My name is Russ. . . and I am addicted to Paper

I’m a paper whore and I think that I might need help. As I have mentioned previously, I am documenting all of my supplies for insurance purposes. I have catalogued my machines. Last night, I decided to catalogue my flat files. I knew that I had plenty of paper—some of the drawers are full. What I didn’t realize is that I have 196 separate patterns of paper. 196. I think that I am out of control. The problem is that many of them aren’t single sheets of the pattern. I have multiples.

Rather than photograph the individual patterns, I decided to make a sample book for each drawer in my flat file. I was planning on doing this anyway so I can show them to my clients and they can then pick out a paper pattern before I start a project. Of course, I didn’t think to count the number of pieces per pattern as I was going the cataloguing. Now, I have to go back and count but that will be a lot easier to do than sitting/standing there and cutting out a 2” by 3” swatch for my sample book.

I am also planning on taking my sample book with me when I visit Japan in a couple of weeks. Just think—the land of paper. When I was there in February, I spent the equivalent of a month’s rent on buying Yuezen. The markup of my sources here in the US is about 100%. So, I bought and then scrimped and saved in the months following my past trip.

As I was going through my sample book, I noticed some interesting trends:

For Japanese papers: Favorite patterns included patterns with black backgrounds, followed by patterns with blue backgrounds. The least number of patterns had red backgrounds.

There isn’t an animal print that I can’t seem to pass up. The embossed paper (in every color) seem to be my favorites—snakeskin patterns followed by crocodile patterns.

For printed papers, I seem to favor the Italians—Cavalli and Bertini. For colors in these patterns, I seem to favor jewel tones.

For metallic papers, I seem to prefer golds to silvers. Bronzes to coppers.

Finally, if it is embossed, I probably have it.

Someone send help now. I think that I might be addicted to paper.

Next stop—cataloguing rubber stamps. Oi Vey.