This Sunday night we are hosting a shifu demonstration by the very talented Beth Showalter.  It got me thinking about the last time Beth was here and how inspired I was by her drop spindle technique for spinning paper into thread.  At the time I was very excited to test some of my favourite papers to see how they would work as paper thread.  Here are the results – note that each spindle is photographed in front of the paper that was spun!

My first sample was a piece of gorgeous fold dyed itajime paper – I love the variegated effect of the beautiful blues.

Next I tried two different colours of another handmade fold dyed paper called Orizome. I was extremely pleased with the final effect!

Here is some Kurotani #16, this strong washi paper spun into a beautiful strong thread with a lovely texture.

My final sample was Matsuo Kozo #7, this was my definitely my favourite! It spun into a delightfully thin thread that I eventually used in my miniature knit paper dress featured here.

For now my samples sit on a shelf surrounded by some other lovely things that make me happy!

If you are interested in learning more about spinning paper thread (both with and without a spinning wheel!) there are still a few spots left for our demonstration that takes place this Sunday, April 17th from 5:30-7:30pm. There is a $25 fee for the workshop and participants receive instructions, a small skein of spun paper and a piece of washi to take home and experiment with.