Saturday, July 19, 2008

japanese paper

Today I made the steamy drive into Montreal (a 45-minute drive from the town where I live) for a much-needed haircut. While I was in the city I dropped into my old neighbourhood and visited au papier japonais, a wonderful store that carries over 500 kinds of Japanese paper as well as paper from other parts of the world, and samples of the famous Montreal-made Saint-Armand paper. They also give an amazing array of workshops in the areas of paper arts and techniques; books, boxes, portfolios and photo albums; and drawing, painting and collage. The owners, Lorraine Pritchard and Stan Phillips, are knowledgeable and helpful and it's always a pleasure to drop in. This time around, I purchased the following: moriki goldenrod (for my firefly pieces), etchu pure kozo (for collagraph experiments), MM tengujo and HM tosa tengujo (very fine tissue often used for conservation mending but I sometimes use them in my reliquaries and sewn paper pieces and plan to experiment with them in some ink pieces). And then, to top off the afternoon, I walked a few doors down to my favourite bagel place, the Fairmount Bagel Bakery, and bought 2 dozen sesame seed bagels. Montreal bagels...the best bagels ever!

These four sheets were my purchases today.

...and these light and chewy bagels were added to the post in response to Jo's comment. Thanks Jo! The reason that the shapes are slightly wonky is that each bagel is rolled by hand, in a flick of the wrist, before being baked in a wood-fired oven. Quite something to watch.

7 comments:

jo horswill said...

I'm in 'handmade paper heaven'...
Sound's like you had a wonderful day, actually sounds like the perfect day really.
Paper photo's are beautiful and I love your natural choices...they look like something I would choose!
Where is the photo of the bagels???

kate said...

Yes Jo, I love the colourful papers but when it's time to choose something for my own work, the natural ones seem a better fit. And your question about the bagel photo made me realize that I'd made a terrible oversight! I've now added a bagel photo!

Ursula Achten said...

Oh, these prints on the first shot are so beautiful....*sigh*...and this very fine tissue is one of my favourites, too.
I bought a pack of them with about 20 sheets a while ago, and because the seller couldn't imagine, that his own prizing with about 2Euro the sheet could be true, I got the whole pack for it, lallaallaala;)

kate said...

uschi...what a bargain you got! Lucky you! How do you use your fine tissue?

Shayla said...

Yum! I'm reading this post before eating breakfast and am now wishing I had some Montreal bagels to devour. You're right. No other bagel comes close.

Love those papers, Kate. That shop sounds fantastic.

Gwen Buchanan said...

I love paper.. wish we lived near a center that gave courses like these.. Lucky you.. must have been hard to pick, with all that choice of papers...

Nothing better than Montreal bagels.. We used to buy them at the Olde City Market in Saint John, New Brunswick, which we live about 45 min. from...
My husband grew up in Montreal so he has fond memories of it...

your nests are an inspiration!

kate said...

shayla...ahh so you know! Montreal bagels really are beyond words. Hope you found something else yummy to eat for breakfast.

gwen...another Montreal bagel fan! Thanks for visiting and thanks for your kind words about my nests. And yes, it is very hard to pick from the huge selection of paper. They have sample sheets in binders and there are at least 12 binders full! But so much fun going through them.