Members of Primrose Paperworks in Sydney enjoyed a two-week stay at Bundanon as artists in residence during August last year. Colleen Duncan visited the busy group during their stay.

To enter the historic slab barn, now converted to studio space, is to be immersed in a scene of intense activity. In one corner, resembling a temporary washing machine, toils Toni Smith’s ‘Mark Lander’ beater, watchfully supervised by Jeanette Bakker.

Jeanette has a background in textile art/quilting with entries in several exhibitions. She’s been making paper for over two years, working extensively with recycled paper and plant fibre paper. Her favourite process is casting with archival white pulp and plant fibre paper. She enjoys teaching decorative techniques, particularly developing rust on paper and ‘fun’ book making.

Jeanette Bakker and the 'Mark Lander' portable beater

The studio walls are covered in sheets of paper, large and small, made during the residency. Hanging gracefully above the activity are oversize sheets of translucent paper made from NZ flax, the sun shining through from a high window. Leaning against the walls are plastic bags of assorted vegetable matter in varying stages of preparation. Around the back an old electric boiler, a refugee from a 50s laundry, bubbles away, cooking plant matter to break it down to the essential fibres which will later meet their fate in the ‘Mark Lander’ beater.

Janet Michael’s papermaking began four years ago at Primrose with Marie Waterhouse. A teaching potter for 15 years, Janet did calligraphy course and became interested in paper, especially book binding and restoration. While at Bundanon, Janet collected azolla (a water weed) from the Bundanon pond. From the river she took floating native weeds and made paper, then mixed the plant fibre with recycled mountboard and cotton linter for another version of the water weed paper. She found Persoonia sp. bark, boiled it with caustic soda, painting it onto paper as a dye.