I put my book press up on eBay 6 days ago. It will end tomorrow around noon.
It’s a great little press. I used it recently to press my hedgehogs, and it worked wonderfully, giving just the right amount of pressure to perfectly press the covers to the block and kept everything flat.
I foresee that someone out there is going to get a press at a great price.
As a reminder here are a few pictures:
This is a journal that I made and used at the start of 2005. I recorded my thoughts for a few months in it. I used mainly Pitt Pens, Pigma Pens and watercolors as well as various and assorted emphemeria that I found along the way. IT’s colorful and documents some time of rage that I had as well as some very good times.
It has pages made from Strathmore watercolor paper 140lb, is stitched with irish linen and is made of dark chocolate brown sheep hide, super smooth ans soft with a unique pebble pattern. I love it.
Travel journal for my visits to my parents.
Go to YouTube see a larger version.
Also i started a group on YouTube for videos of sketchbooks and art journals me appropriately enough ArtJournal. You can sign up or view videos here.
I created a YouTube group called ArtJournals. I’m interested in other people’s videos of art journals.
You can see and join the group here:
ArtJournal Videos
I started a Google Group called Binding Books. Feel free to head over there and sign up the page s here:
I’m hoping to make it an active community and have a lot of discussion about book binding.
So head over and sign up!
I started a Google Group called Binding Books. Feel free to head over there and sign up the page s here:
I’m hoping to make it an active community and have a lot of discussion about book binding.
This is a small watercolor sketcbook I worked on in 2002 and 2003. THe pages are thick HMP made in Nepal. the book was made here as well. I had purchased the book with the intent of rebinding it into something I liked a little more, as I ripped it apart it became apparent that was going to happen, the binders had used some harsh stiff and non flexible glue that was not reversible. It made the whole thing a pain in the bum and I abandoned the project as fast as I started it. Needless to say i simply kept the book the way it was but added a sleeve in the back that allowed the end sheet to slide and allow the book to open. The paper in this thing is thick and stiff, very nice for water color or gouache.
I have again done the horrific thing with this journal and torn out pages. When I worked on this journal I really looked at the journal as a means to an end and not a finished product. Tearing out pages meant nothing, or not much. As such pulling a page out and selling it didn’t bother me at all. I sold many of the pages from this journal on eBay, they averaged about$50 for the 4x6inch pages. Not bad for me at the time as I was very poor and they funded my electric bill and my food bill.
Though I was dirt poor I loved that time I spent as an artist and making money off my art. It was seriously some of the best times of my life. I can only dream of devoting my life to art like I did those 2 summers.
Anyway onto the video, (see a larger version on YouTube.)
Holy Post Mania!!!
This journal is 4.5×6 inches and is swathed in thick 4oz cowhide in a mottled marbled pattern. There are 200 unlined pages hand torn from full sheets of Strathmore 500 series charcoal and pastel paper a 100% cotton fiber, acid-free paper that has a laid pattern. The color of this paper is sand.
The stitching is a simple elegant linking long stitch. In naturally colored Irish linen.
I bought stacks of paper a while ago and never really had the chance to use them, I had them in the boxes they arrived in and couldn’t real see them to think about using them in books. Now that I have a area for sheet storage I can see each of the stacks of full sheets and decide if I want to make a journal with Fabriano watercolor paper, Arches Text wove (just bought 30 sheets) or the assortment of colors of Stonehenge or Strathmore 500 series. I plan on going through my stacks of paper and making a few books.
I’m not sure where this little gem with go- ebay or etsy
Also finished are 2 of the 3 to 4 books that are for a special order. These small sized journals, 4.25×5.5 inches, have Southworth 24lb, 25% cotton paper that is a flecked tan color; they call it Ivory Granite. I think its tan. They are lined as well. 200 pages stitched up with an alternating long stitch. I made the patterns related; each is the inverse of the other. I stitched one in natural unbleached Irish linen and the other black. I think they turned out pretty sweet.
These are both for a custom order, thus I can’t sell them to anyone but the person ordering them… But I would take orders for something similar.
