Waterfalls evoke childhood memories of family trips to iconic National Parks where waterfalls were my Mother’s delight. Water has a strong spiritual dimension as the source of life in many traditions. Trees by streams of living water feed my soul. The Waterfall Series uses Joomchi, fabric, and thread to explore these themes.

A workshop at Penland School of Craft introduced me to the Korean paper manipulation process of Joomchi, a traditional way of combining mulberry paper and water to create a fabric-like material. In Asia, paper was used to make ritual objects to honor ancestors and in Shinto shrines to communicate the sacredness of nature, especially rocks and trees.

To prepare the mulberry paper for Joomchi processing, I use a variety of techniques: distressing the paper with a rock, marking it with a soldering iron, pricking it with holes, machine sewing on it (with and without thread) and burning holes in it. Thread and scraps of mulberry and other paper or fabric can be added to the mix while processing. The attraction of Joomchi is that the result of these manipulations cannot be known until the process is completed.