Even when he was a kid growing up in East Raleigh, John Dancy-Jones loved writing and stationery. "I was the type of person who would go into stationery stores and just look around. I guess it's not what most guys would do."

He loved reading and collecting books, and after earning a degree in English literature at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1976, Dancy-Jones got a job at the library at UNC-Greensboro.

"That's where I started making paper. I was working in special collections, with antiquarian books and papers, and there was a hand letterpress. The librarian emeritus taught me how to use it."

To have high quality paper to print on, Dancy-Jones started making his own paper as well and was surprised when friends wanted to buy it.

"I started selling paper to all these MFA printmaking students," he said.

He moved back to Raleigh and for eight years, from 1982 to 1990, ran The Paper Plant, not only a downtown paper studio, small-book press and used-book store but also an alternative arts space in a city where few existed.

Dancy-Jones, 54, continues to make paper for artists and admirers, while he produces new creations along the way.

Another time: "I was almost 30 when I opened the store, and I was very up for it," he said. The shop was a draw for the city's of counterculture seekers. "We had a gallery and started open-mike readings. I did papermaking in the back. We had 1,500 square feet devoted to papermaking. I ended up renting cubicles to artists. I was doing lots of workshops there and in the schools. I found that I really loved teaching." Ultimately the business wasn't making enough money, and he sold it. "It was very impoverishing but culturally enriching," he said.

Teacher at heart: Teaching youngsters to make paper led to a part-time job teaching art at what is now called Fletcher Academy, a private school for students of all grades with learning disabilities. Eventually he got a master's degree in education from N.C. State University and now teaches science full time. "Papermaking kind of went back to what my dad always called it -- my hobby," he said. For a hobbyist, Dancy-Jones is quite prolific.

Paper partners: Dancy-Jones has a partner in his wife of 22 years, Cara, also a full-time teacher and an artist. "She learned to make paper from me so she could help make our wedding invitations. We had something old and new and borrowed and blue in the paper." Cara Dancy-Jones makes masks, pulp-collage wall hangings and collage covers for their blank books. They both do paper marbling. Although notecard sales dropped as e-mail became popular, journal sales have remained constant, he said, and they also sell a fair amount of paper for wedding invitations. For many years the couple operated a community small-press publishing business, but they have taken a break in the past few years.

Turning a page: When the store closed, the couple moved the equipment to the basement of their Oakwood home, where Dancy-Jones still makes his paper and holds private workshops. He also teaches papermaking workshops four times a year at Pullen Arts Center. When he's out of school for the summer, he leads a weeklong children's class at Artspace. And from home, by appointment, he runs "Mr. DJ's Summer Seminar" for children, which includes "book arts, nature and fun."

Fiber optics: Dancy-Jones calls his paper hand-laid instead of handmade. "It's a more technical term. Handmade is when people read a recipe online, make it at home, and it's all lumpy." Along with the fancier stuff such as paper pressed with dried wildflowers, Dancy-Jones runs a production line. "I make production, utilitarian, professional paper that artists use. Printmakers like it because it has no grain and it's archival. But the main reason artists like it is the feel of it and what it does to the eyes to look at those fibers."

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