Reminiscence Papers was a wholesale company that I began in 1994/1995 to try and sell my handbound books, photo boxes, frames & albums to a larger market.  After about two years of taking these products to large Trade Shows in Atlanta, NY, Chicago, etc. I realized that those products which were handmade in my little studio in Portland could not compete with similar items made in SE Asian countries and brought in by the container load.  Store buyers were quick to admit that the quality was superior to imports and they loved the design, but store owners knew that not enough of their end customers would be willing to pay the additional cost.  Many buyers were asking to purchase the papers that I had designed for the hand bound products and not being the village idiot (friends: keep your thoughts to yourselves here) I switched over to selling paper.  Though it was not what I had set out to do, designing paper was quite satisfying and kept RP going for about 12 years.  There was no one thing that led to my decision to close RP but the cost of doing the big trade shows, the travel, the desire to focus on my studio work, and a general unhappiness with the “business” of it all were factors.  The official close date was December 1, 2007 and while I miss many of my long term customers I have no regrets.  I do, however, have a large inventory of paper, origami kits etc. that I am still working with.  I sell these at various small scale events and use them in my own work  – nothing will be wasted.

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