Fine Art Online graduate hosts collaborative workshop on the art of paper
30 September 2025
Interdisciplinary artist, handmade papermaker and recent Fine Art MA (Online) graduate Becca Edwards hosted a workshop here at Falmouth University earlier this month exploring the intimacy and intricacy of paper as a material and art form.
Entitled Beyond the Sheets, the collaborative workshop came as part of Falmouth’s Illustration and the Paper Artefact conference, where illustration scholars and practitioners came together to discuss how paper enhances the process of illustration. The workshop encouraged those who took part to engage with rag paper and pulp in a new way while reflecting on material consciousness, craftsmanship and sustainability.
We chatted with Becca to learn more about her practice and how her time studying at Falmouth was a “rigorous and rewarding” experience that cultivated her confidence and refined her creative practice.
Can you tell us more about the conference and your involvement in it?
I submitted my workshop proposal after hearing about the event from my online course leader, Josie Cockram, and I was delighted when it was accepted. The aim of the workshop was to foreground paper pulp as a creative material, not just as a substrate. It’s a material that has memory, feels alive and actively participates in the creative process. My intention was to make a space where participants could experience the agency of the material through making their own sheet of rag paper.
What did the workshop cover?
I began with an introductory talk that gave participants an overview of the final major project I created for my master’s. It outlined the critical framework of the research and how it influenced my creative process, particularly around ideas of tacit knowledge, material consciousness and collaboration.
From there, the workshop moved into a hands-on session with handmade rag paper pulp. Participants were guided through the processes of handling, forming and experimenting with pulp, while being encouraged to treat it as not only a craft material, but as a conceptual artefact. We reflected on how pulp can hold memory, record gesture and reveal the hand of the maker.
To deepen this exploration, I wove in short excerpts from my Beyond the Sheets podcast. These recordings brought the voices of previous workshop participants into the room, adding layers of reflection and conversation. Together, this created a dialogue between making, listening and thinking — positioning pulp as both a practical medium and a vessel of meaning.
How did you find your time studying Fine Art MA (Online)?
My time as a student completely immersed me in contemporary creative methods and critical theory while giving me the opportunity to question and expand my own artistic practice. The online format connected me with a diverse community of artists and thinkers, which challenged and enriched my perspectives. It was both rigorous and rewarding, a space where I could experiment, reflect and develop confidence in positioning my work within a wider critical and creative context.
What did you enjoy most about the course?
I loved how everything I learned gradually came together in a meaningful way during my final major project. The connections between practice, theory and experimentation became clear, and that sense of integration was very fulfilling. I also loved the reading lists; they opened new ways of thinking, and I often found that a single text would spark ideas that carried directly into my creative process.
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