--- title: "Papers | Crucible Year" url: https://peteryuill.art/papers description: "The fourteen papers of the Crucible Year: when each was used, what each is made of, and what came out on it." source: generated from the Crucible Year master database --- FIG 01 ## The year Every rated work is one ray, in the order it was photographed, round Bangkok's three seasons from the first batch in December 2025 to the latest. The longer the ray, the higher the rating; solid rays are V23, hollow-tipped ones V23 lite; the inner tracks are the five axes and gaps split the batches. Ring by ring lays the same works out as tiles, one ring per quality, to follow one quality round the year. FIG 02 ## The rising floor Each quality V23 reads, as a channel through the year. Every work is a mark at its rung; the banks are the floor and the ceiling, where the lowest and highest tenth of the works sat at the time. A weir marks the day a quality stepped up for good, and the notes name what the Oracle found held. Read the lower bank: the weakest works improved more than the strongest. FIG 03 ## Pace and surface The pace of making, as a pulse: for every day of the year, how many works had been dated in the fortnight before it. The shaded storms are the bursts, the busiest quarter of the year. Below the line the batches answer: the Material and surface rung each was given, and how often the reads found a water stain. Batch against batch, this is the strongest pattern the Oracle has found in the practice itself. FIG 04 ## Flaws Every flaw V23's five reads named, drawn as it behaves on paper. The sheet shows where the reads placed them, every kind together; below, each kind with its own sheet and, along the year, the share of each batch's reads that named it. V23 lite names no flaws, so the early months are absent. Hover the sheet for a zone, or a batch for its share. FIG 05 ## What goes with what Every finding is a strand from a fact on the rim to the score it goes with. Cyan goes with higher, ember with lower. The bright strands held up; the haze behind them are leads, still to be tested on new work. A fact read over several windows (3, 7 and 14 days) is one point on the rim. Hover or tap the rim to follow one fact or one score. FIG 06 ## Five reads V23 reads every work five times and takes the middle. Each work here is a column of five marks per quality, one per read, in the order the works were photographed: a column that sits as one block was a clear call, a split column a close one. Above, how few changed reads would have moved the rating a full point. Below, the rungs the measurement caps took away, and the run whose batch rated furthest above Peter. FIG 07 ## Two engines V23 reads the studio photographs; V23 lite reads the older phone photos. Thirty works were read by both. On the left, each of those works as a strand from its V23 rating to its V23 lite rating. On the right, the factors the Oracle tested against both ratings that went somewhere, each a needle: up for higher, down for lower, its two halves the two engines. Where the needle runs straight the engines agree. FIG 08 ## Against the pattern From everything measured about a work, the Oracle predicts each score V23 gave it. These are the works that broke the prediction furthest: the hollow mark is where the profile said the score would be, the solid one where V23 put it. A fall is a work that measures well and was read low; a leap, the reverse. Hover or tap a work to see it. FIG 09 ## Each paper, its own year One constellation per paper, grouped by how the paper is sized. Each ray is a painting on it, at its date on the year's clock (December at the top, running clockwise) and long for a high rating: solid rays V23, hollow tips V23 lite, a red dot Peter's own rating, the base dot his early triage. Inside, the five qualities V23 read on that paper against every paper (dashed), and a ring of the inks it took. Beside each, the spread of its ratings and what the Oracle found about the paper itself. Papers were used in different months, so read these as portraits, not verdicts. Hover or tap a ray to see the painting. FIG 10 ## Beliefs under test Each lane is one belief about the work, tested against the whole archive. The dot is what the data says now, the line its uncertainty, and the faint trail behind it where the same test stood in each of the Oracle's earlier runs. Right of the band the data agrees, left it disagrees; a "no effect" belief holds while its dot stays in the band. FIG 11 ## The words How often Peter's own writing reaches for each idea, per thousand words, from the first records of the practice to the Crucible year. Each phase is a layer laid down on the last, oldest at the bottom; each idea a vein whose width is how often it was written. The marked shifts held up: a rise or fall too large for chance across the sections written in those periods. FIG 12 ## The sky over the table The year drawn against the real sky. The rim carries the twelve signs; inside it runs the band of sky the Sun crosses, with its actual stars, constellations and Milky Way, which have slipped almost a sign from the signs named after them. Every painting sits where the Sun stood on the day it was photographed, its ray long for a high rating, so the year runs from Capricorn round to Libra and the dark arc is the part still to come. Inside, the planets' paths across the same days, each drifting outward as the year goes on so that where a planet doubles back (retrograde) it draws a loop; the Moon's face on every photo day; and at the centre the Moon itself, from real imagery, as it stood that day. Hover or tap a painting to see the sky on its day; hover a planet for what the Oracle found about it. FIG 13 ## The sky, and a borrowed sky Every sky pattern the Oracle recorded, drawn as stars above the horizon, and below it, like a reflection, the same tests run on a borrowed sky: the real positions with their dates moved half the record away, so they belong to no painting. Each mark is one pattern, placed by its strength; the large stars passed as signals, and each is named. The dashed line on each side is the other side's outline, flipped across: if the planets had a hand in the work, the sky would outgrow its reflection. The two shapes almost coincide. Hover or tap a mark to find its twin. FIG 14 ## The Oracle's own year The Oracle has run several times as the archive grew. Each ring is one run, the first at the centre; each finding a thread out from the run it was first tested, lit where it held as a signal, dim as a lead, dark where it fell to noise. The outer dark is what the Oracle could not test at all. Materials · Papers # The year, told through paper. On absorbent paper the sheet decides as much as the hand: how fast ink is drunk, how far it spreads, whether a second wash crosses the first or dissolves it. Every paper of the year is registered with its maker, fibre, weight and date of manufacture, and every painting with the paper it was made on. [The inks](https://peteryuill.art/inks). ![A pyramid of rolled ink paintings on the studio table, their spiralled ends facing the camera, with the towers of Bangkok behind the window] Paintings of the year, rolled · the studio, Bangkok · 2026.05.17 14 papers registered, 14 used this year 42.4 to 49.7 grams per square metre, computed from pack weights for the 5 papers weighed 2012 the oldest stock: Huiyun Tianxuan Ge "Dot Ink Becomes Gold" Master Special, semi-cooked (self-sized, aged), first used 2026.10.16 1 day the shortest life: S8, closed after ten paintings broke apart [1 On the table](https://peteryuill.art/papers#table)[2 What each paper is](https://peteryuill.art/papers#specimens)[3 Two editions, one name](https://peteryuill.art/papers#lighter)[4 Known and assumed](https://peteryuill.art/papers#sources)[5 What came out, and each paper's year](https://peteryuill.art/papers#out) 1 ## On the table. Papers ran side by side, not one after another: in February, eight were in use within the same weeks. Then in April a premium line of bark papers from one mill arrived within ten days, and from then on it carried about two paintings in every three. WHEN ## Photo days, paper by paper. Each dot is a photo day, sized by how many paintings on that paper were photographed. Rows in paper-number order. Select a paper for its full record. 2 ## What each paper is. Weight is computed from each pack's weight and sheet count; sizing, fibre and production date come from the maker's card. Unknown means unknown: nothing is filled in by guesswork. [S1 Unknown semi-sized Xuan maker unknown WEIGHT not weighed SIZING Half-raw lightly sized: holds a wash, still takes the brush FIBRE not recorded AGE AT FIRST USE unknown 1 painting, 0 shown · 2025.12.29 to 2025.12.29](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S1)[S2 Tanxi Thickened Grade A 3-Foot Half-Raw Anhui Jingxian Tanxi Xuan Paper Art Products Co., Ltd., Jing County, Anhui WEIGHT not weighed SIZING Half-raw lightly sized: holds a wash, still takes the brush FIBRE not recorded handmade AGE AT FIRST USE 6.3 yr made 28 September 2019 29 paintings, 1 shown · 2026.02.01 to 2026.04.19](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S2)[S3 Tanxi Thickened Grade A Special Jing Pi Small 6-Foot (raw) Anhui Jingxian Tanxi Xuan Paper Art Products Co., Ltd., Jing County, Anhui WEIGHT not weighed SIZING Raw unsized: drinks ink fast and spreads FIBRE not recorded handmade AGE AT FIRST USE 10.2 yr made 19 November 2015 50 paintings, 24 shown · 2026.01.28 to 2026.05.14](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S3)[S4 Tanxi Thickened Grade A Half-Raw 6-Foot Anhui Jingxian Tanxi Xuan Paper Art Products Co., Ltd., Jing County, Anhui WEIGHT not weighed SIZING Half-raw lightly sized: holds a wash, still takes the brush FIBRE not recorded handmade AGE AT FIRST USE made 2024 first used 2026.01.24 53 paintings, 12 shown · 2026.01.24 to 2026.04.26](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S4)[S5 Qing Yi Raw Xuan, water-damaged Jingxian Sichijian Xuan Paper Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd., Jing County, Anhui WEIGHT not weighed SIZING Raw unsized: drinks ink fast and spreads FIBRE not recorded handmade AGE AT FIRST USE unknown 25 paintings, 0 shown · 2026.01.20 to 2026.05.10](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S5)[S6 Qing Yi Half-Raw Xuan Jingxian Sichijian Xuan Paper Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd., Jing County, Anhui WEIGHT not weighed SIZING Half-raw lightly sized: holds a wash, still takes the brush FIBRE not recorded handmade AGE AT FIRST USE unknown 30 paintings, 11 shown · 2026.01.20 to 2026.06.06](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S6)[S7 Qing Yi Cooked Xuan Jingxian Sichijian Xuan Paper Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd., Jing County, Anhui WEIGHT not weighed SIZING Cooked fully sized: ink sits on the surface FIBRE not recorded handmade AGE AT FIRST USE unknown 23 paintings, 5 shown · 2026.02.15 to 2026.06.06](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S7)[S8 Budget semi-cooked earthy Xuan (retired) maker unknown WEIGHT not weighed SIZING Half-raw lightly sized: holds a wash, still takes the brush FIBRE not recorded AGE AT FIRST USE unknown 10 paintings, 0 shown · 2026.02.08 to 2026.02.08](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S8)[S9 Chinatown Xuan unknown WEIGHT not weighed SIZING Half-raw lightly sized: holds a wash, still takes the brush FIBRE not recorded AGE AT FIRST USE unknown 9 paintings, 0 shown · 2026.01.31 to 2026.04.15](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S9)[S10 Red Star Mo She Imitation Antique Chu Bark, Exhibition Edition, half-raw China Xuan Paper Co., Ltd., Wuxi, Jing County, Anhui WEIGHT 44 g/m² SIZING Half-raw lightly sized: holds a wash, still takes the brush FIBRE paper mulberry, natural wood pulp handmade AGE AT FIRST USE 3 mo made 14 January 2026 41 paintings, 26 shown · 2026.04.05 to 2026.09.25](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S10)[S11 Red Star Mo She Special Effect Xieyi Edition, raw China Xuan Paper Co., Ltd., Wuxi, Jing County, Anhui WEIGHT 49.7 g/m² SIZING Raw unsized: drinks ink fast and spreads FIBRE qingtan bark, large leaf wood pulp handmade AGE AT FIRST USE 4 mo made 8 December 2025 42 paintings, 26 shown · 2026.04.03 to 2026.05.31](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S11)[S12 Red Star Mo She Special Effect Xieyi Edition, half-raw (June 2025 batch) China Xuan Paper Co., Ltd., Wuxi, Jing County, Anhui (安徽省泾县乌溪) WEIGHT 49.6 g/m² SIZING Half-raw lightly sized: holds a wash, still takes the brush FIBRE qingtan bark, large leaf wood pulp handmade AGE AT FIRST USE 10 mo made 7 June 2025 45 paintings, 30 shown · 2026.04.12 to 2026.06.03](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S12)[S13 Huiyun Tianxuan Ge "Dot Ink Becomes Gold" Master Special, semi-cooked (self-sized, aged) Anhui Jingxian Huiyun Tianxuan Ge Xuan Paper Art Products Co., Ltd., Jing County, Anhui WEIGHT 42.4 g/m² SIZING Half-raw lightly sized: holds a wash, still takes the brush FIBRE 75% qingtan bark, 25% shatian rice straw handmade AGE AT FIRST USE 14.0 yr made October 2012 12 paintings, 10 shown · 2026.10.16 to 2026.10.26](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S13)[S14 Half-Cooked Red Star Mo She 6-Foot Bark Xuan Paper, self-sized from October 2026 China Xuan Paper Co., Ltd., Wuxi, Jing County, Anhui WEIGHT 43.1 g/m² SIZING Half-raw lightly sized: holds a wash, still takes the brush FIBRE qingtan bark, large leaf wood pulp handmade AGE AT FIRST USE 4 mo made 8 April 2026 32 paintings, 27 shown · 2026.07.28 to 2026.10.16](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S14) 3 ## Two editions, one name. S12 and S14 come from the same mill, with the same product name and fibres on their cards. The packs name different editions: S12 is the Special Effect Xieyi Work Edition, made for expressive painting; S14 is a lighter edition. The weights tell the difference before the brush does. TWO EDITIONS ## 49.6 against 43.1 g/m². Weight per square metre from each pack (50 sheets of 97 × 180 cm): S12 made 7 June 2025, S14 made 8 April 2026. About 13% lighter, and more of the light comes through it. Below: how the lighter edition behaved under Peter's brush, against what is typical for the type. > “A very noticeable, major downgrade from S12: weak and flimsy, bleeds, can barely hold an edge; I have to size it myself to have a chance with it.” (Peter Yuill on S14 · material card, 2026.09.30) 4 ## What is known, and what is assumed. How a paper behaves (absorbency, spread, edge, layering, wet strength, grip for dry-brush, cockling, mounting) is recorded three times, side by side and never blended: what the maker states, a typical value for that kind of paper, written as a reference and labelled so, and what Peter observed at the table. Across the 14 papers and 8 behaviours, the makers' cards state none, Peter has recorded 4, and the remaining 108 are typical values only, or blank. The site shows that gap rather than hiding it. EXAMPLE ## S14: where Peter disagreed with the type. The one paper where Peter's own observations contradict what is typical for its kind: it spread more, held a softer edge and was weaker wet than a paper of its type should be. 5 ## What came out on each paper, and its year. Each paper as its own small constellation: its paintings on the year's clock, what the engine read on it, the inks it took, and what the Oracle found about the paper itself. Above each, two records kept apart. Peter's own triage of each painting at the time (save, probably trash, trash), from his early system, since retired. And the current engine's average reading of the paintings it has read on that paper. Papers were used in different months, so differences here mix the paper with the time it was used; the Oracle compares papers within the same weeks before it reports anything. [S1](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S1) 1 painting trash 1 No V23 readings: photographed only by phone [S2](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S2) 29 paintings save 19 · save, has potential 1 · probably trash 8 · trash 1 1 V23 readings: too few to profile [S3](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S3) 50 paintings save 35 · save, has potential 3 · probably trash 12 38 V23 readings · bead: this paper · ring: every reading [S4](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S4) 53 paintings save 36 · save, has potential 2 · probably trash 15 22 V23 readings · bead: this paper · ring: every reading [S5](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S5) 25 paintings save 10 · probably trash 9 · trash 6 No V23 readings: photographed only by phone [S6](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S6) 30 paintings save 28 · probably trash 2 13 V23 readings · bead: this paper · ring: every reading [S7](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S7) 23 paintings save 20 · probably trash 1 · trash 2 17 V23 readings · bead: this paper · ring: every reading [S8](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S8) 10 paintings probably trash 4 · trash 6 No V23 readings: photographed only by phone [S9](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S9) 9 paintings save 7 · probably trash 1 · trash 1 1 V23 readings: too few to profile [S10](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S10) 41 paintings save 28 · save, has potential 8 · probably trash 4 40 V23 readings · bead: this paper · ring: every reading [S11](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S11) 42 paintings save 37 · probably trash 5 38 V23 readings · bead: this paper · ring: every reading [S12](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S12) 45 paintings save 32 · save, has potential 10 · probably trash 3 45 V23 readings · bead: this paper · ring: every reading [S13](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S13) 12 paintings no triage recorded 12 V23 readings · bead: this paper · ring: every reading [S14](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S14) 32 paintings save, has potential 19 32 V23 readings · bead: this paper · ring: every reading Click a paper to open it full size; the arrow keys step through the papers.