Washi has been used for centuries, not only as a writing material, but also as a textile, employed in order to decorate interior space and create objects.

For eleven years, you've collaborated together to create luxury objects, crafted using artisanal publishing techniques. What is special about this work?

Laurel Parker: We have a workshop for the design and manufacture of books, but also of objects such as boxes and caskets, where everything is made by hand. We respond to commissions from artists, galleries, luxury houses, institutions and libraries. These are customers who need something that can be both beautiful and extremely well made, while responding to a project-specific design.

Paul Chamard: We've been working together since 2011, and our projects come in waves. They are regularly linked to the art sector, artists' book editions, but we also have projects linked to luxury, which keep the studio alive, especially as in Paris we have access to many companies that demand truly exceptional projects. By hand, it's possible to do a lot of things in small series, and that's what people come to us for.

You were Villa Kujoyama residents in Japan in 2019 and again in 2024. What do you take away from these experiences?

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Laurel Parker : We've done two residencies: first in 2019, then this year, in June 2024. For a very long time, we've both loved washi, which is Japanese paper handmade using fibers endemic to Japan: it's something we're interested in and passionate about because it's a totally different type of paper from what we know in the West. It's a textile-like material that can be crumpled, folded and dyed in specific ways. Thanks to our visits, we were able to understand that washi has been used for centuries, not only as a writing material, but also as a textile, used to decorate interior spaces and create objects. Many of these techniques are disappearing as there is no longer a use for them, but they still exist in the decorative sector.

Paul Chamard: Techniques have traveled through time, but usage today is completely different. There are a lot of popular, somewhat folkloric things that people use for festivals or tourism. Through our research project, we were able to meet with washi specialists and investigate the material in depth. In our first residency, we explored the craft treatments of paper, the gestures and techniques that give it its properties. This enabled us to feed our studio work so that we could use it in our projects in France.

We were able to understand that washi has been used for centuries, not only as a writing material, but also as a textile, employed in order to decorate interior space and create objects.

What has Villa Kujoyama brought you? Has it been instrumental in developing your ties with Japan?

Laurel Parker: This year we started a new documentary project on the uses and reuse of paper scraps. We were able to pursue it thanks to the people we met there. We visited some thirty artisans in the washi sector, for our documentary film and for our interior design projects.

Paul Chamard: The language barrier is very present. Even if we're well received and in the workshops, the Japanese are very open, there's still that barrier. In 2019, Villa Kujoyama helped us to overcome this obstacle and deepen our discussions. This year we were lucky enough to work with a Frenchwoman, who lives in Kyoto and is a distributor of exceptional papers.

Your edition "Regarder les oiseaux", produced with Françoise Pétrovitch, has just been acquired by the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature. How did this association come about?

Laurel Parker : "Looking at the birds" represents our work as a publisher: we invite artists to collaborate with us to create art. Although there's no washi in the project, we've drawn on the aesthetic of ikebana the Japanese flower arrangement.

Paul Chamard : In the meantime, we exhibited our installation Inside Outside (in washi paper) at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature as part of Design Week in 2022, thanks to a collaboration between Villa Kujoyama, the French Institute and the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature. We were able to meet the museum's management and staff, who were interested in our editions, and that's how the acquisition of "Regarder les oiseaux" came about.

In the next few years, all the old craftsmen working in Japan won't be around anymore. I hope this kind of exchange between countries will give more interest to help keep these techniques alive.

Your installation Inside Outside questions the contemporary use of washi. Why did you decide to work with this material?

Laurel Parker: I studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and, on leaving school, I worked as a buyer in an artists' supplies store. That's where I discovered washi. Then I became an artist's assistant in a studio where washi was used, and I realized that this material was incredible, that it felt like fabric. As time went by, I discovered the different treatments in decorative papers and I was fascinated. In the next few years, these skills will disappear: all the old craftsmen who work in Japan will no longer be around, and there will be no one to take over their activity. I hope this kind of exchange between countries will give more interest to help keep these techniques alive.

Paul Chamard: In the history of paper, washi has many natural qualities: fine, resistant, durable... Meeting directly with specialists in this material transformed our working habits and led us to new projects for the workshop.

What are your upcoming projects? Would you like to continue your research around washi?

Paul Chamard : Our exhibition at Sinople gallery ended on October 5. There we presented works developed with the techniques discovered in residency, which were reinterpreted. There were objects related to interior architecture, which can be installed in space as works or materials.

Laurel Parker : The range is called Folded By Hand. Everything is made of washi, which is folded, crumpled by hand, transformed and sewn by hand at our workshop. We also have as a project our film, "Mitsumata Square", which was shot in June 2024 and on which we are working. We hope to have it finished by 2025, but we need financial support for the translations, as the film will be in French, Japanese and English to get a wider audience. The film is about the particular washi used as tools in the making of gold leaf. We also created lanterns, which have been installed at the Terminal in Kyoto since October 16, during an exhibition on the ten years of craftsmanship at the Villa Kujoyama,. They'll also be on display at the Kyoto French Institute: we've printed a QR Code on the lantern, which, when scanned, will link to a trailer for our film.