by beatriceotto | Mar 15, 2019 | paper shaper, places & spaces, writing & writers
Steinbeck wrote with pencil on the ubiquitous American yellow pad. Computers and word-processing came too late for him, and so I was curious about his wife’s assumption that while he would have liked and mastered them, he’d probably have stuck with...
by beatriceotto | Jan 16, 2019 | paper shaper, you got mail
One of the greatest pleasures of Christmas, for me anyhow, is the sending and receiving of cards, one of the few genres of paper post that still seem to hold their own. This year I was late writing them as we returned from a long trip just before the holiday season...
by beatriceotto | Feb 2, 2018 | paper shaper, think ink, writing & writers
Orlando enjoys a portfolio career, as a courtier, a diplomat, a landowner, a lady under house arrest, but throughout, he-she is also an aspiring writer, although it takes 300 years to finish a poem and to get near a publisher. Take heart if your work of art is taking...
by beatriceotto | Nov 22, 2017 | paper shaper, think ink, writing & writers
Having a love of ink, the variety of its hues and the names people give them, and the chunky inventive shapes of ink bottles, I was enchanted by this notion of making your own ink from berries and wine. I imagine blueberries, blackcurrants or elderberries would be...
by beatriceotto | Nov 22, 2017 | paper shaper, writing & writers
This hand-bound, home-made note book contains the manuscript of Orlando’s great poem, ‘The Oak Tree’, begun in 1586. He takes it everywhere with him, tucking it inside a jacket, or later, a dress, writing across the margins when he runs out of...
by beatriceotto | Sep 22, 2017 | paper shaper
I liked this lively description of the importance of notebooks. How many do we have dotted around our homes, half scribbled in, perhaps dedicated to different topics (a journal, ideas for a business, whatever), then part abandoned, but never fully, and sometimes...
by beatriceotto | Jul 21, 2017 | paper shaper, writing & writers
Having had several detailed discussions with my brother on what constitutes acceptable paper for note-books or letters, I felt sympathy for Thoreau having to search for blank paper. For letters, I prefer blank sheets, but for journals or other notebooks, I like lined...
by beatriceotto | May 19, 2017 | paper shaper, think ink
When I created a category dedicated to the accoutrements of writing and drawing, I had in mind pens and their ilk and the ink or carbon they deploy. I never thought of a bracelet until I saw this short video about two young women, one a graphic designer, the other an...
by beatriceotto | May 19, 2017 | paper shaper, you got mail
You may not have noticed, but air mail envelopes and the corresponding lightweight letter paper are dying out. I am by now resigned to the decline, and am simply stocking up for the duration. A while ago a Brazilian friend visited and offered to bring me some...
