A Nice Cup of Tea: Lessons learned from a Workshop with Christopher Clarkson in a French Paper Mill

With short, quick steps, Chris was moving a small group of students, closely following behind him. We needed to think, understand, make and watch/see, all at the same time; each one of us in our own little corner, working on our projects but all together around the same subject. He loved the excitement of the hive and threw lines to those clever enough to catch them. Every year he brought a surprise, a mystery to dig into. He seemed inexhaustible. Stuart Welch, who was already organising a workshop on limp bindings and paper as a covering material, was responsible for Chris showing up at our papermill, le Moulin de Verger, one day. Stuart’s workshop reconvened every year for eight years, welcoming professionals from all over the world. The aim was to connect users and a papermaker to try to find a solution to a specific problem. The collaboration between the papermaker Jacques Brejoux and myself had already resulted in the improvement of the quality of handmade paper and cardboard. I was convinced of the relevance of such an approach and very impressed by the arrival in my studio of this living icon that was Christopher Clarkson. The person I met then was a simple and generous man, able to adjust to all kinds of situations, as uncomfortable as they may be, as long as he could have ‘just a nice cup of tea’ twice a day. Could he be more British? My admiration only grew from there, faced with the strength and evidence of his arguments. At first a little off-balance from the seemingly disorganised side of this character who would set everything in motion at the same time, I was quickly seduced by the way he would leave everyone free to find their way. He would drop a few hints; show two or three techniques, book models as well as historic bindings; and off we went, jumping in at the deep end, like little paper boats thrown into the water. How do you fold paper? It may sound rather basic but once you have folded paper with Chris, everything becomes different. You discover a breath, an ease, a control and a power that you did not have before. He did not care how you got there, only counted the result and understanding the goal to be achieved. From one year to another, he would modify his tools to obtain the desired fold. He was always on the lookout for innovations, new tips, different ways of doing things, giving free rein to imagination and creation. What a pleasure to observe and understand what seemed a small detail, absolutely unsuspected until he put his finger on it, only to discover a universe much more subtle and refined than what one could wrongly believe to have been mastered before. But he also knew how to shape his effects and create surprise with his sly and clever eye, right before our smug, sceptical or enchanted faces. What a satisfaction to see that the search for perfection is not only to be found in the stiffness of a perfectly executed decoration, but maybe more in the harmonious choice of materials and the ability to make disparate components work together in harmony, without any constraint, force or adhesive, with the final aim to find the right movement and being. The models and techniques Chris showed us looked quite ‘obvious’ at first. They did not seem too complicated to reproduce, such as a simple and regular sewing. But it soon clearly appeared that his example stood perfectly, without any adhesive, without a gathering slipping despite years of handling. By what magic did he succeed in this tour de force? By the simple, very intimate understanding of what he was doing; by a very precise adjustment of his perception and knowledge of the materials and handskill; by the extreme requirements for the qualities of the raw materials he chose to use. And this was a critical issue for him because each material can offer different possibilities. Today we are so conditioned by the catalogues of our suppliers or by the existence of certain standards that we do not imagine, or we simply forget, that other qualities are, or have been, possible. We spend a lot of time trying to overcome the weakness of the materials on the market and their defects which are not necessarily intentional. Chris wanted to take back control over the raw materials: to know how to recognise them, use them wisely, and decide on their best use according to their very characteristics. Test and choose! Invent our own tests with our own requirements. Master our materials and tools. Learn how to choose tools well and how to