(25) October - Sept from Nicky (papermache)

Apologies for this post - the writing part needs some editing, but I don't have time.

The exchange emails pile up and once in a while I go through and delete them. I recently saw the very first one from Nicky where she introduced herself as a printmaker. Her prints have been a welcome addition to the blog posts. I think this is the first time she has taken on lettering although my memory is a teflon colander so there may be some delightful, font-tastic envelopes from Nicky. Either way, I enjoy her work very much and there is only one suggestion on this envelope. The center crossbar on the E is a little wimpy. That might be the way it was on the exemplar - but we are free to tweak whatever we find. 

*** 5:30 am - I just did a search and Nicky has done all kinds of lettering. So ignore what I said in the previous paragraph. ***

Do we know of things that are 100% lovely and we should not mess with them. Absolutely. Will I find an example and post it - maybe. Or I could refer you to Sheila Waters, Peter Thornton, John Stevens - and other rock stars in the world of lettering - those were just off the top of my head. 

*** 

When I woke up and read the October 10th blog post, I groaned to myself about what I had written. I quickly added a note that I would return to the topic. I just read the Oct 10 post and it is 5 am. There are usually 300-400 hits by 5 am - which means I might have that many readers. Lately - there have been 5,000-7,000 hits. My comments are mostly for Scarlet since my exchangers are mostly US people.

The comment on Oct 10th suggested that there were papers that were *finer* than other papers - but it would break my heart to tell brown kraft paper that it is not an equal to 100% cotton rag paper. Every paper is precious. Paper is my *thing* along with the tools and the fluids. And paper does not need to have anything added. Just folding paper is a world unto itself. <pause to make some kind of meaningful gesture to the paper deities> 

And if anyone is thinking that perhaps toilet paper is a lesser paper....nope....there is a lovely lady in Minnesota who has contributed to the papermache community with her fantastic recipes that include TP. 

Now I must pause to rant about Google's unwillingness to include papermache as an actual *thing* that has been around for a long time -- I'm so riled up I'm just going to insert the links and you can do your own research. Apparently there is no way to Englishize papier-mâche. GRRRRRRR!!!!!

LINK to the papermache lady who uses papermache as her spelling and she is the first person to pop up when doing a search for papermache - which seems like it should work. GRRRRR!!!!

Here's the official spelling - it's old - it came from China - the first makers of paper - so it's logical they they were also the first ones to tear it up and make something out of the paper with mistakes.

Papier-mâché - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papier-mâché