Reviews
Judging decorative paper: start by holding the sheet up to the light
Hold the sheet to a light before you judge the pattern. Chain lines, struck-through color and grain direction, and why no shops are ranked here.
What to take away
- Hold the sheet to a light before you judge the pattern. The structure of the paper tells you more than the decoration does.
- Chain lines and a watermark mean a mold-made or handmade sheet, not a printed imitation.
- No brands or shops are ranked here, because nothing was ordered or compared for this article.
- Decorated paper is a substrate plus a surface, and buyers who only assess the surface get caught.
Read the sheet first
Decorative paper sells on its face, so the base sheet gets ignored. Hold it against a window, and the University of Warwick's material on characteristics of handmade paper describes what to look for.
A mold is a wire sieve on a removable frame called a deckle. The sheet keeps its imprint: closely set laid lines between the narrower sides, and thicker, more widely spaced chain lines along the length.
From the thirteenth century onward most paper also carried a watermark, formed by a wire pattern sewn onto the mold. Each mold was made by hand, so each leaves a different impression.
A modern machine-made sheet has none of that. Some have a printed imitation laid pattern, which sits on the surface rather than in the sheet and disappears when you turn the paper over.
What you are actually buying
Good sign
- Held to light
- Even formation, visible fiber
- Reverse side
- Clean, color just visible
- Edge
- Consistent thickness
- Grain
- Stated by seller
- Surface
- Withstands a fingernail drag
Warning sign
- Held to light
- Cloudy patches, thin spots
- Reverse side
- Pigment struck through
- Edge
- Wavy, cockled edges
- Grain
- Not stated at all
- Surface
- Powders or smears
The struck-through test matters most for paste and marbled sheets. Color that has gone right through means the sheet was over-wetted, and it will be weak along those areas.
Five checks before you buy
Good sign
- Held to light
- Even formation
- Reverse side
- Clean, faint color
- Edge
- Consistent thickness
- Grain
- Stated by seller
- Surface
- Survives fingernail drag
Warning sign
- Held to light
- Cloudy, thin spots
- Reverse side
- Pigment struck through
- Edge
- Wavy, cockled
- Grain
- Not stated
- Surface
- Powders or smears
Substrate before surface
The paper under the decoration determines how the sheet behaves when you paste, fold and case it. The University of Utah's exhibit Paper is Fundamental quotes the printer William Everson, who called paper the ground of the being of the book and argued that critics fix on type while paper is more fundamental.
The exhibit also sets out what paper is: moist cellulose fibers drawn from vats of pulp, then pressed and dried. The process was developed in China during the Han dynasty and is attributed to the court official Cai Lun.
For a buyer, that means asking about fiber and weight before asking about pattern.
Why there are no shop recommendations
Ranking suppliers honestly means ordering from them, comparing what arrived against what was described, and repeating that over time. None of that was done. What is offered instead is the set of checks above, which work in any shop and do not go out of date.
Buying for a specific job
- Endpapers
- lighter weight, grain matching the book, color on one side only.
- Covering boards
- heavier, tolerant of paste, tested for struck-through color.
- Box and slipcase linings
- matte, low abrasion, dimensionally stable.
- Practice
- anything, including your own paste paper.
The formats those sheets end up in are described in eleven journal ideas, and the general property list is in choosing materials for book arts.
Common questions
Is handmade always better than mold-made?
Does a deckle edge mean handmade?
Should I buy a sample pack?
How do I store decorated sheets?
In this guide
- One level tray matters more than a level bench in decorative paper workWet decorating work wants different surfaces from cutting. Trays, glass, blotting boards, and why a level bath matters more than a level bench.
- Decorative paper patterns trace back to marbling imported from EuropeWhere decorative paper patterns come: marbling reached Europe as an import around 1600. The pattern families, what they tell you about a binding.
- Buying decorative paper supplies works better technique by technique, not by categoryBuy for one technique, not for the category. Paste paper, marbling and suminagashi need different kits, and the medium decides the aftercare.
- Decorative paper costs make more sense per kept sheet than per sessionHow to price supplies for decorative paper: track cost per kept sheet, not per session. Where the money really sits in decorative paper work.
- Why does drying decide the layout of a small decorative paper studio?Small-space setup for working with decorative paper: tray, blotting area, drying stack and a dark shelf. Why drying is the real space constraint in decorative paper.
