Papermaking Workshop

Papermaking Workshop

This free, hands-on papermaking workshop invites participants to explore how history is recorded and preserved through everyday materials.

Hosted at Wave Pool, in collaboration with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, this community centered workshop encourages participants to become architects and authors of their own histories. Used as source inspiration, the Freedom Center’s recent acquisition of the personal memoir of Elleanor Eldrige, a free Black woman who established herself as a successful businesswoman and landowner of the nineteenth century, will anchor the experience. Trudy Gaba, Social Justice Curator at the Freedom Center, will ground the historical significance of Elleanor’s personal account and the importance of individuals as recorders of their own history in times of erasure and revisionism.

Christian Casas will facilitate the workshop, guiding participants through the fundamentals of handmade papermaking, including pulping, forming, and pressing paper, while working collaboratively in a studio setting. Through creating their own sheets by hand, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the papermaking process and leave with unique, handmade pages to use in future workshops or personal projects.