I’ve
been making these recycled covers for a long time, and with the
exception of the beeswax on the hemp cord, they are vegan. Yesterday I
decided to try and make them 100% vegan.

Beeswax
acts in a couple of ways when binding books, first it keeps your thread
or cord from tangling. Secondly, it helps the cord to pass through the
stations as you sew. Lastly when you tie a knot the beeswax helps it to
stick in place. I also notice that it improves my grip on the needle,
since the wax is slightly sticky at body temp.

Since
the hemp cord I use on these books doesn’t tangle I decided to omit the
wax altogether. Big mistake, the protection the wax gives the cord as
it passes through layers of paper keeps the hemp from fraying and
getting too fibrous and insightly.

I
have some paraffin leftover from canning. I decided to test that out.
Instead of melting to the cord as it passed through the wax, it was as
if the cord cut it, like a chain saw, leaving behind lots of tiny little
flecks of paraffin all over me and my workbench. What a mess. the
paraffin on the cord was also in these tiny little pieces. I used a
lighter and carefully heated the wax and melted it to the cord. It
worked really well. However at body temp it made my hands very slippery.
I had to use a pair of pliers to pull the needle and cord through the
paper.
My
next experiment was to melt a small puddle of paraffin onto a piece of
cardstock and pass the cord through the melted puddle of wax. I used my
fingers to press the wax into the cord a little bit and to pull off any
excess. This seemed to work the best of any of the methods.

I’ve
got a couple of unscented candles that are made out of other waxes and
don’t contain any beeswax, so I’m going to mess around with melting the
candles along with some paraffin to see if I can get a wax that works
better.

The covers freshly cut from signs.
These banners were all about 3 feet high and 8 feet long. One was only 1.5 feet high. They had brass grommets about every foot and a half which really screws up with my ability to use ALL the poster. I can either cut 3 inches from each edge or cut covers from between the grommets. I chose to cut between the grommets.Interior pockets, with ID tag sewn in. I use a jig to keep placement of the tag similar on each pocket. The tag is first temporaily glued in place then permenantly stitched in place. After stitching the extra thread is removed then seared with a lighter.
The pockets start as a 5.25×8.25 sheet of old cardstock poster. The poster has a top corner folded over. These pockets are then temporarily glued in place then stitched to the covers. I use a zig zag stitch for strength.
27 finished covers including 3 that are not perfect. I will hold off on stitching the seconds for awhile. These covers have some neat patterns created not only by hte images on the posters but the text that appeared on the posters.
I have a few more covers to stitch up before I even get to the task of adding paper to these covers.

Awhile ago I picked up some Staedtler watersoluble crayons. They work okay, but seem to resist melting as easily as other brands. For this page I started with some collage of personal ephemera. I then dusted the page with watercolor crayon shavings and added water. I smeared and moved the crayons around the page with my procaulk tools. After allowing the page to dry I sketched the olde-timey dude and used a stick eraser to remove some of the watercolor crayon to add areas of light in his face. After that I added the die-cut sheep and tissue paper.
In the Pukka tea sachet is a folded up note that was written to me. I added a small tab to allow the note to be removed and read with ease. The sheep, as usual, reflect sheep-like thinking on my part and the author of the note.
I received some neat parting gifts from my coworkers as I left my DayJob. The frog I sketched here was one of the gifts. It's a neato still life subject.

Recently I bought a sample of Pilot’s Iroshizuku Asa Gao ink. I’d read great
reviews of it online and figured I should try it. I’ve tried one of
their gray inks previously and loved it. This one well, read on…

All
of the Iroshizuku inks boast a smooth writing experience. They have
good flow coming out of the pen and lubricate the nib as it glides
across paper. Asa Gao performed well in this respect, it’s a very
enjoyable ink.

I’ve
got it in my Pilot Prera medium nib and my TWSBI 530 medium nib. Both
pens write flawlessly with this ink, on any paper I throw at it. From my
absorbent Canson XL pocket sketchbook to my Leuchtturm1917 dot grid to
my new found HP LaserJet 24lb paper it worked well, even impressively on
all papers. It resisted feathering on most papers but showed some bleed
through on some. Dry time was slower than average, but not by much.

All in all writing was a joy with this ink. 

My
problem with it is the color. It’s boring. It’s straight up blue. There
is nothing that makes this blue stand out from the crowd when compared
to other blue inks. It’s simply a nice blue ink.This is not the ink that will sell you on the Iroshizuku line.

To
me I can get other nice blue inks for a lot less then $28 a bottle. Do I
dare suggest that Parker Quink blue is also a nice blue ink but is a
mere $10 a bottle? It is also a nice blue color that has decent
lubrication, flows well and is kinda boring. Or what about Noodler's Blue? Less expensive, good lubrication, but it's Noodler's.

I
feel like a blasphemer for suggesting this but, if you are going to go
Iroshizuku check out one of their other colors for the wow factor Asa
Gao might have you falling asleep.

I
sat down with my art journal this evening and started to write while
watching some TV. (I love me some Amazon streaming.) I reacted to some
of the personal ephemera from my last days at the DayJob. I wrote and
wrote some more. then I looked at what I had been writing and what I’d
been reacting to and I asked myself the most important journaling
question ever:

Why am I reacting in this particular way to this particular item and moment?

I
looked hard at myself and realized that the answer was in my head. My
reaction was less about the other person as it was about me.

I control my reactions and actions.

While
it’s useful to explore the negative emotions and ideas that come along
with those reactions it’s also important to explore the reasons behind
those reactions and actions. The further exploration is the hard and
most useful part of journaling.

Is
the page pretty? Hell no. I’ll add a few more layers of collage and
stuff but honestly it isn’t a pretty page but it’s a useful page. There
is more meaning to the page than anyone else will ever see.

These pages are an example of some of the work I'm doing for my upcoming zine, "My Headlines and Stories."

I’ve
written before about how I occasionally get bored and draw from the
facebook pictures of my friends. A couple of weeks ago I realized we’re
not all 20-somethings anymore*, most of us are married or are on our second or
3rd marriages. We’ve all got some gray hair and a few wrinkles.

In some cases I bet we’d hardly recognize each other of we met up in person.

*We're all closer to 40 now than 20.

I’m
always looking for a printer paper that works well in my printer and
with fountain pens. The standard photocopy paper I can get feathers and
bleeds with fountain pens or liquid ink pens and is now about $6 a ream.
When did paper get so expensive? I decided to branch out and try out a
new paper. I’d heard great things about HP’s laserjet papers on the
fountain pen network, but the often recommended 32lb is simply too thick
for me to bind into journals with ease and runs about $19.99 for 500
sheets. Also my printer has trouble with the thicker paper. I took a
chance and picked up the HP LaserJet Paper that is 24lb and bright
white. It was $11.99 for 500 sheets at my local Staples. Regular printer
paper is about 1 cent a sheet. This is 2 cents a sheet. The HP 32lb
paper is 4 cents a sheet.

It
feels very smooth when I run my fingers over it’s surface. The paper is
a crisp bright white color. At $12 a package it’s about double the cost
of the lowest priced paper we usually use in our laser printer. The
printer prints really nicely on this paper. The lowest priced paper from
Staples tends to occasionally jam the machine when I print longer
documents. Occasionally an entire ream won’t run through the printer
well.

Testing out a few different pens I had no feathering or bleed through. I tested the following pen and ink combinations:

Pilot Prera M Iroshizuku Asa Gao

TSBI 530 M Iroshizuku Asa Gao

Rotring Esprit (non Retracting) EF Private Reserve Sonic Blue

Kaweco Sport M Noodler’s Eternal Brown

Zebra Sarasa 0.7 M Black

Noodler’s Ahab Flex Camlin Turquoise with a touch of my black junk ink blend

Not
one of these inks had any bleed through or feathering on this paper.
The pens didn’t quite skate across the paper. In my mind this paper has
just the right amount of tooth for writing. It wasn’t as smooth as a
Rhodia Webbie but it also wasn’t like writing on newsprint. It reminded
me of Staples sugarcane paper. Smooth but not too smooth. The paper was
dense enough that there was no show through, which means that both sides
of the page can be used and you can read both sides. This makes me
really happy. I plan on making some books with this as the filler.

Overall
this paper is a great choice for people looking for budget fountain pen
friendly paper that is not as heavy as the HP LaserJet 32lb paper. It
fold well so it’s great for bookbinding.This paper will save the
frustration of writing on paper that feathers and bleeds like crazy. To
me that’s worth the additional penny a sheet.

You can get this paper through amazon here: HP LaserJet Paper

Continue reading →

I
read a tweet from one of the many people I follow on twitter (I don't remember who) discussing
how people don’t comment on blogs anymore. One of the people responding
said it made blogging feel empty or alone. Another said why bother and
switched off the comments on her blog. So on and so forth, a bunch of
bloggers down on blogging. But why? Comments are certainly validating,
they feel good.

To
me comments are an added bonus. I know people read, my stats tell me
that. I know that many of my readers prefer to be anonymous, just out
here learning about art journaling, maybe they don’t feel safe yet.
Maybe commenting feels like too much. I used to do that, way back when. I
read a whole lot of blogs about stuff that was of interest to me. I
didn’t feel safe commenting. Until one day I did.

When
people comment on my blog it’s a little gift from the commentor to me, a
high five. I don’t expect it and I can’t always respond, but I always
adore a comment or two when I resonate with the reader.

You guys are awesome, when you feel like commenting I'll be here, writing, and enjoying your comments like early/late birthday presents.

When I get bored I draw from pictures my friend's load up to facebook. The first image is a friend's father-in-law (I think it wasn't labeled.) The second is another friend's daughter, who is super cute, does not have a pig nose and is a very normal kid. The final image is a friend who I inadvertantly made look like an angry dude, I swear she was super excited in the source picture.

I’ve
got 5 days left of the DayJob. All I can do is sit here and think, wow.
It’s mind blowing, well to me. After 10 years in a place there are all
sorts of comforts in knowing that everyone knows you when  you walk in,
the office is in the same place every day, and that for the most part
nothing changes.

I threw away that certainty. I know this summer will bring hardships and difficulty but I had to try it.

For
8 years I climbed toward the carrot. Then the carrot went rotten and I
didn’t want it anymore. After that I had to make my own carrot. School
became my carrot and it’s now only a few months away and I can’t wait.
The future is what I make it. Let’s hope I do well in school.

Remember when I wrote abotu Xtras for Creative Reuse?  The cool place to get recycled stuff for art? They were robbed. The money included their rent and money for their truck repairs. This place is super cool and they need help. Even if you can't give money help by sharing this video and information about the center. A tweet or facebook post can help immensely. You never know which of your friends might give the $5 that saves the center.