Pulp & Deckle portland's papermaking studio

  • Home
  • Studio Offerings
    • Workshops + Events
    • Custom Orders + Shop
    • Resources
  • Residency
  • Blog
  • About
    • Contact
  • Support
  • Home
  • Studio Offerings
    • Workshops + Events
    • Custom Orders + Shop
    • Resources
  • Residency
  • Blog
  • About
    • Contact
  • Support

Moving Time

2/23/2018

3 Comments

 
Picture
You may have heard the good news, we're moving! At least, our studio is moving. A rental space recently became available at Disjecta Contemporary Art Center and we decided it was worth exploring.  

The new space will more than double our square footage, but it will also add a monthly rental cost. We believe this investment in improved space with climate control, public restroom, improved electrical, etc. is worth the increased cost as we can provide better services to our students, artists, and creatives in our community.

In the past we've talked about the increased cost of real estate and living in Portland, and the impact it's made on our choices. That's what prompted us to crowdfund the purchase of a food truck in 2016 and turn it into a mobile studio. We also remodeled our garage into a home based studio in 2017. In other words, we adapted. 

Before we tell you more about the new space and our goals for the coming year, we should probably take a look back. Last year was one of extremes. Here's a look at what we did.

  • We worked with 4 amazing artists via our partnership with the c3: Papermaking Residency (can't wait for their exhibition at c3 this spring!) 
  • We hosted classes with our mobile studio for our Kickstarter supporters, at Portland Community College, and at the Bamboo Garden.
  • Jenn used the mobile studio to bring her grant funded art project, Fruits of the Sun, to life via 10 pop-up portrait drawing sessions utilizing our handmade paper.
  • Many artists and students rented our equipment both at our home studio and via our mobile studio. 
  • We attended our first artist residency as Pulp & Deckle at Lone Pine Farm. 
  • We went to our fourth Friends of Dard Hunter conference in Atlanta, GA at the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking at Georgia Tech.
  • We made custom orders for a variety of projects including paper and pulp for artists and businesses, stationary, and journals. 

All wonderful and positive things! But unfortunately life sometimes takes a turn for the worse, which was our experience in August 2017. Less than a week after Jenn had an exhibition of her Fruits of the Sun project at Portland Art Museum, and just a few days into working with our August residency artist, Jenene Nagy, an arson event took place at our home. We lost both our personal vehicle and the mobile studio to extensive fire damage, and we did not have comprehensive insurance coverage on either vehicle, meaning they were total losses.

In most ways we have been able to recover from this scary, mentally and financially destabilizing event. But we won't sugar coat that the end of 2017 was not easy. It felt like our confidence and momentum hit a brick wall. There was so much wonderful support from our friends, family, colleagues, and sometimes strangers, and that made a world of difference! Ultimately we needed time to process and heal. And for awhile there we were definitely in shock. While we would like to close this chapter and focus on our our move, there are still some lingering details to deal with. The suspected arsonist has been identified and is pending trial for which we will likely testify. And we're also still trying to find a junk yard that will tow away the mobile studio from our driveway. Because of it's size we're not having any luck finding a place that will take it. Let us know if you have a connection that would be able to help! 

If you've been following our progress over the last 5+ years, you might wonder how we're able to afford to rent a studio space. First off, our personal finances are a bit more stabilized thanks to our day jobs. Gary is now the Administrative Assistant at Arts People, an amazing Portland based ticketing and fundraising software business, and Jenn is a Project Manager at c3:initiative our partner for the residency program, and an inspiring arts non-profit organization. Secondly, at the end of 2017 we secured fiscal sponsorship status from Fractured Atlas so that we can receive charitable donations to support our studio as it evolves. We are putting our most recent donation funds towards the purchase of a folding table and a refrigerator. If you would like to support these types of studio expenses (rent, equipment, supplies) you can make a secure online donation HERE.

Moving the studio is a leap of faith. We have weighed the pros-and-cons and believe it is the way to put our best foot forward after the loss of the mobile studio. Here's how we hope to grow in 2018.

  • WORKSHOPS! We'll have more space for students and will host workshops in the spring, fall and winter. 
  • STUDIO RENTAL! Our improved facilities will be more accessible for artists and creatives looking to use our tools and equipment. 
  • RESIDENCY! This summer residency artists will take over the studio in full between May-August, giving them increased time to create and explore.
  • CUSTOM ORDERS! We'll continue making pulp for artists, as well as collaborating on custom paper orders. We really want to focus this on fibers that are unique and eco-friendly, such as recycled papers made from post-consumer waste, local plant based papers, and recycled textile papers. 

As we see how the year goes we also hope to add in some low cost and FREE drop-in events to grow our community and get more people engaged with the art and craft of hand papermaking. We are so excited, and of course a bit nervous, for this next chapter! As always, BIG THANKS to all who have been there with us through thick and thin. We couldn't do this without each and every one of you!!! 

3 Comments

    The Studio

    Pulp & Deckle is a handmade papermaking studio located in Oregon.

    Archives

    November 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    December 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    August 2019
    December 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    February 2018
    October 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    December 2013
    September 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012

    Categories

    All
    Arts
    Beards
    Bears
    Bubblers
    Chickens
    Coloring Book
    Culture
    Custom Orders
    Disjecta
    Displacement
    Donuts
    Dragon Boat Racing
    E-newsletter
    Experimenting
    Free
    Gentrification
    Growth
    Hand Papermaking
    Horse Hitching Post
    Illustrations
    January 2020
    Jenn Woodward
    Keeping It Weird
    Kickstarter Rewards
    Life
    Marbling
    Megan Hanley
    Mountains
    Naked Bike Ride
    Oregon
    Papermaking Residency
    Paper Sculpture
    Pets
    Plant Paper
    Portland
    Products
    Quitting Your Day Job
    Rags Make Paper
    Real Estate Costs
    Shop
    Small Business
    Studio Space
    Studio Update
    Support
    Tax-deductible Donation
    Workshops
    Year In Review

    RSS Feed

OREGON CITY, OR