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. :)

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!

What's busier than a bee?

Because that's how busy I have been. If I was a bee, I would be calling in for backup. I'm totally, completely, ridiculously swamped.

There's the new car, of course, and on Thursday my mother got rear-ended. Hard. So there's dealing with her insurance and taking care of her, and trying to keep up with the day job, and so much more.

I haven't been making any books at all lately. But I did sell a few - these three left for new homes:

And all got rave reviews from their new owners! So that's very exciting. 

I'm thinking of doing some softcover, maybe longstitch lizard skin journals in the near future. And I have a great idea for some rose-colored snakeskin I bought recently. 

Hopefully I'll be back to book making very soon! :)

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. 

Welcome and bienvenido!

Hello all you future Pied Crow blogreaders! ...Or at least, I hope that at some point there will be more than just me reading this blog. Well, me and Max, but I don't know how much attention he's paying. I think he's upside down in the sunshine right now. Which explains why I'm not working on new journals. See?



This is Max. He is the Pied Crow/Eventual Invention mascot. He's the reason I am constantly buying new pencils (he steals and hides them) and why I'm obsessive about picking up all the bits of ribbon, thread, and paper that cover the desk and floor when I finish a journal (he eats them).
Max is a Very Mean Kitty, though I'm in the process of changing that. We go for walks, we go to the park, and slowly he's improving. He was never socialized properly - although that makes him a Very Good guard cat...



Anyway, being as this is the very first post, I should introduce myself.

I'm Iris, and I live in Simi Valley, California.

Our home houses eight goldfish, 40-something aquatic snails, one cat, one fiance, and myself. Here we are on our annual camping trip:



We live in a little townhouse, which we have painted yellows and greens and browns. It's a charming little place, and a lovely place to make journals. I have a nice easel/desk under a big window, and every journal in the shop starts as bits of ribbon and fabric and paper stashed around that desk.
I'm a photojournalist by trade, which takes up a lot of my time and is usually the reason journals get listed in bunches and gobs all at once. I'll probably post photos up here from work occasionally.

So what's the story behind Pied Crow Press? It began with Etsy, of course. I saw all the fantastic handbound books by MyHandboundBooks, Geraldine Newfry, grimm, Ort Bindery, Karleigh Jae, paperiaare, NightJar Books, Twin Gypsy Journals, TheBlackSpotBooks... I could go on and on.
And I thought, hey! I love books! and hey! that looks like a great way to get out this creative madness without ending up with lots of projects sitting around my house! and hey! I think I can do that!
So I spend ages on bookbinding blogs (I have them listed in my links, they're all fabulous) looking up the basics. Each book was a learning experience. I started listing them on Etsy in eventualinvention, PiedCrow's sister shop (which was originally really just a destash/jewelry shop) and I got a great response. But eventualinvention isn't such a great name for a bookbinding operation. I was working on the Spots and Stripes book (currently in my shop) and I thought I might like to stencil a black and white animal on the cover, in keeping with the theme. So a few google searches later, I stumbled upon pied crows. What a cool bird, I thought! And it hit me. So that's that.

I have a ton of bookbinding links in my blog and I'm going to slowly go through them and explain where I found all the information that I used. Because Etsy is about community and sharing, and it took me ages to learn some techniques because they're impossible to find online. But perhaps I can help you out with that.

So here are a few of my past creations:









There are tons more in the Etsy shops right now - you can see them in the sidebar on the right - and I've got about four more still in the works. So check back soon! I have tons more to share. :)

-Iris