Sign on for a live artist-led tutorial on experimenting with craft and design processes using recycled materials found at home. During this fun and informal workshop, artist and MAD artist educator Alayna Wiley will demonstrate how to make handmade sheets of paper using recycled paper scraps.

MAD’s Digital Drop-Ins are for participants of all ages, backgrounds, and skill levels. Following the demonstration, participants will have time to independently work on their project and share with “neighbors” in the virtual class.

All Digital Drop-Ins will be 45 minutes. Registrants will receive an email 24 hours in advance of the program with instructions for accessing the workshop on Zoom.

If you are a Trustee, Patron, or Luminaries member, please contact Catherine Farrell at catherine.farrell@madmuseum.org to receive instructions for joining this program. 

Suggested Materials

• Recycled paper (such as construction or printer paper, newspaper, old mail, white or multicolored paper)
• Two or more large containers (such as Tupperware or recycled 32-oz containers) to make paper pulp variations
• Blender   
• Metal hardware cloth or wire mesh cut to the size of the paper you want to make or a mould and deckle; see details below)
• A large tub wide and deep enough to fit your mould and deckle or cut mesh for your pulp slurry
• Multiple smooth kitchen towels or thick paper towels 
• Multiple flat cardboard pieces (for drying the wet paper)
• Optional: magazines, dried flowers, food coloring, natural dye, photocopies, or print-outs of poetry to embed within your paper

If you’d like to make larger sheets of paper, either purchase a traditional mould and deckle or assemble your own mould and deckle in advance. If you’d like to make flatter sheets of paper, gather a set of four C-clamps and two hard surfaces (such as pieces of wood or cutting boards).

About the artist

Alayna Wiley is a teaching artist at the Museum of Arts and Design and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her goal for art education is to build self-knowledge through creative expression. As a ceramic, paper, and textile designer, she offers strategies for design based on approaching materiality with curiosity. With all ages, she seeks to inspire experimentation and play in order to define our own meaning within the infinite possibilities of form. Wiley holds a Master’s in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art as well as a Bachelor’s in Visual Art and a concentration in Anthropology from Oberlin College. She continued her independent studies at Harvard, The Art Institute of Chicago at Oxbow, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Penland School of Craft, and Haystack Mountain School of Craft. In order to learn traditional crafts from master artisans, Alayna has traveled to China, India, Spain, and Chile. Her work is featured in the Koan Collection in New York as well as on her website at alaynawiley.nyc.