Printing, paper, collections and care
Reflections on our collaboration by Sophie Risner and Tascha von Uexkull
Back in February 2025 I collaborated with the excellent Tascha von Uexkull, a papercraft artist, workshop facilitator and founder of Assemblage Collective. This manifested out of a need to establish stronger links between students and art organisations which host collectives offering people creative opportunities and places to meet others.
What transpired was an inclusive and warm welcome to The Foundling Museum- where Assemblage Collective currently resides. A look around the collection of the Museum followed by a printing workshop led by Tascha. Students got the opportunity to connect over hands-on making whilst hearing more about how to get involved with Assemblage, being inspired by their surroundings but equally by the wit and technical skill of Tascha.
Tascha is the kind of facilitator you deep down hope for when you build an opportunity for students. She’s keen to push towards genuine, authentic making- using your hands with printing and paper. It’s a return to the ‘practice’ of artistic practice which feels wholesome but crucial as we so often craft professional development opportunities which negate the act of making.
Later in the year I once again came to Tascha with an idea to open our new Creative Wellbeing strand of activity, this strand attempts to unpack what creative wellbeing looks and feels like, how to enact it and how to address creative burnout. This being said I left Arts SU at the very commencement of this work so it may have developed and shifted somewhat. I knew Tascha as a paper-based practice would find fascination in our UAL archive and brought the two together to inspire the workshops planning. My time at Arts SU came to its sad conclusion around this point as we moved north to Manchester with workshop facilitation handed over Lotte a trusted chum and colleague. Having said this I wanted to pick up on this project and ask some hopefully intriguing questions about craft, creativity and wellbeing.
Can you illustrate the role and importance of physically making within your practice, what does that look like and how would others try to incorporate this into their day to day.
Physical making plays a really important role in my practice. As an artist and as a facilitator, I always think through making. I love the freedom of picking up some paper and testing out ideas. I am fascinated by the possibilities of paper both in my personal artistic practice and within my workshops. In a world that deprioritises the tangible in favour of the digital, I see my work as a way of reasserting the power of paper things we can feel and tear in our hands. I am interested too in the memories that paper ephemera holds and the temporary communities that are formed within workshop environments. My work explores papier collé collage and artists’ books that challenge the idea of what a book is or can be, often transforming into paper sculpture.
In terms of incorporating making into your day, I personally find junk journalling incredibly relaxing and easy. You just need to gather together some paper ephemera during your day or over a period of time (e.g. receipts, leaflets, magazines, photos) and start arranging and sticking. I sometimes write on my pages to reflect on my day too. It always helps to have a handy supply of basic craft materials on hand such as a pair of scissors, glue stick, Washi tape, coloured pens, assorted coloured paper and maybe a few stickers and other collage inspiration. I always try to support art shops and local craft businesses rather than places like Amazon and Temu and what I love about papercraft is that you can actually find materials anywhere. Whether it’s packaging, a free magazine on your train journey, something your friend wrapped your present in. Once you start looking, you will start to become a paper hoarder like me!
Creativity is often so hard to pursue- you’ve toed an interesting line between arts programmer, facilitator and artist- how do you keep your practice at the heart of this and not lose sight of who you are creatively when faced with all the organisation and administration?
This is a great question because it is such a challenge! Not just for myself, but for other creative freelancers I talk to. For a lot of us, we wear all these different hats and the transition into an expansive creative mindset when you’ve been up to your eyes in planning spreadsheets isn’t easy! I am always working towards having a better balance in my life, but there are a couple of things I definitely find helpful.
One thing that really changed my relationship with making was when I started renting an artist studio. It’s quite far from where I live but it’s affordable and gives me the opportunity to separate myself from everything else and immerse myself in hands-on making. As a freelancer often juggling multiple projects and deadlines, it’s so important to me to have this physical separation from work.
I also try to schedule ‘artist dates’ for myself, where I will go to an exhibition, attend a workshop, go for a walk in the park, see a film at the cinema…anything really that helps me to prioritise things that make me happy. Often I find creative ideas come out of these activities but I try not to force it. As a freelancer in charge of my own schedule, I find it very hard to switch off so I also find planning these activities as well as scheduling ‘rest/do nothing’ hours, is essential.
The workshop in November which I left in my colleagues capable hands hoped to engage on notions of creative wellbeing, what does that look like to you?
Yes, that was a lovely workshop! We worked with the UAL Archives to inspire students to create their own ‘paper archive’ in the form of a handmade envelope book.
In my opinion, this workshop really encapsulated what creative wellbeing means to me. After exploring the archives and various warmup activities, which I always think are so essential to ground people into a creative space and mindset, it allowed for a period of uninterrupted making time.
In this time, participants were able to express something personal in the format of the experimental book, which provided creative possibility as well as structure and limitation. I think creative wellbeing is about self-regulation and, as a facilitator, creating an atmosphere of unpressured encouragement. Sometimes too much direction is stressful and inhibiting just as too much freedom can be overwhelming, so I think a balance of creative guidance coupled with an invitation to explore is so important.
What I loved during this workshop was that, as well as lovely moments of interaction between Assemblage Collective members and UAL students, there were equally beautiful moments of silence. This immersion in the act of crafting, the way time passes unnoticed, the phones ignored, the ‘to dos’ blissfully forgotten for a moment…that is creative wellbeing at its most vital in my opinion.
Assemblage Collective Instagram
All images Violeta Campos Reveilleau courtesy of Arts SU
The workshop was eventually overseen by Lotte Dawson on my behalf
This workshop formed part of the Arts Programme Teams Creative Wellbeing strand of work