Edible Books 2009

Everyone is invited to Edible Books 2009 with BEST! Every year on April 1st, the Edible Book festival is held in various locations around the world. Anyone can hold and event and register with the main organization (books2eat.com). This year I've initiated a virtual Edible Book festival with BEST, the Bookbinding Etsy Street Team. We are inviting participation from anyone who is interested, you do not need to be a member of the team to join the fun. All the details are posted here: www.etsybooks.blogspot.com Entries can be submitted any time before April 1st. Photos are starting to appear here in our Flickr group - where you can also upload your photos when your book is ready! www.flickr.com/groups/best-edibles-2009 I've been looking through some of online galleries from previous events and found a couple new favorites. Frankenstein is one of my favorite books already, and now it's also one of my favorite edible books! This is from the Loganberry Books website, their 2004 event.

Pita Pan! Another great one. I found this example on the website for the Hong Kong edible book festival, from their 2007 event.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Today I was disappointed to realize that I had such a poor selection of green items available in my shops. Obviously I have not been planning ahead very well. But there have been lots of green things pass through my studio in the past couple years, so I collected a bunch of photos to show by way of the Flickr badge.

Now that I've been fighting with the Flickr badge for an hour, I've decided it is the least versatile badge of its kind! After tweaking the code, I have it sitting there somewhat happily. But it will not, it just will NOT align to the top. Why does it insist on sitting down there? Perhaps this is a combined Blogger/Flickr problem becasue I'm also using a table to format this post and that is not Blogger's favorite thing. Anyway, what bugs me the most about the badge, is that the photos can only be displayed in a single line - either in a column or a row. I really wanted to do a 3x3 grid... it would have been easier to just make one from scratch but after investing an hour a couple hours into the badge, I will leave it! Happy green day :)

A few updates

Let's see, what did I do this week? MyHandboundBooks now has its own life on Facebook. All the cool kids are doing it. You can become a fan of MyHandboundBooks: www.facebook.com Flashlight Worthy Earlier this week, I prepared a reading list for Flashlight Worthy Books, if you are looking for suggestions. There are lots of great suggestions on this website: www.flashlightworthybooks.com

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And I booked my flight to Michigan for PBI 2009!

Underwater linocut

I recently made an underwater lino cut, well, it is an underwater scene, of course I didn't make it underwater... And I used it on the cover of these notebooks. I found some fun single section sewings in Keith Smith's book "1, 2, & 3 Section Bindings" and these notebooks are made using a modified version of a sewing he describes. I've also used some of my other linocuts for making notebook covers too. I used another sewing from Smith's book for the bright orange & pink notebooks and the brown & black ones. The little pink notebooks have a simple 3-hole pamphlet binding.

What colour is this?

When I add new journals to my Etsy shop, I try to include colour descriptors that are meaningful, using words that might help people envision the colours accurately in spite of the unreliability of computer monitors around the world. So the leather isn't just brown, it is dark chocolate. Or it is not just green, it is jade. That sort of thing. Now. I have this leather. It is kinda beige or maybe sand. But it has darker areas. It is sorta distressed but not really. I can't think of any clever colour descriptors. What do you think?

The Art of the Book '08

There are not many opportunities to visit book art exhibits around here, but the travelling exhibit for The Art of the Book '08 stopped by for a while and I was able to get there before they packed up last week. This juried exhibition marked the 25th anniversary of the The Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild.

Check the Exhbition Schedule to see if it will be coming to your town.

Check the online exhibit on the CBBAG website.

Of course they wouldn't let me fondle the books or take pictures of them. And many were in protective cases so I couldn't drool on them either. I particularly like the books from Erin Ciulla, Paul Johnson, Mira Coviensky, Cathy Berg, Don Taylor, Anna Embree, Robin Muller, Helga Hobday and the papers of Judith Welbourn and Robert Wu and lots more... I meant to just list a few... but of course they are all terrific. Check it out.

More marbling

When Nick was doing his demonstration the other day, I was also doing some more marbling. Still having some problems finding the right paper. Lots of papers are treated with certain chemicals to make them archival, acid-free, etc. All these things can make bad marbling paper... silly me, I thought that I could put alum on just about any paper and that would make it work. Not quite! Back when marbling was being developed the papers were wonderfully unrefined in comparison, much better for marbling! Anyway. There are still some papers that will work... until they change their recipes... so the paint isn't sliding off every sheet I try. Some of my results from last week...

Marbling - A Demonstration - by Nick (age 4)

This is what happens when you leave your marbling materials out all over the place and the kid wants to know how you made those pretty papers.

Step one. Apply apron. Assure him that it is not pink, it is "salmon".
Step two. Skim the surface of the bath.


Step three. Apply first colour.


Step four. Apply additional colours.


Step five. Stir and rake.


Step six. Comb then stir a little more.


Step seven. Have the assistant lay the paper, pull it off, and rinse.
Step eight. Admire the results.


Repeat, ad infinitum, or until the kid hears the The Wiggles show starting.

Tonight's papers

I just spent the evening doing some marbling. I didn't really get much done since I discovered some of the paper I had prepared for marbling was unsuitable and I wasted several sheets. It is sad when a marble pattern runs right off the paper! But I was able to save a few from disaster...so here we are, results of my first marbling session of 2009...need more practice, need more room, need a marbling studio separate from bookbinding studio, need better paper, need someone to clean up after me, etc etc etc

Freedom To Read

"All persons in Canada have the fundamental right, as embodied in the nation's Bill of Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to have access to all expressions of knowledge, creativity and intellectual activity, and to express their thoughts publicly. This right to intellectual freedom, under the law, is essential to the health and development of Canadian society." Taken from the Canadian Library Association's statement on intellectual freedom.


February 22-28 is "Freedom To Read Week" in Canada. It is an annual event, ongoing now for 25 years, meant to encourage Canadians to think about and reaffirm our commitment to intellectual freedom which is guaranteed to us under our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

If you are in Canada, then it is very likely that your local library is hosting events this week to recognize Freedom to Read Week. You can also check the website at www.freedomtoread.ca.

Read more about censorship, freedom of expression, challenged books, and historic bannings and burnings.

Occasionally a bit of censorship just makes me laugh out loud: In the 1980s, during a examination of school learning materials, the London County Council in England banned Beatrix Potter's children's classics, The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny, from all London schools because the stories portrayed only "middle-class rabbits."

Spanish Ledger Replica

I was asked if I could make a blank book in the same manner as a particular limp vellum ledger binding from 1670, which can be viewed online at the Conservation Studies website for the University of Texas at Austin. Of course, I said yes.

Using an old parchment document for the cover (above), I was able to make a very old-looking replica.


On the original book, the decorative stitching was most likely done with narrow alum tawed strips; but, lacking a source of alum tawed skin, I used pigskin leather for the loop and toggle, and artificial sinew for the stitching.


For the blank pages inside, I used Old Master paper from Saint-Armand. Needless to say, that project ranks among my most favorite. If only I could have kept the finished book for myself...but alas it is gone off to the person who commissioned it. But I wish I got more requests like that.

Origami Hearts and a Valentine's Day Sale

Happy Valentine's Day! I found some online instructions for Origami hearts and made a few with some of my pink Suminagashi papers. The Origami Club has several Valentine projects including these winged hearts shown here as well as some little gift boxes and heart-shaped pockets and ornaments. I also found this video showing how to fold a double heart shape that is cute. Lots of last minute Valentine cards and gift box ideas if you need them!

And - the red and pink books in my Etsy shop are 25% off today only, just for Valentine's Day.

Suminagashi meets Crayola

It has been almost a year since I did any Suminagashi marbling but I finally got some new inks and pulled out all the stuff last week. So as you can see, I was dropping Boku Undo inks right beside a Crayola marker artist.

Very simply stated, Suminagashi is a very old Japanese paper marbling technique. If you are interested in a little more detail, check out these sites:

www.suminagashi.com
www.silverdragonstudio.com/sumi-e/sumnag.html

Or get a copy of this book:
"Suminagashi" by Anne Chambers

So as I said, I had not done this for almost a year. And I had some trouble finding the right paper that would accept the inks well. And I diluted my colours a bit too much. Practice, practice... But here are a few decent results.




I should also add a couple links for purchasing supplies and kits:
Colophon Book Arts
Diane Maurer
Society of Marbling links

Margarita Journals

The first crossed structure binding that I ever made was the CSB Solo, and it is still one of my favorites. It works best with a paper cover rather than leather, so I don't make it as often as some of the others. But I recently got some new Saint-Armand handmade papers which are perfect for making the covers. I've used creamy Mohawk Superfine text paper for the pages and attached pretty ribbon bookmarks too. I'm calling these my margarita journals, since the colours reminded me of margaritas... Blue Curacao, Lemon Lime, Strawberry, and Green Iguana.

It really is my favorite

This hardcover pamphlet binding. It really is my favorite to make. Two small notebooks with Japanese fabric on the covers, and leather spines. This one has an orange leather spine and a photograph of a tranquil Japanese scene on the covers: lots of bamboo screens and low tables and a waterfall in the background. This book has mixed papers for the pages, similar to the next three shown here. These three books all have fabric on the covers that I have backed with mulberry paper to make book cloth. The blue and pink books have book cloth on their spines; the black & white book has a leather spine. These books also have mixed papers inside including handmade papers, cardstock, plain and lined papers, decorative papers, and even some illustrations salvaged from an old story book that was falling apart.