Papermaking with Invasive Species

with Alyssa Sacora

Saturday, September 20  |  10am - 4pm

Plants are all around us and some can be problematic in the landscape. What if instead of seeing these plants as a burden, we look at them through the lens of craft and make some materials for our artwork?

In this one day workshop, we will go through the process of turning Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) into paper. Working with dried plant material removed from the Arboretum’s landscape, we will cut, cook, and pulp these plant fibers, mix them with cotton, and pull sheets of paper that can be used for writing, drawing, and paper arts.

Participants will get hands-on with each step of the process and make enough paper to take a small stack home. Reference materials will be provided for future papermaking explorations.

Alyssa Sacora is a crafts person exploring plant-based mediums in the form of papermaking, book arts, basketry and natural dyes. She finds inspiration by observing relationships in the wider world. To reduce her human footprint and encourage creative thinking, she primarily works with locally available and repurposed natural materials. Leaves, vines and bark from iris, daylily, kudzu, okra, tulip poplar and willow leaves are often combined with salvaged cotton fabrics to create her palette. Her artistic pursuits are directly related to her lifestyle choices with reciprocity and mindfulness as a guiding force. In addition to and in support of her craft, she tends a 3-acre homestead in Western North Carolina with her husband, Adam. They grow fruits and vegetables, medicinal herbs, and art plants. They use solar electric and solar thermal systems for electricity and heating, collect rain water and continuously look to design their space with sustainability in mind. Alyssa has taught for a variety of organizations in WNC and often utilizes an outside setting to help her students make the connection that we are nature and that our lives are intertwined with the plants, the soil, and the air around us.

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