20 July 2010

my new stash

I just finished binding a few more artist sketchbooks. In good time, as I am on the last pages of the purchased Lama Li Journal used in the past few months.

These are made of a variety of papers I had on hand, plus a few purchased while I was in Texas. Watercolor papers are hard to find locally for journals. They must be either mail-ordered (a problem because most places require a 10 sheet minimum; it takes only 2 sheets to make one journal), or picked up while traveling. The only brand sold in Wichita is Arches, which does not fold well for binding.

The square multi-print book is made up of a combination of Stonehenge All Media paper, purchased in pad form, and Mi-Teintes toned paper. This particular pad of paper has the grain running across the pad, making it easy to fold each sheet to make up folios. Since I wanted this journal to be square, there was a leftover piece from each page which was used for the small red landscape journal.

Before beginning, I planned out the journals in my present journal. Later as I worked, I added a snip of the papers used for each one; hopefully this will be a good reminder for next time. The square red journal was made at a friend's request; I gave it to her before remembering to take a photo of it.

This time I tried a new way of sewing the folios together, using more of a running stitch with cloth tapes. But I've decided that I prefer using a coptic stitch. Seems to be much sturdier. I still glue a reinforcement bit of loosely woven cloth to the spine that takes the place of the cloth tapes.

The colored paper used to cover a couple of these is a handmade paper found at a blueprint - drafting supply shop in Wichita. The rest are using various scrap-booking papers. I would like to add some kind of embellishment or graphic work on the front of the others, but can't seem to come up with any creative ideas right now.

9 comments:

  1. What a great post Vicky! Thanks for sharing.
    :-)

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  2. Wonderful... I saw the picture on Flickr and thought I'd find out here where you bought these journals... lo and behold... you MADE THEM!!! They look fabulous... I'm sure you're going to love them.

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  3. I drool over hand-bound sketchbooks! One day...I keep saying that!

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  4. The construction is not perfect, but the paper is my own choice. Worth the effort!

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  5. Oh these are fabulous! You live close to Wichita, Kansas? I'm originally from Kansas! Marva

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  6. Hi, Marva! I grew up in Wichita and now live in El Dorado.

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  7. Vicky, I grew up in Colby, clear out in the northwest corner, and now live in Colorado Springs! :D Marva

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  8. Colorado Springs is glorious, isn't it?

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