Hannah Lane

Wood and Paper Artworks

Summary
I am an award-winning wood and paper artist employing traditional
woodworking techniques to produce tactile bespoke artworks for exhibition, installation, and commission. My process combines two materials that began at the same source – wood, a material of longevity and paper, a short-term material that I recycle into a solid material to create
a new shape and texture, thus extending its journey. As the pieces are hand worked each material’s grain exposes the consequences of my working actions, revealing the unseen internal imprint as the surface is scraped away.

Background
I began working with paper in 2002 after accidentally leaving a book out in the rain, which led to the development of the award-winning Paperwork. I could not bear to throw away my ruined book and decided to reuse it. I had previously specialised in woodworking during my degree and transferred those wood working techniques to the paper.

Recycling has always been an important element to me within my work, so to be able to create a technique using the printed pages of unwanted books and paper that no longer had a use, became a defining factor within my practise.

I handmake each item in my Nottinghamshire studio, beginning by making the material, each page is layered and transformed back into a solid wood like block. Traditional woodworking methods are then used to shape the objects; the unique surface patterns on the paper when the objects
are worked can never be recreated and echoes wood grain; wood becomes paper becomes wood.

In 2019 I came full circle and began combining paper with wood. The relationship between the two materials is taking me on a new journey within my artistic process. By continuing the working practise I previously employed with each material independently, I have married the two with stunning results. I am fascinated by the expansion and contraction of
the two materials and how they move in different environments, once they have been worked together into an object.