Seriously environmentally concious, this paper recycles undigested fibers from elephants into paper. Sounds just like any other paper, right? Paper is all just plant fibers, right? Recycled paper is essentially regrouped broken fibers from used paper, that's why paper recycled from elephant dung is just like other recycled paper.

You got that right, elephant poo. Paper is made from fiber, afterall. No matter where the fiber is from: whether it's from used paper or undigested elephant food.

And it doesn't smell like poo.

Learn about The Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper and get some for yourself.

I finally made it to the Kinokuniya Bookstore at the Rockerfeller Center in New York to pick up some chiyogami. Last time I was (almost) there it was the night of X'mas tree lighting, all the roads were blocked and I just couldn't get into the store. Anyway, it's been almost a year now and I've finally made it!

What is great about Kinokuniya's stock is that they have little packs of assorted chiyogami, so if you simply want to use them for a few paste-downs, it is very economical to buy that instead of the big full sheets which cost a lot more. I bought 2 packs of chiyogamis, each of them has 4 assorted designs and each sheet is around 260x360mm, large enough for 2 paste-downs.

Shinwazome chiyogami ($11.55):


Yuzen chiyogami "komon" ($11.55):

I was given this Decorative Endpapers book by Morry a few days ago. He stopped by Strand, and when he overheard that the staff was commenting how weird it was to have a book about "Decorative Endpapers," he immediately grabbed it. Believe it or not, he bought it for a dollar, as it was going to be on sale.

From an archived page of the museum's newsletter The Quarterly (No. 40, October 2001), "End-papers consist of units of two or more leaves which provide a measure of safety for the text-block from the wear and tear of book handling. An obvious function of many end-papers is to cover the inside of the book board, hiding the cover turn-ins. Bookbinders soon realized that end-papers had an enormous decorative potential, utilizing techniques such as wood-block printing and marbling...."

Decorative Endpapers was published by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1985. It begins with an essay on its collection of decorative endpapers at the time. The museum has a Print Room (not sure if it's still around) that collects endpapers of various styles and origins: paste papers, Dominotier papers, embossed papers and marbled papers. The book also re-prints 32 of their endpaper collection. I wish that they would have some descriptions or credits to the designs, so that I would know what each one is called and when or where they are from.

The followings are some of my favorite endpapers featured in the book with enlarged detail on the right.

Visitor Sharon knows that I have always loved the blue/yellow flowery print paper (first on left) and she wrote to me to tell me that there are other colors for the same pattern available at Paper Source in Highland Park, IL. I previously bought some similar sheets of Ross Decorative which they also have at the store as well. Thanks to Sharon for the tip!

Here are some of my recent acquisition of paper, all of which can be purchased at New York Central Art Supply in New York, NY.

Ross Decorative: classic monotone printed paper:



Japanese Riviere: shiny and metallic:


Indian Velour: velvety texture with vibration color and strong patterns:

As I was wandering in the neighborhood, I visited this Washi store that just opened about a month ago in the East Village. Precious Pieces features high quality artisanal Washi (handcrafted Japanese paper), that is created to combine contemporary design and classic Japanese elements. Each sheet is custom made to different sizes as desired. Their work are primarily used as interior decoration or simply as a piece of work to be displayed on the wall.

Here are more patterns that I have created and printed onto 13"x19" paper over the weekend:


Stipes are just so out these days, really. What we have been wearing this last past season was stripes and more stipes. But lately I have been really into the yellow vs. brown color scheme, so here it is, another stripes design to complete the trend.

Using default Illustrator styles, I quickly created some big patterns on 13"x19" paper. I first created some simple objects and applied styles to them to create some of these interesting patterns. If you're a regular Illustrator use, these patterns and styles probably would be very familiar to you. You can totally use them for wrapping paper, but I have something in mind: I am going to cut them into pieces and use them as inserts in books. Every few pages or so could have an abstract graphic page.


The following 2 use the same pattern but with different styles applied: