Look, I made a Book!

The last three weeks have been exhausting: My plan had been to finish with 346 before I start my writing course, but of course that didn’t happen. Actually I am still not finished, which means I fail the deadline for the Exhibition in Venice where I wanted to enter it. Then there was half-term, and I had to work with the children around, or rather it meant working a lot at night.

Currently I am waiting for a delivery of board, which is really frustrating, because I was told they would ship via courier in 2-3 days (not cheap, but no choice regarding the courier service), and I have been waiting for  a whole week now. I am still finishing rather important bits and bops for the models (like the bed), and I am undecided about such things like the cover art. – So that I can not really put all the blame on them for me not finishing.

The writing course itself is good, but very time intensive, and my idea of walking a lot, writing in cafes and maybe making some prints in between did not come true. Instead I am writing a bit in the morning, remember that I still have to ship things or fix things in my etsy shop, then try to add a detail to the model and -how did that happen?! – it is already time to pick up the kids from school again.

During the week I got a commission for making a slim leather journal for my customer to fill it with poetry. Not that I have a lot of time on my hands, but I decided to take it on just to make something else for a change.

It is a 2-quire binding, each signature is attached with two pamphlet stitches on top and bottom individually. The soft leather is lined with an Italian paper, and for a closure I added a buckle upon request of my customer. Although it looks cute, I myself prefer wrap-around closures. And anyway, while I was at it, I made another journal with the same materials:

This one is a 5-section binding, a slot binding by Keith Smith. I had never tried this specific technique, and it was great fun to make some books again, – and try something new!

This piece of leather had a hole in it, and I used it to show off some of the lining paper: I placed the hole over the paper and arranged it such that it is showing what I want to show through. I marked with a pencil the rim of the hole, and then cut out the piece of paper close to the line (which I erased again). Then I put a tiny bit of paste on the leather around the hole and put the paper piece down in it. Then the whole sheet of lining paper was glued up and put down onto it.