Meet Patti Paulus
Patti was born in Dayton, Ohio and graduated from the University of Dayton. She lived and studied art in numerous cities until she finally settled in Maryland in 1987. She currently resides in the Fair Hill region of Maryland. She has been actively working as an artist since 1982. Hand lettering, which she still practices, was once her primary art form. However, since 2017 her main focus has been studying and making hand bound books in a number of different bindings.
Her work has been exhibited in Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina and Ohio, and is in numerous private collections across the world. Hand-rendered lettering designs are on the walls of homes, schools and churches in Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Patti has also taught and lectured on calligraphy and book binding in Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland. She was part owner of an art gallery she helped start in 2009 until 2023, The Palette & The Page in Elkton, Maryland. Currently she is doing local shows.
She lives with her engineer and musician husband, Joe, and has two wonderful children, a daughter-in-love, and a grandson.
The Art of Paste Paper
Paste paper is a decorative technique that began in 17th-century Germany, when bookbinders used it to cover books and create beautiful endpapers. Patti carries on this centuries-old tradition in her own studio, hand-painting sheets of paper with colored paste, combed patterns, and layered textures.
Each design is created one at a time — a joyful, almost playful process that she describes as “a little like finger painting, but more controlled.” No two sheets are ever the same, which means every book covered with Patti’s paste paper is truly one-of-a-kind!
In addition to her hand-bound journals, Patti often brings her paste paper into her calligraphy and other artwork, weaving this unique medium through many aspects of her creative life.