New Rush Project

Yesterday my photo editor commissioned me to make a photo album to hold 50 photographs of A Midsummer Night's dream that she took a while back. It's rush becuase she needs it by the end of the week!

So considering the time crunch, I'm thinking about how to construct the book.

I would like to use a coptic stitch, exposed spine binding. I'll use cream, heavyweight drawing paper for the pages, medium purple cardstock for spine protectors, indigo linen for the covers, a pretty Florentine-style purple, yellow and white floral print for the endpages, probably light violet waxed thread for the binding... but what's tripping me up is how to attach the photos.

Her original idea was to put them in regular plastic page-protector style sleeves. I think that in a nice album like this, that would look exceedingly tacky.
So my idea was to slide the photos into translucent vellum windows - so just the very edges of the photos would be covered. Kind of like a translucent overmat window. That way I could glue the outside and bottom edges of the vellum windows to the pages so she could slip the photos into the windows from the top. My fiance thought that was much too complicated. He suggested cutting four slits in each page so she could just tuck in the corners of the photos and be done with it. I'm not sure that's a good idea.

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!

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! :)

Left this week...

I went paper shopping today, hoping to find a source for more interesting - and hopefully less machine-made - paper than I can find at JoAnns and Michaels. So Google Maps found me two possible sources - one of which is Kelly's Paper, in Westlake Village, which is near my workplace. I stopped by on the way home. 

Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed. Instead of the lovely retail paper wonderland on their website, I found a cavernous warehouse; inside were tall, beefy metal shelves stocked with boxes of inkjet paper, envelopes, and cardstock in varying shades of off-white. It was like a giant Staples stockroom.

What a let-down! 

The only other option around here is Papyrus, which I will duly visit, but I don't have high hopes. 

Happier news, here's what left the shop recently. So far, the reviews are great! I'm so excited their new owners are happy. 

Unexpectedly good week!

At least in the Etsy world. I sold three journals, three of my very favorites, too. Although it's nice to sell them (very nice - cause I'm broke and am running out of paper!) it is always sad to see them depart for their new homes. I wrap them up very nicely in their best outfits, with tissue paper and ribbon and lovely tags, but I still feel a bit like a mother sending her babies out into the world. I do hope their new owner loves them as much as I do. I'm sure she will. 

Awhile back I made this little journal, my very first try at coptic headbands. 

You will notice, if you are self-taught like me, that there is not one tutorial on coptic headbands anywhere on the web. Not even in google book search! So I had to teach myself, and I am rather proud of the result. 

However, one of the ends got pulled too tight, so there's a bit out of place, and somehow the journal picked up a few dark stains on one cover, so it's a just-for-me journal. But I love the color scheme and the cool wrinkly wave-paper so much that I'm sure I'll be doing another for the Etsy shop. 

Anyway, for you budding book-binders, here's what helped me learn. 

These are a couple of great close-up photos of the headbands, where you can sort of make out what the process might be like. 

http://flickr.com/photos/92439741@N00/2124721790
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lilihall/Bookbinding/photo#5097308935991039186

But this photo was absolutely instrumental. This was the key for me, to figuring out how the stitch is worked.
http://flickr.com/photos/zoopress_studio/2530492929/in/set-72157603237252656/

So have a look at these, and in a day or two I'll be doing another of these and I'll do a step-by-step on how it's done. Or at least, how I do it. Best of luck to you. :)