Dear Everyone ~
Early last Sunday morning, I showcased a dozen buttonhole stitch blank books I had just finished, each one covered in a vintage Japanese calendar page. My "Year of Serizawa" was the first time I had ever used one of these pages, which I've cherished for years and years, to cover a book. The petite volumes (5.75 x 7.75) were available singly, and the edition sold out within several hours.
In seasons past, I offered at my annual studio sale "surprise stationery assortments" wrapped in... Serizawa calendar pages. At the time, it seemed an excellent use of them...but as my supply dwindled, I wanted to find a longer lasting re-use for these beautiful pages. Thus, my "Year of Serizawa."
As it happened, I was enveloped for the first time by a Serizawa calendar page back in September, when I received via mail not one, but two, birthday cards from a dear friend ... each in its own handmade Serizawa envelope! The sender is my "postal muse" —and the person who taught me to hand-fold envelopes, back in the steamy summer of 1995.
I am now in a position (mysteriously) to make a few more Serizawa buttonhole stitch books, covered in pages from various months (and years). Additionally, if you purchased a stationery bundle from me in the past, wrapped in a Serizawa page, and kept your page intact, you are welcome to commission a book (or small box) covered in that page.
As you can tell, I am reveling in Serizawamania. I have kept every scrap from my "Year of Serizawa" edition and have begun to package them in little glassines, for my own amusement. I am using quite a lot of them as a collage in my sketchbook,and each triangular shard delights me.
