Madrid Travel

# 1 - August 02, 2009

  • IN a burst of do-it-myself enthusiasm I marched into the Madrid paper store De Papel (Calle Justiniano 7; 34-91-308-0152) recently and bought some beautiful hand-painted paper
  • “That kind of thing has happened before,” said Montse Buxó i Marsá, the Catalan artist who made the paper and whose principal clients are an international coterie of artisanal bookbinders who make their living dissecting her work. “I’ll sell several sheets to a binder who plans to cut them up for a specific project he’s working on, but when I come back a year later, there they are hanging on the wall in his office.”
  • to step into De Papel and other papelerías is to step from the chaos and graffiti of the city streets into a world of carefully considered point size and cotton fiber content. Fine stationery, marbled binding papers and handmade wrapping papers reflect a degree of refinement in those who employ them while serving some basic everyday functions.
  • There is no one else making papers like hers,” said María Cerezo of De Papel, where prices for Ms. Buxó’s works range from about 15 to 40 euros (about $21 to $57 at $1.43 to the euro) a sheet. They are also available at Raima (Calle Comtal 27; 34-93-317-4966) in Barcelona. Those interested in the not-for-cutting compositions can make an appointment to visit her studio in Barcelona’s lively Gracia neighborhood. Prices for these works can climb above 1,500 euros.
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License