By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Jodie Yim's products include keepsakes like this
$25 photo album, right, but they all
start out as a pulpy mush, left..
She’s putting
it all on paper
Jodie Yim is all wrapped up
By Nadine Kam
in her handmade paper line
Assistant Features EditorIn a world increasingly dominated by wires, cables and hardware, Jodie Yim is committed to paper. What's more, she's building a business a most old-fashioned way, one 9-by-14-inch sheet at a time.
"It's like playing with mud," she said, running her hands through a tub filled with a gray soup of water and recycled paper fibers that were first run through a blender. The fibers are eventually scooped up in a thin layer on individual silk screens and left to dry in the sun.
"I don't even know if this is the real way to do it. I just improvised."
Her improvisation saved her financial life when she lost her marketing job in 1996. Her MBA and business experience didn't help her land a corporate job and after six months of searching, she turned to paper full time.
Her company, Specialty Papers, will be among the 300 local businesses displaying their newest products at the third annual Made in Hawaii Festival at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall. Visitors will be able to make purchases, watch product demonstrations and sample new food items.
Specialty Papers produces a line of bookmarks, note cards, photo albums, guest books, journals and picture frames made from the pastel and natural-colored papers. Some papers incorporate bits of glitter and colored strips of Mylar. Others are printed with Hawaiian motifs commissioned by Yim, or used in agreement with such companies as Guava Graphics and Stampettes.
The resulting products are sturdier than one might expect.
"When I tell people what it is, they go 'What? Paper?' They can't believe it," Yim said. The only special care the products require is protection from the elements -- common sense advice for any keepsake.
The Made in Hawaii Festival is the one time a year that Specialty Papers, a wholesaler, sells its products directly to the public. Otherwise, the products are available in gift shops statewide, such as Nohea Gallery, Native Books & Beautiful Things and The Paperie in Kahala Mall, and in a couple of California boutiques.
The one thing that isn't available to consumers is the paper itself. Yim said she needs every sheet to keep up with demand for her other wares. She's still surprised that her hobby has stirred so much enthusiasm.
She started making paper in 1992 after she ordered a kit from a catalog. "My husband scolded me. I got two screens and he said, 'You paid $40 for that? I could make that.' But I told him I wanted the instructions."
Today, she works from 6 a.m. until dinner time. "It's so much fun it doesn't feel like work," she said.
Yim's dogs, Bailey, Punahele and Pomaika'i, keep her company until husband Will comes home from his systems analyst job. After dinner they both work on the books and picture frames another two or three hours. Will also lived up to his earlier word and made, not just two, but 200 screens for drying the paper.
In true local style, Yim has always tried to promote her company while maintaining a low personal profile. She's been so successful at it that many acquaintances and relatives don't even know she has a business.
"When they see me at the festival, they say, 'I didn't know that was you!' I say, 'Good. Don't buy it because you know me; buy it because you like the product.' "
In spite of all that's been said about the difficulties involved in running a business in Hawaii, Yim says she feels blessed in being able to do something she loves. She had her doubts in the beginning, when she started with cards and envelopes.
"Letter writing is a lost art," she said. "With everyone going to e-mail, I thought we would be going down the tubes, but we're holding our own."
Perhaps the paper boutiques opening up across the country will spur a renaissance in letter writing and a more individualized form of book publishing.
Or maybe people will continue to communicate via e-mail, while savoring the tactile, aesthetic qualities of paper as fine art.
Yim said, "I've had my share of people telling me, after buying one of our products, 'I'm never going to use it. It's so beautiful.' "
Made in Hawaii Festival
Hours: 1-9 p.m. tomorrow, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday
