Before moving to Texas, I had several full-sized sheets of paper stored in a flat box under my bed. Knowing it would be hard to keep them from crumpling during the move, I went ahead and tore each paper down to fold into folios for sketchbooks. Much easier to pack!
The 3 smaller books shown here are filled with BFK Rives with some toned Stonehenge. These papers were simply folded and torn down, ending with journals measuring roughly 6 x 8". After the move, I found the marbled paper at Jerry's Artarama in Austin and thought it would make nice covers. Bookcloth for spines was from leftovers in my stash. For added protection, I coated these sketchbooks with Liquitex matte gel after they were finished. I also found the toned sheets of Stonehenge at Jerry's, which I added for variety.
The leather-wrapped journal's paper, Kilimanjaro 140# watercolor paper from Cheap Joe's, was sewn directly into the leather using hand-dyed silk threads that show in the spine. I had a piece of soft leather in my stash so I thought "why not?". Haven't tried binding one like this before. (The leather thong tie was donated by Bill --- it came on a cowboy-style hat he bought here in Texas.)
Oh these are awesome! I really love the leather one! Making your own sketchbooks is so much fun!
ReplyDeleteVicky your journals are beautifully done!!! And the leather one is exceptional!!! I've done some bookbinding using Readers Digest condensed books for the covers and sometimes I save the illustrations from inside the book and add them to my folios. Thanks for sharing your beautiful work!!
ReplyDeleteThat marbled paper makes a beautiful journal cover!
ReplyDeleteThese are beautiful, Vicky! Your work is so precise and clean!
ReplyDeleteMy thanks to each of you for your comments!
ReplyDeleteDorothy, the first journals I made were using covers from old discarded books. Love how they turn out, especially those with intriguing titles.
Each one of these have their own flaws. The leather one's holes were placed wrong and 2 of the case-bound book blocks had to be removed and reglued when they would not open correctly --- leaving messy inside covers. The other case-bound book's thread snapped after binding. Never had linen thread break like that before! I had to glue the inside edges of those sections together to prevent the rest of the sewing from coming apart, leaving those pages not opening all the way.
I love your new journals, but I have to admit the leather one is my favorite. I've wanted to make one like that for a long, long time. Hoping some day to be able to have some income so that I can make one. :) Thank you for the inspiration. :) <3
ReplyDeleteTiffany, there really wasn't much expense for the leather-bound journal. I was at a glass & upholstery shop, chatting with the shop girl who knew I was a sketcher. She let me go through some leather scraps leftover from jobs --- let me keep the piece used for this cover for free since they could not use it. The 2 full sheets of watercolor paper were inexpensive from Cheap Joe's and I used just a bit from one skein of embroidery silk to sew the pages in.
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