Just a Note...

...to respond to several of your comments.

The journals I've been making recently are just for myself, basically.  I don't want to part with any of them at the moment.  If this changes in the future, i.e. if I post them for sale somewhere, I'll let you know.

Also, I appreciate your comments about my giving an online class or classes.  Unfortunately I am not set up to produce videos of my work and/or me working, so I have no plans to create and market online classes.  Sorry.  But thanks for asking.

Have a great weekend.  xo

Totally Carried Away

I just finished this book...for the second time.  I bought it early this year for the cover, plus it had a cool spine.  My first attempt at making it into a journal was completed yesterday.  It was originally sewn on ribbon tapes which weren't visible because of the spine.  But I kept looking at it last night...I didn't like the way it went together inside.  So after a couple hours, I just ripped it apart.  Originally there were four signatures of six folios.

The book wasn't in the greatest shape to begin with ~ I think was from the very early 1900s ~ and I subsequently couldn't save the spine.  Once I'd decided to rebuild it with Coptic stitch binding, I decided to add two signatures, which proved unnecessary.  Consequently the finished book is really fat and doesn't stay closed without a black velvet ribbon.  Which is just fine.  Plus, the pages are slightly wider than the covers...oh well.

Anyway, the finished specs are these ~ 144 pages (6 signatures of 6 folios each), 11 foldouts and 23 pockets.  I definitely got carried away on this one. 

Another New Journal

I finished this guy yesterday.  I just love the original cover.  The journal is 5-1/4 x 7-3/4 inches, has 96 pages (6 signatures, 4 folios each), 18 pockets and 7 foldouts.

The binding is a modified long stitch.  Although it appears to be a version of a 2-section X stitch (two sections, or signatures, stitched in at the same time), in reality each section was sewn in individually, with knots made on every second section.  I.E., the thread on the 2nd, 4th and 6th sections was wrapped around the thread on the 1st, 3rd and 5th sections.

Hope you have a great week...and a lovely Thanksgiving if you're in the States.  xo

A Green Gold Anniversary

I'm working on a green and gold book, an old one I'm making into a journal.  This morning I printed a variety of green cardstock papers with metallic green-gold paints.

Today BeeGee and I are celebrating our 10-year anniversary together.  He's been my partner, my soulmate, the love of my life since 2004.  Actually, I had two other kitties when BeeGee joined the family, but as of late 2006 he's been my one and only.  We're happy as clams together.

BeeGee's irises aren't really turquoise ~ it just looks that way in the photo.

More great recent reads:  Faithful Place, the third in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series ~ fantastic book.  Fault Lines by Nancy Huston.  I'm currently reading Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl ~ this was her debut novel, and it's terrific.  I'm two books further on in the Inspector Lynley series; will begin Playing for the Ashes soon.  I read May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes recently and have another one of hers on my stack from the library.

Hope you're having a good weekend.  xo

Sons of the Hurricane

Hot off the press...another Coptic stitch book just finished. This was one of the few books I got at the Eureka Library sale late last month.

This journal is 9-1/8 x 5-5/8 inches, has 128 pages (8 signatures with 4 folios each), 19 pockets and 3 foldouts.  Red is not a color I usually gravitate toward but I really liked the cover art.  I used up all my red collages on this one.

Fourth image down is the inside back cover and back page of the last signature.  I didn't realize until I took the photos just now that both of the collages I'd done used pieces of the same original NatGeo photo.  And here I lined them up without even thinking about it.  Pretty interesting.

The 19 pockets in this journal include two like this ~ small envelopes stitched on as page extensions. This is something else you can do to create hidden places in books, as well as just using envelopes as folios by themselves.

I'm really enjoying this bookmaking roll that I'm on.  There's something so satisfying about making a journal, about turning something old and useless into something with a purpose.

Have a great week!  xo

Nooks and Crannies

Here are a slew of images of stitched-on pockets from my two recent books.  The last three are totally new ideas I had the other day, making pockets out of page extensions.  You can make a pocket out of anything ~ just stitch (or glue) around three edges and leave the top open.  Or stitch two edges of a corner-mounted pocket and leave the diagonal edge open.

Have a great weekend.  xo

Album-Style Journal

Here's the latest book ~ an album-style journal (horizontal orientation) measuring 5-1/4 x 8-1/4 inches.  The boards are from a regular book (vertical format) with nondescript covers, that I recovered with hand dyed cotton sateen.  The tapes are doubled pieces of the same fabric, fused together with WonderUnder to give the tapes more body.

There are six signatures of four folios each, or 96 pages.  Included are 17 pockets and 13 foldouts.  Additionally, many pages have extensions sewn on.  That's one of the things I like about horizontal journals ~ you have to add extensions on many of the pages to build out the width.

Pages include collages, cardstock, printed transparencies, and illustrations from a Dover book of William Morris patterns.

The first books I made with Sewn On Tapes, which I learned originally in an online class, had the signatures glued together.  The instructor said that was necessary to get the book to hold together.  But gluing the signatures is completely unnecessary.  I only wish I'd followed my inclination not to do that on those earlier books, because each of those has very heavy glued-together pages that detract, in my opinion anyway, from the book's beauty.  Another lesson in: there are no absolutes in bookbinding and no set ways of doing anything.

I'm really happy with those book.  It fulfills all my personal requirements for an excellent, beautiful hand bound book.

Print Storm

These are just some of the transparencies and sheets of cardstock that I printed recently.  Mostly I used Lumiere metallic paints.

Yesterday I stitched all the folios for my current book-in-process.  This book will have a ton of pockets and foldouts.  All that's left now is the binding.

Very Maxfield Parrish

A Maxfield Parrish sky the other evening.  Or was this in the morning?  I don't remember, except I'm usually not up early enough to catch the sunrises, and I face west besides.  Anyway, beautiful clouds, whatever time of day it was.

Yesterday I printed on transparency sheets with acrylic paints, and will do another session of same tomorrow.  I love making pockets in books with my own transparencies.  I'll post some of those next week.  These are in preparation for a few books in the works or on the drawing board. 

I've been spending a lot less time online lately...and aha!, I'm being a lot more creative now.  Lots going on today ~ a visit to my hairdresser to have my mane thinned, a stop at SCRAP in Arcata, a local book artist's studio-closing sale in Blue Lake, a schmooze at a donor open house given by Miranda's Rescue in Trinidad (Miranda's is in Fortuna), and lastly a stop at a dear friend's home/studio in Trinidad before heading home.

Have a great weekend.  xo 

One For The Books

This is my kind of handbound journal, finished yesterday.  An old kids' primer newly bound with the Coptic stitch.  The book is 7-3/4 high by 6-1/2 wide.

Half of the folios are pieces of my old collages, the rest are drawing paper, cardstock and other scrapbook paper.  The book contains pockets galore, 14 of them in different sizes, shapes and materials, all of which were stitched on.  There are also a few foldouts.

This is bookmaking at its finest, to me, my own take on it ~ a variety of papers some blank and some not, page colors analogous to the covers, machine-stitched pages and pockets.

I may actually be on a bit of a roll at the moment.  I loved making this book.  There are more, in different styles, to follow.

Have a great week!  xo

Just Now...

Skies over Fortuna, mere moments ago.  I love our cloudscapes here. 

Spent the last two days with zero computer time at all, and loved it.  I'll be doing a lot more of that.  Really, there's not much online that I want anymore.  I just want to be alone, on my own, following my own rhythms, rhymes and reasons.  All that sharing I did here recently seemed to give me even more permission to live my life exactly the way I want to.  Lord knows I've earned that right.