Summer for many countries.
The weather flecks between less consistent heat, with lower temps that remind us the season is just beginning to transition from the strength of July’s sun. July was the premiere launch of our subscription service. We had so much fun deciding what we wanted for each month and came up with tons of winners!
The low-down on August’s Pastiche selections:
With a hint of cooler days to come, August holds Lokta’s Olive Brown and Pumpkin as two earthy and organic pals. The lokta bush produces strong but silky fibers, and is the main source of fiber for local papermakers of Nepal. Nepali hand papermakers are maintaining traditional hand papermaking methods in their communities, and at the same time sustaining their livelihoods. The result is a strong, somewhat smooth-surfaced sheet, ideal for book arts, printing, card making, collage, box making, sewing, and interior design projects. You can check out our complete lokta family of papers here.
Pull and shape, tear and sew, paint and crumble, print and fold. This Paper Pastiche is beauty coming your way in bite-size pieces.
Laurelai Designs are fashion and eco-conscious patterns designed by a couple of paperwomen exclusively for Paper Connection International. All are silk-screened on a handmade, recycled, cotton paper chosen for its mat surface. All backs and fronts of each of the 18 styles meant to work in any combination, for card, box, and bookmaking and, of course, collage, made from handmade recycled silkscreened rag paper. The upbeat and bold patterns will certainly inspire!
Speaking of changing weather, An-Jing Meteor Shower has some very interesting properties when printed. Recently used in the making of Gyotaku prints, this paper is way too cool. Water-based ink allowed the ‘meteors’ to show through. All handmade in Sichuan, China of “xuan” (pronounced “shwen”) fiber is traditionally used for painting calligraphy. It’s been used for making boxes, envelope liners, end pages, lampshades, quilling, collage, and, of course, printing. Head on over to shop.paperconnection.com and see the rest of the pack.
This yellow Tengujoushi is the machine-made version of the thinnest specialty Japanese paper in the world. Funny how super light-weight it is but crazy strong. 100% hemp fiber, prepared by hand, with the final sheets formed by machine. It’s sheer and comes in soft/soothing colors (black too). Conservators love this paper for strengthening holes in pages or works on paper, but it’s also ideal for collage, like “chigiri-e” printmaking-chine collé, and silkscreen with wax.
Japanese Lace Uminami or “Sekaiha” with backing. Everyone needs to have a piece of paper lace. If for no other reason than imagination. A lovely/traditional pattern of waves. So delicate it’s backed with a thin paper. The overall effect is translucent minus the open spaces of lace. Think collage, lampshades, window treatments, bookmaking, card designs, paper sculpture.
And there is the all handmade Jewel-Toned Cotton Lime Green Stripes, screen printed stripes adorning a bright green, opaque paper made from cotton from recycled t-shirts. It’s got a nice sturdy body that will complement many applications- even making posters with letterpress printed messages.