So what have I been doing lately, besides traveling?

Well….I am about to introduce my brand new line of ART CARDS.

Korean mulberry paper

These cards are especially fun because I can work with the wide range of raw materials available to me, which are varied and profuse.

After all, I have been learning new techniques with various fibers for decades, and all those fabrics and papers and hybrids thereof are in my considerable stash.

To name a few:

• hand-dyed natural fibers: cottons, linens, silks
• vintage ribbons and trims
• buttons from around the world
• hand-dyed silk ribbons
• Korean papers I manipulated into “fabric”
• designer fabrics such as Akihiko Izukura, Nuno and Marimekko
• original watercolor paintings
• and more…..

Silk organza and hand-dyed silk ribbons

It is a delight to revisit some of these materials and remember the times when I created them. As I sew them onto the special watercolor paper cards, it is like a mini-journey into my past art and fashion experiences.

For example, the delicate hand-dyed Korean mulberry papers in the card above: I spent two weeks in a workshop with a Korean paper expert, Mrs. Kim, learning to manipulate stiff mulberry papers until they were so pliant that I could make a garment with them. I sat quietly in a U.H.-Manoa classroom, massaging those fibers with loving hands. No English was spoken – only Korean.

So I went into a Zen state and, in many ways, it was like two spa weeks for me.

Hand printed calligraphy cotton and hand-dyed ribbon.

I’m hoping some of my Zen-like experiences may “rub off” for those who purchase the cards and those who receive them.

Please come see my new – and very inexpensive – art form on November 5 and 6 in Kaimuki.

– Paula Rath