Paper and Book Intensive starts tomorrow

Once again, I'm attending Paper and Book Intensive and it starts tomorrow! It starts early. I have to leave home around 4am to get myself to Michigan on time since the event is being hosted at Ox Bow again this year. I'll be taking classes from Shanna Leino, Steve Pit­telkow, and Maria Fred­er­icks. More details to follow over the next couple weeks!

Some of the buildings at Ox Bow.

Old newspaper and birch bark

Just a couple of the fun journals that I had left over from last weekend's Halifax Crafters Spring market (which was a great time, by the way). First of all, an aged journal with an actual 1936 newspaper on the covers.

And this one, with real birch bark! Ever since the first time I used birch bark, I've been wanting to make books like this more often - the bark is a tricky material, but the result is very satisfying!

Both now available on Etsy.

Halifax Crafters Spring market!

Carbon Free Thinkers Festival in Halifax

Following on the heals of Earth Day, is the Carbon Free Thinkers Festival, here in Halifax tomorrow. The festival includes a youth conference on climate change and sustainability, as well as a market of local green businesses and artisans, demonstrating and selling their work. I'll be there doing some green bookbinding! If you're in Halifax, be sure to stop by the Dalhousie University student union building tomorrow, April 28th.

Today is Earth Day

April 22nd is Earth Day. There are simple little changes we can make that will help ourselves, our environment, and our whole planet. Maybe today is a good day to make a small change to your routine that will help create a healthier environment. Visit http://www.earthday.ca for some suggestions on how to make it happen.

And since it's earth day, here's a little random selection of books I've made from recycled materials, pulled from my Flickr pool. www.flickr.com
(Or you can click to see all the books I have tagged as "recycled.") Tell me if you are making any changes today!

Case Binding Video Tutorial

I get a lot of questions from people who are starting to do some bookbinding and I try to give easy answers; but, technique is something that is hard to describe in an email message. One question I get, is how to case in a textblock and keep the endpapers straight. First of all, practice many times. It's easier the hundredth time. I thought it might be helpful show a video, so here is a clip of me as I case in a text block. If this step is one that you struggle with, maybe you will see something helpful in my technique. No guarantees, though. Sometimes my endpapers are still crooked!

This week: Half Price Sale

Happy Easter and Happy Spring. I'm having a sooper dooper Spring sale and everything is 50% off in my Etsy shop this week. The prices are already reduced on all the ready-to-ship journals.

It's a perfect time to stock up on some gifts! Upcoming gift-giving occasions that you might want to consider:

• Mother's Day
• Teacher's gifts
• Graduation Gifts
• Father's Day
• Really early Christmas shopping?

Also birthdays or paper anniversaries! Journals really work well for any situation. It's true! Visit my shop, MyHandboundBooks, on Etsy before the end of the day on Sunday, April 15th to get 50% off.

Edible Books

The first day of April has been the day for Edible Book Festivals for over a decade, and they happen all over the world. Although I didn't have the pleasure of participating in an event this year, I thought I would share some links to help spread the word about the "edible book"!

International Edible Book Festival main website
http://www.books2eat.com

Photos from Edible Book Festival 2012 - University of Kansas Libraries
www.flickr.com/photos/kulibraries/sets/72157629337861416/with/7029810285

Seattle Edible Book Festival, with photos each year starting in 2005.
www.flickr.com/photos/frybooks

University of Texas at Austin Edible Book Festival, photo galleries since 2005
www.ischool.utexas.edu/~ebf

One of my all time favorites discovered on Flickr a few years ago:
Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Bread

Or just do a quick Google Images Search for Edible Book Festival images. You will find galleries of images from all over the world. For everyone who was fortunate to part of an event this year, I hope it was great fun!

And here are a few I've done in previous years:www.flickr.com

Moving on...

Remember that stack of text blocks? They are finished. Phew. Moving on to new things now.

Congratulations to the Winners

Thank you to everyone who entered Blue Ridge Origami's giveaway. Jeanne is offering a 10% discount on purchases in her shop until April 15th - just use the coupon code MARBLED10 at the checkout!

Two winners have been randomly selected, using a random number generator at Random.org and the first winner is Maegan Morin (comment #7) and the second winner is Dolores (comment #29). Congratulations!

Also, thank you Jeanne for sharing her story and generously offering to have an earring-giveaway here on my blog.

Blue Ridge Origami, peace cranes for Zambia, and a giveaway too!

Last year, I met an origami artist who was looking for marbled paper to use for her origami cranes. The paper that I normally marble is meant for bookbinding, and would be too thick. So I marbled a special batch of lighter-weight papers for Jeanne, of Blue Ridge Origami.

Jeanne started making origami cranes as an inexpensive giveaway for a trade show event, but afterwards took the extra cranes to the hospice where she works. There, the cranes were given to patients and families where they became very popular and much appreciated. Jeanne also told me that several years ago, her hospice "adopted" the country of Zambia. She said, "we have been working hard since then, fundraising, educating, etc. The first trip to Zambia was made by my boss, our Chief Medical Officer, and our VP of Clinical Ops, an RN. With them went over 50 cranes, which flatten nicely and don't take up much room or weight in a suitcase. Today many of those cranes hang in a children's play room at the main hospital in Lusaka, Zambia. Many made out of Rhonda's beautiful marbled paper."



She has also refined her skills to make tiny cranes, as small as 1 inch! These tiny cranes are perfect for earrings and she's also started making other tiny origami figures like stars and flutes. Now she makes origami earrings to sell at craft fairs and on Etsy, donating some of the proceeds to the Zambia fund raising efforts.

I am really impressed with these tiny origami figures she's making. I've done some folding, but I know my fingers cannot manipulate paper so small! Also, learning about her efforts to support medical assistance in Zambia makes her peace cranes even more special. I'm glad I was able to contribute a few unique sheets of marbled paper for her to use.

A Giveaway!

When I asked Jeanne if I could feature her origami work on my blog, she graciously agreed, and generously offered to giveaway two pairs of earrings to my blog readers! There will be two winners, selected randomly. The first winner can pick a pair of earrings from Jeanne's shop (up to $18 value). The second winner can pick a pair of earrings from her shop (up to $15 value). Shipping will be free to USA and Canada.

There are two ways to get your name into the draw. If you do both, your name will go into the draw twice. First, you can visit her Etsy shop (www.etsy.com/shop/BlueRidgeOrigami) and decide which pair of earrings you would pick if you win. Come back here and leave a comment, including a link to the earrings you like. Second, you can visit Jeanne on Facebook (www.facebook.com/BlueRidgeOrigami). "Like" her page, then have a look at her wall posts where she shows some of her earrings, and "like" your favorite. Then come back here to my blog and leave me a comment to tell me about it.

When you leave your comment(s) here on my blog, be sure there is a way for me to contact you if you win.

Enter before March 24th (midnight) to get your name in the draw. Winners will be posted here on Sunday, March 25th.

An Amazing Paper Swap

In January, I signed up for a paper swap with nine other marblers from around the world. Barb Skoog, organized this swap (thank you!) and I'm so glad that I decided to participate. I'm still relatively new to marbling and I really appreciate the work of other marblers. Each marbler has his/her own style and I will never tire of seeing other people's work. But, as Barb so wonderfully explained on her blog, it is one thing to see pictures of other marbling, and it is entirely another thing to have an actual physical sheet of marbled paper in one's hands to feel and examine closely.

To do a paper swap, just means that each participant sends a sheet of paper to each of the other participants. There were ten people participating, so I sent out paper to the other nine people. And I received nine in return (actually, eight marbled papers and one piece of marbled fabric). Marbled treats in the mail! Each of the participants have kindly given me permission to share photos of their marbling here on my blog.

(c)Robyn Drew

(c)Yehuda Miklaf
www.yehudamiklaf.com

(c)Sue Cole

(c)Marc Horovitz

(c)Barb Skoog
www.barbskoog.com

(c)Kathryn Fanelli

(c)Elin Noble
www.ElinNoble.com

(c)Dolores Guffey

(c)Louise Brockman
www.brockmanbookbinders.org

Visit Barb Skoog's blog to see the nine papers that she received - all different than the ones I just showed you, and all equally amazing!

Marbling Demo

I'm a little late sharing this, but here it is. On January 26th, I did a paper marbling demo for a local television show. Here I am, hoping that the carageenan size didn't get too sad during it's early morning, and very cold, journey from my house to the tv studio. Before the live demo, I had to set up the materials on a rolling counter, near the back door with a nice cold draft coming in. Not ideal conditions for marbling in a shallow pan! But, everything turned out fine.

Stacked up

Apologies for the blogging drought. This is all that I have to show for it right now...fifty-five textblocks and 110 cover boards for a set of books that need to be finished in the next couple weeks...

Hoping to wrap up this project soon so I can move onto even more fun things!

Leather Journals with tea-stained pages

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2012, and here's to another year full of books and book-related things everywhere!!

I have another batch of leather journals made with tea-stained pages. Each has a snug tab closure, and are bound onto thongs that create the gorgeous spine bands.


Available on Etsy, burgundy and honey are listed now - the other colours are also available, I just need more photographs of them - and it's too cold outside today!