Last week I pulled from a top shelf a large zipper portfolio containing beautiful papers. I love paper. I collect it with no project in mind.
There's no denying fall's arrival and just beyond that the holiday season, giving us the green light on luxury and abundance.
Japanese craftsmen can turn a simple thing like paper into luxury. The paper above is a sampling from a collection called Yuzen, hand made in Japan which I purchase from a local distributor, Paper Connection. The proprietress, Lauren Pearlman, has been passionately providing the American market with these paper treasures, and tons more, since 1995. She represents a union of about 45 paper mills producing hundreds of different styles. She writes....
“The word Yuzen was borrowed from the kimono making industry in Japan. It refers to a type of dyeing technique used to decorate fabric for traditional japanese silk garments invented by a man named Miyazaki Yuzen-sai. All Yuzen paper is hand screened with patterns taken from these exquisite textiles, onto handmade kozo based paper...”
The colors are brilliant and are laid down first using a silk screen process, then they are over screened with metallic inks. And to further prove my zaniness, we hand cut each large sheet down to jewelry box sized strips, the original sheets being too big for commercial choppers. You probably know by now that our gift wrap is always complimentary. The finishing touch is an organza ribbon.
Its such a joy to produce, a pearl treasure in a beautifully-wrapped box.
