Arnold Grummer's Design Team Blog

Let's embrace the imperfect, and find beauty in the cracks and crevices. ( At the age of 56 I am learning to embrace a lot of imperfections, lol )  Let's celebrate the Wabi-Sabi in our life that patiently waits to be discovered. I have enjoyed for many years the Japanese philosophies of accepting what we call flaws as something valuable instead. When I made my paper casted bowl I could only see opportunity and not disaster in the tear along the side of the bowl. I am a firm believer in Wabi-Sabi which then gave me the chance to experience the art of kintsugi . I "repaired" the tear with gold leaf. I painted a line of Helmar Super Tack glue along the crack and then used 14 karat gold leaf to cover the "flaw" to simulate the kintsugi method. The art of kintsugi "The Japanese have a long tradition of repairing pots with gold; it’s called “kintsugi” or “kintsukuroi”. “The term “kintsugi” means ‘golden joinery’ in Japanese and refers to th...

Easter is fast approaching ( and hopefully the snow is finally beginning to melt away ) so it's time to start thinking springy thoughts to chase away the winter blues!  I really enjoy making dioramas so this year I made one to hang up on my wall.   "A diorama is a scene, often in miniature, reproduced in three dimension by placing objects, figures, etc., in front of a painted background." - Dictionary.com However, mine is against a decoupaged napkin that I adhered into my bowl with Helmars Decoupage & Craft Paste.  (  using artistic license perhaps ? ) I love my little butterfly that I made from a sheet of my handmade paper with an origami fold.  This butterfly is made from a ½ sheet that comes out of the small handmold. I did find that the thinner the paper, the easier it was to fold it so keep that in mind when preparing your pulp to make your paper. ( Please visit   here   to find the steps and supplies to make your own paper usin...

There are so many things that you can do with handmade paper!! Today I'm making containers—small bowls that can be used for home decor display, a personal treat dish, or as part of a desk set to hold paper clips, rubber bands, etc. I used two similar, yet different methods for these bowls. For the rose petal inclusion bowl and the blue oval bowl, I started with a piece of handmade paper that I'd made some time ago following these basic instructions . Both of these papers were on the heavy side. I wet them on both sides by passing them under a gentle stream of warm tap water, first one side then the other. I worked quickly because I wanted the paper thoroughly moistened, but not disintegrating into pulp. The thinner your paper the gentler the stream of water needs to be so as not to tear a hole in the paper. Next, I formed the wet paper over the bowl/mold. There were places I needed to pleat and overlap the paper to make it fit snugly. The square, pink bowl was made using th...