During this wonderful 3-week National Artist in Residency at Blue Line Arts, Roseville, California, I had a very enjoyable time making some new art with handmade paper using local plant materials as well as presenting an exhibition of handmade paper artworks I created in 2024 and 2025 and teaching a 2-day workshop in making handmade paper from local plants and a Zoom/hybrid workshop on International Opportunities for Artists. I also gave an Artist Talk about my work, and there were several receptions and opportunities to interact with local people and gallery visitors during Open Studio times at the Blue Line Arts Center.
Below are some images of my residency experience at Blue Line Arts taken by my husband Timothy S. Allen, who came with me and documented the residency in Roseville. This residency program has outstanding support for the selected artist, and it was an inspiring and productive time. I highly recommend this residency that is sponsored by the Placer Community Foundation and the Susan Cooley-Gilliom family to bring different artists there each year for the SCG National Artist in Residency and Teaching Program. The next call for artists is available now at this link: https://www.bluelinearts.org/scg-national-2026
All images of my September 2025 residency at Blue Line Arts are by Timothy S. Allen (allentimphotos2.wordpress.com).
Jane and Open Studio visitors in gallery with her exhibition, first week of residency.
Here are more photos from the last week of my SCG Artist in Residency at Blue Line Arts, Roseville, CA.
On Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 13 and 14, 9 participants came for the two-day workshop in hand papermaking from SCG Artist in Residence Jane Ingram Allen at the Blue Line Arts Center in Roseville, CA. The participants prepared plants gathered locally, cooked them in alkaline for three to four hours, washed out the alkaline after cooking, and beat them to a pulp by hand with wooden hammers and then finished the pulp preparation by mixing the fibers and water for a few minutes in a kitchen blender.
The plants we used in this workshop were cattail leaves, white mulberry bark, Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) and Bird of Paradise leaves. We also used some already prepared blue jean pulp (cotton), kozo (paper mulberry) and abaca (a banana leaf relative) dyed orange. The participants learned Jane’s modified Japanese style sheet forming technique and many other techniques for layering and embellishing handmade paper artworks. We couched the newly formed handmade paper sheets onto non-woven interfacing fabric and then hung them to dry outdoors. Here are some photos taken by my husband Timothy S. Allen of the two-day workshop.
The workshop participants were all very creative and enjoyed working together in the wonderful indoor and outdoor studio space available at the Blue Line Arts Center. Jane will be continuing her artist in residency through September 26 and trying some other local plants for hand papermaking and making some new works inspired by her time in Roseville, CA. This week she has a tour group visiting from a local college and Open Studio on Thursday and Fridays from 12 – 2 pm and the Artist’s Talk and Reception on Saturday, Sept. 20, 4-5pm (lecture) and 5-7pm (reception). Check out the website of Blue Line Arts Center for more information about the Susan Cooley Gilliom Artist in Residency and Teaching Program at Blue Line Arts Center: https://www.bluelinearts.org/scg-national-2025
The public is invited to come visit with the artist and see her exhibition during gallery hours Tuesday through Saturdays, 11 am to 5pm. The public is also invited for the Open Studio times and for the lecture and reception. Jane will continue working at the Blue Line Arts Center through Friday, Sept. 26. More photos will be coming soon of this hand papermaking artist in residency.
I am happy to be selected as the National Artist this year for the Susan Cooley-Gilliom (SCG) Artist in Residence and Teaching Program at Blue Line Arts Center in Roseville, California. I’ve been in Roseville almost a week now putting up an exhibition of my recent work with handmade paper and getting started with Open Studio times from 12-2 pm on Thursdays and Fridays and preparing for a hands-on community workshop this weekend to make handmade paper from local plant waste materials such as leaves and bark.
Here are some photos of my exhibition in the Education Gallery at Blue Line Arts Center in downtown Roseville (https://www.bluelinearts.org/scg-national-2025). The exhibition is open to the public Tues. through Saturday, 11 – 5, now through Sept. 26, 2025. The photos were taken by my husband Timothy S. Allen; Tim is with me in Roseville for this project. My exhibition contains 16 handmade paper and mixed media installation artworks I created in 2024 and 2025 that focus on fire and water and use plant fibers and natural threads with holes and controlled burning.
The public is invited to come in to see more of the process during the Open Studio times on Thursdays and Fridays 12 Noon to 2 PM, and attend the artist’s talk on Sept. 20, 4-5 pm, with reception following 5-7 pm at Blue Line Arts, 405 Vernon Street, Roseville, CA.
I will be teaching a workshop “Plant to Paper” using local plant materials on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 13 and 14, 10am to 4pm at the Blue Line Arts Center. I’ve been busy locating possible plants to use and gathering the materials with the help of my brother and sister-in-law, John and Tina Ingram, who live in nearby Sacramento, CA. Here are some photos taken by my husband Tim showing some of the plants we will be using for hand papermaking in Roseville. The Blue Line Arts Center has an excellent studio space for the artist in residence and also an alley just outside the studio space that works great for cooking and beating the plant materials to a pulp to make paper. Participants in this 2-day workshop will learn the whole process starting from the gathered plant waste materials and ending up with unique place and nature connected handmade paper artworks.
Here are some photos taken by my husband Tim of some of the plants we will be using for hand papermaking in Roseville. Check out more of the photography of Timothy S. Allen at (https://allentimphotos2.wordpress.com)
More photos will be posted soon from the Plants to Paper workshop and also of the new artworks I will be making during my 3-week residency in Roseville, CA at Blue Line Arts Center.
Location of Classes: Jane Ingram Allen’s studio, 5017 Maiden Lane, Santa Rosa, CA 95409, phone 857-234-2432, email: info@janeingramallen.com
Registration: To insure your place in a class, send a check made out to Jane Ingram Allen for the class fee by mail to the address above, or use PayPal (www.paypal.com) to “send money” to info@janeingramallen.com with a credit card or bank transfer. Class size is limited to 5 people, and registration will be confirmed after receipt of the class fee. For more information call, text or email.
Schedule of Classes
Celebrating Kozo and Japanese Papermaking
Dates: Saturday, October 18, 10 am to 4 pm
Class Fee: $175 (includes materials and equipment)
Learn to make paper with Japanese Kozo (paper mulberry bark) and other plant fibers in the Japanese way to create unique handmade paper that can be super thin but still very strong and used for everything from clothing to sculpture. This class will use some of the Kozo fiber I order from Mino City, Japan, where I was an artist in residence for 3 months in 1999 and returned in 2009. Also, other locally-available Mulberry tree fibers and various plant fibers will be used in the Japanese way to create unique handmade paper. We will use an authentic sugeta (wooden frame and bamboo woven screen) as well as Western molds & deckles (wooden frame and nylon screening) and formation aid from powdered polyethylene oxide and from okra juice. The class will cover preparing fiber, preparing the vat, adding formation aid, various ways of sheet forming and drying handmade papers as well as creative and unique ways to use the long fibers of the paper mulberry and other plants. Information about getting kozofibers and a Japanese-style sugeta as well as growing your own fibers for Japanese papermaking will be shared in this workshop. No experience required, but some papermaking experience will be helpful.
EXTREME Papermaking
Date: Saturday, November 15, 10 am to 4 pm
Class Fee: $175 (includes materials and equipment)
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This class will stretch your imagination about the possibilities for handmade paper art. It will cover many unique and non-traditional EXTREME papermaking techniques including making really BIG paper, shaped handmade paper, pouring pulp, modeling pulp, burning handmade paper, tearing it and making holes and other techniques Jane has invented and discovered in places around the world. This class will include making paper thread, making sounds with paper, kinetic paper, living paper art installations and other extreme techniques to enliven your art. Enrich your handmade paper art and expand its possibilities. This class is for beginners and experienced papermakers.
Sculptural Papermaking – Creating 3-Dimensional handmade paper art
Date: Saturday, December 6, 10 am to 4 pm
Class Fee: $175 (includes materials and equipment)
This class will expand your papermaking into three dimensions by introducing various ways to make handmade paper sculptural forms, including use of molds, drying on 3-D surfaces, construction techniques, modeling with pulp and using armatures. We will use abaca, cotton, Kozo and other plant fiber pulps to get different sculptural effects. Participants will create new sculptural handmade paper works that are free-standing, suspended and wall reliefs and come away with many ideas for handmade paper sculpture and installation art. This workshop is for beginning and experienced papermakers and will expand your skills into the 3rd dimension and beyond.
Private Sessions – Design Your Own Private Papermaking Session
Dates: To be arranged between 9 am to 5 pm each day, Weekdays and Weekends are possible, and the cost can be split for two people who work well together.
Private Session Fee: $90 per hour (4-hour minimum) includes use of my studio and equipment and my teaching/consulting services). Materials can be prepared and provided, and a materials fee will be worked out for each participant.
Contact me to design and schedule your own unique session to work in my studio on your next project. Participants must have taken at least one class with me before in order to know how to use the studio and the equipment. This will be a private papermaking session in my studio using the equipment and supplies and pulps that you want to use from my stock, such as abaca, Kozo, cotton blue jean pulp, specific local plant pulps, or others that I can prepare plus any other materials I have or that you want to bring. I will offer advice, encouragement, give suggestions and teach you ways of doing what you want for specific projects that you have in mind. This will be ideal for those who know what they want to achieve but don’t have a studio space or the equipment or the knowledge of specific techniques at this time to work entirely on their own.
About the Instructor:
Jane Ingram Allen is a multi-media artist who does art projects around the world using hand papermaking with natural materials and collaborative processes to raise public awareness about environmental and social issues. Jane has received numerous awards for artist-in-residencies and community public art projects in the USA, the Philippines, Japan, Nepal, Brazil, China, Tanzania, Taiwan, Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia, Switzerland, England and Costa Rica. She was a Fulbright Scholar artist-in-residence in Taiwan in 2004 and 2005 and a Fulbright Specialist in Turkey in 2015. She received Puffin Foundation Grants in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2022 to support her art installations in New York and MA. She has also received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Ruth & Harold Chenven Foundation, New York Foundation of the Arts (NYFA), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), City of Sacramento, City of Santa Rosa, Creative Sonoma and other organizations around the world to support her work. Jane begins her artwork by making handmade paper from local plant waste and using materials and techniques that contribute to sustainable living and improve the environment. Jane is a former college art instructor and writes about art for SCULPTURE, Fiber Art Now and other art magazines as well as doing independent curating. She is the founder of the Black Sheep Handweavers Guild and active in Women Eco Artists Dialogue (WEAD), Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art (NCWCA), International Association of Paper Making Artists (IAPMA) and other art organizations. She also teaches occasionally at other organizations around the world, including at Women’s Studio Workshop, Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, Peter’s Valley School of Craft, Brookfield Craft Center, and Morgan Paper Conservatory as well as at colleges and universities, museums and art centers in the US and other countries. Since 2012 she has been based in Santa Rosa, CA, and continues her work in the US and internationally.
Collaborating Artists Jane Ingram Allen and Jami Taback will present the 6th exhibition of their “In Deep Water” project at Delaware Valley Arts Alliance Gallery, Narrowsburg, NY, June 28 – August 3, 2025.
Jane Ingram Allen and Jami Taback began this work together in 2020 to express their concern about the growing environmental crisis relating to climate change and water, the most essential element for life. “In Deep Water” has been presented at 3 different venues in Northern California and one in New Jersey and also in Taiwan, with new versions and more panels added at each place to make it site specific The “In Deep Water – Confluence” art installation will consist of 27 panels of handmade paper and printmaking with controlled burning that are joined by threads and suspended in space to surround the viewer in a blue watery world where rivers come together, symbolically representing the hope that the world can all come together to preserve the environment and deal with climate change. The presentation in Narrowsburg, NY, will be designed for the DVAA gallery located in the downtown area along the banks of the Delaware River, and the exhibition is happening at the same time as the community’s annual Riverfest celebration of the Delaware River.
Jane Ingram Allen and Jami Taback, “In Deep Water – Rising”, Gallery Route One, Pt. Reyes Station, CA, 2022Jane Ingram Allen and Jami Taback, “In Deep Water – We’re in This Together – Taiwan”, 2023-24Jane Ingram Allen and Jami Taback installing “In Deep Water” at Sonoma Community Center, Sonoma, CA, in January 2022.
My exhibition of 80+ handmade paper artworks created in Santa Rosa and at artist residencies around the world are on view at Spring Lake Village Art Gallery, 5555 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa, CA, till May 30, 2025. The show is open every day for viewing, and visitors should contact Spring Lake Village Art Committee Member, Les Saldanha, saldanhales@hotmail.com or cell phone 707-367-1874.
The opening reception is Saturday, April 12, 3:45 to 5PM with an Artist Talk in the Auditorium and reception in the Art Room immediately following.
Here are some photos of the exhibition at Spring Lake Village taken by my husband Timothy S. Allen.
My Solo Exhibition in Santa Rosa, CA, continues through April 30, 2025, and a new date has been set for the Artist Lecture and Opening Reception.
Jane Ingram Allen – Handmade Paper Art
March 3 – MAY 30, 2025 (THIS EXHIBITION IS NOW EXTENDED TILL MAY 30, 2025)
Spring Lake Village Art Gallery
5555 Montgomery Drive
Santa Rosa, CA 95409
Opening Reception & Artist Lecture:
New Date, Saturday April 12, 3:45 – 5 pm
This solo exhibition is a survey of selected works I created with my handmade paper over the past 25 years. It includes works from my travels as an artist to many different countries and parts of the US as well as works made since moving to California in 2012 to the present.
One of 80+ handmade paper artworks in this exhibition, Fire and Water 6, 36 x 24 inches, handmade kozo and abaca paper, dye, thread, acrylic gel, holes and controlled burning, made in Santa Rosa, CA, 2025.
Hope to see you at the Reception on April 12, 2025! Or, contact me at info@janeingramallen.com or by cell phone: 857-234-2432 to view the exhibition at another time before it closes on April 30, 2025.
Spring 2025 Papermaking Art Classes in Santa Rosa, CA, are all Full!
Contact me at info@janeingramallen.com if you want to receive my Fall 2025 Schedule of Papermaking Classes at my studio in Santa Rosa, CA.
Workshop Participant making paper with Kozo fibers.
Exhibition Announcement:
Jane Ingram Allen and Jami Taback, In Deep Water – Confluenc
Opening reception and Gallery Talk: June 28, 4-6pm
This exhibition will be the 2nd exhibition on the East Coast of our “In Deep Water” project about water and climate change. This collaborative project with printmaking artist Jami Taback began in 2020 and has also been presented at 3 venues in Northern California and in Taiwan. The presentation in Narrowsburg is happening at the same time as the community’s annual Riverfest that celebrates the Delaware River. For more information: https://delawarevalleyartsalliance.org/exhibition/jane-ingram-allen-jami-taback-in-deep-water/?back=ago
Jane Ingram Allen & Jami Taback, In Deep Water – Taiwan, installation of 36 panels of handmade paper and printmaking joined with threads, Live Forever Foundation Gallery, Taichung, Taiwan, 2023-24
The WEAD (Women Eco-Artists Dialog www.weadartists.org) juried online member exhibition “Lands and Symbiotic Futures” has concluded.
I had one work selected for this online exhibition, “Living Leaf for Pepperwood Preserve”, an outdoor installation consisting of a large handmade paper leaf in the shape of a Pepperwood tree leaf with seeds for native grasses in the pulp to grow over time in symbiotic relationship with the land.
Jane Ingram Allen, Living Leaf for Pepperwood Preserve, 3 x 10 x 1 feet, handmade paper, dye, soil, seeds for native grasses, wood boards, 2023-24, installed at Pepperwood Preserve, Santa Rosa, CA
Spring Lake Village’s Covid 19 outbreak is almost over, and the reception and artist’s talk for Jane’s exhibition has now been re-scheduled for Saturday, April 11, 2025.
You are invited to the reception for the exhibition “Jane Ingram Allen – Handmade Paper Art” at Spring Lake Village Art Gallery, 5555 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa, CA 95409. The new date for the reception and Artist’s Talk is Saturday, April 11, 2025. The Gallery Talk will begin in the Auditorium at 3:45 pm, and the reception will follow in the Art Room.
Visitors who want to attend should contact Jane (857)234-2432, email: info@janeingramallen.com or the Art Committee Contact Les Saldanha (318) 557-1434, email: saldanhales@hotmail.com
The exhibition continues through April 30, 2025, and tours can be set up for any day of the week or on Saturdays or Sundays. Visitors should stop at the gate for instructions on parking and how to get to the art gallery.
This image shows one of more than 80 works in the exhibition that Jane has created from 2000-2025.
Jane Ingram Allen, Bali Site Map, 45″ x 78 inches, handmade paper from plants of Bali, threads, acrylic paint and collage with materials from Bali, Indonesia, made at Bali Purnati Center for the Arts, Bali, in 2009.
Because of an outbreak of COVID at Spring Lake Village in Santa Rosa, CA, all events there have to be postponed. The Jane Ingram Allen Gallery Talk and Opening Reception scheduled for Saturday, March 8, 2025, at 3:45 to 5 pm will be re-scheduled as soon as it’s possible to do so safely. Keep watching here for updates, or contact Jane for more information: 857-234-2432 or info@janeingramallen.com
Jane Ingram Allen, “Grid Play” detail, 2024, handmade paper, dye, thread, 24″ x 78″ x 4″
Gallery Hours: M-F, 8:30 am – 7:30 pm, Sat. & Sun. 8:30 am – 3 pm
Visitors should contact Jane or the Art Committee Contact below to schedule a visit or a Gallery Tour. Please stop at the gate for parking pass and directions to the art gallery when you arrive.
Art Committee Contact: Les Saldanha, Cell phone (318) 557-1434, email: saldanhales@hotmail.com
Opening Reception and Artist Lecture for Spring Lake Community Residents and Special Guests
Saturday, March 8, 3:45 – 5 pm. Opening and Artist Talk POSTPONED because of COVID Outbreak at Spring Lake Village in Santa Rosa, announced on March 4, 2025!
Lecture 3:45 pm in Auditorium; Reception in Art Room immediately following.
Jane Ingram Allen, Kinmen Site Map – Blue Butterfly, 48 x 75 inches, two-sided, handmade paper from plants of Kinmen, thread, acrylic paint and gel, other materials collected on Kinmen, made in Kinmen, Taiwan, 2005
Jane Ingram Allen Art Projects 