I’ve been back in Mass for a couple of days now and this is the first chance I’ve gotten to write on the studio blog. I had a 5 day stretch of time in my home state of Maine that was simply for relaxing. I didn’t do much of anything but enjoy the cool breezy weather. Okay so for at least one day it was hot as heck and humid, but for the most part- cool and breezy. I loved it.

I’m back and getting back intothe swing of both the DayJob and bookbinding. Binding is much easier to get back into the swing of becasue it’s never really far from my mind. When I was in Maine I was inspired by some random objects. I also spent some time thinkning about the time when I used to live there. I spent a lot fo time making books, working on everything from Keith Smith’s books and devloping my own bindings. I brought back a stack of sample bindings that I bound when i lived there, while they sustained some damage from being in a box, which someone had tossed some pretty heavy things ontop of, they are for the most part intact. I also have some samples of my first coptic sewings. It’s pretty funny to look at them and critique them. some are pretty crude, but some it’s more interesting to see my notes. As I worked my way through Keith Smith’s books, I took notes on everything about the small 4.25X5.5 inch books I was making. I made them out of everything- old notebook paper and magazine pages. Covers ranged from the stiff pages in magazines, to hand decorated papers and spines covered in packing tape. As I started to scan in and take pictures of my spine, I started to think more of how I could make those delicate threads stand out on the spine and made spines accordingly.

I found my “bookbinding” journal. A paper covered journal about 300 pages thick filled with notes, ideas and sketches. I think it will be an invaluable read as I move on in my binding efforts.

Later today and early tomorrow you’ll find that I’m loading things back up on eBay. I had intended to load a group of things up before I went on vacation but things got a little hectic!