A graduate of Brooklyn's prestigious Pratt Institute, Andrea Tucker-Hody was already an accomplished printmaker when she enrolled in her first papermaking workshop nearly twenty years ago. Papermaking has since become a major component of her life. She also studied at San Francisco's Experimental Institute of Papermaking and Oakland's College of Arts and Crafts, and apprenticed at a mill in Echizen Valley, Japan.

Her work was profoundly altered when she began combining traditional Japanese papermaking with elements of printmaking. "I'm attracted to the dichotomy of opposites," Tucker-Hody explains. "I like blending ancient craft with modern techniques, and mixing organic with synthetic materials."

Andrea describes her (Washi) handmade paper assemblages as "papestries." Layered and textured, they are hand dyed fiber poured and laminated onto flexible screens, often including Byzantine coin transfers and architectural elements that are hand-drawn and gold-leafed. Her work with its Asian and Euro-Western influences are decidedly Pacific Rim.