Raven's Paper Jewelry - Raven Murie

This is what Raven Murie [edit: Etsy shop link is no longer active] of Ohio has to say about paper... "It is endlessly interesting. The things that can be done with it... I've cut it and folded it, colored and crumpled it, sewn and torn and dipped and glued it, painted and pierced and done everything to it but eat it."

Currently she uses durable flax, abaca, and other fibers to make paper from which she creates one-of-a-kind wearable art pieces. Because handmade paper is durable and lightweight, it's a perfect material for earrings.

Cerulean Flower Earrings

These ruffled blossoms are shaped from premium flax fiber.

Umber abaca fiber earrings

This pair reminds me of tiny dancers wearing floaty dresses.

You might be fascinated to hear from Raven about her main occupation:
"By day I work at repairing phone lines --- climbing poles and slinging ladders around. One thing I was happy to discover: copper phone wires and paper make fascinating partners. When flax paper dries around wire, the magic is complete. The paper shrinks, buckles, and makes all sorts of interesting wrinkles.

By the way, if you happen to know (or if you yourself are) another woman doing the job I do, let me know. I'd love to meet a sister/tech. The guys I work with are great, but it would be even cooler to meet someone more like myself."

Ribbed Aurora Swirl

Raven made this colorful pair from highly beaten abaca fiber. She applies earth pigments in crayon form to the wet surface of the strong abaca sheets just as she pulls them from the vat.

I asked Raven how she happened to start making fibrous paper: "I came to papermaking by chance: my weaver's guild offered a one-day workshop in papermaking and it caught my fancy for a time. A few years later I had a chance to take a college course taught by the printmaking artist, Julie Harris, and by the time the quarter ended, I was truly launched. I read everything the local libraries offered and began to collect and build papermaking equipment so I could continue to explore at home."

Jellyfish

And yes, this pure flax paper pair really do resemble jellyfish with swinging tentacles! Raven often turns to nature as inspiration for her designs.

"In my own house there are lampshades I have made over the years, reflecting the paper I was producing at different stages. About three years ago I hit upon a technique I liked so much for its undulations and organic character that I started experimenting with making it in miniature. The earrings began there. I have made other jewelry forms that I wear myself: hairpins, hatpins and decorative pins, still in the trial stages."

Green Spires

Here she sculpted and stacked handmade abaca and flax papers and interspersed the layers with silvery-blue glass beads. Raven says the paper discs are flat when wet, but as they dry, they take on all sorts of interesting curves.

Plum Cape Earrings

These do look just like little, swishing capes, don't they? She makes them with pure flax paper, and again, adds pigments to the pulp at the vat stage, which makes the color permanent.