Amanda Degener

Amanda Degener (she/her) is a leading figure in the hand-papermaking field who educates through writing and publishing. She travels to teach and exhibit her work in the United States, Japan, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Korea, and Taiwan/China. At the invitation of Tsinghua University (Beijing, China), Amanda established a hand-papermaking studio, where she occasionally teaches.

At Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Amanda was first the artist-in-residence (1984–1987) and the first Artistic Director (1997–1998). She worked at Hand Papermaking, a biannual magazine which she co-founded/co-published (1985–1992) with Michael Durgin. Amanda began Cave Paper casually in the 1980s, then officially co-ran it with Bridget O’Malley from 1994–2017. Cave Paper (1994–2020) is a mill known for its durable flax and cotton papers, often dyed with combinations of black walnut, indigo, red iron oxide, or persimmon. Cave’s papers are desired by artists, bookbinders, and fine publishers worldwide, as indicated by an increase in production from 1990 (400 sheets per year) to 2019 (10,000 sheets per year).  In 2020, Cave Paper moved to Tucson, Arizona, where it is owned and operated by Zoe Goehring.

Degener is now a full-time artist, making books under the name HMPeditions.

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