more supplies

choices blue or natural linen thread?

Yoko Ono tribute: white papers

red waves

paper with waxed design

pink and blue waxed cloth paper

flocked paper 

I went shopping for more supplies yesterday and came home with papers and fine book cloth to cover some of the new books. It is exactly like going to a candy store for me to walk in the Paper Source Stores in Georgetown and Alexandria. There are so many patterns, textures, colors and styles it is a real task to choose the ones I want to work with and get out the door. I chose some basics of plain Lokta Nepal papers in various bold colors purple, red, yellow-green and teal to use as end pages or fly pages or even cover the board on small books sometimes. This paper is like cloth made from a fiber of plant that they mash and pound down into a pulp then smear it on screens stretched out in the sun to dry. The air is so dry in the high mountains and allows them to do a sheet at a time and dry it in an day. They used to make paper for money years ago as a legal source of income. Then I found a few lokta papers that were coated in a nice wax that made a transparent like wax paper and it has a nice design printed on it in a green gray ink. I found one paper fabric mix with wax that is blue and pink like a batik fabric. It has enough stability to be a cover and both of those wax papers have a nice feeling in the hand sort of like leather when compared to traditional book cloths. Then there were fancy printed Japanese papers! One of them had to come home with a black and red wave pattern that looks almost like a lacquered box cover. I was lucky Keith came along and helped me select a few and he was really excited about that red wave paper design. Yesterday afternoon I cut out the covers for a full sized journal using this paper as a cover for a change of pace. Then a smaller one with bright red cover using the wave print as a strong end paper and black will go on the fly pages all sewn together with a red thread against the red white and black the red thread should look right. We found a new sort of flocked paper with a rather traditional wall paper design and those were in all sorts of colors. Keith said he liked the red and pale gray white flocked one so I went with it this time. 

I have worked all morning and most of the afternoon on cutting the cover papers and cloths and I got 3 pocket sized book covers all glued up and into the press drying flat is an important part of the work. I am also working on a Yoko Ono all white book both large and small. This required that I cover the boards with a plain white paper before putting the textured white paper on or that won't look white glued against the gray book boards.

Outside is a textured paper that has little rectangles that stand up in a grid which is kind of loose. Then inside it gets a dove gray Japanese paper that has white fibers scattered all over it like feathers fallen on a sheet willynilly. Then the paper of the book is white and the fly sheet is white Nepal paper with a small printed white design of wandering vines. It is a mixture of off whites and a little gray. I think of Yoko Ono who used to only us white flowers in her apartment at the Victorian Dakota Apartments on Central Park West, NYC. Now that I have written about the papers, cloths and books... It is a beautiful day and I have  drawing group tonight so I need to go rest to draw a hunky young man who works as an accountant and pays a physical trainer to keep him in shape at the gym. It will be interesting to see what he has to say about the financial crisis that has overwhelmed our politicians and Wall Street this past few weeks. Today a record high rise 949+ points on New York Stock Exchange may turn around some of the sad feelings.