Last week, on a television show called “The Office,” the boss was invited to speak to a classroom of Business students at a university. The students had been prepped ahead of time, with the information that paper is obsolete. So, to have a spokesman for a paper company come in to speak was setting him up for harassment. Not surprising to all, when confronted, he became very angry and left the presentation hall in a huff.
Upon leaving, he remembered that his secretary had invited him to a showing of her art work. Once in the art gallery, he laid eyes on a pen and ink sketch of “their” building and he asked her if he could buy the composition. She was very moved, and with tears in her eyes, agreed to relinquish her work. With the drawing safely installed at the office, he concluded that it could not have been made without PAPER, and once again, he was validated.
Paper. We take it for granted because it is everywhere. In some ways, paper is becoming obsolete. After all, I am writing this message to you, without lifting a pen or pencil of any kind, just typing on a keyboard.
More than fifteen years ago, I served on the Board of an organization. One of our members would send me notes that were scribbled on the back side of used office paper from her husband’s business. At the time, I interpreted that move as being frugal. I did not realize that she was concerned about the environment and wanted to “use up” the paper. After all, she reasoned, it only had been used on one side. “Waste not, want not.”
Time was when we would use graph paper to draft quilt designs and embroidery charts. Some of us still work that way. I know that I have not been willing to rely on a computer for that kind of work, although I’m sure there are fine programs for computer-aided drafting. In fact, I have purchased every version of Electric Quilt, never to have moved beyond the first lesson. It just isn’t my way of working but I kept promising myself that I’d become self-taught at that method and proficient.
Uses of Paper
This past week, the subject of “paper punched” embroidery came up, on my yahoo list. At first, I did not recognize what people were talking about because they kept mentioning doing this technique as children. It was not until someone described how the stitches are worked that it dawned on me. I have done this technique. In fact, just recently I stitched and embellished a square that featured a Santa design. Ultimately, the finished piece was beaded and bejeweled and became the top of a trinket box. To create this, I worked from a purchased kit, only they called the technique “perforated paper embroidery.”
A Victorian Paper Art
In looking around on the Internet, I discovered a few sellers of paper designs. One lady, Nancy Turner, sells kits for one or two word designs such as “Welcome,” “Faith,” and “Greetings.” They are based on motifs from the Victorian Era, late nineteenth century, or “more than one hundred years ago,” as she says.
Image of eBay auction #190036842437, courtesy of Nancy Turner, eBay seller “2500nancy.”
Another eBay seller, in Canada, “prunie8″ has compiled an astounding 24 designs that she sells in booklet form. The motifs are in the public domain and are copyright-free. I have ordered the booklet and am looking forward to re-visiting this type of stitching, after the first of the year. See her auction at #280044447714.
Examples of Paper Use
There is really nothing new under the sun. I can think of other ways paper is used. How about wallpaper, or menus in restaurants, or origami, the Japanese art of folding paper into animal shapes? How about the Danish folded stars that are made out of white paper and used for Christmas ornaments? How about templates for quilting that are glued onto mylar?
I love paper. The smell of some magazines has a certain appeal to one of my friends. She just loves to receive Quilting Arts because “it just smells so good.”
I hope that we are never without paper. Whether it is thick like card stock, or thin like colored tissue paper, or shiny like some of the paper I use to print books, paper is downright fun. I love the various textures of art papers. I love the versatility of freezer paper. I even like the warmth of newsprint on newspapers and can readily see why people in cartoons are depicted as taking a nap under them.
I used to like to grade school papers and write words of encouragement or mark red Xs where someone has totally missed the mark. I used to love report cards that marked my progress, every quarter, in grade school. I liked the printout of the image of JFK that my brother generated on a key punch computer system, when the computer age was very young. I enjoy the old letters that family members wrote to each other, in the past. In some cases, both parties are now gone and their written word is the only thing that is left to represent them.
No doubt about it. Paper is necessary. Gift wrap is delightful! Children’s books, with their great illustrations are wonderful! Ephemera from the quilt world is increasingly valuable the further we get from the first publication date of a pattern or book. Birth certificates, and other official documents continue to be important, all of our lives. I don’t think the paper manufacturers should press the panic button just yet. I, for one, just LOVE paper, and I suspect it will be around quite awhile longer!
Patricia Cummings
