Freebie Friday Goes to the Dogs - and Cats

Well, this is a new one for me. A dog won this past week's Freebie Friday giveaway of all the frog-based stationery. The winner is Moose, who wrote: "Frogs forever! Tail Wags to All!" OK Moose, get your master to send me his shipping address to me at peter (dot) hopkins (at) comcast (dot) net.

So, it's Freebie Friday once again and to honor the occasion of having a dog winning last time, I'm giving away two pet-themed journals - one for dog-lovers and one for (sorry Moose!) cat-lovers.

I opened the journals up a while ago and the feel of the paper inside is spectacular. Upon further inspection, I learned why. The journals are filled with beautiful, white, toothy 24-pound Bond - Crane's Bond.

So, all you animal-lovers who would love to own these journals filled with Bond - Crane's Bond - leave a comment below. And good luck

Tracing a Piece of Crane's Bond History

I was rooting around in the Crane archives the other day and came across some items that I had forgotten about. They had been sent to me by a visitor to the Crane Museum of Papermaking who had heard the stories about the uses to which Crane's Bond had been put over the years.

In this case (and I'm not sure if I have the terminology correct) Bond was used as the substrate for perforated sewing patterns. I know it's Bond because the paper is watermarked Crane & Co. Dalton Mass, 1890 Bond. It's a gorgeous sheet - crisp, rattly and translucent - weighing in at about 16 pounds (writing paper is generally 24 pounds).

My understanding is that these patterns were perforated with designs ranging from simple to ornate. To transfer the design to fabric, you would dust the sheet with some fine chalk, then start sewing where the fabric has been marked.

The archives yielded three alphabets - one called "motto" - which is quite simple; the other two are, well, Victorian, I would have to say. They are so ornately designed, the manufacturer has printed the corresponding letter on the sheet so you will know it's a "D."

The perforated letters are pretty much impossible for me to photograph, so I scanned one in and bumped up the contrast so I could trace it.

I'm thinking with some work, these would make an awesome set of initial notes. Your thoughts?