Hannah Lane (Formerly Hannah Lobley)
I am a wood and paper artist employing traditional woodworking techniques to produce tactile bespoke artworks for exhibition, installation and commission. My process combines two materials that began at the same source. Paper, a short-term material is recycled to create a new shape and texture thus extending their journey. As the pieces are wood worked each material’s grain exposes the consequences of my working actions, revealing the unseen internal imprint as the surface is scraped away. Each unique piece is hand worked, inspired by recycling, my surroundings, memories and experiences.
I began working with paper in 2002 after accidentally leaving a book out in the rain, which led to the development of the award-winning Paperwork. I could not bear to throw away my ruined book and decided to reuse it. I had previously specialised in wood working during my degree and transferred those wood working techniques to the paper. Recycling has always been an important element to me within my work, so to be able to create a technique using the printed pages of unwanted books and paper that no longer had a use, became a defining factor within my practise.
Each item is hand-made by myself in my Derbyshire studio, I begin by making the material, each page is layered and transformed back into a solid wood like block. Traditional wood working methods are then used to shape the objects; the unique surface patterns on the paper when the objects are worked can never be recreated and echoes wood grain; wood becomes paper becomes wood.
In 2019 I came full circle and began combining paper with wood. The relationship between the two materials is taking me on a new journey within my artistic process. By continuing the working practises I previously employed with each material independently, I have married the two with stunning results. I am fascinated by the expansion and contraction of the two materials and how they move in different environments, once they have been worked together into an object.
