Joyce Schmidt, 1942–1991, artist and papermaker, founder of Uncle Bob’s Paper Mill.
Los Angeles born artist Joyce Schmidt emigrated to Israel with her family in 1969 and settled in Be’er Sheva. On sabbatical with her husband in 1977, she studied paper making at the Long Island studio of Douglas Morse Howell. Howell grew his own flax behind his house in Oyster Bay and supplied paper to many of the prominent artists of the time.1Smith, Roberta, Douglas Morse Howell, 87, Artist and Papermaker, New York Times, Feb 12, 1994, section 1, p. 10. Through Howell, Schmidt met Robert Leslie, whose long-time dream to bring papermaking to Israel dovetailed perfectly with her own and as the story goes, he wrote her a check immediately. Back in Be’er Sheva in 1978, Schmidt began to set up shop on the spare, unpartitioned second floor of an old Turkish railway station, already home of the city’s Visual Arts Center. With essential assistance from a local kibbutz and even Tony Eichenberg, who found a Hollander beater for the nascent operation, Schmidt founded the Uncle Bob Leslie Paper Mill in early 1979. Schmidt inaugurated a yearly international conference and gave workshops at the mill.2Avrin, Leila, The ‘Uncle Bob Leslie Paper Mill.’ Bookman’s Weekly, Clifton New Jersey, December 16, 1985, p 4500–4506. She pioneered, and with her colleague Nellie Stavisky wrote about, the use of thymelaea hirsuta (mitnan, a plant Bedouins had used for making ropes) as a fiber for making paper and is remembered for bringing the art and craft of paper making to Israel. Her impact continued to be felt long after her premature death, through her own work and that of her students.
In 1983, Ismar David junketed with The Typophiles to Israel, where Uncle Bob’s Paper Mill was one the many stops on their itinerary. In the spring of 1985, Joyce Schmidt visited him in New York, if a meeting at a dentist’s office can qualify as the venue for a visit for anyone other than the dentist. David designed a watermark for the mill.
Also shown: Joyce Schmidt and Nellie Staviskly’s paper about the use of Thymelaea Hirsuta, published in 1983.
ב״ה
22 May 1985
Dear Izmar:
Thank you so much for meeting me at your dentists this morning. I’m looking forward to our next meeting whenever and wherever that will be ב״ה it probably wont be at the dentists!
I wanted you to have the few enclosures—with our “compliments.”
The label I enclosed because after I got back Nellie said “what about a letter head?” Well, we’ve never had one & I guess we could continue to get along without one but if we do have one for a standard mailing sheet about 8 x 12 9 x11 I couldn’t think of anyone I’d rather have design it, Izmar. So I presumptuously attach the label below for the information it contains rather than as an example of a suggested design—for your consideration.
Respectfully & with regards to Dorothy
JOYCE SCHMIDT