Elaine Koretsky

Now Departed Papermaking Champion
1932—2018

Elaine Koretsky was a papermaking pioneer, an internationally respected scholar, and a fearless adventurer who infused passion, energy, and creativity in everything she did. 

In 1974, Elaine made her first sheet of paper at age 41, hoping to make use of the prodigious amounts of sawdust generated from her basement woodshop. But after researching this idea and reading John Mason’s book, Papermaking as an Artistic Craft (published in 1963), she concluded other plant fibers would be more suitable and was inspired to experiment with plants from her garden. She was immediately mesmerized by the process. She quickly outgrew the kitchen papermaking studio, and when the next door neighbor had a garage sale, Elaine bought the garage. Carriage House Handmade Paper Works was established in 1975 in the distinctive stucco structure, built in 1904 for one of the early cars (horseless carriages) in the town of Brookline, Massachusetts. The studio focussed on the making of special papers for artists and printers as well as paper art. A full range of workshops on all aspects of papermaking were conducted by Elaine, her daughter Donna, and numerous acclaimed guest instructors. Students from all over the world participated in the annual two-week Papermaking-in-Depth workshops.

In these early years, Elaine’s papermaking curiosity was insatiable; she was constantly experimenting and researching; taking a university course in paper chemistry, and gleaning valuable information from her scientist friends in the paper industry. She also began to grow her extensive garden of plants that were historically used in papermaking. Elaine soon became an authority on handmade paper, combining her interest in papermaking and horticulture and producing paper from every plant imaginable (she even grew cannabis in her garden in the 1980s); she pulp sprayed a 16-foot square sheet of decorative paper; she conducted workshops at her studio; and taught as an invited guest lecturer all over the world. Her works in paper were displayed worldwide.

An early offshoot of the studio was the establishment of the Carriage House Press. Its first publication was the book documenting the International Conference of Hand Papermakers in 1980, an event of which Elaine was the chairperson. The next publication, in 1983, was Color for the Hand Papermaker, a manual providing technical information in regard to the coloring of paper pulp. In 1985, A Gathering of Papermakers was published and contains important articles on papermaking written by various artists that had been invited to the Carriage House to attend a small gathering of paper enthusiasts. The Goldbeaters of Mandalay by Elaine and Donna Koretsky was published in 1991 and documents the amazing papermaking observed by the authors during their numerous journeys to Burma. A special edition was letterpress printed using Carriage House Paper for the covers and end papers and included numerous samples of Burmese papers.

As her career in papermaking blossomed, Elaine developed an interest in the history of handmade paper. Her particular focus was seeking out isolated hamlets of papermaking, usually involving a family or families in a village which had passed on their unique methodology of papermaking for generations.  Elaine correctly reasoned that as modernity brought roads to formerly isolated villages, the young generation would move to the cities or develop other interests and be unwilling to continue the family’s papermaking traditions, and that hand papermaking would die out.  

For 30 years Elaine, along with her husband Sidney, travelled all over the world, concentrating on China and Southeast Asia, and painstakingly ferreted out remote locations of hand papermaking, traveled to those villages, and studied the specific indigenous techniques of making paper in that area, often forming lifelong friendships with the papermakers and her guides. Elaine, with the help of Sidney and Donna, documented in writing, photography, and video the specific techniques of each location.  She would invariably acquire not only the unique papers made but also the tools used in the process. She used her witty persuasion to convince the flight crew to allow her to carry fragile and unwieldy items onto the plane including a Tibetan butter churner (for dispersing pulp), and Burmese deer antlers (for smoothing pulp).

In 1994, Elaine established The Research Institute of Paper History and Technology, a nonprofit organization, also known as the International Paper Museum, located in her carriage house, which exhibits her vast collection of papermaking books, handmade paper, and papermaking tools and artifacts from all over the world. She used the Dewey Decimal System to classify her enormous book collection and every item was methodically entered into a database. The Museum staged four major exhibitions, documented with color catalogues.

Elaine is perhaps best now known for the seventeen papermaking documentaries that she produced, as a result of her travels and firsthand research around the world. These important films are owned by numerous libraries and learning institutions throughout the world. Favorites include the Burmese Festival of Paper Fire-Balloons and Sheet Formation Around the World -1976-2002. As of September 2020, these films have been made available for all to view on youtube.com using the channel International Paper Museum. Elaine narrates all of the films and hearing her distinct Boston accent is a bonus.

Elaine was the author or editor of seven books, including Killing Green-An Account of Hand Papermaking in China, published by the Legacy Press, Chinese Handmade Paper, published by Bird & Bull Press and numerous articles. For 18 years, Elaine wrote the column, Along the Paper Road… for the Hand Papermaking Newsletter.

She was an active member of NAHP (formerly the Friends of Dard Hunter) and not only did she attend nearly every meeting since its beginnings in the 1980s, but she frequently gave spirited lectures and demonstrations.  In 2001 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Friends of Dard Hunter.  Elaine was also an active member of the IPH (International Association of Paper Historians), attending all of their biannual conferences and inevitably giving programs and in 2008 she became an Honorary IPH Member. She was also a participating member of IAPMA.

— Donna Koretsky

Excerpts of this essay were originally published in the winter of 2019 issue of Hand Papermaking Magazine (volume 34, Number 2) from the article ‘Elaine Koretsky: In Memoriam’ by Donna Koretsky.