How Jade Quek uses Buttondown

Tell us a bit about yourself and your background.

I am a retired software engineer with a great love for travel, food, adventures, and all things paper and book arts. My mother taught me how to fold as a child before first grade to keep me out of trouble. I enjoy the engineering behind the many ways to fold, glue, or sew paper to make a book (so, not so much about content), and fold origami paper to make mandalas, Froebel units, and tessellations. My paper stash is definitely out of control!

I let my readers know that this newsletter is merely the jumping-off point for their own explorations into internet rabbit holes.

What do you write about in your newsletter?

I write about the book and paper arts world, with a purview more about constructing artists' books. In the newsletter, I include information about exhibits and events revolving around the paper and book arts world across the US and beyond. There is a call for artists, entries, submissions, and proposals section as well as a bits and bobs section that can contain anything from travel tips, tutorials, anything beautiful, etc., and a blog about what I have been up to since the last newsletter. The thing that started it all was a workshop calendar with book and paper arts classes, in person and virtually, mostly here in the US, with forays out into the rest of the world. There is also a resource list that I maintain for the many organizations and artists whose newsletters I subscribe to, my favorite paper places, teaching opportunities, on-demand workshops, etc. I let my readers know that this newsletter is merely the jumping-off point for their own explorations into internet rabbit holes.

[The newsletter] is easy to subscribe to, easy to make corrections even after the email was sent out, easy to preview, and it looks more official instead of looking like an email.

Where did you first learn of Buttondown, and what made you decide to give it a try?

It was becoming untenable to maintain my mailing list manually as a draft, in fact, two drafts, on my email platform; the email could not be sent out to more than 100, even with a bcc. These email addresses were collected as I attended workshops. I looked around at the usual suspects, but it was more money than I wanted to spend. I wanted an inexpensive solution to test out that would provide easy subscription, a preview of what my readers would see, the ability to jump to their favorite section, easy mail-outs, and, if they weren't happy with the newsletter, an easy way to unsubscribe. When I looked at Buttondown, I thought I would be able to get it for free, but it turned out I had more than 120 readers! Still, I was happy with the subscription rate, especially since I do not charge my subscribers for the newsletter.

What are some ways Buttondown has helped you run your email?

It's easy to subscribe to, easy to make corrections even after the email was sent out, easy to preview, and it looks more official instead of looking like an email.

What are some things you’d be excited to see Buttondown build in the next few months?

A Buttondown calendar where I can add workshops automagically.