New York Central & The End of an Era

As many of you may already know, New York Central – an iconic art supply store in the east village here in NYC – has announced its closing later this summer.  In addition to the who's who list of artists who've walked through its doors, New York Central was known for its extensive paper department.  

"The store is roughly 2,500 square feet spread over 5 floors. Half of that space is filled with paper. There are special papers designed for printmaking and watercolor, others for collage and bookbinding. Some papers are made by hand and others made by century-old mills..." (New York Times, 2010)

With Central gone, we've seen a lot of artists asking "what now" for these amazing artist papers from around the world.  Having been fortunate to have been their largest paper supplier for decades (the "guy behind the guy"), I can assure everyone that hundreds - if not more - of the papers they stocked will still be available for years to come.  Contact us and we can help you locate what you need and would be excited to build new relationships, creating papers for tomorrow's art world legends.

While Central's closure is a sad day for artists, it's affected me personally.  They were my very first art store account when I started selling art paper in 1971.  That was also the beginning of a wonderful 44 year friendship with Steve Steinberg, the former owner, who passed away last year.  

Roughly 35 years ago, David Aldera joined NYCS as one of the most knowledgeable art paper experts in the world and also a dear friend.  

I'm very grateful and fortunate to have had decades of collaboration with these two industry legends.  Over the years we worked together to develop papers for renowned artists too numerous to name.  They were always the first voices I sought when developing a new paper (including Stonehenge and Coventry) or considering bringing something in from overseas (Somerset, Zerkall, Revere).  

NYC is losing an institution.  They will be missed.

Michael Ginsburg, co-founder, Legion Paper.

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Drink and Draw for #PulseofOrlando

Thomas Thorspecken (Thor) of Analog Artist Digital World, organized an event on July 3rd - Orlando (United) Drink & Draw, in which several artists would gather together on an evening downtown and together sketch portraits of each of the 49 lost in the tragedy. Legion was proud to be a part of the event with YUPO. 

Lisa Ikegami tells a beautiful story of her creative journey througout the event: 'Many Hands, One Pulse'. 

"So, in my first thoughts about working at the event, I decided I would work with watercolor on Yupo.  Like my students, I wanted to be able to flow with my thoughts freely, literally, without worrying about making a mistake.  I wanted my work to show the vibrance of the life in each person, and somehow bring them visually into a place that is better than here, and I knew that medium would do that for me." 

Arturo Stats with Good Juju Ink!

Good Juju Ink chose Arturo Buttercream 260gsm for their NSS Class of 70 trading card. Here's why...

How did you come to select the paper you used? Have you worked with it before?

I selected the Arturo Buttercream because I've only had a limited experience working with colored paper as a medium for dual printing processes (foil stamping + four color digital), and I was genuinely excited to use this project as an excuse to branch out from what I'm used to! In this particular situation, I wanted a yellow paper with texture to give the trading card that "old school"/vintage vibe of ye olde paper goods. I wanted an authentic mellow yellow for our class of '70!

What was your experience with the paper? 

Since I'd never used the Arturo Buttercream, I was a little skeptical of how it would take to the digital printing...but it turned out spectacularly. The colors showed up crystal clear and maintained the richness of pigmentation they would have had on white paper, and the "Golden Gate Bridge" orange foil pressed beautifully atop the texture of this thick stock. 

How did the paper affect the design of your baseball card?

While I created the design before I knew what paper I would be using, I can honestly say the paper was what made the card's design truly some of my best work.  It has given me the confidence (and the excitement!!) to move forward with using more colored papers in the future.  The paper adds such a level of sophistication, whimsy, and genre authenticity that you simply can't reproduce using your average printer's house stock---I can't believe I haven't dabbled in the realm of colored papers until now. This could not have been a better experience. 

Arches® Pictograms

 

Full article could be found here on the ARCHES® website.

Papermaking on a cylinder mould

Making paper using a cylinder mould is a traditional process which produces very high quality papers similar to handmade paper. ARCHES® has been using this method since 1895.

Principle

A large cylinder – the mould – is covered by a wire, a sort of mesh screen which may have areas of relief that will produce a watermark. The cylinder is dipped into the vat containing the paper stock (mixture of water and fibres). The cylinder turns slowly in the vat, and the water in the stock penetrates inside the cylinder; the fibres that remain on the surface, on the wire, will be distributed evenly and regularly. The sheet that is formed is transported on a wool felt that subtly marks the surface with the grain.

The cylinder mould process is the process best suited to produce paper that is stable (it does not deform when damp), with a watermark, a natural grain and deckled edges. Today ARCHES® is the only French paper mill still producing all its art and publishing papers on a cylinder mould.

Reyn and Co Chooses Cocktail for NSS Trading Card Matchbox

Legion was thrilled with both the design by Reyn Paper Co and the production by Henry & Co of the packing for the National Stationery Show trading cards. Reyn chose to use Cocktail Black Russian 290gsm, which foiled beautifully and created a stable box to hold the set of 30 cards. Here's what Reyn has to say about their choice...

When Reyn Paper Co was asked to create the box for legion paper’s #nssclassof70, we were excited to get our hands on paper that was specifically for packaging! I knew that I wanted to have a high contrast look with gold foil, so I started by selecting black papers available in heavy enough stock to make a sturdy box. When I came across the Cocktail Black Russian paper it was love at first sight. I knew it was the one almost immediately. It had this beautiful shimmer that added just the right amount of glamor to the design, without being too gaudy or distracting.

The flexibility of printing applications was the next reason I was drawn to this paper, as it allowed me to utilize both foil and metallic offset printing in the design without sacrificing quality in either. I loved using foil in my designs, and I would have loved to make the entire project gold foil, but I knew it wouldn’t be practical for the insert information card because of the amount of information we had to fit into such a small area. So for the insert we utilized offset gold metallic ink to get the glitziness across in a more practical form.

And lastly, when it comes to designing packaging, durability is paramount. I knew this piece would be receiving a lot of wear and tear over the course of the show, people sliding it open and closed again and again as they went around collecting the trading cards. So when I found this paper I took my sample and really tried to rough it up. Folding, rubbing, scuffing--you name it, I tried it. What I discovered is that the Black Russian paper is as resilient as it is beautiful.  It can really take some abuse. It showed very little wear after i worked it over, and the shimmer quality of the paper never degraded. I want people to be able to keep this as a collector's piece for many years to come. It’s a huge responsibility, protecting all the beautiful trading cards designed for Legion Paper, so we wanted to make sure our box could measure up to the task. This was my first time working with Cocktail paper and, needless to say, I can’t wait to work with it again! 

Kristen Reynolds, Reyn Paper Co.