On the Critter: a Revolution for Small Studio PaperMaking

Last Fall, I was going through a terrible withdrawal after my access to two beaters 24 hours a day at Women's Studio Workshop. I was despondent as I could conceive of no way to get a Hollander and couldn't even get an electrician to hook up the garbage disposal and tub to chew up pulp.

Yes, I had been to this land of yearning before, each workshop at Carriage House had left me with a long list of wants. But it was this time of sustained living with, and using a beater that took me over the edge.

Mark Lander, artist, inventor and soul enhancer, (bless him, in New Zealand, radiating joy) created a portable Hollander beater, enabling small studio papermakers to have this essential tool. For me it means, that I will never be without pulp, and it means I will never be without quality pulp. It extends my palette and saves me oodles, because now I don't have to have pulp shipped to me... and as a capital-challenged fulltime creator, the Critter is a dream come true.



I equate the Critter to the creation of the small glass furnace in the 60s by Dominick Labino and Harvey Littleton, which made the Studio Glass Movement possible. Glass makers no longer had to be incredibly wealthy or connected to industry to create their objects.

The Critter means folks who don't have $7500 to plunk down for a beater, might yet get to realize the range of possibilities of pulp. Critters start at less than one-tenth that price, even when including the costs for: shipping and handling, the motor purchased separately,the steel wheeled cart housing mine (McMaster Carr), the fan belt, and the electrician.



Having made my first batch of pulp and molded it into tiles, and now many more. all I can offer is praise!! I offered praise just at the idea of it, but now that I've experienced its quiet efficiency, I'm just all a-pulped with gratitude.

Akua 3/31/02










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