The Paper History Mystery

A couple weeks ago I featured the historic decorated papers of bookbinder Carmencho Arregui in Italy. These extraordinary papers struck a chord with many including myself. Since that time, I wanted to feature some of her modern conservation binding examples which include many of these same historic papers, as I find them so alluring. Some of the papers date back to the 16th and 17th centuries and their beauty reflects some of the historic printing processes of old wallpapers which were often wood engraved and stenciled. Arregui was surely inspired by many of the papers as she set out to decorate some of her own using a stamping process she refers to as Rolling Rollers. She generously shares this process and others on her site in addition to examples of her papers. When I asked her if any of the modern conservation bindings were bound with her own decorated papers, she did admit to this. Arregui preferred not to reveal their identity however, as "it is fun to guess" she added. It's the case of the paper history mystery...