Kodai(s) and Cockerells in my coffers can be yours…

Dear Everyone ~

Collecting papers has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. Everyone who has followed BZS for a long time may know the story of my childhood paper closet… Since then, wherever and whenever I have travelled, scouting for paper has been on the itinerary. 

Years before I began to make books professionally, I became a frequent visitor, and shopper, at Aiko’s Art Materials here in Chicago. The papers were marvels I'd never seen anywhere, and the shop was an enchanted sanctuary. I quickly discovered that even my simplest book could be dressed up by a Katazome or Chiyogami.

Chuck Izui—manager and eventual owner of Aiko’s—let me know when certain papers would soon become extinct, because the family who made them didn’t have anyone to pass on their expertise to. Such were the circumstances of the family that made the crinkly Kodai papers seen here. Aiko’s would receive two shipments a year, with only one or two sheets of each pattern.

This paper is indeed paper but looks and feels like fabric. I taught myself—by experimenting—how to use it for my purposes. Once I figured it out, the Kodai glued like a charm, for books and for boxes. (I will happily share my technique with you via email or phone, after purchase). And a snippet, a strip, a shard goes a long way on a card.

My prized vintage Aiko’s sample book (below), is opened to one of the papers I am now going to part with. Before Aiko’s closed, I was fortunate enough to stock up on parent sheets of many beloved patterns. A fair number of these have remained in reserve, and are now ready to be pressed into service—after being scored, cut, folded, and glued—by someone other than me.

 In related retail news: Ruby has just assembled what will be the ultimate (in both senses of the word) batch of our Japanese Deluxe Vintage Paper Assortment. As with the original assortment, we’ve selected thirteen (a binders dozen) 8½ x 11 sheets of papers I originally acquired at Aiko’s in the grand old days. Assortments are similar but not identical (no duplicates within an assortment). I will select for you.

Back in the early aughts, Zak & I were planning a visit to our dear friend in Norwich UK. As always, my brain was computing our route by seeing what paper places we might visit on the way. The Cockerell marbled studio—whose papers I’d covered many books with—was located in Cambridgeshire. I sent my inquiry via post, because the trip pre-dated my emailability. A favourable reply was forthcoming (maybe it forthcame!) via post!

We had a lovely visit. We got to stand inside the room where all the marbling magic happened and heard the history of the patterns and techniques. Of course we brought home a large, actually very large, supply of Cockerell hand-marbled papers in assorted exquisite patterns. These have been living, neatly and cozily, in my paper cabinet, and I am deaccessioning several sheets each of a binder’s dozen of patterns.

In my very first Introduction to Glueing Happiness via group Zoom, students covered a piece of binder’s board and a companion butterfly-clip (in a contrasting Cockerell pattern, natch) and the results were exquisite.

This could go without saying, but my years of collecting, and working with, the papers I acquired at Aiko’s are some of the finest papers I’ve ever had the joy of working with, not only for the foldability and glueability, but also because the patterns and textures are timeless. There are books I made years & years ago that continue to make my heart smile from ear to ear. May they have the same, or perhaps even greater, influence on your bookbinding endeavours.