Ell my first order arrived, opening it was like Christmas for me. And seeing $400+ in pencils made my day. I will post some pictures later.

Massively happy.

The phantom vegan journal! I believe that there is not much out there that can outlast a good quality leather journal nor can anything really give the look of leather, however there’re are many options out there for the vegan and many that I’m more than willing to explore. I love a good challenge and I’ll undertake this as I would any other challenge.

There a many options out there for those of us who are vegan, while I now eat meat, there was a time when I did not, hard to believe for someone who handles leather on a regular basis! In fact the first time I bought a hide I was rather grossed out by it. I guess in the years since then I’ve gotten past it, but still I like to know that the lamb hide I buy is a by-product of the meat industry, the animals were not killed for their hide. Believe it or not, I choose to buy hides that many bookbinders would not because of this fact. I’ll not go into my political and social beliefs about the meat industry but I feel I have an interesting perspective due to my upbringing and due to the industry that I now work in (my DayJob not my bookbinding.) That is a discussion I’m willing to take up in email but not on my bookbinding blog.

AS for vegan books and materials I suppose canvas would be a great option for a journal, it could also be decorated to simulate the look of leather. A good quality acrylic paint could fill in the surface and remain flexible, while the various colors of acrylic could give it the color and various acrylic mediums could give it the finish. That being said it would take some experimentation to get it right.

I hate vinyl and wouldn’t suggest it to simulate the look of leather, perhaps some of the other leather replacement options out there? (On a personal note- virgin vinyl is pretty evil environmentally. I one were to go after the vinyl option I would suggest recycling it. Like freitag or one of the other places that recycles vinyl signs, I bet if you went into your local grocery store and asked them for their old sis to recycle they might give some up.) Vinyl is also pretty easily decorated, any one out there have any suggestions for decorating vinyl?

I’m going to have to spend some time in the studio and experiment.

I’ve got a journal up on ebayherge.

W I get home from the DayJOb tomorrow I’ll post more about it.

I decided the little notebooks Jotters or a Jotter. as in you jot things down in them.

Anyway I think it’s catchy and I like it.

I have them listed on my etsy account here

Actually I was cutting a packing strap on a box of Calla Lilies while at work when I sliced my knuckle. It required 3 stitches and it hurts like a mofo. I was in the ER for 2.5 hours, i had to soak my hand for20 minutes in a betadine, peroxide and saline solution until it stopped fizzing. Did I mention that it bled a lot.

In traditional CSS manner here is a gory picture of my sad finger- 3 stitches and all, please don’t click through if you can’t take it. It is HERE.

I feel pretty stupid, it was a silly accident. LUCKILY it is on my left hand and appears to only impair my ability a little bit. While I’m out of work for tomorrow luckily I also have the weekend off it shouldn’t affect my book making at all, as bookbinding is both clean and dry, something one cannot say about floral.

So I said I post some pictures of my cahier styled notebooks, here are 2. I’ve gone with a 2 pack on these. While making them I realized that I need a professional paper trimmer now. I’m looking into one of the big boys- a Dahle. It’s got to be rotary. That being said here are my notebooks, sewn on a swing machine.

I think they turned out really well.

I have a sewing machine and up until now I haven’t done much with it. Sure I had stitch up the hems of almost all my pants and perhaps even a few books. As such I didn’t do much with it, it literally collected dust in the basement.

Last week I had some hemming and patching to do (damn favorite jeans always ripping out!) so I set up my machine, and lazily left it out.

Last night I stared at it for awhile, stared at my pile of hedgehog leftovers and stared at my pad of Strathmore renewal in black; and the thought formed in my head that perhaps I could make my own cahier style note book, which I think is referred to as a cicada on the hedgehog list. I’ not sure I’ll call mine that. But it’s a simple machine stitched notebook with 60 pages with a black card stock cover. That’s it simple and sweet.

I’ll post some pictures later, I didn’t take any, but these were so simple to make I couldn’t believe it when my sewing machine slipped through the paper like it was butter, no matter how many sheets I tossed under it.

I plan on making these with my usual assortment of papers and with black covers, later I’ll move onto other colors. Just think, these could come in a rainbow of colors; any color that card stock, canson, or scrap booking paper comes in. The possibilities are endless. I’ll be doing 50 pages pocket sized in a 3 pack, for an undetermined price. I’ll figure out other details today.

Here’s a quick disclaimer: I am using an extra heavy-duty needle, one you would use for hemming jeans or the like. I DO expect that it will dull VERY quickly on the paper. I’m thinking of how often I change blades in my exacto and it’s often.

I’ve been terribly sick today. Bad enough I called out of work, which rarely happens. I was able to put the finishing touches on a couple of hedgehogs- 7 to be exact. I had previously done everything but put in the pocket and elastics. So that’s what I spt the day doing. That and sleeping.

I’m putting up 2 on ebay now and they are here and there I’ll have ome up on my etsy account later.

I placed my first order for the website.

very exciting.

even if it is just pencils.

I received a catalog in the mail, with pricing info and what not- very reasonable. I will be hopefully placing an order asap from them.I’m going to work on the website while i’m in Maine, so y can expect to see some serious movement on the site ASAP. I st need to get my work schedule settled down.

I think that there is nothing better in this world than spending a relaxing Sunday in the studio.

Today we took a nice walk to the beach, about a mile each way, ran the dog on the beach, walked home stopping at Atomic Café to drink lattes and munch on bagels. I’ll pass on the bag next time and definitely get the latte. I took a long nap a then hit the studio.

I decided to play around with some perfect binding. I cored a box of about 1000 sheets of 8.5×14 inch paper, cover weight probably 70 lb or so. Its stiff and nice, but printed in green on one side with information about olive oil. I cut it down to 4.25×5.5 sheets stacked them and cut kerfs into the edge (I’ll have to look in the book binding term for this, for now I’ll use the wood working term) spread glue all over and then threaded in a piece of thread, glued it again and let it dry. After letting the whole stack dry I measured out the block height (1/2 inch) and cut the glue and the thread. I added a bookmark and a spice reinforcement strip and then glued on the covers. I had planned on using signs I snagged from the store, only to realize at the last minute that I had cut them for regular moleskine size and that I needed to cut n covers. I decided to use a different set of signs that were also recycled from the store- a vinyl coated sign that is printed huge so when I cut a moleskine sized chunk out of it its all blurry and interesting looking.

I’m interested in seeing how this little experiment holds up. I plan on giving them as gifts to people at work. I’ll be making a few more before I sell any.

In addition to the recycled books I made I also cut, folded and punched stations for about a dozen hedgehogs. I’ll be cutting covers tomorrow after work and I think I’ll be able to get the majority of them sewn tomorrow. I hope to get a bunch of them glued up tomorrow too.

IT makes me super happy to walk into my studio and think #1 Its mine #2 I can set it up and move it around however I want. Know that I can leave a project set up on my bench is great too. Just having a spot specifically for everything is great too.