Well, personal issues abounded the last few weeks, but they are evened out now and I can get out of my rut. I had car issues today that interfered with my doing anything of much use. That being said, my car is now fixed and quite happy, amazing what a new battery can do!

I moved my studio fromone room to the next, out of necessity but also out of want. I needed to reorganize and the old rooms seemed somewhat stale to me, and I’m glad to move my things into a new room. It forced me to go through my things and think about what I have and better yet how I use it. Those few thoguths were quite telling. I have hoarded art supplies for sometime now and quite frankly I have a lot of thigns I tell myself I’ll use but never do. My art as of late has focused on keep my art journal and bookbinding. That’s about it. I’ve given up much of my painting, I’ve not touched acrylics other than to distress leather. Sad but true.

I’m pretty happy with it all though. I’m happy witht he new set up and that already i’ve made a few books in here. Pretty impressive.

I loaded up a few journals to eBay and hopefully they will sell.

GARGHHH! my beloved printer is having a rough time of it. I use it for so much. Laser printers are a big save on cash, especially if you find a cheap one. I have to recomend my Okidata 810e to anyone loking for a cheap laser printer. eBay is full of toner and print drums for it and it’s all pretty reasonably priced especially whenyou consider the alternative of paying $30 a pop for an inkjet cartridge. I paid next to nothing for my toner.

It’s been great, but the drum is going bad and it’s time for me to either buy a new drum or upgrade to a newer laser printer. I’ve put in a bid for a drum on eBay and hopefully it will solve the woes of my printer. I love the damn thing and it would be a shame to lose it now. We bought it used almost 5 years ago and my computers capabilities havefinally caught up with the printers abilities.

Hopefully I will now be able to print on cover stock because right now my printer is turning everything a nice shade of creamy gray! (expect an ebay auction on a couple of journals that my prionter turned the paper gray.)

back to binding.

Yesterday I wrote out a long rambling post about an assortrment of things. I’ll spare you the drivel and get straight away to the good stuff.

My obsession with the moleskine knock offs- now better known as Hedgies or hedgehogs is waning a bit. I’ve made a giant stack that I’ll slowly be auctioning off on ebay as the feeling hits. Fabric hedgies will be special order only, as they are actually more work than the leather, go figure. Ther fabric went for way to little $$$ on eBay and the leather was inconsistant, just like normal. I’ve got a stack of things to photograph and list tonight, so I’ll have fresh picks for next week.

Next week will be interesting. It’s the first time in nearly 3 years that I’ve had Labor day off. I’m heading to Maine for some quality time with my folks. I’m hoping to get some time in painting but I know I won’t, i’ll at least take my materials with me. I’m hoping to bring back my sewing frame and a few other art supplies. I’m taking some book binding thigns with me and i’ll sew2 books like mad while I’m there. I tend to not do much of anything while i’m up there, so I t will be good for me to take things to do.

I’ve got a large stack of covers cut and ready to be backed and filled. I’ve got to order more hides soon. I’vegot a couple of partials and whatnot but I need a few more full sized hides. this last distressed hide was particularly fantastic, even if it was tiny. It had a lot of areas where it ws dark and light making nice patterns on the hide.

So the agenda for today- finish up listing on eBay, photos, back hides and cut paper!

After some trepidation filled thought I decided to list my moleskine style on eBay. I can’t fund the “research” without selling some of them, as much as I would like to hoard away my first dozen or so books, I have to make a go at making them work for me as much as I like to make them. I have a tendency to focus on one style and learn as much as I can about it, and in the process of my research I make a lot of books, I’m sitting next to a shelf full of prototypes I’ve made- around 50 or so, and this is after culling the ones that didn’t work because I missed a step in the pattern. That being said I also have a bunch of really ugly bindings sitting next to me, but it’s good to look at those in reference of being ugly. So in an effort to fully explore this moleskine style I’m going to sell off some of the first I’ve made. Of course I’ve given away a bunch of them as well, and I have two more that I’ve deemed unacceptable for sale- either the spine is screwed OR I screwed up the leather.

What I’ve learned thus far about the moleskine style- with heavy card or cover stock it’s easy to get the gluing right but with soft ABSORBANT leather it’s really easy to screw it up. Stiff leather is easiest, i.e. cowhide but not my favorite. I’m determined to make the sheep hide work. I know it can but I need to find way of it working consistently without a lot of trimming. I don’t want to cut the leather a full inch too large and have to trim off a half inch every time I make one. The idea behind these is that I’m able to use some of the scrap pieces I’m wasting now. Selling it on eBay for peanuts isn’t so great.

So I need to do some of the following: make a new leather template for the Moleskine size; figure out the easiest way to bind up multiple blocks; buy new clamps for the purpose OR make a gluing press/clamp; figure out if it’s worth it for me to buy a small plane for shaving my book block edges or to not cut them at all (this is an idea I’ve been stewing in my head- adapt a wood plane- smaller size for shaving down the edges of my books easily getting rid of that ratty ugly edge, I’m pretty sure it can be done but the question is how (these are the times when I REALLY miss my Father’s decked out wood shop.)

The place I’m trying to avoid is taking this to the level of the little hardbound books I used to make- the thing I loved about those is that they were tiny and hard cover but I got peanuts for them. So I stopped making them (I discovered a stack of the davey board that I had precut to size….)

Anyway, I have an early morning so I’m off to bed. I’ll blog som pictures before I goof my Moleskines.

I’m deeply invloved with this hedgehog style of binding. I tend toget like this- obsess ov er a new binding. I might explain this by the fact that I never do any glue based bindings, and this binding style, while a sewn binding is super string because of the glue. I hate that the sewing is almost completely hidden, but at teh same time I do like how tough the finished book is.

I’ll post some pics later but I made some with LEATHER covers. I’m pretty excited at this possibility. It takes it one step ahead fo the moleskin in my opinion- leather is super tough. The only difference is that the cover is much softer than with paper or the originial. If I do offer these for sale it will be in limited quantities and maybe just special editions? I’m not sure how to handle it.

What I do like is that it lets me use leather pieces that I normally wouldn’t have been able to have with my previous sizes. what’s great about this is that I”m going to be able to use more of the leather than I would have been able to before. I’ll have less scraps.

I’ve got 16 covers to glue up and back tonight, as well as some of the paper for that. I’ve already got a load of pre-cut paper from ages ago. I’m planning on Setting aside half the small sized journals for GM for her special order. I’ve got a few more journals that I can offer her, but for her purposes the Wausau paper is just not going to cut it. There were several journals in her last grouping that had the wausau paper, and I’m pretty displeaqsed in general with the paper. It’s great for writing journals, lined and unlined but it’s not so great for anything else. I should say that it’s good for general use sketching, but not for washes.

I foudn a deal at Charrette on paper- some clearance on large sheets of lightly colored drawing paper and also on 80 sheet reams of Eaton paper- 25% cotton, laid texture and 24lb. It’s great paper right up there with the Strathmore that I’m so in love with.

I ordered a load of thread from JohnNealBooks.Com- a great little website of bookbinding do dads and tools. i can’t wait for it to come in. I’ve pretty much had it witht eh overwaxed thread I’ve been getting. Where I’ve been using so much thread lately the differing quality of the different threads has been astounding. The thread from ACMoore being of decent quality 90% of the time, the thread from Michaels being way too waxed and good about 60% of the time and the thread from Joannes being of questionable quality 80% of the time I’m pretty fed up. There are only so many knots one can put up with. the joannes thread has been the worst- 4 or 5 knots per spool and wax balls all over those knots making it impossible to work with it. And the Michaels thread has been fibery- I’ll sew somethign up and flip it over only to notice that there are loose fibers all over the spine of the book.

So anyway, my exacting standards are going to be tested by the John Neal thread- if it’ half the quality of the “pro binder’s” thread I bought in Boston, I’ll be stoked beyond all compare. That thread I’ve onlybeen able to use with the hedgies- it’s too thin for my usual use, but it’s so nice- stiff, it doesn’t require heavy waxing and it doesn’t tangle easily because it’s nice and stiff.

pics later- coffee and work first.

I’m been knee deep in Hedgehogs* for the last week or so. Needless to say it but I’m hooked just as I was before. It’s such a perfect size of a journal- pocket sized and perfect for on the go jotting of notes. The difference between these and what I used to make is that these are Smythe or hollow back bound. Meaning my stitching is hidden and I use GLUE! ARGHHHH the horror! I do quite enjoy them but I’m not sure I’m going to make them for sale, but more for gifts. I do quite love the covers, I miss bright pretty things when I work with leather all the time.

Smythe binding is a binding in which you sew the book block up and glue it to the cover using a nice flexible glue.

Without further adu, the books I’ve been working on:

*Hedgehogs are Moleskine knockoffs. Similar in appearance to moleskine notebooks but filled with the paper of your choice and cover material of your choice. For more information visit Yahoo groups and join Hedgehogs Forever group.

The watercolor journal below was a long time in the making. I spent I don’t know how long waiting for paper to arrive, it not arriving, putting in a new order among other things. today i had enoug o fthe waiting and drove myself to Charrette and spent way too much on paper. I lucked out and found a bunch of great paper on clearance but paid full on the Fabriano. Anyway, check out the stats on this journal:
6×5.5 inches
Fabriano Artisitco HP 140lb paper
100 pages of blissful paper (I dont like HP paper but his seems to have mroe “tooth” than others I’ve tried…)
1.5 inches thick
Premium dark mahogany distressed leather
Adhered to a printed green washi paper
The sewing:
Natural linen
eyelets at the stations
long stitch, false endbands and linking with a pattern in the center.

It’s heavy and quite nice to hold, simply a fantastic experience. I’m very happy with it.