In 2001 Nancy Thayer traveled to Duszniki Zdroj, Poland for a week-long residency at the Museum Papiernictwa, a museum and paper mill dedicated to maintaining the process of making paper by hand. The mill, one of the oldest such mills, was established in 1490 and continues to produce paper. There, Thayer worked with the museum’s expert papermakers to produce the paper for this series. Upon returning to her Detroit studio she applied steel infused primer to protect the fibers and cold ferric patinas to activate oxidization. This body of work merges disparate elements: the apparent fragility of paper and the strength of steel, the rusted surface patina and the pictorial illusions associated with painting.