RADICAL CRAFT

Seeds InService
2014

Blog: seedsinservice.blogspot.com

Seeds InService: A Papermaking Institute is an initiative of Melissa Potter and Maggie Puckett to explore the intersections of the art of hand papermaking with gardening, social practice, community engagement, and creative pedagogy in The Papermaker’s Garden.

By planting heirloom vegetables and flowers also usable for papermaking fiber from the Hull House Seed Library, this project honors the legacy of Jane Addams, a Nobel Prize winner, and underrepresented American historical figure who founded The Hull House in 1889. Domestic and culinary crafts were central to Addams’ radical social reformism. Many of the immigrants who came at the turn of the 20th Century were puzzled by their new non-native plants and animals, and were too poor to buy good quality food. Today, most Chicagoans have the same lack of information about sustainable food practices.

The Seeds InService project includes:

• A series of hand papermaking programs open to the public using fiber created from the Hull House Seed Library;

• Distribution of Hull House heirloom seeds embedded in handmade paper from the garden with planting instructions, recipes for the harvested produce, and manifestos about the radical culture of Hull House’s women leaders;

• A series of educational programs featuring artists speaking on topics relevant to art and its interaction with social practice and reform. Examples include Melissa Potter’s lecture on the history of hand papermaking and radical craft in the US (from a course she teaches at Columbia College Chicago); and Maggie Puckett’s The Big Here, an interactive artistic project on local histories.

Maggie Puckett and Melissa Potter in Caracas, Venezuela, 2011.

The Papermaker's Garden at Columbia College Chicago.

Sample of handmade paper embedded with vegetable seeds.