I opened a bookshop!
On Saturday, Nov 16, I had the grand opening of my independent bookshop, Paper & Clay, in Crestline, CA!
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You... sorry, WHAT? How did this happen?
Crestline had a shop that sold herbs, crystals, and gifts (Botanical Enchantress) sharing space with a small bookshop (Palace of Salt and Bone). It was a very cool, welcoming, beautiful space, and was a community hangout. But the woman who owned the bookshop moved out of state, and the woman who owned the herbs decided to move her business to a home office. I was so sad at the thought of Crestline losing that community space and its only bookshop that I began to fantasize about taking it over...
...and I decided to go for it!
However, I was due to travel abroad on September 20. I couldn't even speak to the landlord before the current owner gave notice, which she wasn't going to do till September 30. I was also going to leave my cats at home for the neighbors to take care of. But the day before I was supposed to leave, a huge fire blew up and the town next to me, Running Springs, was evacuated. I crammed my cats and valuables into my car, drove down to LA, dumped them all on my friend Halle with two hour's notice, and flew out of the country the next morning.
Once I could speak to the landlord, I had to then do all this negotiating from Bulgaria, culminating in us meeting in person on October 15, the morning after I flew back (after a customs official confiscated my passport at LAX but that's another story, never mind). And then I didn't officially get the lease until November 1, so I had exactly two weeks to get everything and move it in and set it all up.
Since Crestline is very small, I wanted to make it the kind of extremely cool, destination bookshop that anyone who comes anywhere near Crestline will eventually automatically stop by: "On our way to Big Bear, we have to stop at Crestline to check out that amazing bookshop."
Like The Last Bookshop in LA, I made it into a kind of art installation with Instagrammable book sculptures, book-related ceramics, my book nooks showing scenes from books, upside-down book shelves, hidden wonders, and so forth.
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That is a sculpture made of books abandoned by the previous owner. It took the entire two weeks to construct. It's held together with wood glue. None of the books are rare or valuable.
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That is why I was asking earlier about topsy-turvy titled books. Surface Tension was a serendipitous find from the abandoned books. The upside down books are glued to Surface Tension, which is placed on a floating bookshelf. The books on top are just stacked on top of it, and will be periodically swapped out for other relevant titles. (I could never glue Growing up Weightless.)
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The HORROR and One Ring signs are ceramics I made. The haunted carnival is made from a ferris wheel and 3D printed people I painted. The VHS tape magnets and earrings, and the book earrings are from artists on Etsy.
[image error]
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My shop is half of a single building. There are boarded-up doors in between my shop and the shop next door. The previous owners couldn't remove the doorknob on their side, so they smashed the back of the bookcase into it, punching a hole in the bookcase, and hid it with a potted plant. I painted the doorknob, molded clay imprints off it, sculpted monster claws, and glued them to the back of the bookcase.
[image error]
Those are my ceramics.
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This is the children's room. The hobbit hole mural is from an artist in Ukraine.
That's nowhere near all of it, but you get the general idea.
Paper & Clay on Yelp
Paper & Clay on Instagram
FAQ:
- The majority of the books are new. I ordered them from Ingram or direct from publishers. Some are books in excellent condition I got from library book sales or thrift shops.
- The shop was already painted like that. The black bookcases were already there. Everything else, I did.
- I do not yet have a Bookshop account but it's in the works. I get 10% if you buy through that.
- You can order books direct from me by emailing me your address and any book you want, so long as it's in print. I get about 40% that way. I'm currently limiting this to the US only to save my sanity (I once ended up lugging a gift TO BULGARIA IN PERSON because mailing it was so complicated) but I might relent on that eventually.
- I will also mail pottery and other items I carry, also currently only to the US, but I don't yet have a website with everything listed.
- I do not and will not have a cafe. There is no room for it, I don't have employees, and I don't want to deal with health permits. Instead, I serve free coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and hot cider. I can do this without a permit because there is no charge, and all I do is provide hot water and sealed commercially made packets.
So how did it go?
People LOVED the shop. All the work I put into making it beautiful and cozy and inviting was totally worthwhile. They remarked that it smelled good (thanks [personal profile] landingtree for suggesting scent diffusers - I used cinnamon apple.)
I LOVE having the shop. It's so fun and rewarding. I love talking to people about books. I love reccing books. I love arranging stuff in the shop. I love buying books. I love selling books. I love how happy everyone is when they're there. I love that when no one's there, I can sit in a lovely space and read or write or craft. It's the greatest job ever.
comments
[image error]
You... sorry, WHAT? How did this happen?
Crestline had a shop that sold herbs, crystals, and gifts (Botanical Enchantress) sharing space with a small bookshop (Palace of Salt and Bone). It was a very cool, welcoming, beautiful space, and was a community hangout. But the woman who owned the bookshop moved out of state, and the woman who owned the herbs decided to move her business to a home office. I was so sad at the thought of Crestline losing that community space and its only bookshop that I began to fantasize about taking it over...
...and I decided to go for it!
However, I was due to travel abroad on September 20. I couldn't even speak to the landlord before the current owner gave notice, which she wasn't going to do till September 30. I was also going to leave my cats at home for the neighbors to take care of. But the day before I was supposed to leave, a huge fire blew up and the town next to me, Running Springs, was evacuated. I crammed my cats and valuables into my car, drove down to LA, dumped them all on my friend Halle with two hour's notice, and flew out of the country the next morning.
Once I could speak to the landlord, I had to then do all this negotiating from Bulgaria, culminating in us meeting in person on October 15, the morning after I flew back (after a customs official confiscated my passport at LAX but that's another story, never mind). And then I didn't officially get the lease until November 1, so I had exactly two weeks to get everything and move it in and set it all up.
Since Crestline is very small, I wanted to make it the kind of extremely cool, destination bookshop that anyone who comes anywhere near Crestline will eventually automatically stop by: "On our way to Big Bear, we have to stop at Crestline to check out that amazing bookshop."
Like The Last Bookshop in LA, I made it into a kind of art installation with Instagrammable book sculptures, book-related ceramics, my book nooks showing scenes from books, upside-down book shelves, hidden wonders, and so forth.
[image error]
[image error]
That is a sculpture made of books abandoned by the previous owner. It took the entire two weeks to construct. It's held together with wood glue. None of the books are rare or valuable.
[image error]
That is why I was asking earlier about topsy-turvy titled books. Surface Tension was a serendipitous find from the abandoned books. The upside down books are glued to Surface Tension, which is placed on a floating bookshelf. The books on top are just stacked on top of it, and will be periodically swapped out for other relevant titles. (I could never glue Growing up Weightless.)
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
The HORROR and One Ring signs are ceramics I made. The haunted carnival is made from a ferris wheel and 3D printed people I painted. The VHS tape magnets and earrings, and the book earrings are from artists on Etsy.
[image error]
[image error]
My shop is half of a single building. There are boarded-up doors in between my shop and the shop next door. The previous owners couldn't remove the doorknob on their side, so they smashed the back of the bookcase into it, punching a hole in the bookcase, and hid it with a potted plant. I painted the doorknob, molded clay imprints off it, sculpted monster claws, and glued them to the back of the bookcase.
[image error]
Those are my ceramics.
[image error]
This is the children's room. The hobbit hole mural is from an artist in Ukraine.
That's nowhere near all of it, but you get the general idea.
Paper & Clay on Yelp
Paper & Clay on Instagram
FAQ:
- The majority of the books are new. I ordered them from Ingram or direct from publishers. Some are books in excellent condition I got from library book sales or thrift shops.
- The shop was already painted like that. The black bookcases were already there. Everything else, I did.
- I do not yet have a Bookshop account but it's in the works. I get 10% if you buy through that.
- You can order books direct from me by emailing me your address and any book you want, so long as it's in print. I get about 40% that way. I'm currently limiting this to the US only to save my sanity (I once ended up lugging a gift TO BULGARIA IN PERSON because mailing it was so complicated) but I might relent on that eventually.
- I will also mail pottery and other items I carry, also currently only to the US, but I don't yet have a website with everything listed.
- I do not and will not have a cafe. There is no room for it, I don't have employees, and I don't want to deal with health permits. Instead, I serve free coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and hot cider. I can do this without a permit because there is no charge, and all I do is provide hot water and sealed commercially made packets.
So how did it go?
People LOVED the shop. All the work I put into making it beautiful and cozy and inviting was totally worthwhile. They remarked that it smelled good (thanks [personal profile] landingtree for suggesting scent diffusers - I used cinnamon apple.)
I LOVE having the shop. It's so fun and rewarding. I love talking to people about books. I love reccing books. I love arranging stuff in the shop. I love buying books. I love selling books. I love how happy everyone is when they're there. I love that when no one's there, I can sit in a lovely space and read or write or craft. It's the greatest job ever.
comments
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