Terbearco stamp!

I must say I am frankly astonished at the great custom stamp I just received from terbearco. The package was full of discount cards, goodies from other Etsy shops, nicely shipped inside a little cotton pouch and packed with tips for stamping... definitely one of the best Etsy packages I've ever received. Unbelievably nice. The stamp works brilliantly and she even included a little pumpkin stamp just in time for Halloween! 

I can't recommend her highly enough!

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! :)

And yes, she is that good.

Exciting and Frightening!

It's heeee-eeere! My lovely new little miata. Silver and sexy. I'm thrilled, just thrilled. Joe and I took her out last night, and we were out until 12:30, teaching me to drive stick shift. I don't know how well I will do today, driving stick for the first time in traffic and with people around. It makes me slightly queasy. We'll see. I just hope I don't crash!

Also, my business cards came in! They're beautiful! I will post up some pictures soon so you can all see.

:D

Extra goodies!

Woo, and I forgot! I finally ordered a logo stamp from terbearco, and some business cards from greenerprinter.com!
I really wanted to use an Etsy shop to buy my business cards from, but I couldn't find any shop that listed clear instructions for submitting artwork, or any that clearly described paper options and design options. I found a million "business card design" listings, but I already had a design. I just need the printing done! Preferably on recycled paper. So I'm glad I found greenerprinter. They use 100% recycled paper with 50% post-consumer, and paper whitened with a non-chlorine bleaching process. Hooray! 

I'll be posting photos when they arrive. :D

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. 

SQUEEE!

Goodness gracious. Here I am, squealing like a little girl in the middle of the night. But I was having such a crummy evening, and LB (Lover Boy) wasn't paying much attention to me all week, we've both been so busy... anyway, you don't want to hear about all that junk. But I couldn't sleep and so, like many of you, I ended up Etsying in the middle of the night. And there it was! Eeek!



That's me, top left corner, right under Hand-Picked Items, that's my Stripes and Spots journal! I'm so thrilled. Never thought I'd make it to the front page. This is SO EXCITING! Haha, I'm such a silly girl. 

Well. Then. Goodness. Anyway, it's bedtime. At least my weekend is off to a great start now. :D

Adventures in case binding.

AUGHHH. What a frustrating morning.

Here's the problem. I can do coptic binding all day long, I can longstitch like crazy, but case binding... I always have issues with case binding. I can never figure out how to structure the spine. When I have my cover boards cut, and I have the hard spine piece cut, I always have problems deciding how to glue them to the card that makes up the spine hinge. So I don't have the right amount or shape of space for the book block. Then when I glue the book block into the case, I end up with a book that either won't fully close, or won't open all the way. It's a real bummer to have a beautiful book put together, with leather covers and hand-sewn headbands, sanded paper edges and snakeskin leather quarter binding - to then have the whole book be a throw-away. Curses! So frustrating.

I never have these issues when I don't use that third piece of bookboard for the hard spine. And I can't seem to get the right French groove going when I use a hard spine piece. I'll have to post up some photos so you all might be able to help me figure out what I'm doing wrong.

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. 

Books and bobs.

Two more journals will be leaving for a new home today. Which leaves both shops rather empty! Fortunately, I have lots of fabulous ideas for new books. Last night I only had a moment to work but I did make a couple of teeny weeny lizard skin longstitch journals. I think they will be listed as pendants. 

I like the mini journals that are so popular right now, I must admit I could make them all day long, they're so fun and easy. Something so small is nice for instant gratification. It only takes about twenty minutes from start to finish (if you work from start to finish, that is. I usually don't). However, I always end up wondering what in the world they're good for. They're nice for little teeny works of art, like this one from meowstro....

Perhaps as handy illustration portfolios, like this one from behappy... 

As earrings, if light and sweet enough, like these from KupoKiley... 

Or as thank-you gifts, or goodbye presents from coworkers or friends... 

Or as love letters, all wrapped up in one place... 

I always like my journals to be practical, not just interesting to make or look at. So I think their best use is for pendants in my case. Mine are a little bit bigger and heavier than Kiley's, and I'm not nearly as talented as behappy or meowstro. 

Anyway. So I have some bookmaking to do in the near future. Hooray! 

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. :)

New projects, new materials. Very exciting!
I put up a lizard-skin journal in the Etsy shop the other day, and although it hasn't received too many views or any hearts for that matter, I'm just so excited about working with reptile skin. I just got a new pack in the mail. :D They're all by-product scraps, but many have really gorgeous patterning and I can't wait to make more journals with them.

First, however, I have two hardbound projects in linen to finish. One field journal with an integrated linen-covered box around it, and these tiny little triplets: Only two by two inches. Very cute. I have this idea to make a box for them, perhaps with an envelope-style closure like my green moss journal in the last post. I haven't thought of the right box for them yet. Hmm.

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