The Fyber Cafe

After posting about my most recent not-so-masterpieces, the paper pulp Ugly Jugglies had a tantrum. They did not like their new nickname, so did their best to spiff themselves up. And this is what they came up with. Their creator has decided to rename them based on their defiant attitude and have nominated them now as the Smugly Jugglies. Plus see if you can find the spy - aka Tommyknocker (I had to add in a rock somewhere). Good name ya think?

On my daily walks with my sheltie I typically bring home found objects for my paper collages. Recently my found prize was a recycle bin filled with brown paper pulp shipping forms. I took the forms home, ground them up in the blender with water, added white glue and other found stuff, slopped the pulp over vases, bowls and other kitchen forms and then made brilliant masterpieces. Just kidding. Mostly they became lessons on a steep learning curve. I call them my Ugly Juglies. And if that’s not enough to curb my humility I might have to make more vessels, perhaps a batch of Ugly Muglies.

Today I finished some paper pots. The glass pots are covered with very fragile paper from a wasp nest that I collected this spring from under my deck. I made a point to use large pieces to keep the swirls intact as much as possible to make the pots to look like the nest ball. The black paper on the rim is my handmade paper. The tassels are twisted wool yarn and the large pot has a woven band I bought in Peru. I also finished a flat ancient-looking pot with my handmade papers, some ink and black painted burlap backing. It reminded my of all our travels in Utah’s canyon country with the Anasazi ruins and relics.

I finished my little Peruvian Burial Dolls collage! I used burlap backing, a reused wooden frame, my handmade paper, and these delightful and precious little dolls found at my local Goodwill. From my research, I believe the dolls are reconstructions of ancient dolls which had been buried along with Mayan family members in Peru, with the technique and most of the fabrics coming from the 1000+ year old graves themselves. The dolls are made with an assemblage of fabrics collected last century near the pilfered graves. The graves had been raided over the last few centuries (where more valuable items have been stolen) and the fabric pieces abandoned and scattered on the ground. The dolls had been sewn together on a 1/2 inch thick backing piece made with rough fabric and filled with crunchy plant fibers. I feel grateful to have found them and able to celebrate their adorable sweetness as well as preserve their history. The last two photos show the first Peruvian Burial dolls I found years ago in a Denver import shop and then mounted them on my handwoven fabric and a wood frame. The third photo shows a close-up of the dolls and you can see the rough primitive nature of the ancient fabrics.

Hi y’all - this week I ran out of dog hair commissions so had a welcome chance to play with my handmade papers. On the left is a batch of new greeting cards I decorated with paint and other stuff. On the right photo are three new woven collages with my papers and ammonites (fossils), with the lower right piece decorated with some rusty sweeper-truck brush-bristles I found in the street gutters on my daily dog walks. The lower left piece in this photo is still an idea - I scored the little family of Peruvian burial dolls from Goodwill and looked them up on AI. These are replica burial dolls made with last century’s dolls clothed in ancient fabrics rescued from pilfered burial sites in Peru. I hope I can conjure up a collage worthy of their millenial-plus history.

Holy shamoli look what my neighborhood biome has gifted to me! After my son’s sting when last we inspected this humongous paper wasp nest under my porch in late 2025, I vowed to tame the herd. Er hive. So today I grabbed at stick and donned running shoes and heroically vanquished the under-porch beasties straight on. Hence no more stings or freeBee abode (so to speak). The basketball-sized nest came down and I collected all the fiber remnants. What spectacular paper fiber gifts they were! I am eager now to do another big batch of handmade paper and see what these paper-thin beautiful layers of locally-derived papery stock will create! I am simply the medium and they are the creators. Stay tuned!