I’ve been a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut for years, since I first read Breakfast of Champions when I was a freshman. I was very sad when I heard that he had died this past year. I commemorated him with a portrait. I’ve listed it on etsy. Here are a few pictures, but you can see it on etsy here.
My mom kicks butt. She’s who I get a lot of my crafting ability from. Growing up she was always crocheting, knitting, cross stitching, or quilting. When she and my Dad came to visit this past holiday season, I suggested she use her crafting abilities to create a colored pencil wrap with 12 pockets for pencils and a pocket for up to a 5×7 inch notebook. She picked some awesome fabrics and made the pockets extra roomy. Here are some pictures:
Heres a little video of one:
This is the most interesting artist website I’ve looked at. The set up is great, the drawing are fantastic. Excellant all around. Take a look at her sketchbook pages here. She uses ink in a moleskine notebook.
I’m a big fan of sketchbooks and what goes into them the blog to follow has a great selection of scans and text about the sketchbooks she uses. Great little drawings and great color. She uses my favorite mediums- ink and watercolor combination. Awesome stuff.
I made this book in collaboration with a friend of mine. It is pretty much the only book I’ve made in collaboration with anyone. It’s a pretty simple Japanese stab style binding. Done with black cotton crocheting thread. The stations were bored with a dremel. The fore edge of each page is the folded edge of the sheet of paper. at the time of printing I had a ancient bubble jet. I was working some place where once a week I had unfettered access to the photocopy machine… I made zines then too. I printed the text, took it to work, copied the pages onto my really nice paper took them home and printed by hand all the little block prints then collated and folded every book, clamped and drilled holes then stitched it all up. The whole process took a long long time. My friend and I were mailing back and forth a notebook with the images and text, until we had everything agreed upon, then I typed it all up and emailed it to my friend, she tweaked the text, then I made it fit onto the page.
I’ve got to say that this was a great project, I love how the final product came out. I think we made a total of 100 books. The cost was a lot though. I was really poor at the time of us making this as was my friend, I want to say that we spent about $50 getting this thing going and never made any money on it. I still have a stack of the books. I sold a few on eBay and my friend had the other half of them and I’ve still got a stack of them.
I still thing that they are really cool.
Check out the little ACEOs and sketches from Jessica Doyle. Her blog is full of fantastic art and imagery as well as some great raw emotional posts. Anyone who has worked retail can feel her pain.
On Tuesday I found a few old posters at work, I asked the
representatives about them, if they were to be used again all said no and that
I could have them. I knew that at least one of the posters was at least 3 years
old, the other at least 3 seasons old. I knew in advance that they wouldn’t be
used again. Bringing them home I tried to figure out what I was going to do
with them. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to glue to them- one was a thin sheet
of plastic and the other typical vinyl coated ad glued to thin foam core.
Neither of which would take glue well, I knew it was going to have to have
Coptic stitching to use these posters.
SO I cut them all up, somewhat randomly to 3.5×5.5 inches
and then punched a series of 4 holes in each cover. I also matched up the
covers with some recycled backer board (very much like book board) that I had
saved from packages of tags also from work.
I expected that I wouldn’t have a chance to work on any of
these books until Friday, when I was to have my 2 days off. Instead I caught my
significant other’s cold and I have been sick and I’m still ill. It’s one of
those head colds where concentration is difficult and “stuff” comes from
sinuses. Let us not talk about that. Let’s talk of pleasant things like Coptic
stitching.
It’s been awhile since I’ve done any style of Coptic stitch,
other than long stitch. I’ve been quite caught up in this recycled thing. So
I’m out of practice and on the first 2 books I made, it shows. The first one I
made was a standard 2-needle sewing done twice. The first set of stitching went
well and looked great. I started the second set and it went well until the last
signature. Where I forgot myself (James Bond Double OH Days of Christmas on
Spike- my favorite cold weather TV marathon) and pulled in the wrong directions
with too much tension. The combination of DayQuill and James Bond made me want
to find a bad guy to toss it at to distract while I got away… (Only partially
kidding, DayQuill does make me a little loopy.) I patched it up and cursed the
fact that I had tied off the other set of stitches already, because if I hadn’t
I would have been able to simply remove the bad signature and attach the cover.
Ah well. See some pictures of my mistakes below.
The next mistake I made was when I decided to attempt a
particularly difficult Keith Smith stitching where you attach the covers to
each other first and then stitch on as if you are sewing onto cords. Instead of
attempting this sewing with a single cord I attempted it with a double cord and
a pack. Here again I blame the DayQuill for giving me a sense of ability far
beyond my 2 year lay off from a stitch. It’s far better to practice a stitch a
few times before attempting it on a cover you like. It’s also better to
practice on easier stitched before attempting something so… Difficult. (Before
anyone leaves a message scoffing at the difficulty of said stitch I implore you
to go take a dose of DayQuill, fill your nose with mucus, smack your head with
a hammer and get back to me after attempting any stitching.) Again check out
the picture below. I realize now looking at the picture that though I wanted to
do a loop and pack I didn’t pack as I had intended. Go figure.
The next 4 books were very successful 2 single needle
coptics, one with a larkspur and braided linen book marker, one double needle
stitch twice on the spine and a particularly interesting spine with black
leather “split tapes” with a stitch and pack on them. The leather is then
stitched onto the cover. For all the work that book was it’s my favorite. I
love the binding and it just looks great. The red on black is a great
combination and the dense heavy stitching is fantastic as well.
I fell in love with the book with the coffee cup and coffee
beans. I managed to punch the holes on it upside down but still I love the
cover and I’m keeping that one for me, a little feel better soon gift to
myself.
Each is filled with 200 pages of Wausau opaque in ivory,
unlined, acid free paper. I cannot vouch for the archival or acid free nature
of the covers. I did test the backer board and it is lightly acidic. The
stitching is all done with hand waxed Irish linen thread, unbleached but dyed.
The 3 books without imperfects will be up on etsy later today and I’m deciding
what to do with the 2 books with imperfections. I’m considering putting them up
on eBay as a set. Or maybe something fun.
So you came to my blog looking for items to buy that
bookbinder on your Christmas list? Well here’s what I would get that person,
from a bookbinder to a bookbinder:
#1 A selection of fine Irish Linen threads. There are
several things to consider when buying thread, size and color. A good size to
go with if the person does bindings where you can see the thread (exposed spine
bindings) is 12/3 and wonderfully enough JohnNeilBooks.com has a great
selection of colors in that size. I’d go with the basics: natural, black and
red. It’s a good starter selection.
#2 A selection of knives, sounds odd under the Christmas
tree or wrapped for Chanukah but a nice knife will last a lifetime and get
hundreds of hours of use. I’m particular to a few knives myself- my Olfa brand
click knife. The body is steel wrapped in plastic. It’s comfortable and
strong. Next on my list is a simple box
cutter. You could decorate the body of the cutter with paint, fabric etc. These
are available at any home supply store or even Walgreens. Lets not leave out
the illustrious exacto knife. If you person has been crafting for any amount of
time they probably have one, but you could get them a new fancy handle or a box
of 100 blades.
#3. Bone folders. I’m not sure if this ranks up there with a
knife in terms of oddness under the tree but my bone folder has seen hours of
use and is one of the few things that I’ll search for and clean off my bench to
find. There are a bunch of different shapes out there but the basic 8 inch or 6
inch folder with one pointed end is the best.
#4 Instruction books. Often bookbinding books are hard to
find. Barnes and Noble has a notoriously crappy selection with Borders
following them up with a just slightly better selection. Check online for
better selections. Alisa Golden’s books are fantastic; Shareen Laplantz’s books
are also awesome. If the binder is more advanced go all out and get them some
Keith Smith, just be aware that the rest of the holidays will be spent intently
pouring over the books. (Keith Smith books are like pr0n for the active
binder.) I just purchased a new beginner’s book by Ester Smith. It’s a good
book to start with has great pictures and a lot of diagrams.
Its gift-giving season. There are a lot of options out there
for the giver, but if your looking for handmade books or journals my etsy shop
is full. It’s too late for a custom order but that’s a thought for next year.
For the tree hugger on your list, check out my assortment of
recycled content journals and notebooks. I’ve got a few 100% recycled content
notebooks left and plenty of journals with recycled covers, in both paper and
vinyl. See them here.
For the moleskine enthusiast check out my hand bound
hedgehog notebooks. A hedgehog notebook is a handmade version of the moleskine.
Mine feature decadent leather covers, writing paper or cardstock for sketching,
leather bookmarks, envelopes in the back and an elastic closure. Check them out
in my etsy shop.
Maybe you’ve got someone on your list into large 400 page
journals? I’ve got one left in fantastic brown leather, great paper and a
unique one of a kind binding. It’s on sale $25 off. Check it out here.
If I’ve got nothing that interests you look around on etsy
and buy handmade this holiday season.
