Journals

When Sandra Hansen became an Eco artist in 2014 she began painting about environmental issues. She then moved to creating art from plastic bags.  Sandra wanted to become more environmentally sound in her art practice. In 2015 she fell in love with the magic of creating something translucent from leaves and bark. Handmade paper is completely environmentally sound and can be absolutely gorgeous. Its rich texture and its delicate gauzy effects are amazing. Paper has the ability to bring alive the horrendous problems of water pollution simply by putting plastic bags into the pulp. Paper is exceedingly versital as well and can be used in many multimedia objects and hangings. 

         This is a sample of the hundreds of handmade journals that I have made. Many of them have original art on the covers using a large variety of mediums from oil paint, to oil pastels, handmade papers, wallpaper samples, found objects, colored pencils as well as many others. The text blocks are made in India from 100% cotton scraps from T-shirt factories in India.  The journals come in three sizes, 10x7 inches, 7x5 inches, and 5x4 inches. Journals can be commissioned for a particular person or subjects.  Workshops can be arranged with four or more people from ages 8 years old to senior citizens and all ages between.  Workshops are fun for Birthday parties, Women's Night Out, and any other group.  

           After taking a papermaking class at Kendall College of Art and Design in 2015, I fell in love with papermaking. Last October I was invited to an artist residency in India where I had the opportunity to work for a few days at the Kagzi Industries, a family owned, ecologically sustainable papermaking factory.  Kagzi Industries makes paper from cotton scraps from T-shirt factories into paper. They do not use dangerous chemicals and they recycle their water over and over again. Their paper was made into sheets, journals, stars, and many other items.  I decided to buy some text blocks and put my own handmade paper and drawings on the covers. 

            Each journal is completely unique. I use drawings, cropped paintings, handmade papers, fabric, and other papers on the hardback journals and sketch pads. The papers and fabrics are glued over backing board that I cut to size. The covers then get a variety of added details such as bookmark ribbons, closures, and feathers. The text blocks are then glued in with ecologically sound and archival wheat paste glue, or PH glues. Not only are the journals unique but they use recycled, upcycled, and repurposed materials. They are beautiful to behold, beautiful to hold, write, draw, paint, or put photo graphs in. They hold inspiration and hope in their spines. 

Sandra Hansen, MFA  

ARTNOMAD