japanese paper up close - really close!

japanese paper - well i first came across it when i bought a beautiful origami paper set. folded exquisitely and layered with absolue precision, it was a wonder to behold and begged me to leave it sealed in its cellophane wrapping. a lovely background and history of japanese paper making can be read and viewed here.

if you'd like to see a video of how japanese paper is made the look here but first a warning - this is extremely labour intensive stuff and may make those of you reclining on your cushion of ease feel restless and fidget a lot!!

so my header suggested that you're going to get to see japanese paper up "really close". well i tell you no lies. microphotography has long held me in devoted fasination of its incredible revealing of the very very tiny bits of our world that comprise larger bits which we can actually see with the naked eye.
although it looks like a close-up of a bag of grass clippings, charles kazilek's laser microscopic image of japanese paper reveals just how randomly ordered even some of the plainest things are--especially when magnified a hundred times.
kazilek studies both the art and science of fine papermaking at arizona state university. fluorescing as a result of the microscope's laser light, the "green" and "blue" fibers' compositions and structures are exposed.

if you are anything like me then your appetite for these kinds of images has only been whetted and so i'd like to share an extraordinary compilation of microphotography images right here.