Japanese Kinwashi Paper

Aug 9

When a new roll of Japanese paper arrives, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. This coarse Japanese Kinwashi paper is one of my favorites. It’s 80% hemp fibers, and the network of fibers make an intricate yet irregular pattern that adds an entire new dimension to a drawing. The roll that just arrived is 36 inches wide and 30 feet long, enough to make several of the 36 inch by 90 inch drawings I’m undertaking. These are the largest drawings I’ve tried, and given the method of tiny hatch marks I use, each will contain over a million lines. When I do such tiny hatch marks, the presence of the hemp fibers in the Kinwashi paper makes the pencil skip over some parts, adding yet another element of unpredictability to the drawing.

This particular roll is made by Awagami Papers in and distributed in the United States by Hitomi Papers. Awagami Papers is located in Yoshinogawa village on Shikoku island in Japan. Current owner, Yoichi Fujimori, is the seventh generation of the Fujimori family to lead Awagami.

George Elvin

I'm a professor of architecture at North Carolina State University, where my teaching and research focus on learning from nature about how plants and animals adapt to extreme environments and then applying those lessons to resilient building design.

http://www.georgelvin.com

Japanese Kinwashi Paper

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