Stationery

Fondness. Weakness. Predilection. Addiction. Luv.

These are all words I could use to describe my feelings for stationery. And books. I *heart* them.

I get a little woozy when going to office supply stores. (One of you Readers can attest to that. And you know who you are!) I can wander the aisles, misty-eyed over staplers and hole punchers. Post it notes? Pencil sharpeners? Forget it! But my drug of choice is writing paper. In all forms: journals, binder paper, note cards; generic or hand made; vellum-thick or tissue-thin.

Did you know that there are stores dedicated to beautiful accouterments of writing? They are to writing what Dior is to getting dressed in the morning. A really good stationer understands that it is a very personal and sensual experience to sit down with a pen that feels just right in the hand, having the perfect flow and colour of ink, on the ideal piece of paper to convey the intent and sentiment of the message.

So, dear Reader, I have a Fabulous Product alert for you. My wonderfully thoughtful mother (Oma Nut) came across another wonderful woman - an artist who calls herself a 'maker of stuff' - who uses discarded books to make journals. Margi Laurin uses the covers and selected pages of old books, inserts blank paper for writing, sketching, journaling, note taking (as the mood strikes you), and rebinds them. I was given two for Christmas, and am trying to convince myself it's ok to actually use them. One was an old collection of poetry which will mean that my own scribbles could be found alongside Browning and Wordsworth. The other is a spiritual work in old German, published in 1866, and includes notes and inserts from a long-ago owner. Other bits of the old books are remade into memo cubes and note cards.

I'm not sure if Margi travels to art shows, or just how far and wide her products can be found, but here is a link to her website. I love the idea of rescuing old books, and I love having such unique and inspiring notebooks. Keep these in mind if you need gift ideas for yourself, or someone else. Or me!

http://margilaurin.ca/Site/Altered_Books.html