The Sunday Paper #129, October 16, 2016
Paper of the Week: Post-It Notes

Dear Friends,
This tiny piece of paper made my day a couple of weeks ago for several reasons: 1. it was delivered via snail mail; 2. it was an affirmation that people out there really do appreciate this blog and 3. It was attached to a donation check! Here’s to you, dear readers. I am soooo appreciative of your support, in whatever fashion it comes!

If you read this blog regularly, would you consider making a donation to support the research, writing, design and delivery of The Sunday Paper? Click on the paper button at the left (I made that paper) to see how you can provide support.
And if you run a paper-related business, you might be interested in promoting your business in The Sunday Paper.
Thanks again to those of you who have pledged your support, and enjoy your Sunday!
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And now a bit about post-it notes, from Wikepedia: In 1968, a scientist at 3M in the United States, Dr. Spencer Silver, was attempting to develop a super-strong adhesive. Instead he accidentally created a “low-tack”, reusable, pressure-sensitive adhesive. For five years, Silver promoted his “solution without a problem” within 3M both informally and through seminars but failed to gain acceptance. In 1974 a colleague who had attended one of his seminars, Art Fry, came up with the idea of using the adhesive to anchor his bookmark in his hymnbook. Fry then utilized 3M’s officially sanctioned “permitted bootlegging” policy to develop the idea. The original notes’ yellow color was chosen by accident, as the lab next-door to the Post-It team had only yellow scrap paper to use. 3M launched the product as “Press ‘n Peel” in stores in four cities in 1977, but results were disappointing. A year later 3M instead issued free samples directly to consumers in Boise, Idaho, with 94 percent of those who tried them indicating they would buy the product. The product was sold as “Post-Its” in 1979 when the rollout introduction began, and was sold across the United States from April 6, 1980. The following year they were launched in Canada and Europe.
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In the Studio:
I’ve been busy with a custom order of 100 sheets of what my client calls “Helen’s Wild Abaca” (the finished sheets are on the right, below). She’s using the paper to veil her photographs in a new artists’ book. Stay tuned – I hope to have images to share with you soon.

Papery Tidbits

• The Bay Area Book Arts Jam is happening TODAY! Linda Marshall from Washi Arts will have copies of the Twelve Months of Paper calendars at her booth, along with her gorgeous Japanese papers and tools.

• I’m looking forward to a short jaunt to Santa Fe next weekend (Thurs – Sun) for the annual meeting of the Friends of Dard Hunter. I’m giving a Pecha Kucha presentation called “A Papermaker’s Challenge” on Friday night. If you’re attending, I hope you’ll come!

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I so wish that I could get to the Corvallis Arts Center in Oregon to see Dawn Stetzel’s work: I Could Live There: Low-Resource Sculptures. Although this isn’t solely a paper show, many of the works are made of paper like this piece called House Dress (made from fabric and discarded packaging). Dawn (whom I met at the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology many moons ago) said that her favorite part about displaying her artwork is the opportunity to create dialogue with viewers and see how it resonates with people from all different backgrounds. Check it out if you can!

I’m sure most of you are familiar with Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup art, but did you ever see his paper dresses? He was one of the first artists to hook up with the fashion world.

In contrast to high fashion, here’s a story about the delight of watching people make paper by hand for the first time (i.e. getting down, dirty and DIY). The Mobile Mill team (aka Jillian and Maxum Bruschera) got a nice write-up about their Sacramento based adventures. Maxum says: “You see people take the mould and deckle and dip it into the pulp and press a sheet of paper and immediately their imagination is sparked and they start asking all sorts of questions and their energy starts getting kicked up and everything so there’s like a transformation you see happen when somebody can engage in a process.”

Hand papermaking got a lot of press this week – yay! Click through to hear Drew Matott talk about his work with Peace Paper.

This is a bit of a side-story… not about paper but about Free E-Books in the New York City subway. How cool is that? Has anybody tried it yet??