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Introduction to Papermaking Intensive is a combination of our beginner level Playing with Colour in Papermaking Class (previously named “Deckle Box Papermaking”) and our one day Introduction to Papermaking Short Class. Students will learn sheet forming with fibres such as cotton and abaca and explore the differences of pulling with a laid mold and a woven mold. Techniques such as laminating, shaped sheets and inclusions will also be introduced, in addition to pour mould / deckle box papermaking—a high walled mold and deckle that is placed in a container of water allowing the pulp to suspend when dropped in. This method allows individual pulls of different coloured pulp, mixes of different fibres and/or found materials to be part of the final sheet.
Students will leave this course with hand-pulled custom sheets of paper and enough knowledge to continue exploring paper at our intermediate / advanced level.
Saturday, October 24th and Sunday, October 25th, 2026
Instructor: Emily Cook
This is a masks required class.
or
Saturday, November 28th and Sunday, November 29th, 2026
Instructor: Flora Shum
This is a masks optional class.
2 day class, 5 hours each, 11am - 4pm
Level: Beginner, no experience required.
Artist-Instructor Bios
Emily Cook is an artist who works primarily in handmade paper exploring memory and loss through manipulating the processing of fiber into objects that often look more found than made. She studied printmaking and papermaking at OCAD University and Louisiana State University. Her practice includes book arts, large scale sculpture, and print media. She runs Paperhouse Studio with Flora Shum. As a low vision arts worker, she is active within disability arts and crip culture. She lives in Toronto with a lovely roommate and lots of books.
Flora Shum is a Hong Kong born-Tkaronto/Toronto based artist, educator, and cultural worker. She co-runs Paperhouse Studio, where she carries forward the vision for paper as a medium, and leads arts-based programming for underserved communities. She is the Artistic Director at CARFAC Ontario, supporting advocacy for artists’ rights. Her artistic practice is experimental and collaborative by nature, with roots in papermaking, printmaking, and book arts, extending to found objects, sculpture, and installation. Her art utilizes these mediums to explore alternative histories and archives, alchemy, multiples, mass-production, cyborgs, and slow labour.
She has exhibited locally and internationally, including Toronto (ON), Whistler (BC), New York (NY), Hong Kong, Kinngait (NU), and London (UK). Flora has facilitation experience at OCAD University, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto Public Library, University of Toronto, Central Technical School (Toronto, ON.), Peter Pitseolak School (Kinngait, NU.) and Attagoyuk Ilisavik (Pangnirtung, NU.).
