Feel free to drop off a photo and a blurb about your work the next time you are in the store, or you can email it to us if that is easier. Send submissions to Lauren@twohandspaperie.com. The book will be a work in progress- there is no deadline to submit. We will add to it as long as people continue to provide us with photos of their work. We’ll have the book out very soon, and we hope to see your work in it.

It has been some time since I have attempted a post, and for this I apologise. There is certainly a bit of irony in the fact that Two Hands Paperie promotes the ancient arts of writing with a pen on paper, making books, sending letters, and general tactile creativity, and the fact that we now communicate with so many through the new medium of the Internet. In these past few months, whenever I sat down to write- and I have done this plenty of times over the last few months- that fact has given me license to not write a blog post. “I’d rather do things with paper and my hands- the blog can wait,” was my justification, shunning the digital for the analog.  Call it a lame excuse if you will, but it was enough to put off the writing for some time.

I think the time has come to stop putting it off, to address the need for inspiration in our lives, and for directing that inspiration towards our artistic endeavors. We have endless responsibilities in our lives- we take out the trash, clean the house, rake leaves, go to work, etc. and so on, ad infinitum. We also have  a responsibility to the artist within to create. This personal responsibility often (usually?) gets pushed aside, relegated to the very bottom of the list, even below taking out the trash. I think it’s time to move it to the top of the list. Call it a new year’s resolution if you will, but I have decided that this year I will write at least 5 days a week. There, I’ve said it. The world now knows.

And this is one of the recommendations that Judy Reeves makes in her incredibly inspiring book A Writer’s Book of Days. When we let others know of our intentions, we are then held accountable. If we are held accountable, we are more likely to follow through- this is the logic behind the idea. This is a good place to begin. State your intentions, and show up to write. Reeves’ book is filled with tips, quotes, exercises, and trivia by and about famous writers. My favorite tip is from the very first pages- just sit down and write, keep the pen moving, don’t stop, reread, or think about puctuation. Among the interesting trivia, Reeves notes how Mark Twain could smoke 40 cigars a day while writing, how Annie Dillard writes in a room with no view, and how D.H. Lawrence wrote nude.

Another inspirational title for writers is Hal Zina Bennett’s Write Starts. Like Reeves’ book, Bennett’s is full of exercises for “jumpstarting your creativity”, as the book’s subtitle goes. And like Reeves, Bennett discusses places to write, tools for writing, and offers quotes by famous authors. Bennett’s exercises will help you develop characters, create scenes, and capture details in your own stories.

Finally there is Danny Gregory’s Illustrated Life. I was introduced to this book by Cynthia Morris, local artist, coach, and teacher of  the class called “Journal Juju”. She has lectured, and taught this class at Two Hands Paperie and will be teaching it again in the spring (our spring class schedule will be up by the first of February).  Gregory’s book presents a graphic approach to journaling and contains the most inspirational collection of sketches I’ve seen in one place. The book is full of color, filled with perfect lines and images that are presented in a format that lets you know you can achieve them (or at least something close, in my case). Just opening the book leaves you with the desire to grab a pencil and sketch!

If you made a resolution for the new year to be the artist you know you are, good for you! If you haven’t yet done so, now is the time to see your ideas materialise on paper! Whether you are making books by hand, journaling, writing a novel, sketching scenes at your local cafe, or filling a sketchbook with intricate drawings, the new year is the perfect time to make it happen.

Not only is the site more visually up to date, but it is more easily navigable and more user friendly. We will be adding to the site over the next few months, choosing some of our favorite items from the store, so be sure to check back if there is something you have seen in the past and do not see now. Also, feel free to email us with questions about products you have seen in the past and presently do not see.

You will see new pages added to the website, including this blog. One very exciting addition is the page for classes and events. In the past the store offered classes on bookbinding, creative journaling, and a variety of related topics. We are planning to bring these classes back and are in the process of putting together a fall class schedule. This will be posted by mid-August. We will also post any free in-store events, or community events that we think might be of interest to our customers.

We have also added a “Custom Printing” page. We offer custom letter press and ink jet printing through the store. This will be represented more fully on the website in the near future. In the meantime, if you have any questions on custom printing, please stop by, call, or email us at the store.

We appreciate everyone’s patience while we worked out the details of our new website, and hope that you all agree it was worth it. Please be sure to check back regularly as we will add products daily and will do our best at adding a blog post each week.

Yours,

Mia and Gerald

Many customers ask us if we offer journaling classes.  But recently we talked with one of our customers about teaching journaling classes. Cynthia Morris lives in Boulder and teaches, among many things, journaling and creative writing.  While in the store she showed me a couple of her journals that she had in her bag.  Seeing her journals and our conversation during our brief visit in the store was very inspiring to me.  I decided then and there that I would approach the new journal that sat on my desk in a different way, including more sketching and art work with the writing . We are hoping to have Cynthia teach a class at Two Hands in the fall so that anyone interested can be equally inspired.  If you are hoping to enhance or tap into your hidden creativity, this class may be for you. You can learn more about Cynthia at her website- OriginalImpulse.com.   Watch our website for the class schedule to appear later in the summer.

For pen lovers, the new Visconti Homo Sapiens line of pens will be out soon. We have the pens on order and are very excited about carrying them. The pens are unique in many ways.  Besides the flexible nib, wide-opening spring clip, large ink well, and customisable cap which are standard on most Visconti pens, the Homo Sapiens  line are made from lava from Mount Etna in Italy. The black body of the pen is enhanced by bronze trim which, on the pen I tried out, had a beautiful patina already forming.  The pens are available in fountain, ball point, and rollerball.

At Two Hands Paperie we have a selection of  ballpoint and roller ball pens, as well as a variety of fountain pens, all of which are very popular. We carry fountain pens by Jean-Peirre Lepine, Namiki, Delta, Faber-Castell, Taccia, Visconti, Retro 51, Lamy, Online, and Spalding.

One of the most exciting aspects of the fountain pen is the ability to choose inks. There are a large number of inks available for fountain pens, both in cartridges and bottled inks. Cartridge inks are more limited in color in some brands, but ink manufacturers such as Herbin make all of their bottled inks available in the International cartridge style. Nearly all fountain pens come ready for cartridges.  Converters can be purchased for most pens to allow the use of bottled inks.

Fountain pens that accept cartridges are handy for travel and for those who carry a fountain pen daily. They can be carried onto airplanes while traveling. Bottled inks lend themselves better to use at your writing desk, simply because carrying bottled inks can be cumbersome and potentially messy.  At Two Hands Paperie we carry inks by Herbin, Waterman, Taccia, Lamy, Caran d’Ache, Namiki, and Visconti.

For those not ready for a fountain pen, there are ballpoint and roller ball cartridges that write as smooth and flow as freely as fountain pens.  Caran d’Ache ballpoint cartridges are very smooth. Faber-Castell ballpoint cartridges flow across the page as if they were a gel or roller ball cartridge. If you are not familiar with these brands, or with the differences in pens, ask to try them out the next time you visit us. We would be happy to explain  their features and let you try them side by side for comparison.

Because of these interactions, I recently decided that I needed to write a letter myself.  I gave it quite a bit of thought- I asked myself “Who do I know that would really enjoy receiving a letter?” When I finally hit upon the person, I sat down immediately and began writing.  I have to say that the tactile experience of writing, of addressing an envelope, and sending it off was something I had forgotten about. Not to mention the challenge of not being able to cut and paste, and the fact that I had no spell check! I plan to write another letter soon, once I realise who the next recipient is. 

For us, the answer can be daunting- because there is so much you can do with it! We keep a list of possibilities on hand in the store and are always happy to talk about new ideas. Here is a short list of possibilities: make a book, make cards and invitations, cover a lampshade, collage, make origami, scrapbook, wrap a present, line drawers, or frame it and hang it on the wall. Some recent discussions with customers have added the following to the list: use it as photography backdrops, make paper ornaments, decoupage glass Christmas bulbs and pink flamingos, cover watering cans, line the inside of a ceramic lamp, hide the clutter in glass-front cabinets (a popular use), or cover the glass in a door.

The possibilities really are endless and only limited by the imagination. Stop in and look over our decorative sheet papers and let us know what you will do with yours.