AS GOOD AS OUR TOOLS: EQUIPMENT AND TOOL MAKERS FOR HAND PAPERMAKING

Ann Arbor, MI: The Legacy Press, 2025. softcover. Papermaking. 10 x 7 inches. softcover. 304 pages. For over two millennia, humans have made paper by inventing, improving, and adapting a range of tools and equipment to effectively create the best product. In the 20th century, European-style hand papermaking experienced a revival made possible by specialized studios and tools. This field of creative hand papermaking is small but robust, enabled by a key group of people: the toolmakers. These skilled makers build the equipment and tools essential to making paper by hand but receive little attention. This survey of fifteen makers across four continents gives center stage to these remarkable people, illuminating their personal paths towards these niche practices. Unfortunately, only a few are training successors while they age into retirement, even as interest in hand papermaking booms, but their stories inspire renewed commitment to learning how to make things - and, more importantly - how to make things work. Here, we listen to their voices, bring sustained attention to their vital contributions, and encourage a new generation of builders and tinkerers to advance hand papermaking. With 390 images.



The people that Lee writes about detailing their critical contributions to the craft are:

- Beater Builders: Helmut Becker (1931-2024), Howard Clark, Lee McDonald, David Reina, Peter Gentenaar, Mark Lander, and Robert Woodruff

- Traditional Mouldmakers: Ron Macdonald (1933-2017), Serge Pirard (1974-2024), Claudine Latron, Timothy Moore

- Contemporary Mould- and Toolmakers: John Gerard, Bob Walp, and Alejandro Geiler, Brian Queen



Aimee Lee is an artist who makes paper, writes, and advocates for Korean papermaking practices as an Ohio Arts Council Heritage Fellow and Midwest Culture Bearer Awardee. Her Fulbright research led her to establish the first hanji studio in North America, to write an award-winning book, Hanji Unfurled (Ann Arbor, Mich.: The Legacy Press, 2012), and to establish an active studio practice that includes jiseung, joomchi, paper textile, botanical paper, and natural dyeing techniques. Her Fulbright Senior Scholar research focused on bamboo screens for hanji-making in Korea. She travels the world to teach, exhibit, and serves as a resident artist while also building and enhancing studios for Korean and East Asian papermaking.