On a last minute recommendation I ran up to Holbourn yesterday for the penultimate day of this one week show 'Beauty in the Making'- which as it happened turned out to be one of the best exhibitions I've seen. The space, curating, enthusiastic and passionate staff got my visit off to a happy start but the displays, demo's, interaction and participation just blew me away. This exhibition by British papersmiths GF Smith takes you from raw materials, process, treatment, design and colour. I saw paper making, had a go at printing, made three envelopes, saw the original drawings for Gill Sans and talked to many people who are super skilled and passionate about what they do. The signage for the exhibition was presented as A1 piles of coloured paper with the top sheet laser cut and folded over to show you where to go or what you're looking at; simply genius. I came away with samples, colours, swatches and booklets as well as my own efforts at printing and making, all tucked away in a colourful printed bag. If this exhibition was meant to inform, inspire and enthuse, it has achieved its goals. A beautiful treat on a wet Thursday afternoon. And now I'm in the studio and wanting to make everything out of paper!
Paper makers- http://gfsmith.com/
