I’m on a roll with the journal that I’ve been working on for weeks now. After the major gluing screw ups I tossed the old one and started fresh- with a new chunk of hide and new patches… I decided to add a few eyelets to the cover to further Frankenstein the patches and I’m using a brown thread to stitch them on. So far it’s working well. I like the look of the whole thing. It’s coming along well along with the rest of the order. All the paper has been printed and cut. Tomorrow will be all about stitching up the small books and getting the local printer to print the pages. I really wish I had gone for the larger printer, ah well, the one I have does most of what I need to have it do.

I forgot to post pics of the press that Allen, my brother, made for me, based on the other press. He added a lot of strength to this one, I can crank it down until I can’t tighten it any more and get a really great press out of it. I’ve got a few book blanks set up in it to show what it can do and stress it a bit. It’s got 7.5 inches of upward/downward movement a stainless steel screw, steel support rods, and an 8×11 inch bed.
I can’t wait to putt some hedgehogs in it tomorrow.

Allen has 2 more almost finished (with Square corners on the press plate) and I can take orders on it asap. They will be $90+ shipping, with a few up on eBay.

Due to popular demand I’ve added a link to my Del.icio.us account.

Of course due to my missing links (pun intended)I’ll have more links as time goes on. The link to the Del.icio.us account will always be on the right.

This is the light duty press that I bought on eBay a year ago. I used it twice, it works well and is very serviceable. I’ll be putting it back up on ebay sometime this week (probably Tuesday) I’m not sure how expensive shipping will be, but it won’t be too much.

this could be a useful press for anyone who is making hedgehogs or other Moleskine style journals. I thinklso one could glue up some hard cover books. Also, one of the things that I’ve used it for is t press my moleskine after I’ve been painting the pages with watercolors. I think it helped keep the cockling down a bit.

I made these 2 journals with matching spines. I used oil tanned sheep hide of one and the other with golden yellow deer hide. Both are 400 pages of Southworth, laid paper 24lb and 25% cotton. THe glden journal has lined pages and the brown is unlined. THe Golden journal has a tan lama li interior and the brown has baby blue. The each have coordinating straps and flaps.

The golden uses black Irish linen and the brown uses natural unbleached Irish linen.

I ink I’m going to put one on my etsy account and the other on my eBay account.

The following pictures are of a special order journal. 280 pages of ivory 24lb 25% cotton paper, edges trimmed even and hand colored with red ink. It has a red deer hide bookmark, a rough cut strap and a envelope style flap. The backing paper is a red lama li that was over painted with ink to match the edges. THe spine is a style of cut slots and stations. It’s simple but I dummied it up with a few extra stitches here and there.

While it’s a simple design the added features make it individual. I really like the red edge of the journal and I wonder what it would look like if I were to do it with other colors. I’ll have to lay with it at some point.

I know everyone is waiting (hopefully with baited breath) for me to post something about books, but I hope every one can bare with me for a little bit. It seems when I updated Firefox lat time, I didn’t shut down properly and I lost all my bookmarks.

I can’t express how annoying it is to have to re-enter in all my bookmarks, and how many I have possibly lost. It will take me forever to find them all again.

Anyway. I had planned on spending a huge amount of time int eh studio today, but it will be cutback by a little bit of time as I delve into this issue and backup my bookmarks VIA a variety of sources.

It’s been so long since I posted a lengthy post that I almost forgot about this little gem of information!

Almost a year ago purchased a book press on ebay, it was not cheap but it wasn’t expensive either. I purchased it thinking my Dad could make me one that was a little heavier duty that the one purchased. While the one I purchased worked well enough I knew it could use a few improvements. So I gave it to my Dad to figure out. Since then I’ve been dealing with out, quite a pain in the arse if you ask me. However on their recent visit to my new home my Dad brought with him, my old book press, still in barely used (twice!) condition and a brand new book press, only this one is super duty.

My Father and Brother took the old one and reverse engineered it to figure out areas of weakness and spots to improve it, with a little help from me (3rd support brace on base and smoother details) they figured out a solid and easy to use design. I can crank it down 3 cranks more than the original and it’s a lot smoother to use, the action on the crank is smooth and the hardwood top brace is tough. They hid some stainless steel supports in the wood so that the upright and the base will never separate. I can wait to put it through it’s paces with some hedgehogs next week.

I’ll be posting some pictures tonight of the fabulous little press.

I also convinced him to make a few extras, so I’ll be offering them for sale on the website and ebay. I’ll also be selling off the original press on eBay as well.

So, pictures of it tonight!

Yesterday I received a little piece of cardstock in the mail, measuring about 3×7 inches, printed in green and black. It’s my Sales and Use tax registration. This means that I can now get my Moleskines for the website as well as a few other items. I’m going to frame it up and hang it over my cabinet in the basement. Well it’s all legal now.

So if you buy one of my journals and live in the grand state of Massachusetts I will be collecting 5% sales tax which I will then turn around and send to the state.

I have tomorrow off but a New YEar’s eve party have to attend, but before hand I’ll be in the studio for the day, now that he family has come and gone and the holidays are f the most part over (Valentine’s fast approaches) I plan on spending a large amount time in the studio. What can you expect from the long hours spent in the studio- more books, a website that functions a little better, moleskine’s ASAP, some more YouTube action and more books.

I have a journal ending on eBay today. IT’s 400 page monster ofa journal in deep dark chocolate and blue marble paper. it’s here:
400pages of paper 1 years worth of journaling

I have a similar journal on Etsy for $100 and have sold other journals like it for upwards of $125.

As many of you know I have what i call a DayJob that I us to support my art habit and pay my bills. It also provides me with health, dental and vision as well as a few other fringe benefits. While I hope that someday I can support myself on Art (which is the reason behind expanding the website but that’s a whole other entry.) I know tat it’s not an expectation that I can have for a few more years/decades.

My DayJob is in something that I like to refer to as Retail Hell for a major organic grocery store, or as my friends and I refer to it as: The Hippy Grocery Store. I won’t go into specifics since they have made blogging about them a major offense,i.e. one that could get me fired, but I’ll tell you a little bit about what I do there. I’m a little better off than the average Wage Slave as I’m the manager of my department, the floral department. This means that I am able to make the schedule of the department, order all the flowers, and take all the heat when I don’t make my profit margin or something goes wrong. Unlike most grocery and retail businesses the model that the Hippy Grocery Store takes is that the managers of the department work hand in ha with the lowest paid employee on the sales floor, and are expected to do as much hard physical work if not more than that lowly paid member of the team.

The philosophy behind this is that you eventually know the business so well that it is hard to fail. If you handle your product every work day you end up knowing exactly what you need to order. You also get to know your customers and staff. Who can you rely to buy which product, who can you rely on every day to deal with every issue that arises.

Anyway, I digress, that was not why I started to write this, there are many things I can say about HGS but this isn’t the place. I started to write this to describe the reality of retail the 2 days before Christmas and encourage people to plan ahead. It’s hell, if you think that you can wait until 2 days before a holiday and find exactly what you want en you go to the store, think again, and please don’t yell t the lady in floral when you CAN’T find it. It’s not my fault that you waited until 24 hours before the holiday to do your shopping, there is noting I can do.

Nor should you think that you can drive anywhere safely the 2 days before the holiday. I tell you this: people are crazy those last 2 days before the holiday and road rage is rampant. I saw a normally pleasant 90year old man drive laps around the parking lot, blowing his horn at anyone who got in his way. It was painful to watch as the parking lot was full and busy.

So next year plan ahead, make some eBay, etsy or web purchases and stay off the roads, it’s all a lot easier if all you have to do is walk to your mail box!