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Hi Friends!

I’m very excited to let you know about two workshops:

🥚 February 22, 2025: day-long class at Kala in Berkeley, California
🥚 April 27–May 2, 2025: multi-day workshop 4/27–5/2 at Penland School of Craft in Western North Carolina (about an hour from Asheville).

Over the years, I’ve been asked whether I ever teach paper art, and the answer is now yes! I have several workshops under my belt via Kala, an art space in Berkeley, CA, and Chronicle Books, for whom I created a workshop for their design team retreat last fall. So I can now confidently say that yes, workshops are a thing for me. I no longer feel the urge to throw up in nervous-teacher-anticipation every time I drive past Kala (this was not infrequent, as they’re right by my favorite grocery store). So, I think that means I’ve gotten even a little used to it.

In both courses, I will be covering the basics of paper cutting technique, as well as creasing, curving, and gluing. There will be a portion dedicated to thinking about how to translate an object into paper form (Which details do you include? How do you best represent it in paper?) and a good chunk of time for making your own paper food.

By nature of it being multiple days, the course at Penland will go into more detail, giving you time to sink your teeth into the craft within a beautiful book arts studio. You’ll have meals together as well as the option for housing on campus in the beautiful mountains, making it more of a ✨retreat✨ (here’s a video I made on IG about Penland). Both classes will give you plenty of opportunity to ask questions, pick up tips and tricks, and troubleshoot with me.

Kala Art Institute: Intro to Paper Art
Saturday, February 22, 2025
10AM–4PM
Kala Community Classroom in Berkeley, CA
$145 class fee (scholarship tiers and Pay It Forward amounts also available)
$12 materials fee due at class

→ Register here for the class at Kala!

Penland School of Craft Paper Potluck
Sunday, April 27 to Friday, May 2, 2025 (4 studio days)
Penland School of Craft in Bakersville, NC
$1,184 tuition + application fee + housing/meals (Registration Info)

→ Register here for the Penland Workshop

A little bit of recent paper art

I’ve always wanted to send New Years postcards to folks, as it’s a Japanese tradition I admire. A simple postcard, called nengajyo, usually with the year’s zodiac animal (2025: Year of the Snake), sent with a few words of greeting. This year, I finally got my act together—by which, ironically, I mean that I was very relaxed and had time on my hands and my paper scraps and tools with me over the holidays—to make a few. New Year’s (celebrated on January 1 in Japan) is hands-down my favorite holiday. It’s full of traditions and is a day spent with family. So, for my cards, I made one depicting toshi-koshi soba (soba eaten on New Year’s Eve to “cross over” into the new year), roasted mochi (lots of households including ours make mochi around New Years. It’s often roasted until gooey and charred, served with soy sauce and nori), persimmon (not really a ritual, but a winter fruit), and kagami mochi (a stack of two large mochi topped with citrus that adorn many households). That last one is below, and you can view the rest on Instagram.

Until next time!

Reina