jen thario

My current project, Street Paper, involves an exploration of creating with free, widely available and often wasted local resources. All materials for this project are scavenged in 96822, which includes my residence, the university and places between. I find fiber naturally shed from local plants and botanicals such as palms, ferns, hibiscus and plumeria and break down the fibers without the use of chemicals. Most of these I find in the street or sidewalks. I combine these fibers with forms of paper which are difficult or impossible to recycle locally such as fiberboard packaging, toilet paper roll cores, junk mail and other discarded papers I find. Astrobright and other heavily colored (flyer) papers are used to dye the pulp. Various combinations of pulps and fibers are then recast into handmade paper on moulds built from salvaged wood and fabric.