Getting ready for 2022

For those of you, or your friends, who still like to keep an agenda on your desk! These 2022 desk planners look super classy and they're also very practical. (Available on Etsy.)

Each one features my own, original marbled paper on the covers. The spine and corners are faux leather. Inside, a monthly calendar for 2022 with a two-page spread for each month on brownish paper, with a few extra pages for personal info, contacts, notes, etc.

Recent Workshops

Seems like I should start every blog post apologizing for such long delays between posts! At the moment, I've just come to post a bit about some of the workshops I've been conducting recently. Last week, I taught a workshop called "Tricky Books and Boxes." We made a little video to demonstrate the tricky boxes.


For the tricky books, we started with a few little structures that involve mostly folding and a little bit of cutting. There was a one-sheet folded book, a non-cyclic tetra-hexa-flexagon, a little woven accordion that opens two different ways, and a panel book. For the panel book, we used a template created by Cathryn Miller of Byopia Press, which she has posted to her blog and she kindly permitted me to share it with everyone in my workshop.

After all that, we also made a Jacob's Ladder book.

And the last book we made was this, which I'd seen on Alisa Golden's blog, for which she includes the name "Flat-Style Australian Reverse Piano Hinge" binding. It is also basically the same as a technique I learned from Emma Fraser, who lives in Scotland, and we named her book the "Secret Scottish Rubbish Binding" since we were using repurposed papers at the time. So this structure has some international representation.

Making a book in 6 videos

I made a few little videos while I was making a book. These videos don't show every single step in the process, of course, but it hits the high spots. The file compression was a bit much, I think, so the quality is fuzzy. Maybe someday I'll try it again and see if I can make better-looking footage!

Craft Nova Scotia Virtual Pop-up Market

In lieu of the traditional in-person craft shows, Craft Nova Scotia has been working extra hard to promote its members during this past year. Thank you, Craft NS!

Right now, and until May 5th, CraftNS is hosting a virtual pop-up market with a curated selection of work from its members. Here are a few of my own items that are included in this collection. Click on these photos for full descriptions, more photos, and purchasing!

Hardcover Journal

Hardcover Notebook

Tiny Leather Journals

You can have a look at the whole collection here, and maybe find something for yourself, or for your mom perhaps! Visit the Virtual Pop-up.

Craft Pays Me podcast

Recently I had a great conversation with Duane Jones, host of the Art Pays me podcast, for episode 5 of the Craft Pays Me series. (Seriously, I used Zoom for the first time, to do this!) The podcast is available at https://artpaysme.com/

About the Craft Pays Me series:
In response to the current global crisis, Craft Nova Scotia's current focus is on how to make use of available digital technologies to help maintain and grow the craft industry on a regional level. Our goal is to facilitate online showcases, and to assist our members in reaching national and international audiences through innovative use of online marketing and social media platforms. Working with content creator Duane Jones, who currently produces a podcast called “Art Pays Me”, we are excited to be producing a mini-series of craft-focused podcasts using Duane's expertise.

The "Craft Pays Me" podcast will include six episodes, produced bi-weekly in January through March 2021. We will introduce six craftspeople from varying backgrounds, and representing a cross section of mediums (wood, metal, glass, leather, clay, textiles, stone & bone, and visual art) and skill levels, from emerging, mid-career, and master artisan levels.

Previous episodes are also online, and the sixth and final episode will be available in two weeks. Find all of them at https://artpaysme.com/

Designer Craft Shop Online

Craft Nova Scotia has launced a sparkly new online shop at DesignerCraftShop.ca. I'm happy to have some of my handmade leather journals available there. Currently there are about a dozen juried members of Craft Nova Scotia with work now available to purchase through this new online shop and it continues to grow!

Currently available from MyHandboundBooks:

Old Spine Linings

I like finding interesting things in the spines of old books. Of course, after sewing a textblock there is often paper glued to the spine and it is entirely invisible once the book has been cased. I've taken workshops over the years where much fuss is made about what to use for spine linings and how some types of paper are perfect for this purpose and others are not. That is certainly true sometimes and hand binders can take the time to think about that nowadays, I suppose. Though, evidently, in commercial binderies a hundred years ago, when full editions of books were being made by hand, they used whatever paper they had for the spine linings and it was not unusual to use offcuts or scraps from the bin. So, we often find printed material in there when we're repairing books now. A few lines from The Winter's Tale, why not!