The simplest method to make colored sheets of paper is to choose the natural color of a fiber or the color of previously dyed rag to color paper pulp. In the 1970s, artists began experimenting with other methods of coloring paper pulp to make archival art that will last for hundreds of years. These coloring methods, involving high-quality fine art materials and additives, differ from those used in commercial papermaking and are instead more closely aligned with conservation and art practices. Archival dry- and aqueous-dispersed artist-quality pigments are the standard for contemporary fine art papermaking.
Stencils have long been used in printing to print color on the surface of paper. In papermaking, stencils are used to segregate different colors of wet pulp so that they don’t bleed or mix into each other when composing an image. Instead of layering ink, stencils allow artists to apply colored paper pulp, wet into wet, on top of a wet base sheet. Stencils can be made from many waterproof materials such as cookie cutter-like pieces of bent metal with high walls to contain pulp. Plastic mylar sheets can be cut with fine openings to stencil colored pulp lines. A cut mylar stencil can be placed on a wet base sheet to spoon or squirt pigmented pulp into open areas in the stencil. It can also be placed directly onto the surface of the mould to form a shaped sheet of paper that can be couched directly onto a felt or base sheet. As with printing, colors of pulp can be layered to build the completed image.
Jim Hodges,from Returning, 2003.
Collaborator: Paul Wong.
Many artists control pigmented pulp by using cookie cutter-style stencils or cut-mylar sheets to create a composition. Jim Hodges chose a much simpler method and used the natural properties of translucent paper pulp and color.
Hodges offers a distinctive example of how different colors of wet sheets of paper—in this instance, translucent abaca—can be couched one on top of another. By simply layering the wet translucent colored sheets, the overlapping area produces a third color to create the composition.
Installed at the Hudson Showroom in Artpace, San Antonio. Produced at Dieu Donné Papermill.
Polly Apfelbaum, Component of Power to the Flower,2007.
Collaborator: Paul Wong.
Polly Apfelbaum and collaborator Paul Wong squirted pigmented paper pulp into flower shaped openings in mylar stencils on top of black base sheets. By using a set number of shaped stencils and varying pigment colors, they made unique combinations of flowers and colors.
Published by Dieu Donné Papermill for its 2007 Collector’s Series Program.
In Dharmarajika Near and Far, and other similar works, artist Arlene Shechet spooned finely beaten blue pigmented linen-rag pulp into cut mylar stencils placed on top of translucent abaca base sheets. In this process, Shechet built up compositions inspired by Buddhist architectural blueprints.
Collaborators: Paul Wong, assisted by Chelsea Maruskin.
Arlene Shechet transformed some of her two-dimensional stenciled images into three-dimensional sculptures. She wrapped pressed, wet, stenciled sheets around plaster vessels she had made. Once dry, the stenciled sheets were removed from the plaster molds and reattached to create free standing sculptural pieces to complement the two-dimensional work.
Working with Dieu Donné and Pace collaborators, Chuck Close used multiple stencils to build grayscale values in his edition of Self Portrait / Pulp. Starting with dark gray pigmented cotton pulp and concluding with white cotton pulp, each value was applied one layer on top of another to complete the self-portrait. Metal cookie cutter-type stencils were used to lay the dark colors of the base composition. Cut mylar stencils were used to apply the next layers of lighter colored pulp to add highlights and complete the composition.
Created at Dieu Donné Papermill, NY.Printed and Published by Ruth Lingen and Mae Shore (Pace Editions, Inc.)
James Siena,Twelve Circles, Twelve Squares (Black-White),2012.
Collaborator: Paul Wong.
“I like the tension between precision and accident... It’s an inherent quality in papermaking that is utterly real,” explains James Siena.
Siena uses stencils in a printmaking-based fashion to create editions of geometric shapes and rules-based compositions.
The frames of Twelve Circles, Twelve Squares are designed by the artist to further complement his color explorations.
Edition of 10.
James Siena,Twelve Squares (Red-Yellow),2012.
Collaborator: Paul Wong.
Edition of 10.
James Siena,Twelve Circles, Twelve Squares (Yellow-Blue),2012.
Collaborator: Paul Wong.
Edition of 10.
Sam Moyer,Soft Mod 15,2025.
Collaborator: Tatiana Ginsberg, assisted by Amy Jacobs, Katharine DeLamater, SR Lejeune, Margot Bridges, Alejandra Arias Sevilla, Lauren Krukowski.
Artist Sam Moyer created individual grid-like works by applying and removing pulp directly on the paper mould, rather than working on a base sheet. The compositions created on the surface of the mould were then couched onto a felt, pressed, and dried. Paper pieces from this series were used as grid components in an art installation at the Hill Foundation in 2025. The structural grid of the paper complemented its architectural setting.
Glenn Ligon,Self-Portrait at Eleven Years Old,2004.
Collaborators: Megan Moorhouse, assisted by Rachel Gladfelter.
“Remember when you were a kid and one album or song seemed to speak directly to your soul? The singer seemed to have made the record just for you... [Self Portrait at Eleven Years Old] is about how you can become so intensely identified with pop culture figures that they become part of how you see yourself in the world.”
Using black pigmented linen pulp and a mylar stencil cut in the retro Ben Day dot style, Glenn Ligon worked with collaborator Megan Moorhouse to make an image of his childhood icon Stevie Wonder.
Installed on either side of Glenn Ligon’s Stevie Wonder image, eight pages of Ligon’s project Year End Reports reveal another humorous memory from his childhood. Using colored paper and printmaking in a more traditional method, Dieu Donné was commissioned to produce custom paper, which was photo-copy-printed and silk screened with Ligon’s teacher’s reports about his performance and behavior in school.
Published by Dieu Donné. Printed by Luther Davis (Axelle Editions, Brooklyn).
In Lesley Dill’s editioned book, I Had a Blueprint of History, 2012, each sheet of paper and its imagery was custom designed by the artist using lines from Tom Sleigh’s poem. The artist-designed sheets are watermarked, pigmented with colors and metallics, and colored specifically to interact with the printed art and text.
Published by Dieu Donné Press, Inc., and Peter Kruty Editions.
Letterpress by Peter Kruty and Sayre Gaydos. Bound by Peter Kruty Editions.
Jasper Johns,Relakus2in John Cage’s The First Meeting of the Satie Society,1992-3.
Collaborator: Paul Wong.
Relakus2 is based on Marcel Duchamp’s notes and includes eight lithographic studies by Jasper Johns of Marcel Duchamp’s 1919 painting, Bride, and Japanese binding. The title page is an etching on a copper plate printed on specially designed 80% abaca and 20% cotton Dieu Donné handmade paper.
Published by Osiris. Printed by Clary Nelson (Chestnut Street Press). Designed by Benjamin Shiff.
