GET HUBBIED

I don't want to give away any of the artist's final plans, but I'll just say that Cary and Brooks, the owners of Aardvark Letterpress, and Bill, the very tall expert (with a pocket full of pens and tools that you wouldn't even believe if you saw it) are all enthused about this idea and the process. The letterpress text was challenging on this kind of paper. They are rock stars as far as I'm concerned. They made it work, and it was no simple plan. The die cut needs to be made, but all the logistics are in place.

click here for their website. Utilize their genius, and keep the art form alive.

The paper was more complex to sort out. I've been working with this lovely gal Martha in the mid-west for over a year to make the kind of paper that Ruscha described wanting for his idea, the wedding favor. As of this moment, I've gathered about 100 sheets of her paper. Its doesn't feel quite right to call it paper, since each sheet is an object in itself, and ten of them took a couple of weeks to make, dry and send. Ed wanted it as thick as you could get 'paper' and as homemade and recycled as is possible. I sampled a lot of artists who made paper until I found the right person. If you search for the company: Pulpart, at the www.etsy.com site, you'll find Martha's store. Here's what she said about the order the first time I made it:

Sent by PulpArt on November 05, 2009: I have never made anything like this before so I'm not sure if it would stand up or not. I think I could make pieces that would be about 1/2 inch in thickness but I don't know if they would stand. Anybody walking by who causes a breeze would probably make them fall over, or if a ceiling fan is on, they would catch the wind and fall over. What color are you looking for? Depending on the color, I may need a while to save up enough scraps. What is your timeline? How many pieces do you need and of what color? Best, Martha

And then the description of the order once I told her exactly what we were looking for, which has a certain poetry:

Extra thick white handmade paper - CUSTOM ORDER FOR HUBBYCO from PulpArt. Extra thick white handmade paper - CUSTOM ORDER FOR HUBBYCO. You will receive 10 pieces of extremely thick paper for your die cut project. Each sheet of paper is individually made by hand using an art form created by the Chinese over 1,000 years ago. I sift through my junk mail, old bills, letters and the like to find the highest quality paper. (You have to start with good paper to end up with good paper!) I do not use bleaches or dyes to color my paper. The color is determined from the scraps I use. I shred the recycled paper, combine it with water to make a pulp. A frame with a screen is pulled through the water to catch the pulp, which forms a sheet of paper that I air dry.