With the structure of our project timeline, choosing to stay in Kochi for six months felt appropriate. The more time that passes, the more we realize that it was a good gut-intuition to create such a long-term residency.


Being here, there was an expectation that we were going to experiment with a variety of weeds that are in the kozo farm. The intention of this was to understand the different textural characteristics each hold, and what becomes a successful and unsuccessful plant to use for fiber extraction. In the beginning, our potential plant candidate was itadori (japanese knotweed). Within the parameters of our project scope, and in relation to North American invasive species, it felt suiting considering it was a plant that was brought from asia. However, itadori is challenging to find in our location. We have been able to feel a sample of experimental paper that was made from itadori which was brittle and coarse. Karamushi was brought to our attention because of its prevalence on the farms for resembling Kozo and attracting boars which like to eat the Karamushi root system. We were hoping to find a plant which would allow us to make paper with a variety of thickness and transparency which we were shown was possible with Karamushi *all thanks to Kitaoka — local papermaker — a huge mentor of ours and a person who has experimented in making paper using various plant materials other than kozo/mitsumata/gampi.
 


Over the past months, our focus has shifted towards the plant karamushi. From here, time is neccessary for our development. Everyday after weeding, we sit down to process the material that we have harvested, and everyday we’ve adjusted in ways to peel, dry, and store.

• Slow processes → how its developing throughout our time here

• Slight differences in experimenting with paper

• Thinking about the material, and thinking about the development of the process and understand the timeline for sustaining over time

• The importance and struggle of documentation