Dear Everyone ~
In honour of Thanksgiving, I’d like to express my gratitude for your gratitude, my thank you for all of your thank you’s! And to let you know that each week as I prepare & craft my emails, one of the things that I most look forward to is receiving your replies: your appreciation, participation, enthusiasm, and, foremost, your connection to my studio & shop. My heart smiles from ear to ear each and every time.
I remain amazed & delighted by your sentiments. No matter how quick or detailed, they remind me ofthe sensibilities we share. And not only via email but even via postcard (hint) … and in person when you visit the shop.
I’ve chosen a binder’s dozen of replies that I hope will also delight you, as they have particularly touched my heart.
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I must start with an email I received from Chuck Izui, the manager, guardian angel, and eventual owner of Aiko’s Art Materials in Chicago. From the moment (at least 30 years ago!) when I first walked into Aiko’s, it instantly became my home away from home, a sanctuary of aesthetic serenity. The shop closed a little over ten years ago, and I am still heartbroken, and continue to miss every aspect of being inspired there. The card cabinet that is now in my shop is one of their original fixtures, and I am always, always, so honoured to be the keeper of it now.
“Dear Bari, I read your updates with fanboy interest. I am amazed (but not surprised) that you are now the diva of refined taste and cultural elegance, seamlessly reuniting the best of the past and present. My sincere congratulations on your current and continued success.”
— Chuck
“Happy greetings, Bari, I love, love, love receiving packages from you!!! Wednesday I received my package and spent an hour meticulously unwrapping it and savoring all the delightful wrappings.”
—Virginia Clinton (Artist, BZS online shopper, and ardent workshop student)
“Good Morning Bari! My heart is so full while I drop you this line. I received your package yesterday and it was like Christmas morning. Everything is wrapped with such care that it almost pains me to open each parcel. I peeked inside one package and left the others on my studio desk so I could see them all wrapped again this morning when I came upstairs to work.”
— Joyce Newcomb, BZS online shopper
“Bari, Well Ann + Robyne’s amazing story also had me swooning, and beyond tearful! After reading this story of madcap mayhem and random acts of kindness, I feel I almost know this special pairand needed to respond to share my heartfelt nuptial wishes. As I sit here writing this reply on my 52nd wedding anniversary [now 53 years!], I wish Ann + Robyne at least 52 years filled with love, respect, joy, kindness and good health. May their lives also be filled with a plethora of magnificent paper pleasures provided by the Paper Princess herself! Joy to the world!!”
— heART, Hallie Redman (children’s art teacher, BZS student & shopper)
“What a delightful 'missed plane' story! I enjoyed reading about the Library and looking at your photos—
it might have been a church! Keep sending us your so very interesting travelogues.”
— ESE, a.k.a. Ernie
(ESE could also stand for Envelope Shopper Extraordinaire, which Ernie is)
“The exquisite emporium of joy!”
— Parastoo (very long-time customer, all the way back to
Mail of the Month and Parcel of the Month; we have yet to meet!)
“Dearest paper girl, I am becoming a broken record, stuck on the best groove. I love your illustrated story emails. I especially love this story of Robyne and Ann, the gifts they surprised each other with and the items they chose (a box for the post cards and a book of compiled love-gifts). What a great idea—to bind together the bits and pieces we cherish rather than letting them languish in boxes and folders and who knows where. Bari-emails always brighten my day.”
— Nina (art enthusiast, workshop and art class student, in-shop shopper)
“Bari, great email. It had to be a blast having Raquel in your shop. When are U going to Brazil…”
— From my father, my original paper inspirator, in response to my story about Raquel Hetmanek, who I met on instagram and taught a private limp-vellum binding workshop when she was visiting from Brazil in the summer of 2018
“I love being called Dear Everyone, since I am a Gemini and not any one person at all but in happiness with all … You can do what you want with a pencil in your hand.”
— Carol LaBranche (“wonderfully wacky local customer, delightfully uninhibited in her artwork and her spontaneous writing”)
“You are amazing. Your sweet mom is smiling down on you! I loved her so [angel emoji].. Going to see how my train adventure to class does. Then hopefully i can take a pretty book class. But oh my! I see a ruler in the photo [wink emoji!] . Could you handle me? Have fun.”
— Shirley Coppi, who I met while taking classes at the Chicago Botanic Gardens with my mom
“Hello, dear Fabulous Bari!!! I love this post and was delighted to see my little scrawly note in it! Of course, I was and am inspired by YOU!!!”
— Cat Bennett (truly inspiring artist & author & teacher & illustrator from Boston, and now a visiting instructor at Bari Zaki Studio)
“Hi Bari, I am honored to have participated in your latest blog [about his creative endeavors with washi tape]…Thank you! Nicely done and beautifully extended. I found the post to be thoroughly adhesive!”
— Robert Petrick (whose wonderful photos of his washi tape applications featured Figure numbers)
* * * * *
Susan Kennedy was one of the very first customers to sign up for one of my bookbinding classes when I opened the shop back in 2015. She was so enthused and inspired by making books, and then embraced making boxes when I added that workshop to my class listings. She literally signed up for every single
bookbinding class, sometimes more than once. She often was the very first person to sign up for a workshop the minute I sent out the class schedule. Several months ago, Susan sent me this postcard, which melted my heart. While I was on my recent trip to England, she succumbed to a rare, particularly nasty cancer. I am so saddened and will miss her very, very much. This postcard is even more precious to me now, a permanent remembrance of Susan’s joie de vivre and her wonderful spirit.
In deepest bow, Bari