Hooray! A tag!

<--- (Lovely new mini! I'm practicing my case-binding. And I had this new chocolate linen. Yum.)

So... I love tag. Or I would if I was in better shape. Tag these days usually ends up with lots of shrieking and heavy breathing. And if I'm going to be shrieking and breathing heavily, I prefer horizontal activities. Owps. Too much info? Hahah... anyway! 

Kiley has tagged me! Alright, list 7 book facts about yourself and tag 7 people. Well, I don't think I have 7 people to tag at the end, but I'll see what I can do. 

So here goes. 

1. Apparently like Kiley, I'm terrible at keeping a journal, too! I have endless journals that I've started but never finished. I usually end up writing daily for a week or two, then being lazy and not writing for a month or so, then ripping out the pages I wrote when I finally come back to the journal. Meh, I just don't like my own writing! I know, terrible. 

2. My only bookshelf right now is a gorgeous white pine number that my father made for me. It has an overhang on the top shelf with a heart carved in it. I treasure it because he made it for me when I was about 10, and he carved that heart by hand. He always worked with hand tools and I love the unprofessional, handmade quality of it. Although the shelves are a little warped now, and it's overflowing with too many books, we refinished it last year with a satin clearcoat and now the wood gleams the way it did when he first gave it to me. He used such pretty dappled, knotted, wavy-grained wood. I wouldn't give it up for the world. 

3. Some of my very favorite books are stripper books. Candy Girl by Diablo Cody and especially Bare by Elisabeth Eaves are two standout titles. Lover Boy teases me about wanting to become a stripper, but really I don't. Their world just fascinates me. Plus, it seems that strippers who write memoirs tend to be smart, witty firecrackers and absolutely stellar writers. 

4. I absolutely despise book collectors who just buy up old books and put them in boxes or on shelves, never to be read again, who buy books just to HAVE them. I believe every book should be read until it falls apart, then repaired or rebound and read again. Those book collectors should be locked up in libary closets!

5. When I was much, much younger, I wrote stories. I still have tiny books I wrote in second, third, fourth grade (mom saved them ALL). I'd write on lined paper, scrap paper, receipts, notecards, anything, and fold it up, staple and make into a book. Little stories about dogs, spiders, little girls like me... I'm considering pulling a few out of storage and reproducing them for the Etsy shop. It would just be so fun to make big versions of them now. 

6. I never could get into using bookmarks. All my life I've just folded the corner of the book... awful for the book, but bookmarks always slide down and you lose them in the pages, or if they have string or dangly bits those get caught in something and yanked out of the book, or get in the way. I hear that Barbara at MoonBindery does the same... unite, page corner-turners! :)

7. I have a major addiction to pop-up books. I love the really fancy ones with pull-tabs, levers, doors, pop-ups and pop-outs and pop-downs. The whole book just comes alive. My mom has the same affliction, and I think it caught it from her. She has a fantastic pop-up book collection. 

Okay, I could go on talking about books forever. Like how much I LOVE when NPR does a story about books or interviews an author and you can hear the page turning over the radio. Nothing like the sound of a crisp page turning. Mmmm. 

Alright, I tag Sarah over at littlepaperbird, Kirstin at greentrikepress, Amy at NightJar Books, Dahlila at Snowflower Street (who doesn't make books but lots of wordy items, so perhaps she will participate?), um... Bibliophile! of course, and... can't think of any more that haven't already been tagged! That's five at least. 

And thanks for the tag, Kiley! 

November is Wonderful

Truly. I love October, but I love October best in the Eastern Sierra. Down here in Simi Valley October isn't nearly as nice as November. The rains arrive in November. First it smells like rain, and the slate-colored clouds crowd the sky. Then suddenly it's pouring, the grasses bending low in relief, the streets flooding, water staining the trees and earth dark. And the next day everything is bright, even the sky is bluer with enormous white clouds rolling over the valley.

I open every window in the house to let in the crisp breeze.



In the oven are delicious Thanksgiving treats. Pumpkin pie sweetened with honey, NOT sugar. Delicious local honey, from bees who make it all by themselves from Buckwheat nectar. I like bees. I'm that girl that rescues an injured bee from the hot sidewalk and carefully puts him down in the shade.



Lover boy relaxes on the couch while I check on the pie.



On the windowsill, my vegetable/flower garden seedlings are enjoying the sun.






Lots to be thankful for today. I listed five (FIVE!) new journals in the shop - I had a very productive day off yesterday - the photo album I was working on went over extremely well, I have a brand new first cousin once removed, and I'm in love!

More details on the new journals and the photo album soon.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Whew.

Holidays are coming up and I am far too busy!! I can't imagine what it will be like as they close in on me. I'm feeling flustered lately... and drinking way too much tea and coffee. Curse it all!

On the bright side, I did manage to squeeze this little thing into my schedule today:

Economic Depression

Depression indeed, but fortunately ONLY economic. I've been in otherwise excellent spirits, driving my lovely miata around beneath positively stunning blue skies full of fluffy white clouds, cuddling with my sweetheart, pulling out my winter sweaters (i just love wearing knits), and drinking lots of coffee and tea.
I've recently developed a fondness for coffee - but what a coffee snob I am. I only like the Ethiopian Arabica beans from CB&TL, ground in small batches and immediately brewed, and only by French press. Add a bit of whole organic milk, and it's a marvelous after-supper drink. What an egotistical, liberal elitist I am! ... I rather hope not, and I hope that enjoying a bit of coffee made the simplest, most wonderful way possible doesn't automatically put me in that category. Pooh on conservatives for creating that stereotype, haha!
Anyway, on to the real good stuff. I was able to put a few things in the shop lately, but some have already been snapped up! I suppose it's the Holidays coming. I do need to get my ass in gear and start working on new pieces before Holiday shopping really begins.
So here's what I've been up to lately:



I put together this little pouch, on a whim because I haven't done any hand sewing in such a long time. I think I may do a bit more soon, I rather enjoyed it. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, too.



I also bound this up - slender little thing, as I'm running low on paper at the moment, but nicely pocket sized.

These are still in the shop, and I'm hoping someone will fall for them soon. It's not that I'm so greedy for the money - although it does help pay for paper at a time when my wallet is stretched thin, that's always nice - I'm so much more excited about finding them a new home. I want someone to open up the package and be thrilled at their new journal. I want them to fill the pages with stories and sketches, populate the blank paper with trees and faces and long strings of beautiful words. It's the potential that I'm excited about. The pregnant book-ness, the opportunity to capture thought and stories. What a romantic I am, eh? Joe is always harping on me about the shops... he doesn't think I'm considering them real businesses. I should be thinking about Marketing and Sales and Overhead. But who wants to think about all that. These are Books! They are Magical!
Ah, I am a romantic fool. Haha...

Well, anyway. Here's a new shop inhabitant, waiting for words:



A big bruiser of a book, Belgian binding and drawing paper inside. It was actually my first Belgian book, but these bindings really need waxed thread for stability and strength, and I didn't know that when I bound it. So I tore it apart this weekend and re-bound it, and now it's lovely and much more durable.



You may remember I mentioned these three a while back. I was thinking of stenciling something on their covers, or otherwise jazzing them up. But they've been sitting on my bookshelf and I can't bring myself to add anything to them, so they went into the shop unadorned. Simple and plain, but charming nonetheless.

Well, that's the news so far. Holidays coming up, and I think I will be making some new miniature books - I have lots of paper scraps waiting to be used, and there's a Stocking Stuffers showcase soon, so it's a good excuse to play with tiny books. :)

New Favorites!

Two new favorites, in fact. One is secret Belgian binding, which I tried for the very first time last night and absolutely fell in love. I bound it a bit differently than the instructions, which was much more tedious, but nevertheless I just adore it. 

The second new favorite is Darjeeling tea - I was perusing the shelves of the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf the other day, since I was out of loose leaf Chai (theirs is by far the best mix anywhere, with whole spices and whole leaf black tea - yummmm). They had Estate Darjeeling in those lovely triangle bags, so I thought I would give it a try. I've only had that horrible commercial powdered Darjeeling before. 

When I first tried Chai, I wasn't so hot about it but after going to the CB&TL headquarters right over the hill in Camarillo and drinking some with their tea master, David, I couldn't get enough of it. I was shooting photos for an Acorn article and to this day I am so glad that I was the one my editor chose to shoot that assignment. David is a real tea connoisseur and his passion for good tea really impressed me. The samples of loose leaf tea that he gave me hooked me forever. 

Anyway, so after my rather transformative experience with CB&TL Chai, I figured their Darjeeling would likely be something remarkable as well. And I was right! It's the sort of tea that seems to curl up around your tongue - spicy and full, with that golden flavor characteristic of black teas. 

Ah tea. What would I do without you?

Another neat thing - I bought a nice big one pound block of beeswax on Etsy and it arrived, so I'm going to try another secret Belgian book tonight with waxed thread. :)

In and Out

Out went this journal, finally... I was so excited that someone finally bought it, but in a way I am so sad to see it go. It was only my second try at a two-needle coptic, and the only one I've ever sold. It's been in my shop quite a while now, and while it got tons of hearts, nobody seemed to like it enough to take it home. Sad... it was so much fun to make, so graphic and really cool. But it finally found a new home - in Canada! Very awesome. 

And.....

Into the shop went this journal! I didn't think I would have any time this weekend to make journals, but I was having such a craving to create... and I had this lovely squash-colored cardstock. It went so well with a lizard skin piece that I had been saving for so long. I just love the texture of this piece of leather - the scales start out black, round, and small, near the spine of the journal, and progress to large, wide and brown near the opposite edge. 

The wooden bead matched the spine protectors nicely and so it all just came together. I had just enough paper left over from the last journal I made, Grey Winter, so I used that. A little pocket-sized autumn number. I almost want to keep it, I just love the color and texture of the skin. 

So good stuff! And... coming soon, I have cyanotype fabric that I've been playing with lately, and I have two covers that are needing journal guts to complete them. So soon I will have some cyanotype-cover journals for you to see! Hooray! :D

And I recruited my kitty Maximus to have a look at the Etsy shops. He wanted to know if anyone sold organic handmade kitty food on Etsy. Sheesh, it's all he thinks about. 

I think I will get him a spiked leather collar for Xmas. We went for a walk and he hissed at the Scary Black Birds. Then he hissed at the Mean Neighbor. Then he hissed at the Evil (teacup) Maltese Puppy. Then he hissed at the Terrible Garbage Cans.
He seriously needs to relax.

Anyway, that's all for now!

Hand-sewn Headbands!

Sounds intimidating? Not! They're really simple, once you get the hang of them. I had a really hard time finding instructions for these anywhere, so once I was able to piece together the technique I decided I had to put up a tutorial at some point. So the rest of you can see how I do it, at least. It's such a nice touch for casebound journals.

On to the tutorial!

Things you will need for sewing headbands:

--Two colors of embroidery thread. Thinner thread will be more labor-intensive, but will give you a tighter, more elegant look, too. Thicker thread will probably be too bulky for a standard book. I use about an arms' length. Knot together at the end, and thread a needle onto the other end of each thread.

--Headband core. I usually use a narrow band of thick leather, but round cord works well, too.

--Book block, ready for casing-in.

If you have some sort of clamp or something to hold the book so its spine is at a 45 degree angle to your chest, use that. I just sit with my feet up and clamp the book block between my knees! Easy.

Click on the Read More link below for full instructions, with photos! :)

Step one - use masking tape to secure your headband core along the upper edge of your book block. This picture actually shows the core a little farther away than it should be - it should sit right across the top corners of the pages. But don't worry about it too much - the sewing will pull it into the right place.

Find the top sewing hole of your first signature and thread one needle through it. You might have to poke your needle through from the other side first so you can see where that hole is. Pull the thread through to the knot.

Can you see how that thread goes? It's through the top binding hole, up along the inner spine of the first signature, behind the headband core, and forward across the top of the core.

Here we go. Wrap the thread around the core once. You should be wrapping away from your body. I'm using Black and White, you might be using different colors, but for the sake of simplicity I'm going to say Black and White. Hold your Black thread taut with one hand, and thread the needle of White behind Black right where Black peeks out of the top of the signature.

Now bring your White needle up behind itself. You can do this differently if you like - you're basically knotting the white thread around the black to secure it before you start the actual sewing of the headband.

Once you have the White thread knotted there, thread the needle under the core and lay it over the top of the black thread, like this:

Just hold everything there and take a good look at what you just did. This is important - if you don't start correctly, it won't work, and it's hard to take it all out. So check that everything is tight and secure.

Next!

I forgot to take a photo here, but fortunately this step is easy. Thread the needle back under the core, toward your body, and then wrap it around the core like this:

During that second bit, you will be looking at this:

You can see that the black thread is pinned down to the core by what you just did with White, not just laying over the top.

So at this point, your White should come from its knot at the beginning, under the core and around the FRONT of that Black thread to pin it to the core, back under the core, over the core, under the core and over the core again.

Next!

Now do it again - bring Black over White, and then thread the Black needle under the core toward your body. If you did that right, the Black thread should pin that white thread to the core, then go under the core, and hang down along the book spine. Then...

Find the signature nearest your working point and stick the Black needle through the top sewing hole!

Now thread that Black needle under the core again, so the Black thread wraps around the core.

Pull the black thread taut along the top of the pages, and... can you guess? Bring the white thread over it, to the left, pinning it to the core. Then thread the White needle under the core towards your body. Then under the core again and over so it lays along the top of the pages.

Repeat this until you reach the end of the core:

Black thread to the left over White, thread needle under core, over core and through signature hole, up along the back of the spine and pull taut over the core.

White thread over Black, thread needle under core, over core, under core, over core, pull taut.

When you get to the end, it should look like this:

And you can see that in the picture above, instead of threading the needle under the core, to the left, after I come out of the signature, I'm threading it under the core but to the right, between my last two stitches.

Once again, you can do this differently if you like - you're basically just knotting the black thread to secure it there, like this:

See? I just make a loop and knot it here. I think it's simple and quite secure, but if you find it works better a different way, let me know. :)

Then I bring the Black to the other side and knot it there, too.

Do the same thing with the White, knotting on both sides, so it looks like this.

And when you spin the book around so the page edges face you, it should look like this, with a nice little bead on the edge:

Ta-da! That's it! Very simple. I hope this has all been clear. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments! :)

Good luck!

Recent Things

Well, it's been another busy week. But a good one. The fall is finally (finally!) here, in classic California style. The season changes between one evening and the next morning, and suddenly you're thinking about rain boots and scarves and pumpkin pie. I know I sure have been thinking about pumpkin pie. Mmmmm.

Anyway, some shop happenings. I listed this journal, which I made a few weeks ago but never got around to putting up. It's one of my favorites so far. Different lizard skins beneath vertical windows in the cover. Very textural. It was a real killer to make - those thin windows are so hard to cover properly! I had to slice the leather vertically over the windows, then super tiny little angled slices toward the corners. The lizard skins are glued to the back of the bookboard around the windows, then covered by the endpages, further securing them. I'm quite happy with the way it came out - though I did end up with a few small glue spots on the cover. Darn! 

But oh well. Each book is a learning experience! You can check out more photos in the Etsy listing. 

I also made a custom peapod pendant for Pat (TattooDreams), and that shipped out today. 

I had been jonesing to make some more pod jewelry lately, so I was happy to oblige Pat when she contacted me late last month. She wanted a simple little pod of spiced clay with two green beads. I didn't have any on hand, but after a little shopping I located this lovely pair of green speckled stone. Add a little brass jump ring a ta-da! Peapod. I think it's very cute. On a nice brass chain, it will be so adorable. I hope she enjoys it. I might just make myself a similar one. 

So making my first custom order was very fun indeed. And here are some other things I made while I was noodling around with clay. 

There are some pods there, a couple little mushrooms, flowers and other doodads that I'm not sure what to do with yet, and some faux stone cairn pendants-to-be. 
I have been meaning to post up some photos of my business cards and the custom stamp I ordered from terbearco. Here we are: 

See, it's very well made, with a handy place to put a label for your stamp, and as you can see below, it prints quite well, too! 

And here are my business cards, from greenerprinter.com. They came out so nicely. Very simple. That's how I wanted them - too much junk or fancy images and the business information is lost. Name, phone, shop address, email - why do I need more than that?

They even have this nice recycled content label on the back. It's optional - you can get cards without it, but I'm all for recycling and especially post-consumer content, so I left it on. 

All in all, a good week! 

Progress, finally!

Well, I finally got all the unfinished books finished, put a few disconnected ideas together into books, and got everything photographed. It took me all day, but it's done! :) And anyway, a day spent bookmaking and Etsying is a pretty awesome day. 

This is what my desk looked like this morning: 

And here is one of the results:

 

It's so bright! I've been working with black so often that I wanted to do something fiercely bright. I wanted to do a little stenciling, and I wanted to use rich, deep colors. I also wanted to try using colored signature reinforcements. It came out so well, I'm definitely going to make more of this kind of journal. I had really missed using cotton fabric. It's so much easier to work with than leather. I'm particularly happy with this journal because I was able to avoid glue smudges anywhere. I am continually plagued by glue smudges.

Here are a couple other recent listings:

A black leather casebound with gold. This one has hand-sewn headbands, which I'm going to do a tutorial on soon. They're really satisfying to make. It's a really nice touch on any journal.



My little lizard minis, which you saw a few days ago:






A square coptic lizard skin mini:



Black leather coptic with lizard skin under windows. The windows were so hard to get right - the flaps of leather that curl to the inside are so small and hard to glue down. But it did come out nicely.

So there's what I've been so busy with lately. I have one more to list, but that can wait until tomorrow. As Lilli Von Schtupp might say, let's face it - I'm tired! :)

Newsish.

Whoo... what a week. Most of you begin your week on Monday and end on Sunday. My week is all over the place - never the same days off. Tuesday was my Monday this week. And what a week it was. So much to do and think about.

Most likely the big mommy station wagon will be going away soon, and I will be glad to see it go. It has served me well, but I'm done with the broken air conditioner, done with the anemic engine and the DVD player I have never used, the aircraft carrier-esque handling, and the American engineering. Sorry, but I actually need all the parts on my vehicle to function as they should, and last more than a few thousand miles. Plus I have to work on the car, and I can personally assure you all that there were zero mechanics on the Saturn design team. 

And I will be getting into a lovely, tiny, light, efficient little Miata. What a relief that will be. For one, I won't be spending so much on gas. And for two, I might actually enjoy driving around. Since I drive roughly 800 miles per month, that is rather important. 

So anyway, I had the Etsy front page feature the other day, which was thrilling, and I've had two showcase spots recently, but those last three journals are just sitting around in the shop. I think it's bare shelf syndrome. People get uneasy when a shop only has a few items. I know I do - I always wonder what's going on in the seller's life that they only managed to list two or three things. Fortunately, I had a rather productive evening and I have two new casebounds to list, one possible coptic (I might keep it), one mini coptic, and the two eeny teeny longstitch journals. 

Since I found paper mojo the other day, I have been browsing an awful lot. I decided to sit out the labor day sale, since I am still not sure exactly which papers I want to order. Such a wide selection. There are a few chiyogami papers that I am eyeing. We shall see. 

I don't have any photos tonight - I may have some tomorrow, but I will leave you with ridiculously adorable photos of Max. Enjoy. 

He does this all the time. He just loves that rug. Silly cat.