Dear Everyone ~
Last Sunday, we gathered at Bari Zaki Studio to make the pages of The Thing We Are Giving Away… to the winner of the first-ever BZS drawing. This small group of dear friends includes my most frequent & creative collaborators. The amount of time I’ve known them ranges from the last century to the past year. We are all variously connected by our mutual love for paper.
The paper party players, in alphabetical order, were: Alyson (aka my postal muse); Audrey (hand-letterer, photographer, social media maven, and Alyson’s niece); Bari/me (proprietress, hostess, bookbinder); Emmy (artist and Nimble Shop Assistant emerita); Janet (in-house illustrator and watercolourist); Ruby (my current Nimble Shop Assistant extraordinaire); Tammy (master winder of waxed thread, co-stitcher, postage assorter & assembler), Wendy (hand-marbling marvel), and Zak (my beloved). The Thing has been given a proper name: An Abecedary of Things to Do With Paper & Things Paper Can Do (Abecedary for short). Our 50-some pages are approaching completion. Assembly—which is to say binding—will follow.
As an amuse-book, here is the title page by Ruby. She is also illustrating three other pages, and collaborating with Tammy on two more. For this page, she has hand-lettered everything with a fineliner and tinted with colour pencil—her choice, Lyra Colour Giants, natch!
The drawing is nigh! Sixty-some postcards were received, too numerous (and fabulous) to put in a hat, so we’ve upgraded to a Cambridge Imprint totebag. Will, our convivial & dependable mail carrier, will be doing the drawing early-ish next week, and we will announce instantly.
As an appetizer, here is the A spread, on which an accordion is affixed. One of the panels features azaleas markered by Emmy; another panel features Ruby’s montage of abstract images in colour pencil. Audrey drew an absolutely appropriate initial A. I folded the 5-panel accordion from Hahnemühle Bugra, with perfectly pleasing proportions of 3¾" x 5½".
As you may have gathered, some pages are works in progress: some are already in hand, some are being mailed back to me as I type, and some I’m still working on myself. Soon I will begin binding them all into a unifying structure. Soon there will be much more to report—including the winner of the Abecedary!
Absolutely brimming continuously, Bari
PS:
As to who is who around the center table, from left to right: Ruby, Me, Alyson, Janet, Wendy, Zak (sitting in for Tammy), Emmy. Audrey is taking the group photo—she will make an appearance in an upcoming post!