Newest hearty paper caper

Dear Everyone ~

We love Cambridge Imprint papers. So we’ve assembled a custom Cambridge “kit” in time for Valentinear papery pursuits. May we hint that you could host an arty heart party?!

 The ensemble includes four dozen 6 x 6 sheets of Cambridge Imprint papers: 36 have been trimmed out from the Special Small Papers (SSP) boxed set and a dozen bonus sheets (3 each of 4 patterns) have been trimmed from our special reserve of parent sheets. All told, a veritable symphony of Valentinear hues. 

Presented in a hand-folded envelope sans flap (in other words, a well-tailored sleeve), from an SSP pattern, sealed with a tiny butterfly clip covered in YKW & a petite origami heart charm, perfectly pin-holed.

If you are feeling big hearted: Try your hand at folding mega-hearts. The Red Special Small Papers assortment offers 24 sheets of 12 x 16 (2 each of 12 designs), which you can neatly, sweetly trim down to 12 x 12… and fold hearts that are 7 inches tall! Or trim down to 10 x 10 and then 8 x 8… for a cavalcade of hearts of various sizes. Gorgeous sprinkled on a table setting, or hidden under practically anything. 

If you are lollygagging: Only nine (like the Love Potion) limited-edition VIP kits remain.

 And if you are inspired to order an assortment of sweet somethings for someone, let us know that it’s a Valentine gift, and we will dress it all up with hearts on all parts!

Voilà: Valentinear Inspiration Parcel

Dear Everyone ~

Love is indeed a many splendoured thing: you can send it in the mail, prop it on a pillow, or leave it as a surprise, anywhere you can tuck a tiny origami heart. If you’d like to dress up a few valentines, we’ve curated a charming array of supplies. And if you’d like to endear yourself to a crafty friend or VIP in your creative cosmos, our parcel makes a sweet & inspiring gift.

The kit notably includes three Wanderlust scalloped heart cards, which made my heart pitter-patter when I received one as a sample from Lady Lucy of Wanderlust. The back of the heart is blank, for your sweet nothing, or other sentiment, or perhaps simply a provocative question mark?

Our kit also includes 16 sheets of A4 paper (8¼ x 11¾): from Wanderlust Papers in the UK, 4 pink gingham and 4 pink flora; and 8 Rivoli Rose, the perfect pale pink, from Germany. This sheet size is spacious & gracious for handfolding an announcement-style (straight-across flap) envelope, or an elegant, slim, mailable open-end envelope, or a 5½ inch square envelope, which is also mailable, but at the nonmachinable rate.

Decorative accessories abound: vintage red-bordered labels and special delivery labels, petite (No. 1 size!) glassine envelopes, and 3¢ strawberry stamps. The little glassine is just the thing for presenting a tiny origami heart (or a pair of candy hearts or a bonbon).

The ensemble will be enveloped in a British glassine sleeve…which will mail in a sturdy cardboard envelope, suitably seasonably embellished with YKWs. If you are giving a VIP as a gift, we will be delighted to mail it directly to your recipient, with a note inside, conveying your heartfelt compliments.

And if you’d like to make a multitude of origami hearts, queue up some music to fold by! Cambridge Imprint’s Heart Bunting Origami Kit presents 36 sheets of 6 x 6 patterned papers. A charming little instructional booklet is included AND you can watch an xoxcellent video as well (on the Cambridge Imprint site). If you cut a sheet into quarters (you will have four 3 x 3 sheetlets), you can make incredibly adorable petite hearts—as shown here. I plan to leave a couple everywhere I go on February 14!


Valentinear Inspiration Parcel
 
Love is in the air, Bari

Be enveloped by two new BZS bookbinding workshops

Dear Everyone ~

I am doubly delighted to announce two workshops via group Zoom: Collector’s Album and Long-stitch-link-stitch Binding with Hand-folded Envelopes. My inspiration for these workshops is the charm and surprise of using hand-folded envelopes bound into a beautiful book structure. The binding styles I’ve chosen for both workshops open perfectly flat, so you can access your envelopes’ contents with ease. These elegant envelopes are perfect for organizing photos, cataloguing seeds for your spring garden, filing ephemera, or other frilly bits that come your way. 

Collector’s Album is a two-part workshop, and you will learn to make your album using the multi-needle Coptic-stitch. Your “pages” are actually 7 elegant hand-folded envelopes. The album measures 5½ x 7½ x 1. To fold your envelopes, you will master my “paper sandwich” technique for making a lightish-weight paper more sturdy. You will also hand-fold your envelopes without a template (which, might we add, is an incredibly handy skill). We will make one complete album during the workshops, and you'll have all the materials to make a second book on your own at your leisure. 

The papers I’ve selected for this kit are a full array of wondrous Wanderlust Papers—seven different designs in total, so one for each envelope. You will decide in what sequence you’d like to bind them in. Your cover paper will be one of the designs, chosen from three palettes: Navy Stars & Pink Gingham, Blue Flora & Pink Flora, or Blue Gingham & Green Flora.

Long-stitch-link-stitch Binding with Hand-folded Envelopes is a two-part workshop as well. You will make a beautiful (and useful) ephemera album or travel diary. Actually you will make one in the workshop and one on your own thereafter, using materials provided in your kit. Both albums measure 5½ x 7½ x 1¼, with 12 pages (24 serendipitous sides) and a pair of bound-in hand-folded envelopes with string-and-button closure. You will learn how to hinge two separate bookboards to create a soft fabric spine that you will stitch through.

The papers I’ve selected for this kit are the endlessly satisfying, ultimately mix & matchable Peggy Angus patterned papers, plus Japanese bookcloth. The kit includes 1 full box (24 sheets, 3 each of 8 designs), and two complementary bookcloths for your spine and interior panels. 

As always, I will live record all workshop sessions, and these will be available to you later the same afternoon to watch and rewatch at your leisure. No previous bookbinding experience is necessary; a bit of glueing experience is a plus. You will have ample time during each step to ask questions while we work. If you have any questions now, please feel free to call or e me to discuss!

Collector’s Album
Long-stitch-link-stitch binding with Hand-folded Envelopes

Zooming through winter, Bari

PS:
Happy Glue Year!
Exquisite glue brushes from England have arrived. I’ve been glueing with these brushes since I began making books over 30 years ago, and I’m thrilled to now be stocking them. They are available in three sizes, which you can see & read about in the NEW shop listing here. You could resolve to brush up your Shakespeare, or you could just treat yourself to a new glue brush to play with.

Post received about our Sailing post


Dear Everyone ~

As we head into 2023, my sails are full of lovely responses to Sailor’s Mail. I’d like to share with you a binder’s dozen emails I have received. Their arrival reminded me of the incredible reach of technology, both in the making of Sailor’s Mail and in the telling of the tale. These comments started my 2023 in a waft of community!
 
❤️ 1 ❤️
Renae R: Oh, Bari, what a fabulous story! What a fantastic project. Thank you for sharing with us.
 
 ❤️ 2 ❤️
Barbara B: I was so enchanted by the content of your most recent email that I spent the last couple of hours going down the rabbit hole of your breathtaking project gallery.
 
 ❤️ 3 ❤️
Anne L: Love this so much!
 
 ❤️ 4 ❤️
Annie J: I just finished reading and  admiring every detail of the keepsake books and cases in your gallery. What an inspiration!  Thank you for making them available to inspire our creativity and our desire to rise to your level of workmanship. Congratulations on these beautiful books!
 
 ❤️ 5 ❤️
Cat B: Wow, my dear Bari, this is AWESOME! I can only imagine all the work and coordination/collaboration that went into it! One copy should be in a Chicago museum! Congratulations!!
                 
 ❤️ 6 ❤️
Tricia K: It’s really exquisite and a pleasure to see!  Happy New Year!    
 
 ❤️ 7 ❤️
Jan R: WOW! WOW! WOW! Lovely, thanks for sharing. Best Wishes for the New Year.
 
 ❤️ 8 ❤️
Audrey K: Sailor’s Mail made a lovely morning read! I was blown away by the scope of the project and the love and care that was put into every aspect of preserving these memories. My favorite detail was the variations of the letter sign-off's letterpressed on the front of each volume. What a lovely treasure that can be passed down through generations!
 
 ❤️ 9 ❤️
Wendy C: This was a charming story and a lovely presentation! Happy New Year!
 
 ❤️ 10 ❤️
Marge Y: Aloha Bari, Mahalo for sharing such a touching story, it gave me chicken skin!  But it doesn't surprise me because you do such precise and beautiful work. Meeting you (in person) at the Bari Zaki Studio is on the top of my bucket list! Here's to a bright and peaceful New Year,
 
 ❤️ 11 ❤️
Margot H: How wonderful. It brings to mind our book project after my Mom passed away. It was our first time working together, and you recommended an artist who could illustrate each one of my mother’s poems for children. My father was so happy to have the book to give to family and friends. I still have a few, which I will give to my great grandchildren. Right now we have one and are expecting a second in May! I am grateful for your expertise—and for our long friendship.
 
 ❤️ 12 ❤️
JR: It looks fantastic! Almost never we have a chance to see the final product, so thank you so much for sharing it, amazing! The other day I found the very first portfolio you created for us, still looking good!
Happy New Year!
 
 ❤️ 13 ❤️
Perry H: I just read your latest letter about the love letter collection. What a magnificent solution. Reading about it made me cry. Such a LOVING way to handle letters of loved ones moved on. And skilled and imaginative. Congratulations. Happy New Year to you and infinite winds in your sails.

~ ❤️ ~

My heart overflows with gratitude for the continued connections, appreciation of my craft, and the love of creativity that binds us all together.

In deep bow, with a bow, Bari

Sailing into 2023

Dear Everyone ~

I’d like to end 2022 with an extraordinary story, almost a saga, of family and a long-distance romance. I have recently had the honour of binding three years’ worth of letters between young sweethearts. At the beginning of the story, the girl, Dolores LaBeau, is only 15, and the boy, Ellis S. Harrell, Jr., is 17. They date for almost a year, and then the boy enlists in the Navy. He is stationed in Hawaii and Guam from October 1942 until June 1945. Two hundred and thirty-eight letters later…they have fallen deeply in love. They get married and have seven children. Their letters live in an old suitcase for almost 20 years…and I’m going to let Kevin, one of their sons, tell you the rest of the story. 

“When I was 6, I discovered the old suitcase full of letters. A cousin and I used them to play ‘mailman’. We took a few handfuls, and walked around our neighborhood delivering the letters. Before long, my mother got calls from a few neighbors, inquiring about the letters. We had to retrace our path and collect as many as possible. I didn’t see the letters again until 1998, well after my father had passed away. My mother was moving out of state, and she entrusted the suitcase to me. We laughed about what happened 35 years earlier. My mother passed away in 2016. For the next 7 years, my siblings and I talked about what to do with the letters.” 

“My parents instilled in all of us that there is nothing as important as family. To this day, my siblings and I are very close to each other. Our parents never had much money but lived a great and happy life because they got what they wanted: a big family. So, to honor all their sacrifice, we decided to make the letters into a book for us to pass along to our children. In July 2022, we started scanning in earnest! We knew we would need a graphic designer, and we engaged the services of Donna Somerville in Chicago. She introduced us to Bari, who showed us another family history-type project she had done whose presentation really appealed to us. It was several separately-bound sections in a portfolder (Bari’s word, which we quickly adopted), protected in a slipcase.”

“Completing this project was a huge undertaking for everyone. The organizing, the scanning, the design, the printing, and the binding and assembling! I run a company that produces huge corporate events. I have the pleasure and honour to see many giant productions come together. ‘Sailor’s Mail’ was every bit as complex, stressful, creative, rewarding—and exhilarating!”

“Oh, I think I should mention that we set a deadline: Christmas of 2022, when I arranged for the entire family to come together for the presentation. And it wasn’t just one set of the letters, it was an edition of nine! I picked up the first copy from Bari almost the minute it was ready, to give to one of my brothers, who was unable to join us for the family gathering. Bari thinks it weighs ten pounds!”

“I picked up the remaining eight several days later. My original plan was to all be together for Christmas—fortunately, I moved it up a week, otherwise we would have been snowed out. Our kids all love the book and look forward to reading how our family came to be! And I think it turned out perfectly, thanks to Bari’s skill and dedication.”

You can read details about the making of Sailor’s Mail in the Project Gallery: binding techniques, constructing the portfolder and slipcase, letterpress printing the covers, and materials. My deep gratitude to Kevin for masterminding the project, showing focus, patience, and good humour throughout a time-sensitive collaboration between several craftspeople.
 
Wholeheartedly, Bari

Sailor’s Mail

P.S.
The project I showed Kevin as a starting point for his edition is called Johnston, and you can read about it here. And, if you are within visiting distance, you are cordially invited to make an appointment to experience Johnston in every detail.

Bookful for The Arrival of Winter

Dear Everyone ~

If you'd like to start your New Year on a creative high, a fresh Bookful workshop might be just the jumpstart. Bookful for The Arrival of Winter is my ninth Bookful collaboration with artist, author & dear friend Cat Bennett. Our four-Saturday workshop via Zoom will debut Saturday, January 28, in the heart of winter.

Our inspiration for this Bookful is—as Cat explains—“the short days, frosty weather, and a blizzard or two. Or maybe, in southern climes, palm trees swaying in the winds! We may well hibernate a little and enjoy aromatic hot beverages, good books, drawing and writing, and maybe a hot water bottle in bed on a cold night. And we might take walks in nature or dream of travel to warmer or more exotic places, or creative adventures, or planting our gardens come spring.”

The book structure you will make is a buttonhole-stitch book measuring 5½" x 7½" x 1⅜". The 40 sheets/80 pages will have dreamy deckled edges on all three sides. The materials we’ll use are Stonehenge drawing paper, and wondrous Wanderlust Papers for the cover, as well as for the signature embellishment visible on the spine through the window. You will also learn my “paper sandwich” technique, layering Stonehenge paper, an adhesive sheet, and a sheet of Wanderlust Paper, to make your cover.

In sessions #2, #3 & #4, Cat will lead us in creative exercises. We'll make images using simple collage and drawing with paint, coloured pencils, and marker pens. Then we’ll explore how we can combine these techniques and add words as an accompaniment. Cat will share a slideshow of work by various artists for inspiration. We’ll emerge from the class with a soulful Bookful book that tells our story of winter wherever we are.

The papers I’ve selected for the three palettes are pairings of Wanderlust Papers: Navy Stars & Blue Flora, Green Flora & Pink Flora, and Pink Flora & Navy Stars. (The first pattern is for your cover; the second is for the spine embellishments.) And if you’d like to order an extra kit or two, please feel free to call or e me.

Cat & I want to assure you, especially if you are a Bookful newcomer, that absolutely no drawing or bookbinding experience is necessary—all levels of artists are welcome. The pace is relaxed & supportive, and the camaraderie is delightful. Plus you will have four complete videos (recorded in real time) to watch and rewatch at your leisure. We look forward to seeing you soonish via Zoom!

Bookful for The Arrival of Winter

On the almost eve of the shortest day of the year, Bari

Eight Great Little Gifties

Dear Everyone ~

Last December, we published a pair of very papery holiday-ish posts. One, 12 ways of papery happiness, was a nod to the Twelve Days of Christmas, showcasing 12 accessories of the season. The other, The joys of wrapping, unwrapping, and scrapping, gave us an opportunity to arrange customers’ purchases in tree shapes and to share their gift-giving creativity.
 
This year, we’re shining a little light on Hanukkah. Also known as the Festival of Lights, it is celebrated for eight nights. As it happens, the last night of Hanukkah in 2022 falls on Christmas! Here is an ascending assortment of festive tokens, should you wish to gift someone a Hanukkit. A gift-a-night, or an eighth night xoxtravaganza, or, yes, the ensemble could be a Christmas gift…or it could start someone’s 2023 off with a well-stocked (or stuffed) desk. Each item is distinctively, delightfully wrapped…and everything fits in a custom bag fashioned from Wanderlust Paper, fastened with a complementary YKW.  
 
One

aromatic Italian glue stick, wrapped like a big Baci.

Two

glassine sleeves of extremely small scraps sealed with a teeny YKW, nestled in crisp white tissue.

Three

sparkly washi tapes swaddled like a petite party popper.

Four

Les Pens, in our most popular colours: Black, Oriental Blue, Teal & Peppermint.

Five

24k-plated jumbo paper clips from Italy. The quintet is ensconced in a tasteful Tassotti sleeve.

Six

Cambridge Imprint postcards in a Cambridge Imprint envelope.

Seven

mini-pencils (a binder’s half dozen) with white snowcap erasers.

Eight

Madame Butterfly clips covered in Japanese Chiyogami paper, in a matching sleeve.

And, for philatelic dessert, a double serving of holiday greenery. These stamps, issued in November 1964, have the distinction of being the first U.S. setenants (stamps of different designs on a single sheet; today, setenants are common and sometimes intricately kiss-cut). In keeping with our theme, your petite glassine includes eight stamps, two each of: holly, a sprig of conifer, a poinsettia, and, mmmistletoe. 

Hanukkit: 8 great little gifties
 
Lighthearted, Bari

Molto Nota Bene: dressy papers from Italy

Dear Everyone ~

I’m delighted to debut a binder’s dozen of molto swoon-worthy decorative papers from Grafiche Tassotti in Italy. I’ve been aware of this venerable & visionary Italian company for some time, and mused about adding them to the shop.

This past summer, Emery Kennett, my nimble shop assistant & paper pal, popped in with show-and-tell from her trip to England— including a couple of sheets of Grafiche Tassotti: Lily of the Valley (for a friend) and Dahlias (destined to become her next sketchbook). In fact, after visiting, she stopped at Soutache (the ribbon & button shop two doors down from BZS), for a ribbon to embellish the sketchbook. Emery’s new link-stitched sketchbook is freshly beribboned, as seen above, and the paper behaved beautifully.

I too have enjoyed working with these papers. I’ve made one buttonhole-stitch book, hand-folded an assortment of envelopes, and wrapped a few presents. The Grafiche Tassotti papers are slightly lighter in weight than most of the decorative papers I use, but this doesn’t detract from the drappeggio or from the produtto finito. I am amorosa (despite not speaking Italian).

The 19¾" x 27½" sheets are calendered (meaning super-smooth), printed on a matte ivory shade, 85 gsm (55 lb) with environmentally friendly inks. The colours are vibrant and admirably fade-resistant.

My postal muse, Alyson Kuhn, was so charmed by the garden motifs that she suggested adding a sprinkling of thematic postage to the party. There are two Giardiniera palettes of four patterns each. There is one Geometrici palette of four graphic patterns (which we cannot resist naming Scallopini and Mosaici), plus a single sheet of chattering birds. Each palette comes with a binder’s dozen of mint (meaning you can still use them as postage because no one else has) stamps, ranging from 3¢ cranes to 13¢ butterflies, ensconced in a glassine envelope sealed with a bit of YKW. The stamps are also great for sealing or embellishing an envelope or gift.

It’s not a wrap just yet! A trio of wise washi tapes is now in stock for adding some subtle sparkle to your holiday parcels, placecards & gift-tags. Their names are Silver Salver, Gold Flakes, Gold Dust (from top to bottom). Sold separately but charming to mix-and-metallic match.

Seam binding ribbons seem just the beribbonment for these papers. We have assembled a trio of coordinating skeins for each palette, and we will select for you.

The Crafter’s Box: My duo of boxmaking workshops are now live!

Dear Everyone ~

I’m thrilled to announce that my third and fourth workshop collaborations with The Crafter’s Box (TCB), Clamshell Box with Fine Art Paper with Bari Zaki (CBWFAPWBZ) and Lidded Box with Artisan Paper with Bari Zaki (LBWAPWBZ), have just launched on the TCB site. Each digital workshop includes a link to the full instructional video plus an extensive kit of materials and tools (curated by me). Each kit includes enough materials to make one complete box. And if you’d like to make even more boxes, TCB offers an option of “add-ons,” which are additional palettes of materials without the tools.

The clamshell structure was the first boxmaking workshop I taught in the studio back in 2016, and I have since offered it many times as a live Zoom workshop. The techniques I demonstrate in the CBWFAPWBZ video will show you all the basics of covering a four-sided “tray” with almost invisible corner seams and then attaching it to a spine and cover to create a beautiful drop-spine box.

The clamshell box you will learn to make measures 4¼" x 6¼" x 2", lovely for keepsakes or jewelry, and fabulous for storing postcards. The materials in the kit are a beautiful array of Japanese Chiyogami papers and Japanese bookcloths. Each combination of materials, meaning for each box, includes two complementary patterned papers for your box tray & interior, one luscious bookcloth for the cover, and last but not least, a 6" length of Italian cotton ribbon with a metallic center stripe—for your ribbon tab—imported from Italy by my dear friend Angela Liguori of Studio Carta.

In LBWAPWBZ, you will learn to make a 3" cube box with a flat lid. The lid lifts off with a lovely wooden bead, secured with a little seed bead on top. The materials selected for this workshop are two complementary Japanese Chiyogami papers per box.

The box is charming on a desk or bureau, mantel or pillow. It makes a beautiful presentation for a key or piece of jewelry, or simply a special note. It is also perfect for small desk accessories, from erasers to washi tape and, of course, dressy paper clips.

A Medley of Mould-made Paper Delicacies

Dear Everyone ~

I’m delighted to debut a beautiful 100% cotton rag paper handmade by Two Rivers in England. I could accurately say that I’m royally pleased to make this inaugural announcement, as you will read more about below.

The Two Rivers paperisti work their magic in a charming seaside town called Watchet in West Somerset. When I was in the U.K. in September, I slightly detoured to the mill and spent a lovely, sunny afternoon visiting their studio. At lunch with papermaker/proprietor Jim Patterson, I learned that he has been making paper since 1963, which I find auspicious, as I came into the world, and by extension the world of paper, in 1963.

Two Rivers papers are truly lovely for all manner of medium, especially watercolour and pen & ink. I would describe the feel and the surface as dreamy. The paper is acid-free, and two different spiral-bound pads are now in stock.

The 6 x 6 pad has T.R. copper stamped on the cover, protecting 10 sheets/20 pages of 300 lb cold press cover, alternating with 10 sheets/20 pages of 140 lb cover. The heavier weight has one deckled edge; the lighter weight does not.

The 8 x 10 pad has kraft hardcovers, with a charming East Quayillustration silkscreened by Sarah, one of the papermakers at Two Rivers, in her nearby studio. The 16 sheets/32 pages of 140 lb cover have three straight (meaning undeckled) edges.

One of the highlights of my visit was seeing the mould made for the Queen’s Jubilee paper. The watermark is, in a word, momentous. And I am now the proud possessor of a sheet of this paper, a gift from Jim. Coincident with my visit, Jim had begun making the mould bearing the watermark for King Charles’s upcoming coronation.

In other lovely & luscious papery news, Velke Losiny enclosure card & envelope sets are back in stock with a new look! The enclosure card now includes its subtle deckle along the long edge, which can become the top or bottom of your mini message.