Here's some tips that I have found are useful in trying to make order out of my creative chaos in regard to paper products. For additional tips you may wish to check out "Creating Your Art Space: Tips from Our Readers" by Sharilyn Miller which was published in the November/December 1999 issue of Somerset Studio. (by far one of the most exquisite letter & paper arts publications in my humble opinion!). In October I will focus on pens, inks and other marking and coloring tools. December's article will relate specifically to small items like rubber stamps and tags.
Sheets of Paper
Most of the time I use sheets that are 9 x12 or larger because I like to make sheets that I can cut for more than one project. Invariably, these are best stored flat - especially my more fragile and handcrafted papers that have bumpy textures like those which add florals or thick pulps into the mixture. Typically I will stack them on eon top the other separated by a sheet of tracing paper and stack a big heavy flat book on top to hold them flat. I usually will only stack 10 sheets at a time, then a book and then stack ten more sheets atop that with a heavier book. When stacking handcrafted papers make sure that you realize anything stacked above a sheet will leave an imprint if it is not either larger or the same size and utterly flat and smooth.
Rolls of Paper
Often times I use papers I make on tracing or transparency papers, or similar thin papers like rice paper. For these, I roll them, usually after cutting them down to a 12 x 12 or smaller sheet. I tie the rolls with any thin, smooth ribbon that can be found at any sewing shop or crafts supply. I then put the rolls in a glass cylindrical bowl that keeps them upright and separated without crushing. I make sure that there is always extra space in the bowl so that if the papers shift for some reason they aren't crushing one another.
Paper Cutouts and Clippings
As I love collage, I constantly am cutting, clipping, snipping and otherwise utilizing scissors, exacto's and widgets. This leaves me with lots of irregularly shaped pieces of paper. I use to just stick them in a desk drawer, but found the drawer quickly filled and I would end up crumpling papers while trying to find a specific image, or I would give up and use another image because the task was too daunting! Now, I have a file cabinet with hanging folders. Each folder is labeled with a theme, "cats", "text", "holiday", "nudes", "Asia", etc. Then any relevant image is placed in that folder. For some things that I use more often I break down the category - ie. "Christmas", "Mother's Day" and the like. I also have one, and only one "to be filed" folder. I try to file the images in their appropriate files either when the folder gets full or at least monthly. This gives me a small morsel of discipline in my clipping pack rat tendencies!
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