Paper and Labels and Tags...Oh My!

Back in the good old days, Molly and I used to run off to Paris and dig through basements, drink wine with French pickers and end up in back stockrooms - where we had no business being. By the end of our week running around, we would fill our suitcases with bundles of old paper, notebooks, labels and other bits of French ephemera and hope we could get through customs with it all!
The shelves of French General were stocked with all of our treasures - the gold we dug out of the flea markets and vide greniers were offered for sale....well, most of it anyways! Much of the old paper stock ended up in our private collections - the paper archives - if you will. Old Deyrolle notebooks, hat labels from the mid-18th century and large rubber stamps from a botanical press - all were deemed to precious to let go of - so we hoarded and stashed these scraps for years.

What could come out of all of this? Well a stationery line for sure and then perhaps a series of paper workshops - enter Molly Meng! For the past six years, Molly has been designing artwork and a line of stationery using all of the old bits she has been collecting for years - each little piece has found a home in one of her small works of wonder - where everything is layered and meaningful.

Molly has taught at French General before - and she's coming back - this time bringing all sorts of old scraps to teach a Concertina Workshop - an accordion book that is filled with beautiful old bits of history that will tell individual stories. If you love old paper and French words and scraps that tell about times gone by, then you will love this workshop. For more information and to sign up, visit us here.