Moon and Hare

Lucian Freud

2012-01-23T16:47:00.000-08:00

I've been watching some YouTube interviews with the great British artist Lucian Freud. He was a very private man, so interviews with him are rare. Here are a few things he said about his work and art in general:

"I think one reason people imagine artists live such different and wild lives is because of their work, or a lot of their work, and I think on seeing their work they make certain assumptions about their life, but...they don't realize that it's a life of self discipline, even though that self discipline may be a self indulgence, it's nevertheless a discipline or no work could be done. And people assume -- it's an amazing idea -- that the art that's produced comes out by mistake, like a kind of by-product of this extraordinary, anarchic, idyllic, undisciplined way of life, but I've never heard of anyone working like this."

"As for my lack of convictions, alas, I'm only too full of convictions. I burn with suppressed anger and indignation. But my ideal of art demands that the artist show none of this and that he appears in his work no more than God in nature. The man is nothing, the work is everything."

"What seems to me the highest and the most difficult achievement of art is not to make us laugh or cry, or to rise our lust or our anger, but to do as nature does, that is, full us with wonderment. The most beautiful works have indeed this quality. They are serene in aspect, incomprehensible."

Paper Making in Santa, Idaho -- August, 2011

2011-11-15T13:51:00.000-08:00

This past August I went to Santa, Idaho, to stay with Jim Croft and learn more about hand paper making. We made paper from a variety of materials -- Chinese hemp, abaca, cotton, and my personal favorite, recycled fire hose. Fire hoses (in the U.S., anyway-- not sure if that's universally true), are made from flax, so the old ones actually make lovely (if labour-intensive) paper.

My husband and I set off on our trip with a couple of friends (plus dogs) and our newly-purchased teardrop trailer, which is essentially a bed on wheels:

Once we got to Santa (after many little side trips and adventures), my husband and friends set off to explore the rustic bars of northern Idaho, while I got busy making paper. Below are some photos of the process, including pieces of fire hose flax, hung outdoors to break down the fibres:

Colin (one of the other workshop participants) forming sheets of paper:

Pressing paper in Jim Croft's homemade press:

Of course, we had to pause periodically to enjoy a refreshing beverage:

Here are some sheets of paper drying on a rack:

I came home with a nice stack of paper:

and here are some examples. From top to bottom, they are:

1. A mix of hemp, abaca, and cotton, with mosquito infusions (the mosquitoes insisted on adding themselves to the pulp -- you can see one of them on the top sheet, it's that little blob on the right hand side)

2. Chinese hemp

3. Fire hose, Chinese hemp, cotton mix

4. fire hose

5. abaca

Nature Journal

2011-11-06T18:18:00.000-08:00

Finished a new nature journal / sketchbook today -- it has a Henry David Thoreau quote on the first page:

"Heaven is under our feet,
as well as over our heads."
~ H. D. Thoreau

Wild Life

2011-10-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

I've been happily making more journals with nature-themed pendants on the covers for my Etsy store, including

Butterfly:

Frog:

and mushroom:

"I'm gonna move to the country

so I can see the stars,

heavenly stars, heavenly stars, the heavenly stars"

--Laura Veirs, from her album, Saltbreakers

Peace and Quiet

2011-10-18T18:38:00.000-07:00

Went off the the Washington / Oregon coast for a little break. This place always gives me so much -- the sounds of the waves, the colors of the sand and coastline and sea, so beautiful and subdued and delicate it's impossible to describe them or fully capture them in photos. But hey, here are some photos anyway.

Husband spotted walking on beach. It's entirely possible that I picked up some of those rocks and brought them home with me.

Things I like: Rocks

2011-10-01T17:49:00.000-07:00

They're everywhere, these rocks. Little heaps of them, all over the house. I just can't resist them, with their stripes and sparkles of mica, when I go walking on the seashore or out in the woods. Somehow they wind up in my pocket, on their way home with me.

Little Bird

2011-09-28T17:23:00.000-07:00

Finished a new journal today. It has chocolate colored leather and on the front cover is a little blue bird. It's going into my Etsy shop, so one day this little bird will fly off to a new home.

Oh, happiness....

2011-09-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

A package came in the mail today from the wonderfully talented Gretel of Red Flannel Elephant. In it was one of her lovely prints of a hare gazing at the moon (plus a lovely note to go with it). This will definitely go up on the wall of my studio. I was amazed at how quickly the package got here (Canada) from there (England). Maybe it was the impressively large Royal Mail stamp on the package. :)

Hares and Papers

2011-09-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

I've been working on some new packaging and business cards for my Moon and Hare Etsy shop. I was thinking of using newspaper for wrapping, as that's more eco-friendly, but I wonder if some of my customers might not want to get something wrapped in newspaper. Plus, wouldn't the ink maybe rub off on the journal? So I'm thinking I might use tissue paper and string, instead.

My business card is based on an old Japanese print of two rabbits under the moon. One of them is gazing at the moon -- I remember reading that in some cultures, seeing a hare gazing at the moon brings good luck.

Frightening Wallpaper

2011-09-19T14:01:00.000-07:00

So, I've finally managed to impose a kind of order on my studio. Still much to be done, but at least it's tidy. Sort of. One big problem is the wallpaper -- there was some hideous vinyl stuff, which I ripped off, but the backing layer remained stuck to the wall. So now what? I tried to convince myself that the dull, stained gloominess of it adds an air of gothic mystery to my studio, but really, it just looks sad. Would it work to paint over it? Putting on a new layer of wallpaper is out -- I always end up with it stuck to me, instead of the wall. Any suggestions?

I'm on the move.....

2011-09-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

I've shifted all my blog posts from my old blog (Moon Bindery) over to my new blog, Moon and Hare -- hopefully it won't be too confusing if you see references to Moon Bindery in some of my old posts.

New Shop

2011-09-15T17:56:00.000-07:00

Today I closed my old Etsy shop (Moon Bindery) and shifted everything over to my new Etsy shop (Moon and Hare). Why the move? Well.... I can't say I'll be sorry not to spend so much time spelling and explaining the meaning of my shop title (bank clerk: "it's called Moon......Binary??"), but the real reason is that it just felt like a good time to make a change. I'll still be making my lovely old journals and sketchbooks and so forth, but I'll also be making other things, as well. Time to spread my wings and fly -- or at least flap them a bit. :)

2011-09-13T17:59:00.001-07:00

Hello, new blog! More to come...

Eco Friendly Leather Journal

2011-08-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I finished a new leather journal for my Etsy shop. The writing paper in this journal is made from a combination of recycled paper and coffee fibre. The paper is soft and has a nice laid pattern. I really like the random designs the coffee fibre makes in the writing paper, too.

I call it the "Tree of Life" journal, because of the tree of life charm on the attached bookmark, and also because the paper is recycled, so no trees are cut down to make it.

Book Arts: Strasbourg, France

2011-07-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

Strasbourg, France, besides being the capitol of the European Union, has a wonderful history relating to crafts and craft guilds, which includes a strong connection to Johannes Gutenberg. Gutenberg lived in Strasbourg for a time, and is commemorated in various ways:

Here is a statue of Gutenberg that resides in the Place Gutenberg:

The decorations on the statue were very interesting. They focus on the symbolic value of the printing press -- how it opened up a world of music and literature and ideas:

In the historic centre of Strasbourg, I visited the Palais Rohan, which houses the Decorative Arts Museum, Fine Arts Museum and Archaeological Museum:

There are some finely worked bindings made by local craftspeople there, including this one made by Johannes Beck in 1731:

After stopping off for a bit of refreshment at a wonderfully mad little cafe full of birds (artificial) and fairy lights.....

....I went on to the Strasbourg historical museum, located at 2 rue du Vieux-Marché-aux-Poissons.

They have information about Gutenberg's time in Strasbourg, and about the history of printing in the city. Strasbourg had a number of printing establishments in the early days of the printing press. There are also some beautiful books from the late 1400s on display:

If you know of any other interesting book arts-related places to visit in Strasbourg, do feel free to share them in the comments.

Mini Halfwood Press

2011-07-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

I bought a Mini Halfwood etching press a while back, and am really loving it. The bed of this little press is 6" x 16." I'm planning to use it to make miniature books, so it's just the right size for me. I've had huge fun using it, and I must confess I've gotten embarrassingly attached to the little beast -- almost to the point of giving it a name. I haven't done it yet. But.

Printmaker Bill Ritchie invented the Mini Halfwood, as well as other tabletop presses. He says on his website that he wanted his presses to have the feel of a sailing ship interior, and his presses are wonderfully elegant looking, as well as functional.

I've been playing around with different tools to see what kind of drypoint marks they make. Above is one of my scribblings, printed on the Mini Halfwood using Arches 88 paper. I've found that some of my bookbinding awls make interesting lines.

Below, I printed the same plate on handmade paper:

Book Arts Links: United States

2011-05-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

Here are some links to book arts-related places in the U.S. Haven't been to them all myself -- maybe someday! I'll be updating and adding more links as I find more to add. Right now, this is a quick and dirty list -- I'll fix it up more and make it look pretty when I get the time.

If you know of some other great book arts places to visit in the U.S., please let me know about them in the comments section, and I'll add them to the list.

General:

Paper and Book Intensive (held yearly at different locations in the U.S.): http://www.paperbookintensive.org/

State Centers for the Book: The Library of Congress website has listings for all 50 state centers for the book. They are non-affiliated organizations, and their programs vary quite a bit, but I'm including this website, as some of the state centers may have postings about book arts - related events.

http://read.gov/cfb/state-affiliates.php

Alabama

University of Alabama M.F.A. in the Book Arts Program: http://www.bookarts.ua.edu/

Alaska

Arizona

University of Arizona -- book arts: http://art.arizona.edu/facilities/book-art-and-letterpress-lab

Arkansas

California

The American Bookbinders Museum - http://www.bookbindersmuseum.com/

The San Francisco Center for the Book: http://sfcb.org/

Bay Area Book Artists' Book Arts Jam: http://www.bookartsjam.org/index.php

Pacific Center for the Book Arts: http://pcba.info/

Sonoma County Book Arts Guild, Sebastopol, CA (www.socobag.blogspot.com)

Colorado

The American Academy of Bookbinding (Telluride, CO): http://www.ahhaa.org/academy-bookbinding/
Anderson Ranch Arts Center: http://www.andersonranch.org/

Conneticut

Creative Arts Workshop -- book arts classes: http://www.creativeartsworkshop.org/html/classes/bookarts.html

Delaware

University of Delaware book arts collection: http://guides.lib.udel.edu/specbookarts

Florida

University of Tampa Book Arts Studio: http://tampabookartsstudio.blogspot.com/

Georgia

Georgia Tech Paper Museum

Hawaii

Idaho

Jim Croft -- Old Ways Bookbinding Workshops: http://www.traditionalhand.com/oldway/

(I blogged about attending one of Jim Croft's workshops -- you can find the posts here)

Idaho Center for the Book (at Boise State University): http://lili.org/icb/

Illinois

Chicago:

Joan Flasch Artists Book Collection, School of the Art Institute

http://digital-libraries.saic.edu/cdm4/about_jfabc.php?CISOROOT=/jfabc

Newberry Library

http://www.newberry.org

Columbia College Center for the Book and Paper Arts

http://www.colum.edu/Academics/Interarts/index.php?site=CBPA

Northwestern University Library - Special collections

http://www.library.northwestern.edu/libraries-collections/evanston-campus/special-collections

University of Chicago Library - Special collections

http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl

Bookman's Alley-Evanston

http://evanstonillinois.net/booksmansalley.html

Powell's Bookstores

http://www.powellschicago.com

Center for Book and Paper Arts: http://www.colum.edu/book_and_paper/

Indiana

Iowa

University of Iowa Center for the Book

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Pyramid Atlantic

Massachusetts

Boston Paper Collective: http://bostonpapercollective.wordpress.com/about/

North Bennet Street School (has bookbinding courses): http://www.nbss.org/

Carriage House Paper's papermaking museum in Brookline, just outside of Boston (by appointment)

GAS -- Garage School Annex (Easthampton, MA) : http://www.garageannexschool.com/

Michigan

Kalamazoo Book Arts Center: http://www.kalbookarts.org/index.html

Hollander's (Ann Arbor, MI) -- book making supplies, classes : http://www.hollanders.com/

Minnisota

Minnesota Center for Book Arts

Cave Paper (in Minneapolis): http://www.cavepaper.com/

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nebraska Book Arts Center: http://www.unomaha.edu/~nbac/

Nevada

Black Rock Press at the University of Nevada, Reno: http://www.blackrockpress.org/

New Hampshire

Dartmouth College book arts programs: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/preservation/bookarts/

New Jersey

New Jersey Center for the Book: http://www.njcenterforthebook.org/

New Mexico

LIBROS New Mexico Book Arts Guild: http://www.librosnm.org/

New York

Wells College Book Arts Center: http://www.wells.edu/bkarts/info.htm

Western New York Book Arts Center (http://www.wnybookarts.org/

Women's Studio Workshop

Genesee Center for the Arts: http://www.geneseearts.org/

New York City:

The New York Center for Book Arts: http://www.centerforbookarts.org/

Dieu Donne : http://www.dieudonne.org/

Lower Eastside Printshop

Bright Hill Press & Literary Center: http://www.brighthillpress.org

The Morgan Library: http://www.themorgan.org/home.asp

Booklyn artist's book alliance: http://www.booklyn.org/index.php

Central Booking: http://centralbookingnyc.com/

Calvin-Morris Gallery (sometimes has artist book exhibitions) : http://www.cavinmorris.com/

New York Central Art Supply (has book art supplies): http://www.nycentralart.com/

North Carolina

Asheville Book Works

Penland

North Dakota

Ohio

Dard Hunter's Studios http://www.dardhunter.com

Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland http://www.morganconservatory.org/

Paper Circle (South East Ohio's Center for Paper and Book Arts): http://www.papercircle.org/

Cincinnati Book Arts Society: http://www.cincinnatibookarts.org/

Oklahoma

Oregon

C.C. Stern Type Foundry  http://www.ccsterntype.org/

Pennsylvania

University of the Arts - Bookarts

The School for Formal Bookbinding (Wilkes-Barre, PA): http://www.donrashfinebookbinder.com/index.html

Rhode Island

The Printed Page

South Carolina

Southeast Association for Book Arts: http://www.southeastbookarts.org/

South Dakota

Tennessee

Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts (Gatlinburg, TN): http://www.arrowmont.org/

Texas

Museum of Printing History in Houston, TX. The Houston Book Arts Group meets there.

Utah

Book Arts Program at the University of Utah

Vermont

Book Arts Guild of Vermont: http://www.bookartsguildvt.com/

Virginia

Rare Book School : http://www.rarebookschool.org/
Virginia Commonwealth University book art collection : http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/bookart.html

Washington

Seattle Center for Book Arts: http://seattlebookarts.org/

Book Arts Guild: http://bookartsguild.org/

University of Washington Book Arts Collection: http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/collections/bookarts.html

Wessel and Lieberman Booksellers (they sell artist books): http://www.wlbooks.com/cgi-bin/wlb455.cgi/index.html?id=2QbhcRj6

Washington, DC

Corcoran Collage of Art & Design book arts programs : http://www.corcoran.edu/degree-programs/graduate-degree-programs

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Carroll University book arts program: http://www.carrollu.edu/programs/bookart/
Wisconsin Center for Book and Paper Arts (Madison, WI): http://www.wibookandpaper.org/

Wyoming

Book Arts: Florence, Italy

2011-04-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

First off, a small confession: when I visited Florence, Italy, in early April, I was so busy looking all the beautiful things around me (it was my first visit) I didn't spend very much time seeking out bookbinding/book arts related places to visit. So my "Book Arts in Florence" post will be on the short side.

That said, I did visit a wonderful establishment called the Officina Profumo Farmaceutica di Sant Maria Novella. It was established in 1221 by Dominican monks, who grew medicinal herbs and used them to create medications and ointments. Here, you can see part of the interior of the pharmacy:

In 1866, a layman took over the pharmacy, and it's now open to the public and has exotic, herb based perfumes, pot-pourri, liqueurs, elixirs and more for sale. There is a small museum about the history of the pharmacy, and it's well worth a visit just for the unbelievably wonderful smells that greet you when you walk in. In one of the museum's display cases, I found a couple of magnificent herbals that had belonged to the monks:

In my rambles around Florence, I also ran across several shops selling handmade journals and marbled papers, but only thought to write down the names of a couple of them:

Il Torchio (marbled paper and journals) at Via dei Bardi 17, San Niccolò
Zecchi (http://www.zecchi.it/), Via dello Studio 19r. I did briefly visit Zecchi, which has marbled papers and other art supplies.

If you know of any other interesting book arts related places to visit in Florence, please feel free to suggest them in the comments section for this post, as I (and I'm sure other people) would love to know about them. :)

International Women's Day

2011-03-08T11:02:00.000-08:00

To celebrate International Women's Day in my own small way, I've been making some goddess - themed journal/sketchbooks:

This journal has a rustic ceramic pendant on the cover with a stamped Nile River Goddess. The Nile River Goddess is a very old symbol of fertility and strength. The woman in the photo next to the journal is Isadora Duncan, the artist and free spirit who created modern dance.

I also made a Moon Goddess journal/sketchbook:

This one is black leather, and has a full moon-shaped ceramic pendant with the image of a goddess holding the moon. I've been a bit obsessed with these little goddess images lately. Something about them makes me want to put on some flowing robes and do an Isadora Duncan-type interpretive dance. I'm afraid I might frighten the dog, though. :)

Happy International Women's Day!

New Bonefolder

2011-02-04T14:52:00.000-08:00

The latest copy of the Bonefolder (a most excellent online journal for bookbinders and book artists) is out, and (yay!) one of my books is in it. It's a book (pictured above) that I talked about in an earlier post -- I submitted it to the Bonefolder's annual Bind-O-Rama, and it was accepted. A nice bit of news in the dark days of winter.

This issue of the Bonefolder has an interesting article on book arts in Cuba. Cuba has a really vibrant printmaking and book making scene. I visited a studio in Havana a few years ago, and bought a couple of artist books. The diverse cultures in Cuba make for a rich mix of influences in the book arts scene.

Eco-Friendly Journal and Some Other Stuff

2011-01-21T16:09:00.000-08:00

Here we are in the depths of January, and I think I'm trying to deny it by making books with trees and birds and other things that make me think (prematurely, I'm afraid) of spring.

This is a journal I just added to my Etsy store that has eco-friendly paper. This paper is made from a mix of coffee fiber and recycled papers, and it has a kind of marbled or antiqued look. I added a leather bookmark with a tree of life charm:

This one has a little ceramic bird pendant on the cover:

I've also been making some new quote books. This has a quote on the first page by George Bernard Shaw -- a little inspiration for the new year:

"You see things, and you say 'Why?'"

I see things that never were,

and I say 'Why not?'"

New Hippie/New Age/Nature Journals

2011-01-15T19:30:00.000-08:00

The ol' brain has been working overtime lately, and I've come up with some new leather journal designs. These are all kind of hippie, nature, and spirit - themed journals.
I've added leather bookmarks to some of them, and also, in this one, used eco-friendly banana fiber paper for the pages:

I've been planning to use some eco-friendly writing papers, but it took me some time to find papers that I liked. The banana paper has a nice, natural color, and little brown flecks:

I'm also doing some journals with ceramic pendants on the covers. This one has a wee owl design:

Away You Go...

2010-11-27T17:44:00.000-08:00

Recently finished a big (24 notebook) order for a business. They will be giving them out as gifts to visiting speakers and other guests. I boxed up my little children and sent them off to their new home, but now, sadly, there's no time to sit around drinking eggnog and eat rum-soaked cookies, as the holiday shopping season is here, and I am busy making many more books for my Etsy store. Not that I'm complaining--it's good to be busy!

I vaguely remember reading a story when I was a child about elves who came at night to make shoes for a cobbler and his wife. When the cobbler woke up in the morning, lovely shoes would be finished and waiting. Where are those elves when you need them? :)

New Quote Journals

2010-11-13T17:17:00.000-08:00

Has is really been two months since I posted here? Where did the time go? Well, I haven't been lounging around (ok, well some lounging, but not too much, anyway :) . Among other things, I made some new quote journals.

This one has a George Bernard Shaw quote:

"You see things; and you say 'Why?'
But I dream things that never were;
and I say 'Why not?'

And this Writer's Inspiration Journal, with a quote by Ernest Hemingway:

"My aim is to put down on paper
what I see and what I feel
in the best and simplest way."

The Thread that Binds, Part II

2010-09-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

I finally finished binding my copy of The Thread that Binds. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had thought about doing a wooden cover, as a tribute to master bookbinder Jim Croft (who is interviewed in the book) but as often happens, went charging off in another direction altogether.

I created a medieval-style leather binding that emphasizes thread and stitching, which seemed to fit the content of the book:

This copy of The Thread that Binds will have a home in my ever-growing collection of books on bookbinding.

Small Universe

2010-08-09T17:05:00.000-07:00

This is my latest coptic stitch book with wooden covers (you can see some others here). I'm working on a series of books that are interpretations of random designs that I find in nature. The cover of this book is based on a pattern of naturally occurring lines in a piece of mica. The name of this book is "Small Universe".

This was the first time I'd worked with milk paint -- lots of layers of colour, then working my way down through them to reveal the design.

Book Arts: Edinburgh

2010-07-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

After spending a few days in Sterling, our next stop was Edinburgh. I'd briefly visited Edinburgh years ago, and was glad to have several days there this time. Book arts-ish places that I visited included the Owl and Lion, located at 15 Grassmarket in the old town (a hint if you plan to visit them--if you think you're at the right address, but there's a sort of dance studio where the booksellers should be, try looking across the street). They make silkscreen covers for their handmade journals, and have lots of lovely things to look at. Here you can see some of them in their front window:

Also in that same area (at 102 West Bow) is Analogue Books. They have a variety of zines on display:

I also visited the National Library of Scotland, but have no photos to share, alas. If you know of any other good book arts-related places to visit in Edinburgh, I hope you will post them in the comments.

And finally, to continue the animal obsessed portion of my journey, here is a photo of a little dog outside an antique shop. The owner has him tied up there, and if you squint at the photo, you can see above him a picture of Greyfriars Bobby, a famous former citizen of Edinburgh. Bobby's master died, and for many years the little Skye Terrier kept watch over his master's grave. The dog in the photo is also a Skye, and looks about as long suffering as the original Bobby must have been.

Other book arts related places to visit in Edinburgh are:

The Centre for the History of the Book http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/chb/

The National Library of Scotland http://www.nls.uk/

[NOTE: if you know of any other great bookbinding/book arts places to visit in Edinburgh, please do share them in the comments. Book arts - obsessed people like myself would love to know about them!]

Traveling in Scotland

2010-07-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

My husband attended a conference in Stirling, Scotland, last month, and I got to go along and just be a tourist. We stayed in a lovely old B&B called Kilronan House:

Later on, we moved to lodgings on the Stirling University campus. There was a beautiful lake in the middle of the campus, and I some happy hours walking around and taking photos of all the wildlife (Ok, confession time: this post isn't really about book arts at all. It's more about the fact that I'm a real softie where animals are concerned :)

Here is the lake:

and a sleeping duck:

And a tiny tree frog, who kindly, if somewhat reluctantly, posed for me:

A swan in the evening:

And a bunny, one of many, many, many, on the campus.

Can anyone tell my what kind of bird this is? It wasn't one I recognized:

To redeem myself on the book arts front, let me say that we did visit other cities in the U.K. on this trip, and I visited book arts-ish places in all of them. More posts to follow....

The Thread That Binds

2010-06-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

A while back, I sent away to Oak Knoll Books for an unbound copy of The Thread That Binds: Interviews with Private Practice Bookbinders. Here you can see the pages:

For the last couple of weeks, I've been pondering what sort of binding I want to create for it.

The bookbinders interviewed talk about their lives in the book arts -- how they got to be bookbinders, and the ups and downs of a bookbinding life. Jim Croft, who taught me many things about bookbinding, is one of the interviewees, and so I want to make a binding that honours his passion for gothic books with wooden covers, but also reflects my own bookbinding interests, too.

This part of designing a cover is always the most fun--thinking, making little drawings, thinking some more, messing about with papers and leather and wood and things, drinking tea, rejecting what I just thought about, thinking some more.....

Journal with Plum Wood Button

2010-05-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a journal with a plum wood button on the cover. My sister kindly saved me some of the wood when she was pruning her plum tree. I'd never made buttons from fruit tree wood before, so it was interesting to see how they came out. I really like the dark swirl in the center of the button.

Journals with Buttons

2010-05-21T17:15:00.000-07:00

I've been busy the last couple of weeks making more wooden buttons for my journals. The photo above shows some of them. They are mostly walnut and cherry, plus a few made from plum, birch, bird's eye maple, and hickory. I've started making some journal / sketchbooks with them, including this large leather journal, which has a birch button on the cover:

...and the small leather journal/sketchbook below, which has a bird's eye maple button on the cover. I will be making more journals next week--I'm all excited about some buttons I made from a piece of plum wood I saved when my sister was pruning her fruit trees, and I'm keen to use one of those. Stay tuned for more photos...

Very Small Vandercook Press

2010-04-19T11:57:00.000-07:00

The Vandercook proof press was originally used in commercial printshops, but in recent years artists have been using the Vandercook to create wonderful letterpress work. There is even a Flickr group dedicated to the Vandercook -- you can see photos of real Vandercooks and examples of letterpress printing there.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Vandercook, the Pacific Center for the Book Arts sent it's members (including me) a cardstock scale model of the press. The pieces had to be assembled, and in spite of being not one who excels at poking tabs into their correct slots, I did manage to put the thing together.

This is the finished model, looking surprisingly Vandercook-like. It even has a tiny little foot pedal -- you can see it on the lower left side.

The Ampersand (pictured, with a photo of the model Vandercook on the cover) is the quarterly journal of the Pacific Center for the Book Arts.

The model of the Vandercook even came with the most excellent Vandercook logo on the side.

Cherry Wood Book

2010-03-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

Just finished another Coptic book with wooden covers. This one is made from quarter sawn cherry wood, with a piece of mica inset into the cover.

I used an old time finish on the wood (thanks to Jim Croft, who brewed it up). It's made of beeswax, pine pitch, and raw linseed oil. I just rubbed it in with my fingers, then buffed it with a soft cloth.

When I got the piece of wood, one edge was rough (on the right side in the photo). I decided to leave it that way when I cut the book covers.

Several Ways to Keep Your Journal Closed

2010-02-23T13:28:00.000-08:00

One of the things I like about the kind of leather journal/sketchbooks I make is that there are several ways to use the wrap-around strap to keep a journal closed, depending on how you want to use it.

One way is to simply wrap the strap around the journal...

....and on the back side of the journal, tuck the end of the strap under the length that wraps around.

I tend to be a bit of a magpie when I travel, picking up ticket stubs, postcards, pamphlets, etc. Because of the way my journals are sewn, there's room for expansion, so you can store lots of those irresistible little items in between the journal pages.

I make my journals with straps that are long enough to still go around the journal even when it's gotten quite fat. Here is one way to tie a knot in the strap to keep the journal snugly closed:

This is one of my little pocket sized leather notebooks. You can keep it closed by tucking the end of the strap under the rest of the strap from above:

Or below:

To make it even more secure, after you tuck the end of the strap under, loop it around and tuck it under a second time:

Ash, leaf, and twig book

2010-01-15T16:04:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I had a chance to post--hope you are all having a good start to the new year. Christmas was a busy time in my studio this year, so I've been taking some time to hibernate now that things have slowed down a bit. I got a chance to finish a book I've been working on for the past few months -- this coptic book with wooden covers (also pictured above):

It is made from spalted ash, and has fossils set into the front cover. Here is a detail showing the fossilized leaves and twigs, and, on the right hand side, the piece of driftwood I used for the closure:

The design reflects my interest in the Japanese aesthetic principles of Wabi Sabi and Shibui.

I'm planning to make a series of wooden coptic books. For me, they're a way to explore memories I have of growing up in the mountains of the Northwestern U.S. I spent a lot of time roaming around the woods by myself, so trees, rocks, fossils, mica, volcanic rock, and other suchlike things were (and still are) an important part of my life. (I wrote in a vague way about how I started on this book project in some earlier posts).

New Quote Journals

2009-11-20T17:40:00.000-08:00

I designed a few new leather journals with quotes this week for my Etsy store. It's always fun to dig through my collection of quotes and clip art, plus the Oxford Dictionary of Quotes, and the Riverside Shakespeare, and ok, it's an excuse to sit and leaf through some of my favourite novels, too. I'm a sucker for those fat Victorian novels. There's nothing like spending an evening drinking tea and reading about the romantic and other entanglements of men with stiff collars and women in enormous dresses.

Speaking of which, one of my new designs is a Reader's Journal (pictured below), for people who share my addiction to books. It has a photo of a Victorian woman (in the aforementioned sort of dress) reading a book, along with a quote by Louise May Alcott:

"She is too fond of books,
and it has turned her brain."

That quote always makes me laugh, probably because it describes me too well....

I made another leather journal with a lovely poem by e e cummings:

"Here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)"

And a nature journal with a quote by John Muir:

And finally, a journal with a quote by Leonardo da Vinci ("The smallest feline is a masterpiece"), plus his sketch (not the original, alas) of a sleeping cat:

Little leather notebooks

2009-11-13T09:50:00.000-08:00

I've been busy making lots of small leather notebooks for the local art gallery shop and for my Etsy store. I have a stash of really beautiful thin, shiny goatskin that seemed a bit too modern for my medieval style journals, and it's been sitting on the shelf, waiting patiently for me to grind through a few gears and figure out what to do with it.

I've been wanting to make some more smaller books (there's something really compelling about small book--I'm not quite sure why, but I just love little books.). So I came up with a pocket sized design that is traditional, but the stitching is simple and modern looking. The stitching pattern on the spine is sort of based on something called the "icicle stitch" in one of Keith Smith's books. You might call it a modified icicle. Or maybe slightly melted.

Moon Bindery, Here and There

2009-11-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

Some excellent news this week--I entered one of my books (pictured above) in a book design competition held by The Bonefolder (a e-journal for bookbinders and book artists), and it was one of 25 books selected to be part of an online exhibition featured in the Fall, 2009 issue of The Bonefolder. If you'd like to see all the selected books, the fall issue is free and online now--You can find it here. The exhibition is called the Bind-O-Rama (page 54) .

Also, the Style Collective blog has kindly done a nice writeup about my books:

http://www.stylecollective.com.au/livingstyle.asp?idcontent=491

Ok, I'd better get back to work... :)

Making Journals with Wooden Buttons

2009-10-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

I've been making large leather journals with wooden buttons on the covers for a while now, and in the past I ordered the buttons from various woodworkers on Etsy. It was surprisingly hard to find someone who was interested in making buttons for me -- I guess making buttons isn't as exciting as doing other kinds of woodworking. :)

The buttons I purchased were great, but it seemed to me that it would be even better if I made the buttons myself. My dear old Dad has been doing woodworking since he retired, so I joined forces with him, and "Dean Simler and Daughter" has been busy cutting and sanding and polishing wooden buttons. The sawdust has really been flying in his little workshop!

Here are a couple of the finished buttons on journal/sketchbooks that are in my Etsy shop:

The button in the photo above is made from cherry wood. The buttons I make are very natural and rustic -- not too uniform in shape, so each one is slightly different. I sand them until they are very smooth, and then finish them with walnut oil and a coat of special beeswax polish.

This one has a bird's eye maple wood button:

The bird's eye maple was roasted in a kiln for 12 hours, which makes it darker in colour. It also brings out the natural sugars in the wood, so the button has a slightly smoky, maple sugar smell, which is very nice.

European Bookbinding Trip

2009-10-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

Where have I been, you might wonder, all these weeks that I've been sadly neglecting my blog. Well, I just got back from a trip to Germany and Australia (my husband went on business, and I decided to go along). Bookbinding nerd that I am, I was keen to see as many examples of medieval bookbinding as possible.

First off, I made an appointment to visit the City Archives in Freiburg, Germany. Freiburg is a lovely city on the edge of the Black Forest in Southern Germany. The head archivist, Dr. Ulrich P. Ecker, showed me some wonderful things, including some medieval illuminated manuscripts

that were created by local nuns. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take any photos of the books, but here's an exciting shot of the front door of the archives:

Next, I went to Vienna, Austria, and visited the Austrian National Library. The State Hall at the Hapsburg Palace is the part of the National Library that's open to the public, and as the Hapsburgs were enormously powerful and wealthy in their day, it's a grand sight, with hand bound books from floor to ceiling.

The current exhibition at the State Hall is Approaches to Distant Lands. Geographic Gems from the Austrian National Library, a collection of 17th century atlases showing how Europeans viewed the world outside of Europe. Here is a photo of one of the displays:

Not surprisingly, those 17th century Europeans got a few things wrong. My favourites were the drawings of men (I'm not sure from what country) with no heads--their faces were located in their chests. They all looked a bit surprised about it. You can find out more about the exhibition here:

http://www.wieninternational.at/en/node/15642

and see some photos of the State Hall here: http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/exhibition/buildings/countries/austria.html

Saving the best for last, I wound up the trip by visiting Mainz, Germany, home of the Gutenberg Museum, which also houses the Bookbinding Museum. Here is a photo of the museum building:

and one of a book-shaped sculpture made of stone. There were several book-related sculptures at the entrance to the museum.

I spent some happy hours wandering through the exhibits, and a nice, long chat with the resident bookbinder, who sported a magnificent 1400s-style long beard, and was most friendly and helpful. Gutenberg invented the art of the printed book in Europe in the 1450s, and two of his first books, Gutenberg Bibles, were on display. I wasn't allowed to take photos of them, but here is another book at the museum, a sort of printing manual, I think:

Lastly, we visited Frankfurt, Germany, where I didn't see any medieval books, but did get to sample some sausages:

And then I came home, tired but happy, with a couple of books on bookbinding that I bought at the Gutenberg Museum. Now, I just have to get my husband to translate them from German into English. Should be interesting...

[NOTE: if you know of any other great bookbinding/book arts places to visit in Germany and/or Austria, please do share them in the comments. Book arts - obsessed people like myself would love to know about them!]

Medieval - Modern Journals

2009-09-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

I recently dipped into my treasure chest of vintage buttons and made a couple more medieval-modern style leather journal / sketchbooks for my Etsy shop:

The one above is make with black elk hide, and has an jazzy olive green Art Deco button from the 1920s-1930s on the front cover.

This one is made with sea foam green deerskin, and has an elegant button from the 1940s-1950s on the front cover. I was watching The Big Sleep the other night, and could just picture Lauren Bacall writing down her dark family secrets in this book. :D

Noodling around on a holiday weekend

2009-09-07T17:02:00.000-07:00

In an earler post, I talked a little bit about a new project I'm working on, which is evolving into a series of small books with wooden covers. I really just want to explore the possibilities for making wooden books without worrying whether the result will be wonderful or horrible. I have a set of qualities that I have in mind as I work:

simplicity
tranquility
naturalness
impermanence
roughness

form that comes from the physical qualities of the materials used

I was thinking about these things today as I wandered around my yard taking photos.

Impermanence seems like an especially appropriate concept.....

as this lovely holiday weekend comes to an end.....

....and the first maple leaf falls to the ground. This time of year always makes me feel a bit melancholy, but in a good way.

Simplicity, Tranquility...

2009-09-07T15:56:00.000-07:00

simplicity

tranquility

naturalness

impermanence

roughness

imperfection

I was thinking about these things today as I wandered around my yard taking photos:

Part III, Bookbinding Workshop in Santa, Idaho

2009-08-29T15:13:00.001-07:00

Days 6-9: Well, things are getting a bit intense now. I only have three days left, and many, many things still to do. I carved my wooden pegs to hammer in the holes next to my cords, so the cords will stay securely where they're supposed to:

Part III, Bookbinding Workshop in Santa, Idaho

2009-08-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

Days 6-9: Well, things are getting a bit intense now. I only have three days left, and many, many things still to do. I carved my wooden pegs (you can see them at upper left). I will hammer the pegs in the holes in the book covers, so the cords will stay securely where they're supposed to. The book is opened, so you can see where the cords came in one hole and went out another:

I also needed to cut out the brass pieces of my book clasp, and then use nippers and files to shape them. Jim believes in doing every little part of the book in the "old way", so I even designed and drew the pattern for my clasps by hand.

Here are the brass pieces for my clasps, plus the cardboard patterns and some of the files I used to shape them. The brass is some that Jim got from architectural salvage places.

And here are the clasps, ready to be attached to the book covers. The brown parts are pieces of leather that I glued around a piece of parchment, then attached to the brass pieces (sorry about the fuzzy photo--I must have been overly excited when I took it).

Next, I carved out places on the cover boards for the brass clasps to fit into. You can just barely see my pencil marks on the cover board showing where the clasps will go. This board is sitting on a groovy little thingie that hooks over the table edge and has a lip at the back edge to rest the board against. That way, I can put pressure on the board while I'm carving it without the board sliding all over the table:

My book will have a leather covered spine. Here Jim is demonstrating how to pare the edges of the leather so it won't bunch up at the corners of the book spine.

Eeek! It's the last day, time is running out, and I'm still behind. Here I'm putting a thin tissue backing on the spine of my text block.

The next thing I did was assemble the book and attach the leather to the spine. It's a pity I didn't take any photos, as it took place at 10 o'clock on the last night I was there, and I wish I had a record of my desperate attempts to coax a chunk of limp, wheat paste soaked leather around the cords and generally where it was supposed to go. In lieu of photos of that event, here are some of other accommodations on the Croft place. If I had been more adventurous, I could have set up my sleeping bag here...

...or in this sweat lodge/ tepee affair (I think they put on a canvas cover if someone stays in it).

And here is my finished book. Yay! Note the leather spine that fortunately shows no sign of the late night pasting struggle:

Here is a view that shows the clasps. I made every bit of the clasps by hand, even down to making the nails out of pieces of brass rod. I will keep this book forever, as a memento of my time at the Crofts, but will be making other books with wooden covers (a slightly different design), which I will unveil here at a future date.

And so, after nine amazing days of dirt, mosquito bites, sawing, filing, gluing and general backwoods bookbinding, I packed up my stuff, hopped in my car and headed back down the road, sad to leave, but so very happy that I came here.

You can find out more about Jim Croft and the workshops he teaches at his website:

http://www.traditionalhand.com/oldway/

Part II, Bookbinding Workshop in Santa, Idaho

2009-07-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

Days 2-5 or so: After arising and making my way down the spooky steps from my sleeping nest in the loft of the Croft's guest cabin, I had an excellent breakfast, prepared by Melodie Croft (Jim's wife), and laboured away on my Gothic book.

After sewing the pages to pieces of thick flax cord, I "fluffed" the ends, then soaked them in wheat paste and twisted them into points. After they dried, the points were seriously hard, and thus I could lace the paper to the covers by poking the cords through holes I had drilled in the wood board covers.

Next, I worked on the boards for the covers. I had to saw a piece of board (in this case, sycamore wood) to get covers the proper size. I don't have a photo of me using a hand saw, but lets just say it wasn't pretty. I did get better (eventually), especially after I realized I was holding the saw at the wrong angle.

After cutting the boards, I had to file them until they were smooth, and shape the edges of the boards so they would fit properly when I laced them to the paper. It was interesting that each board had to be shaped a little differently, and I continually had to go back and make little adjustments as I was going along, in order to get the paper and boards to fit together properly so I wouldn't end up with a hideous, misshapen thing that could only come out in the dead of night.

Here are covers for both of my books (the one I made, and the one I haven't finished yet).

Hurray, lunch time! A short jaunt past Rusty, the Crofts' dog, ......

....taking the path through Melodie's beautiful garden.....

....to the outdoor kitchen for a lunch I didn't have to cook myself. What could be better?!

Then back to work. After much shaping and swearing under my breath, I got the boards to properly fit into the "shoulders" of the sewn paper, laced them together (note my pointy, glued cords) and the thing actually starts to look like a book.

Jim uses hand tools to make his books. Here are some that I used. This is a photo of some hand planes, which gave the wood a beautiful, smooth surface.

And here is one of my book covers, clamped into a workmate thingie. Lying next to it is a farrier's rasp (a rasp used to file horse's hooves). It works great to smooth off edges of the covers and file them down (now you know what horses have to do with books).

Finally, supper, a little swig of Jim's homemade mead, then off to bed in my little loft nest, listening to the pygmy owls hooting outside, dreaming of book covers...

Next time: wrestling leather, beating up on brass.

2009-07-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

Bookbinding Workshop in Santa, Idaho, Part I

2009-07-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post, I told you I was going to Santa, Idaho, to learn to make gothic books from bookbinder extraordinaire Jim Croft. Well, I had a most excellent experience down in Santa, and I have the photos to prove it. In this and following posts, I'll give you a guided tour of my time there.

Everything at the Crofts is very basic, but comfortable. Here is the little cabin I stayed in:

If you like comfort camping (sort of like real camping, only with lots of amenities), this might not be your thing, but I grew up doing basic camping (a sleeping bag, possibly, but not always a tent, a stick to roast a weenie on, lots of dirt, and more stars at night than you could ever imagine), so I totally loved my time at the Crofts.

Here is the path I took in the mornings to the Croft's kitchen for breakfast...

...past the Japanese-style outhouse. I think you can work out for yourself how it is used (ok, confession time--I had very little confidence in my aim, so I just kept on walking until I got to the outhouse with a seat):

After a fine breakfast, prepared by Jim's wife, Melodie, it's off to the open-air workshop to spend the first of nine days making books (well, in my case, making book, as I'm incredibly slow and only got one finished). Here is a front view of the workshop (the left side of the building--Jim and Melodie live on the right side):

And here is my book, in it's embryonic stages. I'm using a sewing frame to stitch the pages to flax cords:

We also learned to select straight-grained wood, and split it into pieces for wooden book covers. Here is a selection of wood that Jim split. It is almost entirely reclaimed wood:

I will spend the next week or so using hand tools in an attempt to create something that looks more or less like these books, made by Jim.

Coming in the next post: how to use a hand saw very badly, what horses have to do with books, and so forth....

ILSSA Festival for Practicing Skills

2009-07-08T14:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took part in the ILSSA (Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts) First Annual Festival to Plead for Skills, only in this case, ILSSA members practiced skills instead of pleading for them. I decided to practice making paper.

I rooted around in my big bag of handmade paper scraps, leftovers from various projects, then sorted and cut them into small pieces:

Then I descended into the scary basement and set up my papermaking operation. I soaked the paper bits in water overnight, and here I am making a sort of paper daiquiri:

The paper cooperated better than I expected. I used pieces of abaca, mulberry and cotton papers, and they blended up nicely. There was water EVERYWHERE, but I managed to make quite a lot of pulp in the food processor without any electrocutions, smoke or random explosions, although some disturbing-looking brown stuff did leak out the bottom of the f.p. Fortunately, it wasn't anywhere near the paper.

Here is some paper pulp, ready to be transformed into some lovely paper sheets (I hope).

And finally, some finished sheets, rollered onto boards, a wooden box, and a glass window that was left over from when we replaced some window in our elderly house. The paper is still drying as I write this, so it will be interesting to see how it looks when dry. I really like how the colours turned out. I started with brown pulp, then as the pulp thinned (after I pulled several sheets of paper) added the green to the vat, then gradually added the blue pulp. I ended up with sheets of brown, greenish-brown, bluish-green, and finally dark blue papers.

As I was sloshing away in my vat, it was good to think of all the other ILSSA members, sawing, punching, gnawing (who knows?), and just generally practicing their own crafts at the same time.

Creativity

2009-05-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

I dearly love making my leather journals, and will keep doing that, but lately I've been feeling an itch to try something new, as well.

One of the things I enjoy about other people's blogs is seeing how they develop new ideas for their work. When I'm thinking about a new project, thinking isn't really the right word for it. I'm a very visual/tactile sort, so, in a magpie-like manner, I usually just start gathering bits of things that interest me, photos, bits of rock, thread, you name it. Eventually, I pick out some things that seem to belong together, but it's still all very vague. I actually really enjoy that part -- maybe vagueness is my natural state. :)

I decided to try out FreeMind to do a little mind mapping and see if that would be helpful. I downloaded the program (it's free), and after a lot of sweating and mumbling, came up with this:

It's a little hard to read, because I couldn't figure out how to print it in landscape mode, so I had to squeeze it onto the page. Of course, I could have accomplished the same thing in about 10 minutes with a piece of paper and a pencil, but printed up like this, it looks so, I don't know, serious, or official, or something. Like something might really be going on here. Which may not actually be the case. But then again...

For those of you who don't feel like squinting, here is my unabridged list of items/concepts/whathaveyou that might or might not become part of this project:

-Easter Island

-wood

-fossils

-thread

-leather

-roughness

-implicitness

-simplicity

-tranquility

-naturalness

-clay tiles

-handmade paper

-stones

-mica

-volcano

-horses

-skinny

-window

-rope

Make of that what you will. :)

Here is a quote from artist Chris Ofili, that sums up what I love about starting new projects:

"In the process of making art the mind wanders and gives way to instinct, which feeds off areas the intellect doesn’t. The process is one of distillation to the point where it’s just essence, just itself."

Chris Ofili

Victorine Bound

2009-05-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

I just completed a custom book order for artist Tricia Sellmer. She asked me to bind 24 copies of her work, Victorine Meurent Erased, which combines Tricia's artwork and writings about 19th century artist Victorine Meurent.

For this project, I used a handmade abaca and comfrey paper for the cover, and bound it using a Japanese stab binding.

Quite a lot of the work in doing a custom binding goes into planning and working out the dimensions of a design. Here, I've finished cutting and hand-tearing some of the covers:

And here, I'm getting ready to sew the cover and text together. At the top of the photo is an unbound copy of the text, showing some of Tricia's artwork.

And here are three of the finished books.

The covers were letterpress printed by Howard Glossop, and the text was printed by master printmaker Linda Jules. There weren't any extra copies, so I had to be very careful not to make any mistakes, like putting the text in upside down, or putting holes in the wrong places, or cutting the covers the wrong size, etc., etc., etc. Even with a seemingly simple binding like this, there are a surprising number of ways to mess it up, as there are so many little details to remember. Fortunately, there weren't any nasty surprises along the way.

I like how the cover of this book looks a bit like the face of a tombstone. Which fits, as Tricia's project was to unearth this forgotten artist.

Book Hippies

2009-05-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

Great news--in June I will be heading off to Santa, Idaho to spend about a week in the woods with Jim Croft, bookbinder extraordinaire, taking his "Wooden Boards & Clasps" class.

Jim and his wife, Melody (who describe themselves as "hippies"), grow their own flax and make paper from it. Melody also spins flax to make thread to sew books with, and Jim cuts and cures his own boards to use for wooden book covers. Whew! Not only that, he also makes his own bookbinding tools. If you've ever dreamed of leaving it all behind and going off to the woods to devote yourself to your art, Jim is a real inspiration. You can read more about him and his work here:

Idaho Center for the Book Website (pdf file of article on Jim Croft)

University of Idaho website (article about an exhibition of Jim Croft's work)

I grew up on a farm in Northern Idaho, and it's an absolutely beautiful place (mountains, trees, fresh air, crickets chirping, horses (see photo above), etc. -- well, ok, lots of mosquitoes, too!), so I'm really looking forward to spending some time there. Plus it sounds like a great bookbinding class.

Jim describes the accommodations at his place as "civilized camping" so I'll be packing plenty of flannel and mosquito repellent -- hope it doesn't rain, as June in Northern Idaho can be a bit nippy. But really, even if it does, I'll be too happy to care!

Yet More Buttons

2009-05-06T15:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted anything--where does the time go?. I've been busy frolicking about in the spring weather (well, actually I've been planting my garden, but that doesn't sound nearly as exciting).

In the meantime, I got a new order of handmade wooden buttons, from Etsy seller Hendywood, and they are really lovely, made from a variety of woods:

I'd been meaning to make more journals with wooden buttons on the covers, as people seem to like them, but the person I used to get my buttons from from stopped selling them. Now that I have a new stash, I made a new "button journal" today to put in my Etsy shop. The button you see here was made from a cherry burl, and is a nice match, I think, for the leather:

Exhibition of Artists' Sketchbooks

2009-04-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

The Fogg Museum at Harvard University has an interesting online exhibition, "Under Cover : Artists' Sketchbooks". On their website, they note that "Artists have used sketchbooks for centuries, entrusting travel sketches, figure studies, compositional ideas, and notes of every kind to their pages. Designed to be easily portable, sketchbooks are often kept in a pocket, and offer an unusually personal glimpse of the artist at work."

The Fogg Museum has a collection of 150 sketchbooks, and the online exhibition features 10 of them, including sketchbooks owned by John Singer Sargent, Jacques-Louis Divid, and Edward Burne-Jones.

You can see the online exhibition here:

http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/sketchbooks/

Egg Pop

2009-04-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

One of my books has just been featured in another online publication, PopMatters, an international popular culture blog. This time, it's my edible book, made from eggs, fruit leather, and coffee beans, called "Breakfast of Champions." I was really pleased that they wanted to use a photo of my book to accompany this article on the International Edible Book Festival. Those eggs are really going places -- kind of an egg and fruit leather road show! :)

Taking good photos of your work

2009-04-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

Myhandboundregistry recently featured a couple of photos of my books in an article on how to effectively crop photos of your work. I was really pleased, as I've worked hard over the last two years to improve my book photos, and apparently it actually paid off! :D

Etsy seller Doodlage, who wrote the article, is a graphic designer, and the article has some great tips on making your photos stand out. If you're looking for some photo help, the article is called "Who Made the Cut? Photo Cropping Tips From a Graphic Designer" and you can find it here.

To give you an idea of how my photos have evolved, below is one of the first photos I took of my books, and after that, a recent book photo.

As you can see, the this early one had it all: dark, harsh lighting, fuzzy, bad angle, bad cropping. Yikes!

This is a recent one. Still plenty of room for improvement, but getting better (I hope!). I used natural light, a more neutral background, and cropped the photo so you can see the details:

Here are links to a few more articles on taking good photos of your work. Some of them are for Etsy sellers, but the principles apply to any kind of smaller item photography:

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Inexpensive-Photography-Lightbox

http://www.boo.myzen.co.uk/artisan.html

http://www.etsywiki.com/index.php?title=Photographing_items#Photographing_small_items

And here are a couple of links to free photo editing software:

http://www.picnik.com/

http://picasa.google.com/

Incredible, Edible Egg Book

2009-03-31T10:29:00.000-07:00

April 1 has become known not only as April Fools Day, but also as the day various groups worldwide have been hosting edible book festivals. I belong to BEST (Bookbinding Etsy Street Team), and this year we're having an online Edible Book Festival. Anyone can participate (children, as well as adults)--here are the rules:

1. All entries must be completely edible. They can be in the shape of a book, or "booklike" in some way, or inspired by a book title.

2. Upload photos of your creation to our BEST Edible Book Flickr group before midnight EDT on April 1st.

There will be awards! For more information, and photos of some edible books, check out the BEST blog.

Here is my entry, "Breakfast of Champions" :

I've made many, many books, but this was my first edible one.

-Cover: egg whites

-Pages: egg yokes

-Title: coffee beans

-spine: fruit leather

Custom Travel Journal

2009-03-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

Life is good these days, as the sun is finally (!) shining, and the snow is melting, and I've been working on some interesting custom orders, including this little travel journal. The buyer (someone who lives here in my part of British Columbia), asked me to make this for her friend who is retiring, turning 60, going on a trip to Australia, and who likes to quilt and garden. So I thought a bit about how to combine all those things and came up with this little travel journal:

The plant illustration on the front represents gardening, and I added two antique map of Australia endpapers to represent her trip.

I used a coptic stitched binding to represent quilting stitches, and added a dedication on the first page (not pictured) wishing the friend a happy 60th birthday.

Just Spring...

2009-03-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

To celebrate World Poetry Day and the first day of spring, here's a poem I wrote a few years back:

Spring

Stuff feet in plastic Wonder Bread bags, slide them into boots, the leaky red rubber ones. Walk home from school on the everyday dirt road. Stop to visit with a dog, the small,

ginger-coloured one whose tail was flattened by a passing truck. Tell him to speak, play dead. Feed him the meatloaf sandwich your mother packed for you this morning.

Splash through mud puddles, especially the clear ones, mixing water and muck like egg white and brown flour. Beat well with boots and move on, feet in Wonder bags slipping

like eels as water seeps in through cracks in boot heels. At the bottom of the big hill below your house, abandon puddles, jump into the shallow ditch alongside the road. Pick

up a willow branch in case there’s something to poke. Stomp uphill through ropy water rushing over dead grass, slackening into small pools. Stop to examine slimy frog’s-egg

bubbles. Try to step on some, feel bad, keep moving. Milky-green algae, air bubbles clinging to thin brown stems, buttercups blooming on the banks, tadpoles

black exclamation marks everywhere, bits of red bark and twigs rushing by. Where the ditch narrows, balance, one boot in front of the other, meltwater trickling, mud sucking.

Jump up and down, liquid breaking in through rips in your bread bags, feet slip-squishing, water rising, your toes like tiny salmon swimming toward home.

Easy on the Eyes Shakespeare

2009-03-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

According to the Guardian, a portrait that has been mouldering away in a great house lo these many years has been determined to be an actual painting of Shakespeare done during his lifetime.

I don't know if the man in the portrait really is Shakespeare, but that doesn't matter--he LOOKS like Shakespeare should look. Dashing, but very intelligent. Nicely starched collar. More hair than one would imagine. In other words, very much a thinking woman's bit of crumpet. :)

Here he is. What do you think?

Celebrating Women: Jane Austen

2009-03-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

In my previous post, I said that I'm celebrating International Women's Day by posting journals with quotes by women writers in my Etsy shop. Jane Austen is one of my favourite writers, so I couldn't celebrate women writers without including her. Here is the quote:

"I begin already to weigh my words & sentences more than I did, & am looking about for a sentiment, an illustration, or a metaphor in every corner of the room."
~Jane Austen

If you'd like to learn more about Jane Austen, you might want to check out Park Honan's book Jane Austen: Her Life. It's a very interesting read.

International Women's Day

2009-03-08T15:14:00.000-07:00

Today is International Women's Day, which, according to the IWD website, " is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future." To celebrate IWD, this week I'm making journals for my Etsy shop with quotes by women writers only -- sorry, dead white male writers, you'll just have to wait your turn! :)

First up, a writer's journal/sketchbook, with a quote by Gloria Steinem. I'm still in vintage button mania mode, so I used a 1950s vintage button on the cover.

"Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else. "

~ Gloria Steinem

Books with Buttons

2009-03-05T19:24:00.000-08:00

Just finished a couple of new little journal/sketchbook/notebook thingies. I'm playing around with some of my vintage buttons, and here are the results:

The swirly button on this green journal dates from the late 1930s - early 1940s, according to my button supplier.

I also made another lipstick red journal with a button that I think is from the 1960s (that's a guess) :

Vintage Buttons

2009-02-26T11:22:00.000-08:00

This morning's post brought my order of lovely vintage buttons from Etsy friend (friend of the blog?) Vintage Necessities . I recently made this little red notebook/sketchbook with a vintage button on the cover, and was impatiently waiting for my order of buttons to arrive so I could make more.

These buttons date from the 1920s - 1950s, so many of them are art deco designs. Also, there are a few large, extremely glittery blue and gold buttons from the 1950s, which will make some very glam notebooks!

Here is a photo of some of them:

Leather Journal Giveaway

2009-02-19T16:47:00.000-08:00

I know Valentine's Day is over, but in the spirit of universal love and sharing :) I'm doing my first blog giveaway. I'm giving away one of my moon journals (pictured above and below). This one has a medieval replica binding (see this post for more information about the binding), and a quote from Walt Whitman about the everyday miracles all around us.

The quote is on the first page. The rest of the pages are blank, ready for you to fill them.

All you have to do to enter is to leave a comment with this post before the end of the day on Tuesday, Feb. 24th. I'll put all the names in a hat (or hat-like object), and one person's name will be picked. Then I'll announce the winner on my blog. Good luck!

UPDATE: I put all the names from the comments into a hat-like-object, and had my husband draw one out. And the winner is: Kitty!

Congratulations, Kitty!! And thanks to all of you who entered!

NowPublic Feature Photos

2009-02-17T11:52:00.000-08:00

Someone from NowPublic, an online participatory news network, contacted me yesterday to see if they could use some photos of my books for an article on how keeping a journal can help with stress. If you'd like to see the article, click here (to see my photos, you need to click on the little "see all footage" link at the bottom left side of the article).

The NowPublic article comments on a news article from the Guardian Online called "Keeping a diary makes you happier". According to the Guardian article, "Brain scans on volunteers showed that putting feelings down on paper reduces activity in a part of the brain called the amygdala, which is responsible for controlling the intensity of our emotions. Psychologists who discovered the "Bridget Jones effect" said it worked whether people elaborated on their feelings in a diary, penned lines of poetry, or even jotted down song lyrics to express their negative emotions."

The studies showed that men particularly benefit from journal writing. One of the scientists involved in the study speculated that it is because men are generally less likely to express their feelings in words. Interesting....

Adventures in Medieval Bookbinding, Part 4 : Tegumentum Cinereum

2009-02-12T14:23:00.000-08:00

For part four of my eight-part series, I decided to make Tegumentum Cinereum (which roughly translates to "ash-coloured", the colour of the original book in the city archives in Tallinn, Estonia).

[for those of you who just joined us, you can find an explanation of my book binding project, plus more of my books in this series here ]

Tegumentum Cinereum (hereafter known as T.C.) has an envelope style front flap, two thin wrap-around straps, and a decorative buttonhole stitch on the spine. The original was created in 1539, and had a parchment cover.

I decided to do my version with a leather cover. Here is a photo of the unstitched cover, next to Monica Langwe Berg's book Bookbinding: Limp Bindings From Tallinn ( my inspiration for doing these bindings).

For the decorative stitching on the spine, I once again dusted off some cobwebby memories of doing embroidery when I was a child. The book spine has long and short stitches, and a buttonhole stitch that goes straight across the middle. Here is my practice buttonhole stitch on a card:

I was aiming at a chunky-looking buttonhole stitch, rather than a finely stitched one. The practice stitching turned out nicely, and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, that is until I started doing the same stitch on a book spine. It wasn't as easy as doing it on a flexible leather cover as on nice, flat card. Still, I persevered, and in the end, it came out well, I think. Here is the finished T.C.:

And a front view of same:

Next time: Tegumentum Candidum!

Impractical Workers of the World, Unite!

2009-02-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

Recently found out about a new organization called Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts (ILSSA).

According to their website:

"Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts is a new organization for those who make experimental or conceptual work with obsolete technology....Impractical Labor is a protest against contemporary industrial practices and values. Instead it favors independent workshop production by antiquated means and in relatively limited quantities.

Economy of scale goes out the window, as does the myth that time must equal money. Impractical Labor seeks to restore the relationship between a maker and her tools; a maker and her time; a maker and what she makes. The process is the end, not the product. Impractical Labor is idealized labor: the labor of love."

Their motto is "AS MANY HOURS AS IT TAKES".

Finally, an organization that celebrates those of us who toil away in our dusty little garrets, poking and daubing and putting things together verrrrrry slowwwwwly! Of course I had to join up.

If you suspect that you, too, are an impractical labourer, and want to know more, here is a link to their website:

http://www.impractical-labor.org/

What's old is new

2009-02-07T11:27:00.000-08:00

I've been creating some replicas of medieval bindings lately, and one thing that struck me about them is how old, and yet somehow "modern" many of them are in design, with their simple, clean lines.

So I've been playing around with using other elements for the covers, including more dramatic colours, and vintage buttons from the 1940s - 1970s. I really like the mix of medieval and and modern elements--kind of a very short history of design, all in one book cover :)

Here, for example, is a little red notebook I just finished. It has a green button from my button stash that I'm guessing is 1960s vintage.

Adventures in Medieval Bookbinding, Part 3: Tegumentum Spadix

2009-02-05T14:40:00.000-08:00

The next book I decided to make, following the instructions in Monica Langwe Berg's book Bookbinding: Limp Bindings from Tallinn, is called Tegumentum Spadix (which roughly translates to "chestnut-coloured book cover" which was the colour of the original book).

[for earlier posts in this series, click here ]

The original Tegumentum Spadix dates from 1364. It looks similar to the book I made in my previous post, Tegumentum Rubrum, but has only one layer of leather, and has a hook and eye closure. I didn't know hook and eye closures were around in the 1300s, so I learned something new!

Here's a photo of my version of Tegumentum Spadix:

Think I must be longing for spring to come, as I've been craving bright colours, like this luscious purple that I used for the spine supports. I have various bits of goatskin in bright colours, so I may have to make more of these. In fact, I got so ambitious I made a second Tegumentum Spadix-style journal/sketchbook, this one using the natural edge of the hide, instead of an envelope-style edge:

Adventures in Medieval Bookbinding, Part 2 : Tegumentum Rubrum

2009-01-29T14:25:00.000-08:00

The second medieval leather binding in Monica Monica Langwe Berg's book, Bookbinding: :Limp Bindings from Tallin is called "Tegumentum Rubrum" (for those of you who just dropped by, see my earlier posts here and here for more information about this book and my binding project).

I did a quick search in an online Latin dictionary, and "tegumentum" means "book cover." "Rubrum" means red, and names of all of the bindings in Monica's book refer to the colours of the original book covers.

The original Tegumentum Rubrum, according to Monica, is a German law book from 1282 (all of the bindings covered in her book are in an archive in Tallinn, Eastonia). The cover was made of two pieces of leather stitched together, with a toggle closure made from a rolled-up piece of leather.

Here I am about half-way through making my version of Tegumentum Rubrum:

I chose to use two pieces of thin brown deerskin for the cover. The original binding had two rows of very fine, elegant stitching around the edges, but I did one row instead, and used thicker thread--I wanted a more rustic, handstitched, lets-get-out-and-hew-some-timber look.

In the photo above, my cover is "pointing" toward a picture of the original Tegumentum Rubrum. To the left of my cover is a stack of paper ready to be sewn in, and to the right is the toggle, half done and waiting to be attacked with my handy chisel.

And now, as I neglected to take more photos, I will skip right over a few stages, and show you my finished book:

You will notice on the spine that there are exterior supports for the stitching (the dark-coloured squares). For the supports on this book, I used pieces of a really lovely dark maple leather. I am quite excited about the look of these exterior support thingies, and will definitely be making more books with them.

This is how it looks when open. I used hemp twine for the loop closure. I will keep this Tegumentum Rubrum for myself, as it has a few little flaws, but will make another one soon to put in my Etsy shop.

Stay tuned for my next thrilling adventure in medieval bookbinding--Tegumentum Spadix! :)

A Peak At My Studio

2009-01-25T12:31:00.000-08:00

Jennifer, at Gypsymarestudios recently posted some photos of her studio, and asked other artists to do it, too. I love seeing photos of other people's studios, so I thought I'd join in. Here are shots of my bookbinding studio:

I'm starting work on the second of the limp leather bindings that I talked about in my previous post, so I have some possible leathers spread out on my worktable right now. Decisions, decisions....

This is another work table where I punch holes in the leather covers so I can stitch the pages to the cover. There are some finished covers, plus my handy hammer and awl. Lots of hammering goes on here. Probably drives the neighbours crazy when I have the windows open in the summer.

This is what I see outside while I'm hammering. Notice the frost outside along the bottom of the window. Brrrrrrr!!!

My bulletin board. I never take anything off--just keep pinning on new layers.

My supervisor, Gretta.

An excellent old card file where I keep spools of bookbinding thread.

And finally, another work table with some of the books what I made :)

Adventures in Medieval Bookbinding, Part 1: Tegumentum Subflavum

2009-01-22T13:42:00.000-08:00

In a previous post, I told you about my exciting new book purchase--one on medieval Estonian bindings, written by Monica Langwe Berg. In her book, Monica recreates eight of these bindings (the originals are in an archive in the city of Tallinn, Estonia) with the idea of inspiring other bookbinders to create their own versions of these lovely old bindings.

I 've spent the last couple of days working out how I wanted to do the first binding (which Monica calls "Tegumentum subflavum"--any Latin speakers out there?). According to Monica, this binding dates from 1531, and was originally owned by Jesper Kappenberg. It was a "table of accounts for consumption taxes." Not a very exciting purpose! I thought it would be much nicer as a place to record thoughts and drawings. Here is a little bit about my process in making my own variation of Tegumentum subflavum:

First, I got the all-important cup of tea (in my favourite mug) and some tunes sorted out:

The cover is made from two pieces of leather sewn together lengthwise. I chose to use black and brown cowhide. I picked out a few possible thread colours (I use waxed Irish linen thread to sew my books). The red thread won out.

I made a paper pattern for cutting the pieces and marking stitching holes. I usually use a paper pattern when I'm working out a new design, since I always end up changing things. After I have a final design, I make a permanent pattern from matboard.

Next, using Monica's instructions, I set forth:

I used a backstitch to sew the pieces of leather together. It's funny that two things I thought were fun but not especially practical when I first learned to do them--typing and hand embroidery--have turned out to be very, very useful after all.

Then I sewed the pages to the cover (oop, forgot to take a photo of that part :)

This is a card showing the stitch that I used on the spine (it's the one at the top of the card). The first time I try out a stitch, I often work it out first on a card. Saves having to take the book apart over and over, because if I don't practice that stitch before assembling the book, mistakes most surely will be made. I got this tip from Abi over at EvilRooster.

Finally, I added a tie closure made with twined red thread. I learned to do this kind of twining last fall in a class I took from Dan Essig.

And at last here he is, Mr. Tegumentum subflavum:

More Moon Journals

2009-01-20T11:46:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of new moon journals I recently finished and posted in my Etsy shop. The first one is a grey suede journal with red stitching, and has a quote by Willa Cather:

"The sky was a midnight-blue, like warm, deep, blue water, and the moon seemed to lie on it like a water-lily, floating forward with an invisible current."

The second one (seen below) has a quote by Walt Whitman:

Lo! the moon ascending!
Up from the East,
the silvery round moon;
Beautiful over the house-tops,
ghastly, phantom moon;
Immense and silent moon.

The Willa Cather one has already sold, so it looks like I'm not the only Cather fan! It's been so much fun seeking out these quotes--a good excuse to revisit some favourite authors. And it's interesting to see all the different ways the moon is viewed, as representing romance, otherworldliness, insanity, beauty, and on and on.

Book Tag

2009-01-16T15:05:00.000-08:00

It's time for a confession. Dear Dana, over at A Cat In My Lap, tagged me clear back in November, and I'm embarrassed to say that only now am I getting my scattered thoughts together to complete the book tag.

The rules are:

Link to the the tagger, list 7 random book facts about yourself, and tag 7 more friends...so here we go:

1. I am a book junkie. I have a stash of unread books tucked away so there's always a new book to read once I've finished the current one, and I get a bit nervous if the stash starts getting too small.

2. Sometimes I turn the corners down on pages to mark my place (but only in cheap paperbacks). Some book lovers would consider that an evil act, but sadly, there it is.

3. I hand-built 326 books in 2008. I'm not sure whether to be happy or a little freaked out by that fact.

4. When I'm making books, I like to listen to music. Sometimes I dance around a bit.

5. One of my earliest memories is of seeing my mother sitting in her armchair in the living room, smoking and reading novels.

6. I grew up in a fairly remote part of Idaho (in the U.S.), and went to school in a one-room schoolhouse. All of the library books fit into one bookcase. I used to start at the "A" titles, read my way through to the "Z" titles, and then start over again.

7. When I was studying literature at university, I lived in a tiny little apartment with a cat who would lay on top of my books and purr loudly. I knew exactly how he felt.

Now, on to the tagging. I'm only tagging five people, but that's a goodly number, I think. Here they are:

Judith HeartSong, that wonderful artist who, of course, loves art books;

Rhonda at Myhandboundbooks, a fellow bookbinder who trained to be a librarian;

East of the Sun, who inspires with her art and photos of Cornwall;

Kiley, another bookbinder who keeps the tradition alive;

PG, of Middleofnowhere, who often includes the most wonderful book quotes in her blog posts

And now for something completely different...

2009-01-13T11:57:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to a fun digital book by bubbly numbers: http://www.book-of-numbers.com/

Be sure to watch each page for a little bit (and turn on your speakers, as there is music). Sometimes a surprise will appear....

Update: as I had no graphic to go with the digital book, here instead is a completely gratuitous shot of my dog, Gretta, who wandered into the kitchen the other day with a piece of a Post-It note stuck to her bum. Definitely not a high-tech dog:

New Leather

2009-01-08T17:39:00.000-08:00

In a previous post, I told you about the fab leather stash I bought from a retiring bookbinder. Alas, that leather is dwindling away, so it was time to find a regular supplier for my leather bookbinding needs.

It wasn't easy--I sampled some Ebay leather suppliers, but the quality wasn't consistant. Some of it was great, some I wound up not using because it was kinda crappy. Finally, I found a supplier that has proper leather--the kind that has that great leather smell (I grew up on a ranch, so the smell of good leather always evokes saddles, and horses--I was totally in love with horses, not in a scary Equus way, but in a horse-crazy girl kind of way....but I digress....), and feels strong, but soft, and has really nice texture. Here is a photo of my latest order-- black, golden brown, and walnut brown :

New Bonefolder

2009-01-05T12:51:00.000-08:00

A new issue of The Bonefolder (an online bookbinding and book arts journal) came out recently.

In it was an article by Monica Langwe Berg on medieval Eastonian limp leather bindings. I immediately ordered Monica's book on these bindings, and it's sooo lovely! Monica recreated eight bindings that are in an archive in Tallinn, Eastonia, and her idea for the book was to give enough instructions that someone could be inspired to create their own variations of the bindings. So, over the next few weeks, I'll be posting my versions of some of the Tallinn bindings. This kind of project gets bookbinding geeks like me all in a lather--can't wait to get started! :)

New Year, New Goals

2008-12-30T19:53:00.000-08:00

As the new year approaches, I've been thinking about what goals I want to set for my work in the coming year (I'm going to avoid the depressing subject of personal goals, that ever-receding horizon filled with good intentions :) .

At the end of each year I like to take an afternoon and go out for a cup of coffee and just sit and think a bit about what I'd like to do in the coming year. I take my notebook and make notes and drawings, not always with the intent of accomplishing specific goals, but to spend some time daydreaming and thinking about possibilities.

Two things I'm already thinking about--

Leather. I really like making those leather journal/sketchbooks that I do for my Etsy store, so this year I'm going to have fun making more moon journals, and I just got a new book on medieval leather bindings, so I'm looking forward to working on a few new medieval-style designs.

Wood. One thing I really want to do this year is to set aside some time to make experimental books, just to explore the possibilities for book making. I'm intrigued by the idea of making books that don't have conventional texts, where instead the book itself is the text. I recently bought a couple of nice pieces of mahogany, a book on how to stitch Coptic headbands, and a severely falling-apart early nineteenth-century book of Jesuit writings in Latin. Somehow, I want to combine those things. We'll see what happens.

To all of the wonderful new friends I've met through this blog, I wish you a very happy New Year! Do you have any daydreams for the coming year?

Writers' Rooms

2008-12-13T16:11:00.000-08:00

The Guardian Online has an ongoing series called Writers' Rooms. A simple concept, but interesting--a photo of the featured writer's workspace, plus a short essay by the writer about the room. They've featured contemporary writers, such as Martin Amis and Ian Rankin, and writers who have not used their workspaces in quite a long time, such as Charles Darwin and Jane Austen.

This is writer Marina Warner's space. The untidiness of her workspace looks all to familiar to me, I'm afraid. Although I like to think of it as organized chaos.

One thing that struck me about the rooms featured was how many of them have white walls. Don't know whether the writers find white to be less distracting, or whether they just can't be bothered to think about paint colors....

If you have 100,000 euros to spare.....

2008-12-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

.....(and who doesn't?) you might want to pick up a copy of this book of photos of Michelangelos' art, called “Michelangelo: La Dotta Mano” (“Michelangelo: The Wise Hand”). It's a 46 lb. (20.8 kg.) limited edition handbound book that comes in it's own special storage case. The cover is a hand-sculpted reproduction in marble of the Michelangelo's “Madonna della Scala” (“Madonna of the Steps”). It's enough to made a book lover's heart melt....

If you'd like to daydream further about owning a copy, there is a short video about this book here: http://www.fmronline.it/,

Emily Dickinson leather journal

2008-12-05T17:59:00.001-08:00

Here is another of my "moon" journals (see my previous post for more

Emily Dickinson leather journal

2008-12-05T17:59:00.000-08:00

Here is another of my "moon" journals that I've been making for my Etsy shop (see my previous post for more about these). This one has a quote by Emily Dickinson:

"The moon upon her fluent route defiant of a road --"

Here's what it looks like:

I used turquoise moroccan goatskin for the cover. The reverse side of the leather has a lovely mottled look. I had decided to use a 19th century Japanese print of the moon to go along with the quote, and when I was rummaging around in my leather collection, I realized that the colors of this leather matched the print. I was unreasonably excited to discover this :) To me, the colours of the leather, together with the print and quote, create a sort of otherworldly effect that I think Emily would approve of...

New Handbound Leather Journals

2008-12-04T16:04:00.000-08:00

Got a few new journals finished and posted in my Etsy shop. I've been working on some leather journals with quotes about the moon--only seemed natural, since my business name is Moon Bindery! :) Here are photos of a couple of them:

The first one has a quote by Oscar Wilde:

"Beauty is a form of genius - is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon."

And here is a black elkskin journal with a quote by Albert Einstein:

"I like to think that the moon is there, even if I am not looking at it."

Had a lot of fun designing these. In non-moon news, here is a commemorative leather journal with a quote by Barack Obama:

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. "

Busy, busy, busy

2008-11-29T17:01:00.000-08:00

Did two craft shows recently--the one I just got back from was my first big show (Art Market in Calgary, Alberta). It lasted four days, and went really well (yay!).

It was a real challenge setting up my booth, as the curtains were black and the organizers turned the overhead lights down--apparently that's supposed to create a cozy atmosphere, but mostly I saw a lot of craftspeople (including myself) wobbling around on step stools, struggling to clamp an assortment of lights onto the flimsy pipe and drape walls of their booths (while trying not to go end over teakettle into their neighbour's booth!), all to keep customers from feeling like they were being invited into a bear's cave!

Here is how my booth turned out--in spite of my determined clamping of lights, it still was dark, but on the plus side, it made the colors of my books stand out:

One of the challenges of doing craft shows is that you never know exactly what conditions you will be working in (in terms of lighting, space, temperature, etc.). There are invariably surprises. One of the first Christmas craft shows I ever did was, as it turned out, set up in a hockey rink, with only a thin layer of plywood put down to cover the ice. I almost froze to death--ah, the glamorous life of the artisan! :)

Italian Addiction

2008-11-10T19:19:00.000-08:00

I must confess, I'm a bit addicted to Italian bookbinding papers--so elegantly beautiful. Problem is, I buy them, but then I tend to just want to keep them :) . I've finally started to dip into my stash (although there are still a few I got in Venice a while back that I can't quite bring myself to use yet). Here are a couple of perpetual diaries I made using a combination of Italian papers and Italian bookcloth:

And here is a wine journal made with some brown and gold Italian paper:

Big handbound journal

2008-11-07T11:28:00.000-08:00

I've been getting some requests for larger leather journals. I have some really nice, soft, thick Napa leather on hand, so I came up with this:

It's 15.24 cm x 22.86 cm (6" x 9"), with 240 pages of sketch paper. Plenty of room for big ideas :)

New Designs

2008-11-05T17:15:00.000-08:00

As I have mentioned before, I've been busy coming up with some new book designs. Here is one of them, a happy orange book with a yellow spine:

I've been wanting to create a book that has the medieval binding stitch on the spine that I love and use for my leather books, but expands the possibilites for this kind of binding.

I decided to make a book that was non-leather (for my vegetarian and vegan friends out there :) and that had at least partially recycled materials. I'm really happy with how these books turned out. They still have sketch paper for the pages, and the covers are made of a really thick, sturdy handmade paper that is made from recycled cotton cloth.

I handbraided the wrap-around strap. Haven't done this much braiding since I was a kid--I used to spend hours in the barn on my father's ranch, braiding twine for jump ropes, bridles, etc.

The inside covers of these books have turn-ins, and endpapers made from handmade paper. Part of my inspiration for these books came from looking at photos of books with similar designs made in Estonia in the 1500s.

Here is a photo of the inside of the orange book:

I have some other colors in my Etsy store, and will be adding more in the days ahead.

Eccentric Library

2008-10-24T10:46:00.000-07:00

For all of you who dream of being able to buy all the beautiful books you ever wanted, Wired recently featured a private library of a guy named Jay Walker who made his money in technology, then started collecting rare and beautiful books.

Here, you can leaf through a Kelmscott Press edition of Chaucer's works, reading by the light of a chandelier formerly used in a James Bond film, or browse the stacks as a Sputnik satellite and other shiny items dangle overhead. Would LOVE to see this place....

Daniel Essig Workshop

2008-10-12T20:14:00.000-07:00

Just got back from doing a most excellent workshop in Portland. The workshop was part of the Art & Soul Retreat, a week-long craft extravaganza. My teacher was Daniel Essig, and he did a great job of teaching us how to make a variety of book closures, including buttons, pegs and toggles.

The Alcuin Society

2008-09-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to give a little shout out (in the parlance of our times) to the Alcuin Society. Based in Vancouver, BC, this society, according to their website, is for people who "care about the past, present and future of fine books."

I joined the Alcuin Society last year, and they sent me beautifully printed materials about the society, which has a really interesting history, and about book arts in general. I always look forward to the journal, Amphora, because each issue comes with an original letterpress print (which is worth the price of subscribing by itself). I have one of the letterpress prints hanging in my dining room, and here is a photo of another that arrived recently (it looks crooked in the photo, but isn't in real life):

This print has a picture of a book, surrounded by illustrations of all the things that are bad news for books (rain, bugs, floods, and fire), and the words "tuere me" (take care of me). I will be hanging this one in my bookbinding studio.

This print was designed and created by Gary Sim of Entropy Press. You can find more of his artwork on his website http://www.sim-publishing.com/.

Medieval Help Desk

2008-09-19T10:41:00.000-07:00

I recently saw a comedy skit, first shown on Norwegian television, that really made me laugh. It's set in the days when the book, not the computer, was the new technology.

You can find the video here on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

Pictorial Bookbindings

2008-09-03T22:11:00.000-07:00

Oh, dear, my blog has been sadly neglected lately. I have been spending the last few weeks working out new designs for journals, and also for some artist books I have in mind to make. Now I just have to find the time to make it all.... I have a couple of Christmas craft shows looming on the horizon, so the journals and other things I sell at shows will take priority right now.

I've also been reading more books on bookbinding. The one I'm reading right now is Pictorial Bookbindings, by Mirjam Foot. It's an interesting little book. It briefly covers a variety of bindings that have (as you might guess) pictures on the covers. Has lots of photos of different bindings, which is good, and illustrations of a variety of ways bookbinders have decorated bindings--pen and ink drawings, paintings, leather inlays, carved ivory, and hammered metal, to name a few. One of my favourite sections is on embroidered bindings--here you can see an example on the front cover of an embroidered book cover created in 1633:

The spine is even embroidered with flowers and bees, and the book had its own storage bag, which was also lavishly embroidered. Wish I had time to make such wonderfully intricate covers, but not in this lifetime, alas... however, I am working on a design for an artist's book that involves embroidery, although not in quite the same way. But more on that later...

Beautiful Books

2008-08-20T11:36:00.000-07:00

Went on a quick trip to the coast this past weekend, and in Bellingham, Washington (one of my very favorite cities) at Village Books (one of my very favorite independent bookstores) I picked up a copy of 500 Handmade Books, published by Lark Books.

Loads of inspiration here--I spent a happy evening just drinking tea and leafing through the pages, looking at all the beautiful work by other bookmakers.

Award Season

2008-08-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

What riches! Dana, over at Calico Cat Press has awarded me the Arte Y Pico award. Since I recently recieved this award from Judith Heartsong, I won't pass it along again, but many thanks, Dana! This award is much appreciated.

Love Those Rigid German Spines

2008-08-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

Well, the bookbinding workshop I attended in Seattle was just fabulous! Elsi, the instructor, was really great, and so very knowledgeable.

Wish I had taken a photo of the class, but I was too working out stitch patterns!

We focused on making northern European medieval-style bindings, which have more rigid supports on the spine area than the medieval Italian-style bindings I have been making. Elsi gave us about ten patterns to choose from for the decorative stitching on the spine. I made this book in class, which is based on a 14th century German account binding:

I used a heavyweight paper for the cover, and made the spine more rigid by adding a piece of thin wood. Traditionally, bookbinders would use leather, wood, or horn for the rigid spine supports. To get the spine design to work out, you have to sew the signitures (groups of pages) to the spine in the proper order, or else you end up with quite a mess.

After I got home, I made a second book, shown here:

A while back I picked up some gorgeous heavyweight Canal paper (made right here in Canada, in Montreal, Quebec). I didn't know what I would use it for at the time, but couldn't resist it. Turned out to be just the thing for this style of book. This time, for the spine I used the same basic stitch, but instead of tying together groups of stitches, I wove groups of stitches together.

Here is another view:

Just to compare, here is a photo of some actual medieval books:

Not the best photo, but if you look carefully at the book on the left, you can see where the stitches have been woven together. It actually took a fearfully long time to do all that weaving, so I think I'll keep my woven book to use for demonstrations (sometimes I get asked to do a little bookbinding "show & tell" for various groups/classes). I am, however, beavering away on my own particular variation of these books, which will appear soon in my Etsy store.

Off to a Workshop

2008-07-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

Hurray, hurray, later this week I'm off to attend my first-ever bookbinding workshop! It's at the Seattle Center for Book Arts, and the instructor is Elsi Vassdal Ellis.

The workshop will cover German long and link stitch limp covers (limp covers are the soft, wrap-around leather covers, like the journal from my Etsy shop pictured here:

As Elsi says in the workshop description: "There are two distinct styles of limp structures: the Italian with a more relaxed approach to the stitching and the northern with structured designs employing more rigid supports." I got my ideas for making soft-cover leather journals when I was in Venice, Italy, a few years ago, so my journals are mostly in the "relaxed Italian" style. I'm looking forward to making more northern-style bindings in this workshop.

Also, I have to say, I'm very excited at the prospect of having other bookbinders to talk to! I've actually been quite happy working out how to make books on my own, but sometimes it does feel a bit isolated out here in the wilds of the British Columbia interior. Very beautiful here, but not a lot going on bookbinding-wise.

Arte y Pico Award

2008-07-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

So there I was, having a rather lumpish day, when I got word from JudithHeartSong that she was giving me the Arte y Pico award--thanks, Judith!

The rules for this award are:

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributing to the blogger community, no matter what language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award-winner, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4) Award-winners and the one who has given the prize should to show the link to the "Arte y pico"blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) To show these rules.

There are so many lovely, creative blogs out there--how can you even choose? Here are five blogs that inspire me:

Milkmoon: creative in her art and in her life (she also has a blog about "an adventure in childhood", called Dandelion Songs

Sweetwater Designs: The most beautiful handmade beads

Little Paper Bird: A fellow book arts addict :)

Barnacle Goose Paperworks: beautiful paper creations, plus great posts about her life "down under"

Rima: her blog is a work of art in itself, plus all that lovely artwork she makes

There are many other blogs that I love to read, but didn't include because they already have the Arte y Pico award (not surprisingly!): Acornmoon, Middle of Nowhere, Waterrose, Calico Cat Press, and on and on...

Nice, fat journals!

2008-07-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

Some of my customers have been asking me to make leather journals with lots of pages, so I did! Here are a couple that I just added to my Etsy store. This one has 320 pages of 50 lb writing/sketch paper:

And this one, with a grey suede cover, has 336 pages of 50 lb writing/sketch paper:

Enough, I think, for a good, solid year's worth of journaling, accounting, of course, for those few odd days when you don't get anything, including journaling, done at all....

Exhibition of Cuban Books & Prints

2008-07-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

A while back I did a couple of posts on handprinted books I picked up on a trip to Cuba. (You can see the posts here and here.)

Recently the Gallery at Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence, Massachusetts, did an exhibition of Cuban books and Prints. If you'd like to see more, check out this link for some photos from the exhibition. Wonderful stuff, especially when you consider the conditions in which the artists are doing their work (well, they do have rum and cigars, which maybe is all you need to get inspired :)

http://redtrilliumpress.com/cuban_print_exhibition