Halloween

Just a belated Halloween post. I decided last minute that I should get in the holiday spirit and dress up for work on Halloween. I had a limited budget, and limited time, but I had a headband, felt, eyeliner pencil, and two 3-month old kittens for inspiration, so I went as a cat.

Intermediate Bookbinding: Week 6

This past Wednesday we had a busy class, repairing torn pages in our disbound books, sawing cords, sewing on a sewing frame, and whatnot. I was busy until a half hour after class officially ended and wasn't able to take as many photos as normal but here's a wrap up of what was done:

These hands belong to my classmates, Kate and Tina

 Before getting started we allowed ourselves several (well, many) minutes to touch and admire the leather samples our instructor Juliayn brought in. The verdict: calf skin is the softest and the samples that look like mini hides, while cute, are also somewhat disturbing.

Before getting down to the business of sawing and sewing, we needed to map out the old sewing stations from our books and then choose new ones.

After sawing holes for the cords, we each had to rig up a sewing frame (setting up a sewing frame is really hard, after 15 minutes of struggling on my own I had to call over Juliayn for help), and start sewing. And yes, for all you astute bookbinders reading this entry, I forgot to make my square knot after the second section, but don't worry, I fixed it later on.

Now that both books are sewn together, I feel like I'm actually headed somewhere with all this rebinding...so exciting!

After entertaining my class with a story of how I had Shakespeare's sonnet 116 recited at my marriage ceremony, my classmate Kate gave me this book to rebind next. I've never been so happy and intimidated in my life!  

Journals Galore!

Though I've been making simple book structures for years, in 2011 I learned how to bind multiple signature hard cover books. As a result of this new skill, I got my first-ever commissioned job and I've decided that all my relatives will get journals for the holidays. Here's a chronicle of the journals I've been making over the past few weeks.

 All books start out as folded paper

My friend's daughter is a freshman in college and enjoys journaling so I was asked to make a journal for her. I got to use bright colored and patterned materials, which made this project a lot of fun.

First, all the pages had to be trimmed down,

then they were sewn together. I used a link stitch so the spine was a bit wider, in case anything was going to be glued inside in the future.

I added bright end bands and a marker ribbon for added flare.

After lining the spine, it was time to make the cover...

The spine cloth and corners get added first. My friend asked that the spine and corners were different, to maximize the colors on the book.

Some grey hounds tooth, Japanese paper completed the cover.

All that was left was to glue in the book block and voila, a finished journal. (the newsprint hanging over the edges was a temporary blotter to absorb the moisture from the glue)

While I was shopping for materials for this journal, I found some other great papers and couldn't resist buying them and putting them to use in books for my relatives.

Sewing the yellow argyle book

Yay, argyle journal complete!

I had some leftover orange book cloth so I decided to make a shiny green and orange journal.

I think the turned-in corners look like fish tails!

The finished book...

with some hot pink end sheets as a nice surprise when the book is opened.

Homemade Holiday

Because Christmas is on a weekend this year, I have extra days off from work which means that I was able to put a little more homemade love into things this time around. 

Stockings:

Since we're staying in San Francisco this year, my in-laws mailed us our gifts. We each got a lot of stocking stuffers...but no stockings. For our wedding I was gifted a sewing machine but, being extremely accident prone, I have been afraid to use it. The need for stockings made me overcome my fears. I found a free pattern online, figured out how to thread the machine (thank goodness for the automatic threader) and set to work.

Charlie's stocking

my stocking

Wrapping paper:

Every year Charlie goes all out on some crazy and creative gift wrapping. I was having trouble coming up with creative ways to wrap but, since we have to much paper around the house, it seemed silly to buy wrapping paper; so I busted out the rubber stamps and some plain drawing paper and set to work making patterns and then wrapping gifts.

Charlie loves cooking so most of his gifts are for the kitchen; this stamp seemed like the perfect thing to use