Have I Mentioned I Love Paper?

I love paper. It makes me so happy to look over and see my stack of paper in the corner. It would make me happier to have some safe place to put it (paper drawer donations welcome), but I think I'll be fine for a little while.

 

I love marbled paper. So. Much. I marbled all of the papers in the picture above, except for the brown and blue one five in from the left. I'm not very good at it, but it's so fun! I get a sick thrill out of the messy, slimy, gooey water mixture (what's the moss stuff called, carrageen?), and the way you inevitably get little spots of color all over yourself. I love the whole messy process. I will definitely be marbling in the future.

 

My other love is lokta paper. I think I may be crazy, but I just have to use it with my books! The more I can use it the better. It works great for end papers or covers, it has beautiful texture, and I love the way it feels.

So now I'm thinking this is a weird thing to post about, so I'm going to try and distract you from my weirdness by telling you that I posted the braided cords book in my Etsy shop. I'm also working on another book right now that I'll put up tomorrow.

And! We're moving. We really love the area and apartment we're in right now, but it's a little ways out from campus. We've been looking for somewhere closer for a while, just so we don't have so much of a commute. We found the place over the weekend, and if everything turns out alright, we'll be moving at the end of the month. Yay! I have a love hate relationship with moving. It's such a hassle, but I love reorganizing. Ahh! I'm turning into my mother! Anyways, I'd love to be able to buy a house and settle down, not move for a while. Sigh, one more year of school.

Braids (continued)

I finished the braided cord bound book! It turned out pretty nice, I think, and my husband even said "I like this one." High praise indeed.

 

The paper is from this atlas. I actually felt guilty tearing this page out. It hurt me more than it hurt the book, I think. After seeing the end result though, I don't feel so bad. It's an old atlas, some of the maps are no longer correct (Instead of Russia, it's the USSR, not to mention all the former soviet countries), and the data is outdated (populations and so forth). This atlas has lived a good life, and I think it makes great cover paper.

 

The endpapers are a lovely cloudy blue. I think they go well with the blue on the front and back covers.

Now I'm just debating whether to post it up in my shop, or to test it out some more to make sure the spine keeps the braided look. Le sigh.

Braids

So I thought I'd show a little of what I'm working on right now. I finished a book, but I hate it so much right now that I just can't take pictures. More on that when I stop having hateful feelings towards inanimate objects. So instead of pictures of that book, here is a picture of the one I'm currently working on.

 

As you can see, it's another cord bound book. I don't get angry at these ones like I do the case bound, so I like to make them a lot. Aren't those braids spiffy? I'm pretty sure I came up with this idea myself, but it was probably something I've seen and am only remembering subconsciously. I'm definitely an idea thief, sigh.

So you can see I only glued the leather down to the spine. It's still loose on the sides, and I plan to finish that today. See, normally when one works with gluing leather down, it can help if you have something to slow the drying process down, you add it to the glue. I think it starts with an "m". Whatever it is, I don't have it, so sometimes I do these books one side at a time. Most of the time I can whip it out and be quick about it, but sometimes it's nice to take it slow so I can really work out the definitions of the cords on the spine and whatnot. All in all, this book looks like it will turn out well. More pictures when I finish it.