leather than parchment.

The two day workshop at Pergamena was exhausting and exhilarating. The participants were kind and enthusiastic, Jesse and the Pergamena crew were caring and informative, and the work was messy and fulfilling. At the end, Jesse asked us how we would like a career in parchment making. Tired, and reeking of animal skin, I joked that I could maybe do it part-time. But the Meyers’ expertise comes from generations of work with these skins, and we’re lucky to simply have the opportunity to step in their work boots for a weekend.

The toilet paper roll is about to undergo its biggest change in 100 years: going tubeless.

On Monday, Kimberly-Clark, one of the world’s biggest makers of household paper products, will begin testing Scott Naturals Tube-Free toilet paper at Walmart and Sam’s Club stores throughout the Northeast. If sales take off, it may introduce the line nationally and globally — and even consider adapting the technology into its paper towel brands.

No, the holes in the rolls aren’t perfectly round. But they do fit over TP spindles and come with this promise: Even the last piece of toilet paper will be usable — without glue stuck on it.

The 17 billion toilet paper tubes produced annually in the USA account for 160 million pounds of trash, according to Kimberly-Clark estimates, and could stretch more than a million miles placed end-to-end. That’s from here to the moon and back — twice. Most consumers toss, rather than recycle, used tubes, says Doug Daniels, brand manager at Kimberly-Clark. “We found a way to bring innovation to a category as mature as bath tissue,” he says.

He won’t disclose the tubeless technology used but says it’s a special winding process. A similar process is used on tissue the company sells to businesses but not to consumers.

Hoover says she hopes other toilet tissue makers follow Kimberly-Clark’s lead. How soon that may happen is unclear. Procter & Gamble, maker of top-seller Charmin, declined to comment. BRUCE HOROVITZ

As part of an effort to be environmentally friendly, the United States Postal Service has been offering a free recycling service for paper and cardboard waste.

The recycling program offered through the USPS is effective on two levels. It not only reduces the amount of paper wasted when it is thrown away, but also helps eliminate the risk of identity theft that comes from promotional offers and other forms of mail that contain personal information.

The discarded mail is taken to the main postal plant in Saginaw, where it is shredded and recycled.

There are no set guidelines as to what each post office has to take, so services vary depending on the location. Some post offices does not accept large amounts of recyclable materials brought in from outside the post office, but provides the service for people that come in to pick up their mail.

Post offices in some other areas are known to accept large amounts of paper, cardboard and shrink wrap waste. However, many post offices have been moving away from accepting large amounts of recyclables because it is too costly to do so.

Recycling junk mail is a good way to keep it out of area landfills.

“Paper is a renewable resource,” Gary Brock said. “Two to three percent of a landfill is mail that people don’t want.”

Those interested in the USPS recycling program can check with their local post offices to see what kinds of recyclable materials are accepted. MATT KEETON

Scott rolls out tube-free toilet paper

Post office offers free recycling

Toilet paper with no cardboard roll

A free service for paper and cardboard

news

21

WHEREandHOWtoBUY RECYCLED

COPY PAPER

dole out supplies to corporations and family businesses alike. Sometimes, the appeal of a physical location is simply the convenience of instant product availability when something runs out and is needed for an urgent deadline, or other similar situation. Many big-box places even outside the industry may offer recycled copy paper, such as Wal-Mart.

In these cases, wondering how to buy recycled copy paper is as easy as figuring out where to find it, and fortunately the cases and reams should be directly located with all the other sorts of copy paper, from colored to bright and of differing print quality

In an era where green awareness has become more of a necessity than a simple trend, eco-friendly concerns have increased as questions arise such as which products are better for the environments, or how to buy recycled copy paper. While world human population rises and their effect on the Earth increases, people will need to take bigger steps toward protecting the only planet we currently live on, and one way to do so is to ensure responsible buying habits.

For many, the workplace is an office that bustles with business and technology. Office workers are tasked with a wide variance of jobs, and are given an astonishing array of choices of tools with which to accomplish their goals. From among the repertoire of supplies at their disposal, they have different overall strategies to decide on, like whether to buy the premium items or the more economical equipment. Somewhere between the two cost extremes is the quandary of how to buy recycled copy paper.

One of the remaining arenas in which brick-and-mortar locations still works is the office supply industry, where shops like OfficeMax, Staples, and Office Depot

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purposes. The other advantage of in-store shopping is, hopefully, the availability of employees who can answer questions toward making a better purchase decision, such as discerning whether buying recycled products is worthwhile, or the best arrangement to save the most money.

Now, shopping by catalogue may seem like an antiquated activity, and may even seem rather hypocritical in light of how to buy recycled copy paper, but in reality that catalogue does still hold an appeal or two; and, remember, that catalogue can arrive in your e-mail inbox each month rather than your mailbox if you wish.

The foremost incentive to get on the mailing list for an office supply chain is that you will be communicated to as to the best deals currently running, and which products are on sale, including recycled paper. For those with a flexible purchasing schedule that can be patient enough to wait for the best deal, and then stock up, having the time for the promotion to arrive can be a fantastic prospect. Otherwise, if you have an account rep, you can even contact them with the information in the catalogue to try and arrange a better deal or find out when the next sale on recycled copy paper will be.

Figuring out how to buy recycled copy paper does not need to be a difficult challenge, nor even the most worrisome query of your day. With so many office supply resources at our disposal nowadays, the number of excuses is dwindling, and shoppers are better equipped than ever to fully conquer the market. ERIC BAILEY

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In collaboration with Change It Up, a challenge organized by the City of Chicago’s Department of Environment

that asks property owners and their tenants to improve their environmental impact, two creative and concerned artists take the fore by designing window installations with

materials that have been diverted from the waste-stream. INDO is Crystal Grover and Linsey Burritt and you can see their latest creative collaboration in the storefront window of 445 North Wells.

A recent show from Linsey goes as this: All the way from Dresden, Germany, Ina Weise came to

Chicago eager to become what became the first intern at the design collaborative The Post Family. This opportunity rapidly evolved into a self-initiated artist residency. Over the past year Ina has created a large portfolio including screenprinted and letterpressed works, small scale sculptural objects, and artist books.

Photo by Jen Wiley

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The Following Of One Thing After Another is a multiplatform site-specific installation inspired by her time spent in Chicago.

In true Post Family form, Ina collaborates with Linsey Burritt of INDO. Riffing on the idea of a dodecahedron symbolizing the 5th element or the universe, they

transform the formal gallery space into a mystical world of form, textures, and light (or lack thereof), using mostly salvaged and discarded materials from the studio and around the city. Ina will also be displaying other collaborative pieces like large scale letterpress prints executed with Letterform and a projected video

installation created by Gus Gavino which utilizes some of Weise’s early screenprint studies.

Change It Up Challenge — Oct. 2010

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COLLECTIVE PAPER RECYCLINGofa