south, east
these envelopes i made in 1992. an old pacific and orient map, found in the bottom of a tea chest in london, i took it to my printer, then after, to my envelope maker.
in those days one went. no computer or e-mail or scanners, nor any technology at all. we would sit down together, at an enormous wooden table and design an envelope.
i can remember clearly my obsession with all of it, right down to the width of the gum on the seal. looking again at these, i've been making envelopes this week.
it's been much like visiting an old friend.
well this is simply ridiculously wonderful, recalling a rapport it was possible to have with one's stationer or engraver; the exacting sympathy and passion of their craft; and an impression of wisdom, to which even the idlestly minded youth would not only defer, but appeal. [Of course we know we were self-dealing in the implements of control even as we were abasing ourselves to the dictates of its customs; but that is all theory, not life].
ReplyDeletemost of us (the more active hostesses aside) draw on these resources no more than two or three times in many decades of life - and yet to make a recurring lark of it strikes one as shrewd insurance against any outcome of the transmittal -- it was fun to put together.
un voyage à elles seules
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