Weaving with Paper 30 Projects to Expand Your Creativity with Inventive Techniques, Intriguing Prompts, and Inspiring Works of Art

by Hiebert, Helen

• ISBN13: 9781635867961
• ISBN10: 1635867967
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781635868197
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2025-12-16
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
• More Book Details

Summary

Paper artist Helen Hiebert shares unique paper weaving projects with step-by-step instructions and inspirational prompts for developing a daily practice.

Combining fiber art and paper craft techniques, paper weaving is accessible, sustainable, and fun. Each project in the book includes a prompt, a technique, step-by-step instructions with photographs, and examples that will inspire readers to repurpose, recycle, and reuse papers they may already have, like maps, postcards, holiday cards, or journals. And, because it does not require specialized equipment like a loom, paper weaving really is for everyone.

Prompts and thoughtful questions are designed to help readers find their own creative path. Inspiring profiles and stories run throughout the book, highlighting a range of contemporary paper weaving artists.

Author Biography

Helen Hiebert is a papermaker, artist, and author of books on papermaking and paper crafts, including The Art of Papercraft, Papermaker’s Companion, and Papermaking with Garden Plants and Common Weeds. She teaches papermaking classes and workshops, writes a weekly blog, and is the host and producer of the podcast Paper Talk, which features interviews with papermakers and paper artists. Hiebert's blog, The Sunday Paper, is a resource for ideas and inspiration via stories and examples of people doing exciting, innovative, and beautiful things with paper. She lives in Colorado.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Introduction
Helen’s paper weaving journey began in 2013 when she did a 100 Days of Paper Weaving project to challenge herself to weave every day. This led to her annual month-long course, Weave Through Winter, which has introduced hundreds of crafters and artists to paper weaving. The stories, insights, weavings, challenges, and projects in this book came out of that course. Helen will introduce the idea of paper weaving as a creativity practice, and a way to explore self-expression. The Introduction will also include a sidebar on the history of traditional weaving (cloth, baskets) and the history of paper weaving. 

Chapter 1: Getting Started with Paper, Tools, Materials, and Weaving Basics
Tools, materials, and paper choices. Throughout this journey, the reader will personalize their paper choices from found papers like maps, postcards, and calendars to papers they can decorate themselves with writing or stamping. They may also opt to purchase papers that are available commercially. Foundational paper weaving skills and definitions will be covered in this chapter: preparing strips, the warp and weft, glue alternatives, and other general considerations.

Chapter 2: Your Journey
Helen will introduce readers to the benefits of a daily practice: how to jumpstart creativity, establish a creative routine, master a technique, and create a body of work. Readers will explore daily practice through the lens of paper weaving with exercises geared towards finding inspiration, exploring and inventing methods, enjoying and pondering the process, and sharing and evaluating the work.

Chapter 3: 30 Projects
Readers will take a personal journey as they travel through 30 creative paper weaving projects. Each project will teach a technique. The projects will build on one another, beginning with basic weaving of horizontal and vertical strips and ending with free form weaving. Short quotations throughout will share the wisdom of artists and crafters in a variety of fields who have written about and developed successful daily practices.

Each of the 30 projects will offer:
• A prompt
• A weaving technique
• Step-by-step instructions
• Weaving examples (created by Weave Through Winter participants and/or other paper weaving artists and Hiebert)
• Additional content such as design principles, variations, quotes, reflections, or meditations

Project examples: 
Straight to the Point (weaving straight strips)
Color Your World (two-color triangle weave) 
Merging Lanes (basket weave)
Down a Winding Path (curved and/or shaped strips) 

Techniques explored in the projects: 
Adding Color: one, two, and multiple colors
Adding Light
Circular weaving methods
Creating weaving patterns on graph paper
Curved Strips
Cutting Windows
Exploring the Edge
Finding Patterns and Shapes (in nature, architecture, craft, design)
Holey Weavings
Quilted Weavings (weavings done in sections/partial weaving)
Shaped Weavings 
Spirals
Spreading it Out (using space between the slits and strips as a design element)
Straight strips
Triangles, Diamonds, and Hexagonal Weavings
Using Technology (for design, cutting, flipping)
Using windows to add a shape
Vary the Warp (connect at the top, bottom, top and bottom)
Weave into Imagery (photos, prints)


Chapter 4: Dimensional Weavings and Ideas for Displaying Your Weavings
A series of dimensional projects that incorporate paper weavings, including:
book cover
lantern 
notecards
wall hanging
weaving wall