Previewing the Abecedary we are giving away

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!

Élan, éclat, Écluse

Dear Everyone ~

I am deliriously delighted to herald the arrival of the two newest handmade papers by Atelier Écluse (AÉ). From the moment this fresh shipment arrived, it was all I could do not to be driven to distraction… and to my bone folder: to feel the texture, to fold the bookweight sheets into signatures, to begin making, yes… a buttonhole-stitch book. As I began to decant the box, Ruby immediately exclaimed, “Ooooh, those would make a lovely envelope!” So, that is exactly what I did next. Well, I had to make several, as you can will see momentarily. Then, I made another buttonhole-stitch book with the envelopes stitched in, as seen below. The ensemble, to me, is breathtaking.

The same lovely colour & pattern that graces AÉ’s ochre & ecru sketchbooks is now available in flat sheets. Like their blue & white counterparts, they also measure 11" x 15", with the actual pattern being 10" x 14". They are equally divine to score, fold, and glue. 

 The bookweight papers (100 gsm) are available in four earthy hues: Tan, Natural White, Terra Cotta, and Light Denim. They measure 18" x 24" and you can fold them into signatures measuring 3" x 4¾", or 4¾" x 6", or 6" x 9". Each fold is so smooth, you needn’t even think about grain direction! The dramatic deckled edges look so dressy and divine.

Speaking of luscious paper, I’m doubly delighted to announce that Bundles of Stationery Joy à la Japonaiserie are back in stock! A binder’s dozen to be exact, 13 bundles each swaddled in a unique vintage Japanese paper from our archives. As with the original batch, mostly from the last century, all from Aiko’s. There is only one of each pattern, so, as we have said previously, you might want to spring into action if you have favourites.

Each bundle contains a range of notecards and postcards from European designers and artists: James Winrow, Marimekko, Mary Feddon, Cambridge Imprint, Fabriano Medioevalis, and Hahnemühle Bugra. Envelope accompaniments include tissue-lined Pineider Monarch-y envelopes, an envelope hand-folded by me, and a vintage airmail envelope.

Sophie Harding’s incredible square notecards have been restocked, plus five new designs. Their charming names are: A Bowl of Cherries, (ABC), Last of the Summer Fruits, Marigolds, Sailing into Mousehole, and Shells & Ceramic Fragments. If you would fancy having one of all fourteen designs (a quatorzaine)—allowing you to send/present one very lucky someone with a different card every day for a full fortnight—be our best-addressed guest (and receive the 14th card free).

About a Bookful walkabout

Dear Everyone ~

Bookful of Wordless Stories, my 13th (our Binders Dozenth) Bookful collaboration with Cat Bennett, begins Saturday, May 18—amid mid-spring and early summer, a fine time for fine walks.

The structure students will make to illustrate their wordless stories is a single-signature booklet with decorative stitching and a trio of fab details: a window on the front cover, a triangular pocket inside the back cover, and a companion hand-folded envelope for presenting & protecting your booklet. Speaking of trios, the kit for this workshop includes materials to make three booklets, with three different covers and three complementary envelopes. Students will make one ensemble (booklet + hand-folded envelope) in the first week’s workshop, and the second & third ensembles thereafter with the recording for reference (and company!).

This past week at the BZS palette palace, Ruby & I were in a flurry of measuring, trimming, counting, thread winding, exquisite scrap assembling, and collating the colourful sets of Canson Mi-Teints papers for each kit. Several students have ordered both palettes, Delaunay and Bloomsbury. This means twelve different colours for mixing, matching & musing. It’s chromatically dramatic.

By the end of this week, all the kits will be dispatched to their destinations from coast to coast to beyond, and for in-shop pick up. You can read more about the kits in colourful detail in the shop listing here!

 Cat loves to walk in the dawniest hours of the morning. She rarely takes a sketchbook with her, but takes mental notes in her mind’s eye of the scenery, flora, and people. Once back in her studio she puts pen (or brush) to paper. I asked her to reflect a bit about this creative habit of hers and she shared  …

“ In creating a wordless story, we can capture our impressions of a moment in time in visual images which we can play with in fanciful ways. With the arrival of spring, I’m walking outside so much more and noticing the arrival of birds, blossoms and people too. Everything appears so vivid in spring and our books are records of what we see and feel. ”

“ Everything can spark ideas for images and, with three books, we can focus on three themes. After I’m out and about, I often make pen drawings in my sketchbook. I do these from memory and sometimes add color with markers or colored pencils. After I find some good ideas, I’m ready to work on my book. In our books we can also explore various ways of making images which bring our stories vividly to life. ”

If you would like to join us for Bookful, spring into action. There is still time to ship your kit(s). Cat & I like to emphasize, especially if you are a Bookful newcomer, that absolutely no drawing, painting, collaging, or bookbinding experience is necessary. The workshop pace is calm, and your walking pace can be a saunter (You can be a jaunter.) or a meander or a wander full of wonder. (And you will have complete videos to watch and rewatch—all 12 hours-ful!)

Bookful of Wordless Stories
 
Springing along, Bari

Appetizing & zesty postcards on approach

Dear Everyone ~

Postcard entries for the Bari Zaki Studio First Ever Epistolary Drawing (BZSFEED) continue to arrive from near and far. I have received entries from sixteen states, from northeast to southwest & northwest to southeast. Postage ranges from current to vintage, with the occasional blend. Some cards are overfranked, some sport hand-cancellations, some are uncancelled. The growing stack is a fabulous & fabulously eclectic mix of mediums and materials.

Our friend Carl Herrman has now sent in five postcards (seen above). As we’ve said, the more the verrier. Carl’s name for his rubber-stamping artistic mail endeavors is the Visual Lunacy Society, and his postcards are visually wild & loonily luxe. We have a few vaguely related background details about Carl via our postal muse, who actually met him at a postal design conference in Newport Beach almost thirty years ago. Carl is a lifelong surfer, and one of the thrills of his long tenure as an art director for the USPS was designing the 29¢ Duke Kahanamoku stamp. He comments, “ The First Day ceremony included a luau for hundreds with Don Ho performing. ” Carl also designed the Spiders & Insects of 1999, which was the most popular stamp issue of the year. When we asked him if he had favorites for which he’d been the art director and/or designer, he promptly asked us, “ Like asking which are your favorite children? ”

 At the opposite end of the visual lunacy spectrum, the postcard we’ve received from Frances Reed in Atlanta is more like a little black dress. Her entry is trimmed with red-and-blue piping, bordering both sides of the card. Even so, it’s very narrow, and we are wondering whether Frances could possibly have undertaken to subdivide the washi! You may recognize Frances’s name from our blog post A Morning Glue-torial at the Round Table. 

The deadline for receipt of BZSFEED postcards is Friday, May 10, which is two full mailing weeks hence. Don’t dither—send your card(s) hither!
 
Post haste, Bari
 
PS:
Before I could say Stationery Bundle of Joy à la Japonaiserie, the bundles were sold out! I’ve since received several emails and messages through IG enquiring if I will be offering them again. The answer is Yes! I’ll be announcing them as soon as you can say Stationery Bundle of Joy à la Japonaiserie. 
 
Apropos of which, the email I received from Kristen J. had a heartfelt subject line: Tell me it's not true! And her message began: Hi, I planned on ordering a Bundle of Stationery Joy for a dear friend when I ordered my Bookful of Wordless Stories workshop and see that they are completely sold out!
 
PPS:
And a customer who goes simply by X emailed to say, “ Wow! Japanese bundles gone immediately. ” If X had whined or bemoaned, it could have been a haiku!

Spring Shower of Stationery Joy

Dear Everyone ~

Writing notes is so much less taxing when you have splendid cards to choose from. We’re already halfway through National Letter Writing Month, and we’ve realized we should assemble some superior samplers to refresh your reserves.

Each Bundle of Stationery Joy à la Japonaiserie contains a range of notecards and postcards from European designers and artists: Eleanor Percival, Kiran Ravilious, Sarah Hamilton, Marimekko, Cambridge Imprint, and Hahnemühle Bugra. Envelope accompaniments include tissue-lined Pineider Monarch-y envelopes, Wanderlust envelopes hand-folded by me, and a vintage airmail envelope.

 As you may recall from past editions of our Bundles of Stationery Joy, they have always been ensconced (swaddled, really) in specific papers, from Japanese mulberry-fiber paper to crinkly non-Kodai Kikkō to Serizawa calendar pages to Wanderlust Paper to Cambridge Imprint. For this edition, we’ve upped our game, and will be wrapping each bundle in a unique vintage Japanese paper from our archives, most from the last century, all from Aiko’s. There is only one of each pattern, so you might want to spring into action if you have favourites. 

As you will see in the longest dropdown menu in BZS history, my postal muse and I have put our heads together to name each and every wrapping. The wrapping measures at least 12 x 16; some are as large as 14 x 18. All have been very gently folded, almost finessed, and we declare them suitable for lining a drawer or a couple of envelopes, or making a big envelope, or wrapping anew.

Permit us to point out what is tucked into the knot of the vintage Japanese cording beribbonment! Look sharp, and you’ll see a jumbeau pencil covered in a complementary paper. These are a big addition to our wrapped repertoire of half pencils with rosy eraser and standard pencils with erasers. And a charmola tag with the name of your bundle’s wrapping and, of course, a suitable seasonal stamp.

 If you aren’t in the mood for a shower of stationery joy, perhaps a sprinkling of new and replenished cards will float your bow. I’m delighted to report that two new series of notecards from the U.K. have just arrived: Jane Ormes’ English Garden watercolours (above) and Hannah Pontin’s quartet from 100 Drawings in 100 Days (below).

And Mary Feddon notecard portfolios, which sold out in a mad March moment, have been restocked. Plus we've added a third set of her cards: Two Cats and Cats & Compass.

Postcard-palooza!

Dear Everyone ~

Will has now delivered five days worth of freshly made postcards for our first-ever totally random drawing. We have received almost a binder’s dozen-and-a-half entries already, and they have exceeded our great expectations. What the dickens were they thinkin’, these clever correspondents! For now, we are keeping what people have written under our hat (a different hat than the one in which we will hold the drawing), but we cannot wait to show Everyone a few cards—to admire, and perhaps to inspire.

Here is a map-happy card from Siri B. in Chicago. She drew a map illustrating where her mailbox is in proximity to her home, and where some of her beloved natural wildlife hang out. She shares in her PS that she has sent a piece of mail to a dear friend every week for 25 years! (Do that math!)

Stacey P. in Florida has submitted two (2) postcards, because she “got so excited about the drawing for The Thing.” She asked on one of the cards if it’s OK to submit two, and we hasten to reply that it is AOK. Both will go into the hat. We say, the more the verrier!

Mary McM. of Maryland pressed into service part of a Serizawa calendar page from 1964, plus a few Katazome botanical embellishments adhered to the back of the postcard. She first encountered Serizawa-covered journals at BZS, by way of her daughter who lives in the neighbourhood. She has now imported an incredible number of Serizawa calendars for her personal creative endeavours. 

Carla J. in Virginia has recycled a very thick piece of corrugated (nearly ½"
 thick!) and used mixed-media & collage for the front of her postcard. She reminisces in her message about how learning to bind books during the pandemic opened her world to a deep love of paper, accoutrements for snail mail, and best of all—a new circle of friends.

 The thoughtful expressions, luxuriousness of mediums, and tactile nature of postcards I’ve received to date are beyond heartfelt. Reading Everyone’s connection to paper, bookbinding, and sending mail, brings a smile to my paper-loving heart from ear to ear!
 
More as it’s mailing, Bari

Announcing Bookful of Wordless Stories

Dear Everyone ~

Bookful of Wordless Stories is my thirteenth Bookful collaboration with artist, author & dear friend Cat Bennett. Our four-session workshop via Zoom will begin on Saturday, May 18. May the subsequent weeks be a wonderful time to be out & about walking amongst flora & folia, and sniffing spring breezes—an early warm-up for seeing and sensing summer. 

In this Bookful, as Cat describes in her spirited way, “We’ll illustrate three spring walks on which we encounter fanciful birds, fantastical flowers and a few fabulous people! Our art explorations will be on mixing mediums—drawing and painting with collage, colored pencil or pen with watercolor, and oil or crayon and paint. We’ll also explore making decorative collage papers by painting on tissue and mulberry papers. We will tell delightful short wordless stories with surprise endings. And we’ll look at the work of other artists to find inspiration.”

We will start by making a trio of single-signature booklets each with decorative stitching, a see-through window, a title page (which will also have a see-through window), and a pocket in the back inside cover. Each walk will be documented in its own booklet, and the title page will include a description and embellishment.

We will also hand-fold a trio of envelopes without a template, in which to enclose each booklet. Each booklet measures 6 x 7¾ x ¼ and will fit neatly inside its envelope for protecting, or presenting, or even posting! (We will discuss postage during the workshop.)

The kitful of materials for this Bookful features a colourful mix of Canson Mi-teintes cover papers in two palettes, for our covers and envelopes: Delaunay and Bloomsbury. This lightly textured (on one side!) paper is wonderful for many types of mediums, and its foldability is a joy to behold. And the creative, chromatic potential for mixing & matching is fairly intoxicating.

 In weeks #2, #3 & #4, Cat will begin the workshop session with a curated slideshow. She will then lead the class in painting & drawing exercises using a variety of mediums.

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

 To celebrate our thirteenth—The Binders Dozenth—Bookful, every kit will include a glassine sleeveful of BZS Exquisite Scraps, suitable for collaging, massaging, admiring, and kaleidoscopic contemplation.

Bookful of Wordless Stories
 
Bookfully, Bari

May we draw your attention to the first-ever BZS drawing?

Dear Everyone ~

We invite Everyone to enter our drawing, to be held on Monday, May 13, 2024. Guess how you enter? By sending a 5 x 7 postcard (no envelopes, please) to A–Z at Bari Zaki Studio, 3858 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60613. Your card will require real stamps (at least 68¢, not the postcard rate), and it must be received, via USPS, by Friday, May 10. Further practicalities below.

Let us not put the card before the hoarse. Here, as pithily as possible, is an explanation of why we are having a drawing. My postal muse, Alyson Kuhn, is coming to Chicago with her niece Audrey Kuhn, another AK. (Photographer John Madere chose his favourite shot of Alyson, commenting, “You look like you’ve just won the Academy Award for Stationery!”) Audrey has her aunt’s stationery-hound inclinations, and her own jaunty hand-lettering style. Here is my freshest missive from Audrey, an homage to the arrival of spring. She notes, “This neon ombré ink pad is a bit more aggressive than I planned but maybe it reads as SPRING vs. spring.”

Who else will join our papery party? Ruby LaPorta, my current nimble shop assistant extraordinaire, will be there. Scene below is her desk in action.

And Emmy Kennett, my original nimble shop assistant extraordinaire (now emerita). Scene below is her sitting room without her sitting in it. She’s in the process of painting the walls.

And Janet Bouldin, BZS’s in-house watercolourist & illustrator. Here she is in her home studio, painting BZS’s Rag & Pulp bookmarks.

And Tammy Stams, my co-stitcher, waxed-thread winder, and vintage-postage assembler. Below is Tammy’s craft emporium.

We have also invited Wendy Sherwood to motor in from The Wiilds of Minnesota to join us. Wendy is not The Mystery Guest, she is The Marble-y Guest, and she has made a previous guest appearance at BZS. Here she is, in her studio, with a wallpaper of actual sheets she has marbled… and a bounty of boxes she has covered.

So, the octet of us will have a paper-palooza. We will talk ourselves silly. We will bring each other papery party favours. And, most importantly, we will make something together… to give away to The Winner of the Drawing, who could be You! Not a kit, not a keepsake, more of a mini-compendium of our papery predilections… which is apt to be wrapped in a multi-media manner.
 
And Audrey will fabulously photodocument, both via vignette and video, the proceedings. Here she is, shooting for one of her restaurant clients. (Photographer Frankie Frankeny, Audrey’s mentor, took this photo, frankly perfect for our purposes.)

Back to your postcard: Include your full name and email address and show-or-tell us, on either side (or both!), visually or verbally, why you are entering, or something about your relationship with paper, or something else altogether. We will enjoy reading Everyone’s response—possibly together, possibly out loud— but this is not an essay contest. The winner will be chosen totally at random. In fact, the winning card will be pulled out of a hat. We cannot divulge at this moment who will do the actual drawing, but we can hint: We would describe the person as a local epistolary celebrity.  

And what will become of the glorious postcards? It’s absolutely too soon to tell. But when we know, so will you!
 
 Excitedly, Bari

Spring into spring with our freshest papery provisions

Dear Everyone ~

Organizing the array of cards on my card cabinet is a labour of double love, because the cabinet itself was a gift from Chuck when Aiko’s closed in 2008. For me, arranging a display of cards is akin to working on a jigsaw puzzle, which I find endlessly satisfying—especially when new cards arrive and I have a rationale for rearranging. The base of the cabinet has six roomy drawers, where I keep assorted paper & envelope reserves. The cabinet & its contents provide constant inspiration for envisioning what I will showcase.

Last week I received a much anticipated parcel from the U.K. brimming with notecards by colourist painter & printmaker Sophie Harding. For many moons I’ve swooned over her paintings and am delighted to be the first stockist of her cards in the U.S. 

 Also in the Department of Whimsical Mailables are sets of notecards by British artist Mary Fedden. I’ve stocked these pocket portfolio sets in the shop for several years. In-person shoppers have loved them, and I’m delighted to finally debut them online.

The delightment continues with a menagerie of PasteSF collage cards. Our current selection has been amply restocked and then some. We are pleased as paste to now be offering 18 Denise Fiedler cards.

Hahnemühle recently added two irresistible new paper products. The most apropos is a pad of watercolour bookmarks, with an enchanting cover. The other is a set of round watercolour-paper disks presented in a handy tin. I asked Janet Bouldin, our in-house watercolourist, to test drive both products. I think her samples speak for themselves, but here’s what Janet said, alphabetically speaking:
 
“ A) The precut shapes are beguiling and freeing. B) The bookmark size is perfect for designing a bookmark or making a special gift tag. C) The round size provides an easy way to highlight a piece of something in my view—I’m always drawn to the smaller details of life around me. D) The paper can take an adequate amount of water, and it will handle pen and ink too. E) I plan to always have some of these precuts on hand. I loved using them! ”

The Grey Pad, also from Hahnemühle, has been added to my repertoire of lovely padded papers in two portable sizes, A6 & A5. Its counterpart, the Cappuccino Pad, is delighted to have company and be part of a papery pairing.

Treat your correspondence to an album of its own

Dear Everyone ~

Correspondence Album via group Zoom debuts March 23, coming up next Saturday, the first weekend of spring.

The structure students will make is a voluminous & voluptuous buttonhole-stitch album (9½ x 11½ x 2½). The octet of hand-folded envelope-pages can hold letter-sized sheets, including A4’s. The book’s spine is ’specially spacious (2½ inches wide), providing a fabulous file book for organizing your correspondence. You can, for example, assemble all the elements of an outgoing communiqué in an envelope-page. Or, you can file by element: stamps in one envelope-page; letter sheets in another; postcards in another; and so forth (and fifth…). Or, your album can become an incredible scrapbook or memory book of special correspondence received. I look forward to hearing students in the workshop describe how they envision using their books. 

The completed album will be a papery patchwork quilt of eight different Cambridge Imprint patterns, tucked into a cover of indigo-dyed handmade paper from Cave Paper. My mini-rave about Cave: I find it beguiling—and beyond sturdy. I love working with it. Our interleaving sheets (16 pages/32 serendipitous sides) are Stonehenge with a deckled fore-edge. You can use these pages to record communiqués sent & received and/or to jot what-not. Kits are currently winging their way almost around the globe—to Canada and Austria, and to students from Hawaii to the Eastern seaboard.

The Correspondence Album will be the largest book I have taught via Zoom. I have already tested elevating my overhead camera to showcase my hands working with lusciously large full-sized sheets. You can read more about the structure and materials here.

If you’d like to try your hand at measuring, scoring, trimming, folding, and stitching a large buttonhole-stitch book, but you haven’t yet registered, you are not too late. A handful of kits are at the ready for extra-expedient expediting!

 
No previous bookbinding experience is necessary. The pace is calm and there will be ample time to ask questions whilst we work. I will live record this workshop session, and it will be available to you later the same afternoon to watch and rewatch at your leisure. If you have any questions now, please feel free to call or e me to discuss!

Correspondence Album
 
Feeling springy, Bari
 
PS:
We have yet MORE news in the envelope department! The kit for last week’s Hand-folding Envelope Happiness workshop debuted a new-to-BZS paper from India—a recent discovery by my postal muse, Alyson. (I was enveloped with ecstasy to receive her “twin-set” of test envelopes.) Students in the workshop ooh’d & aah’d and oh-là-là’d, and gave the Indian paper highest marks for foldability, glueability, and tactility. This joy has inspired us to brew up a trio of fresh (and fabulously foldable) palettes to complement or supplement our MORE Art of the Hand-folded Envelope kit, which we will present next week. The palettes will be available independently.