Happy New Year!

Christmas Revelry

The snow had been gently falling outside my little bookbinding studio, and on wintery-white days like this, one of my favorite things to do is to curl up next to the fire with a hot buttered rum and Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  This year is the 170th birthday of that fine work (first published on the 19th of December, 1843). Here are the opening pages of the first edition (click on the picture to see a larger version):

The charming illustration, by John Leech, is of the ball that Mr. Fezziwig gave for his employees, including young Scrooge. Here is a close-up:

At holiday festivities in those days, a variety of fortifying beverages might be served, including something called Purl (beer heated up, then mixed with gin, ginger an sugar). Which might account for the liveliness of Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig's country dancing.

At the end of A Christmas Carol, a newly reformed and convivial Scrooge invites Bob Cratchit to join him in making merry with a glass of "Smoking Bishop", an exciting-looking punch made with port, red wine, oranges, cinnamon cloves, and other spices. It's then heated or "mulled" before serving.

“A merry Christmas, Bob!” said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. “A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you, for many a year! I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a

 Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob!"

Happy Holidays!

Moons and Moons

Around the time of the recent full moon, I got busy making some journals that have a moon theme. I named my shop Moon and Hare partly in honor of my great-grandfather, Quintilious V. Moon, who was a most excellent journal-keeper, and I like to have some moon themed journals in my shop as a nod to him. And also, just generally because I love looking at the moon, especially on full-moon nights.

This one is a reproduction of a 19th-century etching of a "man in the moon", surrounded by a verdigris filigree metal charm. I've always loved this etching, it has such a benevolent gaze. Surely, that's how the man in the moon would gaze upon us, if he were really up there, no?

Paper Moon

(Sold)

My second man in the moon journal also has a face inside a verdigris metal charm.  This one made me smile a bit while I was making it.  The face in the moon is a 19th century photograph of a young man who, from what I could make out from the writing on the back of the photo, was a young missionary who had set out to conquer London. Oh, the doors that must have been slammed in this fellow's face, and yet, he had the gaze of someone who would not be easily deterred. You, my man, I thought, shall be a man in the moon! A man in the moon should be one not easily deterred -- after all, it must be awfully cold up there.

Man in the Moon

Dreamers, Part One and Two

Did some browsing around the local antique stores a few days ago, and came away with some excellent antique cabinet photographs, and some other, smaller ones as well.

  I made two new journals with the cabinet photographs, plus some bison leather for the spines. Back when I was living in British Columbia, Canada, I found out about a bookbinder who lived in a tiny town deep in the woods, tracked him down and got the bison leather from him. That's the second bookbinder I've discovered living out in the woods. What is is about bookbinders and primordial forests? 

Dreamer No. 1

Dreamer No. 2 (Sold)

Charlie Chaplin -- Table Ballet. From "The Gold Rush" (1925)

I can't dance that well with my actual feet. Sigh.

A Dickensian Moment

I've been very busy the last few weeks, sorting through my treasures and getting them ready to make into books. Ah, Gentle Readers, the hours and hours I have spent bent over a vintage leather glove or handbag, unpicking a million tiny stitches, feeling somewhat like a character from a Dickens novel: "Please, sir, I want some more" and so forth. But at last I have a nice pile of leather:

I've also finished making a travel journal out of a piece of  upcycled leather with wonderfully worn edges. This one is lined with a piece of a cozy Pendleton wool blanket. 

The Traveler (sold)

A Poem to Read Out Loud: The Red Wheelbarrow

The Red Wheelbarrow

BY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens