For our rest and relaxation, my fiancee and I spend long hours in thrift stores. She likes the clothes; I like the books. One benefit for my work as a commercial printing broker is that I see how print books age. I see the yellowed paper in the books from the ‘70s and ‘80s and the pristine paper and binding work in books close to 100 years old (i.e., due to their superior materials).
As with anything else in life, a discount often comes with a cost. Maybe not in cash, but in time, effort, and diligent study.
I’m brokering three jobs for three clients at the moment. All three jobs are books (two case-bound; one perfect-bound). In light of their due dates, I am entertaining the possibility of printing one or more of the jobs abroad, in the Far East. This would be my first time. One of my clients has been printing in China for a number of years, successfully. She gets unbeatable prices.
I just read an article on PackagingDigest.com about textured inks used for package printing. I thought about the times I had picked up books at thrift stores and had been initially attracted not to their content but to the feel of the cover (or more specifically the texture of the coating). I’m especially fond of artfully printed and bound, dull film laminated books. I like the matte feel.
I was very pleased to come upon this article recently: “Kids actually like reading paper books more than screens.” It is from The News and Observer, 3/10/17, and it was written by Teresa Welsh.
My fiancee and I stopped at a local upscale outlet store this week, a number of times, to collect designer shoe boxes for our autistic students. In art therapy we have been creating small shadow boxes (also known as dioramas), or miniature rooms decorated for Halloween. We’ve had our autistic members combine miniature skeletons (some wrapped as mummies), gauze, paint, Halloween stickers, and any other sculptural elements we could find.
I believe in synchronicity, or “meaningful coincidences,” as described by psychologist Carl Jung. Sometimes important things just seem to happen simultaneously, and if I’m aware at the time, I can learn from them.