Keeping busy...

We got a big order for one of the little history books we publish, so J. spent the weekend binding books!  I had stuck the sitcker from our red bell pepper onto that page, so just played a little having the other colors harmonize!

Taking care of health concerns; J. had a couple of moles frozen off a few weeks ago, and has a couple of others to remove surgically.  This was the first one...and hooray, it was benign!

The doctor thought it was interesting that I sketch about everything...but he was a good sport about it, and let me stay in the room.  Good thing it was minor!

where the fun begins . . .

where the fun begins . . ., a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

Finally finished binding some new art journals this week. I've actually felt a bit "lost" not having one to grab and sketch in.

The two upper ones are Coptic stitched, both having a heavier 140 # watercolor paper in them which holds up well with this open binding.

The lower left one contains nideggen paper, a print paper I've always wanted to try. Because it is so much thinner, I also added some pages of Fabriano Tiziano toned paper --- scraps of both were used to bind the mini journal.

The landscape oriented journal is Fabriano 90 # soft press --- a paper I love but it's grain runs opposite, so I bind it in this format to get the most pages out of a sheet of paper.

I found some cardstock stickers at Hobby Lobby to stick to the fronts, making it easy to tell front from back. But some actually covers goofs --- The cover paper was from a Daniel Smith sale and was a bit thin, showing glue spots in places. The upper part of the tan bookcloth stained as well, perhaps from the green paper's dye running. Maybe it gives the book character??

Chain or Coptic stitch link!

I've not made any journals of this type, but this demo is SO well done I may just try:


http://www.tortagialla.com/2010/08/16/chain-or-coptic-stitch-bookbinding-tutorial/

Great stuff...I'll be adding it to Links We Like in our sidebar!

Got new journals bound...

We all seem to be of two minds about a brand new, pristine journal, especially a handbound one!  Since I make my own, it may be a tiny bit less of an issue, but sometimes we're a little intimidated by that First Blank Page.  Clean, snowy paper.  Full of possibilites...full of.....................blank paper!

What do YOU do to get past that fear of white paper?  I wrote a whole article about that once, and if I can find it, I'll post it!

You saw Fred Crowley's opening page last week; Liz Steel often sketches her current paint set as a first page...if you've got a tradition like that, go for it! 

Add a quote you like, and illustrate it. 

Draw the first thing that comes to mind.

Or skip a few pages, and let the journal itself tell you what to put there.

Do be sure to add contact info either in the front or back of your journal so it can be returned to you if lost.  I know several people who have been VERY glad they did that.

Personally?  I'm excited about having all these choices, now, and can't wait to finish the last three pages in the one I'm using!

Jana Bouc on making your own journal

The other day I'd asked our friend the talented Jana Bouc if she minded if I linked to her journal-making posts and other information, and she told me she was JUST reworking all that.  

I heard from her over the weekend!  She wrote "The journal came out nicely and is posted today on my blog and the how to sheet is updated on my website here ."

I'll put the links up in our list in the sidebar, but thought you'd like to see them NOW.

Thank you, Jana, this is wonderful!

Super-simple handmade journals

A lot of people have mentioned to me over the years that they'd love to bind their own journals but it's just too complicated or time consuming--or intimidating!  I'll never be a "real" bookbinder, but I do enjoy making a variety of sketch journals so I can have the paper I want.

I'd love to take a bookbinding class, maybe one of Roz Stendahl's, but so far I use books and DVDs as my guide... this Dover book by Aldren Watson was my first and still my favorite. Hand Bookbinding: A Manual of Instruction.

But if you're not up for case-bound or other traditional methods, here are a couple of VERY easy journal types to start with, if you just want good paper to work on...

ACCORDION FOLD

You may have seen this type available in the online catalogs...it's a simple accordion style.  You just cut a strip of paper the height you want, fold in the middle of the strip, fold again, and again, zigzag style, till you get to the size you want.

You can glue book boards, cardboard, matboard or whatever, to each end to protect the edges and make it more book-like.  I make these fairly small and have one in both of our vehicles in case I go off without a sketchbook!

They can be quite handsome, as you see above.  (I sometimes add a little bit of embellishment so I can tell which end is the "front."

I often do more traditional bound books, but because I like a square format there's always some waste of a full sheet of paper.  I use that to make these small folders.

Granted, these ARE a bit more difficult to use sometimes...they want to unfold unless you have a nice flat place to work!  I did the ocean part of the folder above balancing the paper on my knees and fighting the wind!  I like the way you can continue an image across the pages, though...

Of course when you get to the end you just flip it over and fill the other side.

Single page FOLDERS

These are a bit more difficult to describe, so I did this little YouTube video to explain how they work.  You can use a full sheet of watercolor paper if you like, that's what I did above!

 

* Nina Johannson, one of our correspondents, did a wonderful post on her blog on this folding technique, which she found and sent me, HERE.  It's clear and beautifully photographed, thank you Nina, I'll add it to our links!

There are lots of other options, of course--I covered these in more detail in the CD I did on Super-Simple bookbinding.  You can find it in the bookbinding links at right if you'd like more information.

And I just realized as I was looking for the Aldren Watson book above that you might like to see this, as well--Bookbinding resources and supplies on Amazon!  I hadn't even thought about being able to get needles, binding thread, bookcloth, glue and more there...