Papermaking video available

Handmade-paper producers Kathryn and Howard Clark and their Twinrocker
Mill in rural Indiana are featured in this half-hour documentary titled,
"The Mark of the Maker."

Amidst the story of the Clarks' business, the video shows and describes
flax being "cooked" in a caustic liquid to eliminate non-fibrous
portions prior to beating, a home-made hollander beater pounding cotton
fiber to create pulp, various molds being used to form paper, the
hydraulic press squeezing water out of newly-made sheets, watermarks at
various stages of production from on-the-mold to dry, and the Clarks
dipping sheets of paper in vats of gelatin size to produce watercolor
paper.  I saw only a half-length preview of the video, and there is
probably even more in the full version.

"Mark of the Maker" does have a self-promotional feeling to it, and I
wondered about some of the statements made including this one by Kathryn
Clark: "[Fifteen years ago, when we started making paper in the San
Francisco area] paper was the medium that had been forgotten; somehow no
one knew how to make it in this country." Still, the video provides very
nice pictures of the process of making paper.

"The Mark of the Maker," 1991, 28 minutes.  McGowan Film and Video,
Inc.; 4926 North Wolcott; Chicago 60640; 312/271-0793. 16mm film print
$450.  1/2-inch VHS cassette $285.  16mm film rental $125.  Free preview
(15 min.) 1/2-inch VHS.

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 6:34
                  Distributed: Sunday, January 3, 1993
                        Message Id: cdl-6-34-005
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