#paper samples

Decorative Sunday

We've made several posts about paste papers, but never one that explains the complete process and technique. This small accordion book (4"x4"; 10x10 cm), Making Paste Papers by noted American paper artist Diane Maurer (b, 1944), made at her home studio in Spring Mills, Pennsylvania with original paste-paper samples in 1992 signed by the artist, does just that. It offers simple, step-by-step instructions on how to make paste papers from mixing the paste to finishing the paper.

Maurer is noted for a variety of paper arts, but she writes, "Although I am known for my books and decorative papers, my focus for many years has been on creating paper collage. I begin my collages by marbling, paste painting, and dyeing paper to create the colors and textures that are essential to my artwork. Then I tear, cut and combine multiple layers of patterned papers with handmade papers to represent surrealistic landscapes and fanciful seascapes. Most have considerable dimension, approaching paper sculpture."

Recently, Maurer was invited to become part of the MET's Paper Legacy Project for which she handcrafted 40 papers, including traditional marbling, Japanese Suminagashi marbling, and paste papers.

Our copy of this book is another donation from the estate of our late friend Dennis Bayuzick.

View more of our posts on paste papers.

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This beautiful folio, called Edo Tōkyō Kamisukishi Kō by Yoshikuni Seki, is about the history and techniques of paper making in Tokyo, Japan. The book includes vibrant illustrations of the paper making process, including the creation of the pulp (second image down from the top) and soaking the pulp in water (left image second from the bottom). It also has various Japanese paper samples that have been pasted inside the book. Featured are just a few of my favorites.

FOLIO X-Collection TS1095 .J3 S435 1943

- Hannah

Decorative Sunday

The patterned papers shown here were designed and created with software developed by Warren Stringer and Beth Regardz, laser printed on handmade colored Japanese Moriki paper using multiple layers of metallic foils, and published in a miniature (75 x 75 mm) Coptic-bound book entitled Patterns from Chaos, produced in Santa Cruz, California by Peter & Donna Thomas in 1991 in an edition of 50 copies signed by all four.

The concept of chaos theory and cellular automata was developed in Santa Cruz at University of California Santa Cruz by Ralph Abraham and colleagues. Warren Stringer wrote original code in Santa Cruz based on these concepts. Beth Regardz co-founded the Cabrillo College Digital Media program where Peter Thomas took his first computer classes from her.

Peter and Donna collaborated with Regardz and Stringer on the concept and design for this book. To create the images each sheet of Moriki paper was passed through the printer two times for each color (once to apply the toner and once to fuse the metallic foil to the paper). Thus an image with three colors passed thru the printer six times. Our copy of Patterns form Chaos is a gift from Peter & Donna Thomas.

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Typography Tuesday

Today, we complete the initials from Some Examples of the Work of American Designers, edited and arranged by J. M. Bowles. Shown here from top to bottom are:

A - Ralph Fletcher Seymour

C - Walter D. Teague

M - Guernsey Moore

O - Frederic Goudy

P - Charles E. Howell

T - Egbert G. Jacobson

W - Carlton D. Ellinger

Y - Bruce Rogers

Some Examples of the Work of American Designers was printed in Philadelphia by Edward Stern & Co. for Dill & Collins Co. Papermakers in 1918 on thirty styles of paper manufactured by Dill & Collins Co in Philadelphia.

View our previous post on initials from this volume.

Typography Tuesday

The designers highlighted in Some Examples of the Work of American Designers, edited and arranged by J. M. Bowles, designed the initial letters for their own entries. Shown here are:

A - Frank H. Weikel

B - W. P. Schoonmaker

C - Adrian J. Iorio

L - Louise Ames Norman

M - Arthur Finley

P - Charles R. Capon

T - Charles B. Falls

Some Examples of the Work of American Designers was printed in Philadelphia by Edward Stern & Co. for Dill & Collins Co. Papermakers in 1918 on thirty styles of paper manufactured by Dill & Collins Co in Philadelphia.

Decorative Paper Sunday

I’ve been excitedly waiting for this specimen book to make its way through processing and into our catalog so I can share these gorgeous decorative papers with you all. I hope some design nerds out there will share my enthusiasm. The book is A Specimen Book of Pattern Papers Designed For and in Use at the Curwen Press, published in London for the Curwen Press by The Fleuron Ltd. in 1928 in a limited edition of 220, containing 31 samples of pattern paper, with an introductory essay by artist and Curwen collaborator Paul Nash. 

From Nash’s introduction:

The papers in the following Collection are from designs reproduced by offset printing, the original key pattern being a line block from a drawing, or wood engraving … The latest designs are mostly from blocks engraved upon wood, sometimes with another colour applied either flat or grained. This notable output by an English printer is another sign of the steadily growing conviction that distinction of design is not only aesthetically, but commercially important. Every article, from the Shopman’s showcard to a motor-car, must have economy and beauty of form. It is a lesson we are learning very late, but if we can learn it intelligently, and not like parrots, we may yet recapture what has been so long lost with us, a pride in style.