Several Years ago when I was meandering the wooden walkways of Gilman Village in Issaquah, Washington, I noticed a contented woman sitting on a bench in the sun enjoying a snack. It took merely a second for me to memorize that comfortable picture, and what happened next is why I still remember it. I glanced to my right and saw an open door and a sign that read "The Paper Fix." Always having been a fan of paper, it was only natural to walk inside.The Paper Fix turned out to be a shop with a balanced offering of decorative papers, fine stationary, and custom gift wrapping. Those are three things that I thoroughly enjoy. As I was taking in my surroundings, the woman from the bench came inside. It turned out that she was Angela Fix, owner of The Paper Fix. I had a great time talking to her and learning about her business. Seeing what she did for a living and how content she was, gave me a little glimpse of something I might like to do in the future. We enjoyed the same things.
Cutting, folding, tying, gluing. At the time I thought, someday I'd like to be surrounded by beautiful paper, just like this. Happily those likes of mine led me to bookbinding, and voilà, I'm on my way to being surrounded!
The paper shown above is a piece purchased from The Paper Fix. The papers were displayed hanging on wooden rods that were suspended from the ceiling using heavy chains. From what I remember the rods just slipped through the large eyes of the chains.
I have a small collection of papers that I like to have at the ready, and at this time, my bindery lacks a good spot for flat files. After telling my husband, Josh, the story above, he set to work recreating similar paper storage for me. I think his variation on the theme might be a bit sturdier than the original.Instead of threading the rod through the eyes of the chains, he screwed eye hooks into the rods so that they could accept S hooks which could then be attached to a length of chain. The eye hooks are also what hold the contraption to the ceiling. His final step was to add rubber feet to the ends of the rods. I thought that was a nice finishing touch. Below are close-ups of the attachments.
There are some pros and cons to storing paper this way. The major pro is that a lot of color is instantly added to the bindery. Also, because of the way I've arranged the papers, with a little sliver of each showing, I am able to take stock of what I have and readily select the paper I'd like to use. I don't have to sort through a drawer of papers stacked on top of each other.
After a few hours hanging on a rod, the paper is trained to have a little bend in the center. Luckily it is easily trained to do the reverse. Surely, the actual hanging on the rods must not be a major issue considering how many stores use a similar hanging method.
A possible con is light damage that may occur. The paper is located on the wall furthest from the bindery windows, but I think there is a fair chance that if I don't plow through these papers, those slivers will be discolored in a few months. Time will tell.
For now, I'm pleased that my decorative paper is out of tube storage and off of the floor where it was stored between pieces of binders board. The rest of my paper has a different story. I store cut pieces on shelves of my desk, and other pieces on a shelf made out of binders board, that is fitted to my Kutrimmer. This shelf holds large plain sheets, decorative papers that aren't quite the right size to hang, as well as rolls of bookcloth.
Sadly, The Paper Fix is no longer in Gilman Village. I'm not sure if the store moved, or if it closed. Hopefully Ms. Fix still has beautiful paper in her life, and is just as content as the first day I saw her.