It's that time of year again: Edible Books!

Once again, on April 1st, people all over the globe will be celebrating books by participating in Edible Book Festivals! If you have always wanted to be part of one of these events but do not have a local Edible Book festival to attend, you can be part of the BEST Virtual Edible Book Festival this year. All you have to do, is make your edible book(s), snap a few photos, and upload those photos to the BEST Edible Books Flickr group before 9pm (EDT) on April 1st. You can join the Flickr group and upload your photos here: www.flickr.com/groups/best-edibles-2010 You can read all the details about the event on the BEST blog. Photos will also be posted to the BEST blog and a small panel of judges will pick their favorites!

Marbled Papers

A few more examples of my marbled papers from my last marbling session. I did get past the stones a few times. Starting at the top, these are a "diagonal stripe" with antique spots and a Spanish wave, then the "cathedral" pattern, some sort of "feather" pattern, a "nonpareil" pattern, and a "Gothic" pattern. These patterns may have other names, but these are the names with which I am familiar.

Repurposing materials for patchwork journals

I have finished another batch of journals made from repurposed and reclaimed materials. This time, the materials are the scraps and discards that I create when I make books. The catalyst for this project being the mountain of scrap leather on my floor last week.


So, the covers of these journals are made with small scraps of leather that have been matched and colour coordinated, adhered to a larger piece of leather, trimmed to fit a prepared textblock, then stitched.



The paper used for the pages has all come from the paper recycling bin beside my work table. That includes whatever I found in there, like papers from the computer printer, envelopes, sketchbook covers, paper leftover from other projects, etc. The result is an interesting mix of papers in each book, suitable for art journals or any writer who likes to get creative while journaling. Closures on these journals are made from either strips of leather found in the scrap pile and/or reclaimed buttons. I made eight of these books last week, and sadly, there has been no discernible difference in the size of Leatherscrap Mountain.

The Naked Book: Expose Yourself to Journaling

"The Naked Book honors the technical beauty of book construction with an exhibition of blank, handmade books suitable for use as journals, sketchbooks or other creative gestures. 35 artists from the US, Canada, and even Italy show their books in all their naked glory. Don’t be fooled, though—these blank books are gorgeous and beautifully crafted. All books are available to take home immediately so you can get started adding your own special touches or thoughts to the pages. These books also stand on their own as wonderful pieces of art and craftsmanship."

If you happen to be in Portland, OR be sure to check out 23 Sandy Gallery and The Naked Book exhibit! An online catalogue for this exhibit is available on their website.

Old time recycling

I try to recycle a lot of materials when I'm making books. It's a common trend now, really. As we all know, there were a few decades of excess leading up to the current Reduce, Reuse, Recycle generation. What happened before those decades of excess? Ah, I see, of course they recycled too! Obvious when you think about how the quilts and rugs and such were made. Apparently also true regarding scrapbooks and diaries. My mother works with a local historical society and has transcribed some old dairies and is now digitizing old scrapbooks. She mentioned that some of the diaries were homemade, using brown paper that was stitched together to make a book. These scrapbooks, which belonged to Mrs Burnett, are also very homemade.

This first photo shows a scrapbook made from wallpaper. Large sheets of wallpaper were folded in half and sewn together with string to make a book. These newspaper clippings were collected during the 1940s and 50s so they are aging pretty well. The wallpaper was likely much better quality paper than the newspaper clippings, so that has probably helped.


Before Mrs Burnett made that handy scrapbook from wallpaper, she also used Eaton's catalogues for her newspaper clippings. One of these scrapbook catalogues is from 1925, also aging very well. Check out the price of those full-grain leather workboots - shipping included!


Wallpaper books and Eaton's catalogues, filled to overflowing with newspaper clippings. How's that for some recycling genius?

New marbled papers

I did some marbling last week. Each time that I pull out my marbling gear, I try a wide range of patterns and techniques, but also I will focus on a couple techniques or patterns in an attempt to improve them by doing them over and over. As you can see from the first few pictures here, I did a bunch of free-form curls on stone patterns - with and without antique spots. (Looks simple, but in fact, I find the antique spots very difficult to apply well.) Actually, these are all basically stone patterns - the black one is the Italian Vein variation, and the last one is stones with a spanish wave.

Collecting the mail

I've been collecting used mailing envelopes from a few different sources and recently realized that the collection had grown almost out-of-control. I save the envelopes to make journals, where the envelopes are used as the pages. With my current supply, I was able to make seven journals, with some envelopes left over. So I started with stacks and stacks of these: And finished with these: The covers are decorated with various bits and pieces saved from old mailing materials, like this one which uses a green security pattern for the decorative paper embellished with some clipped postal marks and stamps from Japan. Or in some cases, the embellishments are printed directly onto the envelopes, like this junk mail sweepstakes example. And all of them have envelopes for pages, with all the security patterns, plastic windows, and stamps in tact to make for a very interesting journal-keeping adventure.

Snow Storm Hardcover Journal

I made this journal a couple days ago for the Trans Canada Etsy Team's February Challenge. The theme of the challenge is Snow since we still have lots of it around the country, even if it was scarce for a few days in Whistler! Visit the TCET blog to vote for your favorite item in our snow-inspired challenge (hint: pick "D"!) This journal has a white leather spine and the covers are finished with beautiful Japanese Chiyogami paper that has fine gold and silver bursts that remind me of whirling snow during a blizzard. There are 256 pages of gorgeous snow white cotton paper with torn edges.

And a little more repurposing

I have two more books made from repurposed materials to show you before I move on to other things.

This first one is a hardcover book, using reclaimed bookboard in the covers. The spine material is cut from a discarded pleather jacket. The paper on the covers is from a red paper bag, and the pages are all cut from brown paper bags. (And it's just a pretty red book, very nice to share today on Valentine's Day!)



This next one is made entirely with discarded paper. The cover of the book and slipcase are cut from the cover of a large sketchbook. This is the "Crossed Structure Solo" binding structure. The pages are all from the recycling bin and include previously used papers that are still mostly blank, as well as some lined pages from discarded notebooks, etc.

More repurposed materials for bookbinding

I have a few more items around here that I have made with garbage, er, I mean, repurposed materials. This first photo shows two small tea-bag notebooks, bound using a simple pamphlet stitch. The covers are cut from tea boxes, and the pages are actually the paper wrappers from the tea bags that came in the box. So these two little items were a long time in the making, as I drank my way through all the tea.


I saved all the seed packages after planting our vegetables last year. Some of the seeds came in little boxes and some came in paper envelopes. I transformed the little boxes into notebooks, then I made a cardboard slip case and covered it with the envelopes. Perfect for the gardener who likes to keep track of his veggies!


This next one is a bit odd. I had saved an old calendar that was full of photos of houses. I used the house photos to make this house-shaped book. It is basically an origami house structure, with a hardcover on each end. Not sure what practical purpose this serves, it was just an experiment that didn't come together very well. Old house photos aside, the structure might work well for a special greeting card or as a display format for some kinds of images.


(If you want to make an origami house, check out www.origami-instructions.com.)

Repurposing materials for bookbinding

A while back, I asked Pegg, fiveforty.etsy.com, to help me come up with some ideas for making books with repurposed materials. Pegg is a weaver, and so she wove two book covers for me to play with. This first one is woven plastic - this is the kind of plastic that comes wrapped around products at grocery stores before they are unpacked and shelved. Pegg collected the plastic at her local grocery store, took it home and wove it on her loom. Then I used it to make a photo album. Pegg also made another one for me, using lotto tickets. She cut them into strips, stitched them, then wove them together to make this book cover. It made a very sturdy book cover and I was able to case in a text block (consisting mostly of reclaimed papers in reds and blues) and have a wrap around cover with a button closure. Thanks for working with me on these projects Pegg! Check out Pegg's recycled textile rugs, woven using pre-used sweaters, t-shirts, jeans, etc in her Etsy shop, atFiveForty.Etsy.com.

Thread the needle - followup

So based on that poll I had here last week, most people with a clear opinion, said that the needle should be threaded using the end that was just cut from the spool. Although a clear majority of all respondents seem to be sure that either end of the thread is fine!

But I had a comment from Suzanne, which seems to resolve the issue for me. She said:

Which end you thread from has to do with which direction the twist is in the thread. You want the thread to travel in the direction of twist. BUT you don't have to get all technical and microscopic about it - there's an easy test.

Holding on to one end of the thread, take it between the nails of the thumb and forefinger of the other hand and quickly run down the thread - sort of "stripping" it. If it bunches up - thread from the bottom end, if the thread stays straight, thread from the end you are holding. If you observed which was the spool end - so much the better.

Thank you Suzanne!

Actual poll results:

Thread the needle

I have conflicting information about how to thread a needle. I mean, which end of the thread to put through the eye. To reduce tangles and knotting, of course. For a long time I followed the advice that I should thread my needle using the end that I just cut from the spool. Then I got entirely opposite advice from a knowledgeable individual. But neither of my sources had a very good explanation for their preference. If you have a preference, you can cast a vote in this little poll (edit: poll now closed). If you have insight or explanations, please leave me a comment!

Folding Tools a la Randy Arnold

My bone folder collection is not extensive in comparison to many bookbinders. I have a few rather ordinary bone folders (I think they are all cow bones) and I have one Teflon folder. Thanks to this Christmas present from my mother, I recently expanded my collection to include an ebony folding tool, made by Randy Arnold. So here's my new folder: (Photos by Randy Arnold) Of course, Randy also makes unique boxes for the folders to live in, so my new folder arrived in this: I have already been using it and it is a wonderful tool. It is lightweight but very solid, since ebony is a very dense wood (apparently one of the few kinds of wood that will sink in water, just fyi). Its density also allows ebony to be highly polished and resistant to scratches and such. I took it to a recent dinner with a group of other local bookbinders to show it off and they were all understandably jealous. I'm looking forward to using it in a variety of ways; the reverse side has a thinner end that will be handy for some poking and shaping. Thanks Randy, for making such beautiful and functional tools!

Happy New Year

Somehow it has become 2010 already. The last few weeks have blown by in such haste that I hardly noticed the passage of time. In spite of my near silence here in blogworld and my little hiatus from Etsy over the holidays, I was working on a few things. So until I get some new projects underway, I'll share some books that I did in the Autumn and leading up to the holidays, for customers and friends, which didn't get mentioned here previously.

This custom steampunk journal was made for a writer who wanted a special journal in which to write her own steampunk-style fiction.


A model Nag Hammadi blank book, with exposed papyrus in the covers (although I used some Old Masters paper from Saint-Armand for the pages, rather than papyrus).


Two hardcover autograph books for my niece and nephew who are planning a trip to Disney World.


A red leather journal featuring the High School Musical cast on the inside, a hardcover chain-stitch journal with a soccer motif, a tan leather journal with a bead closure, and a set of box-board notebooks made from a Don Julio Tequila box.


I have big plans for the new year... well, I resolve to finish some of the projects that I started last year, and the year before...