Showing off Mad Skills

Hwaet! My lovely parents came and visited a couple three weeks ago, and we had a grand time while they were here (well, I did anyways). It was fun and awkward trying to make them feel comfortable in our teeny tiny apartment for the weekend, and I'm just so glad they finally got to make a trip down here.

While they were here, I finished a book I started when me and the husband were up visiting them the week before. My parents are so patient to sit and watch me make a book, and I'm sure I was boring them to death as I told them about the glue I use, etc. They were rewarded though, as they got to go home with the newly finished product (well, I'm not sure what kind of a reward that is). I was quite pleased with the outcome, and I made them let me take pictures before they ran off with it. Granted, they were horribly rushed pictures that turned out to be atrocious, blurry, monstrosities, but they're all I have, so I'm going to post a couple anyways.

 

Anyways, I love the red leather (a big thank you to my parents, again) with the Italian postcards paper. The endpapers look grey to me, but everyone else said they were green. In the pictures they look green. To top it all off, I used some lovely brown and cream end bands. Again, my sincere apologies about the pictures being horrid, I hope they don't turn you off too much. At any rate, I'm not posting it on my Etsy, so they don't have to be absolutely perfect. I'll probably be making another one of these.

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no longer correct (Instead of Russia, it's the USSR, not to mention all the former soviet countries), and the data is outdated (populations and so forth).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.

Destruction Cometh...

I found another coat to destroy! This one is a beautiful navy blue and is another nearly perfect find. It has (had- mwahaha!) one small nick on the front, and smelled of old lady soap, which I found kind of strange and irritating. The smell is gone now, and so is the coat. In it's place, I have several large panels of beautiful leather. I've already made a couple of books with it, and I'm super excited because I have grand plans for another. It was actually a pretty huge coat, lengthwise. It went well past my knees, and the sleeves were roomy. It's all very exciting to find this much leather for so cheap! I'm a scrooge, so basically I don't like to spend more than $10 dollars on a thrifted item unless its furniture. Here are some pics of the coat and the books I made with it!

Pretty beasty coat, eh?! Another cool thing I forgot is the little purse that's sewn into the right pocket. You can see the little clasp in the picture.

 

This is my air mail book. I was really (super dooper) happy with the way this book turned out, and I love this paper. This one sold pretty quick, actually. The end papers are bright red, the same as I used on the next book.

 

Here is the castle book. I used the same blue leather and red end papers, and a cute castle print paper. I think this is a really cute book, and very well put together. I seem to be getting a lot better at making the bindings on my books the right degree of tightness. Too loose and they feel flimsy, too tight and they're borderline impossible to open. I've done both, and I'm happy to have found this happy medium.

That's all for today! Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a couple of books to post about.

10 Books

 

Great news! I now have 10 books on my Etsy! Whoo! Actually, there's this part of me that says, "that's so lame, you should have 50 by now!" and then I find myself agreeing. It really is a lame milestone. I've been pretty slow about getting books made and posted. I do have 8 more books in the works though!

Anyways, here are some pictures of the two books I posted yesterday. The first is a longstitch book. I used recycled brown leather and some of the pink fabric from the pretty in pink book. I think it turned out great.

 

Had fun braiding the wrap around tie.

 

The next one is another cord bound book. This one also turned out great, and would be a good idea for a Father's day gift.

In honor of my 10 book milestone, I thought it would be fun to list 10 of my favorite books, in no particular order.

1. The Twelve Days of Christmas, Illustrated by Sheilah Beckett
2. Cinderella, Illustrated by K.Y. Craft
3. Rose Daughter, by Robin McKinley (heck, insert any book by Robin McKinley here, and it'll work)
4. The Host, by Stephenie Meyer
5. The Wheel of Time Series, by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (o.k., o.k., I know it's not one book, but you can't really read one without the others, can you?)
6. The Fablehaven Series, by Brandon Mull (ditto)
7. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
8. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (question: is there anyone out there who has read this book and not liked it?)
9. Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling (and again, with the series)
10. Ferdinand the bull, by Munro Leaf, illustrated by Robert Lawson

Well, I guess that's it for today. Be sure to stop by my shop to take a look at my newest additions! There will be more coming soon! 

FINALLY!

Well, it only took me forever, but I got a couple more books up on my Etsy. I have one more I need to post up, but the pictures really aren't working out for it, so it's kind of frustrating. It's been nothing but clouds for the last week, so it's been hard to take good pictures of the books that don't turn out really dark. I also renewed my crocodile rock and butterscotch plaid books, because I'm sure they were absolutely buried by now. I took a few more pictures of the crocodile rock book because the ones I had were atrocious, and I think the new ones are a little better. I only replaced a couple for now.

Here's my most recent cord bound book. I covered this one with some more of the Map of France paper, and it's lined with greel lokta paper. I think this book would work for a Father's day gift. I tried something new with this one and covered the corners with leather. I think it adds a nice touch, and it will hopefully help protect the corners of the book as well.

Unfortunately, as I was putting the leather onto the spine, a couple of places started to look worn out. In my folly, I tried to make it look better, and I'm sure you know how that went. So now the spine has a couple of spots that show wear. Poo.

The other book I posted today is one I've had some struggles with. I actually started it a few weeks ago, but stopped because I messed it up badly. I was trying to attach a closure, but first I sewed it onto the wrong spot, then I got it onto the right spot and figured out it was not going to work at all. So then I tried to make a button closure, but that wasn't working either. So basically there are a few holes decorating the front cover. It looks like a vampire attached itself in a few places trying to find a good spot. Finally I made a tie closure, and it works great. I feel so stupid.

 

 You can see the puncture wounds in the last picture. They're not very visible on the outside of the book, but on the inside they show up pretty well. I'll make another post once I get the third book up on Etsy.

Atlas Love

 

This is my amazing new atlas. As you can see in the picture, I am extremely happy it finally came (finally? it only took like 4 days... I guess I'm a really impatient person). It's so beautiful, and almost as big as my torso. I'm so very excited to have it. It really is a shame that I bought it for the purpose of destroying it. I'm starting to feel guilty.

I picked up my paper yesterday. This paper is meant for cutting up, so I've been focusing on that and avoiding the atlas for the time being. I got some pretty papers from Paper Source and Paper Mojo, which are both pretty awesome paper suppliers. I bought a piece of black lokta paper from Paper Source because sometimes the colors I have just won't do, and I'm actually not very happy with it. I'm not sure where the Lokta paper I'm used to comes from, but this piece I bought just isn't what I was expecting. Sad day. I guess I know now. It will do the job, I just wish it was prettier, and better quality.

The paper I ordered from Hollanders hasn't come yet, which is also sad. I think it was late the last time we ordered it as well. I mainly ordered some of the Florentine prints from there because I've had a fascination with cord bound books lately, and they seem to look best if you stick to a more old fashioned look, as opposed to going more contemporary. Of course, if I had some different colors of leather to work with that might change as well. Right now I'm working with black and brown, which lend to the classic look of the book as a whole. I think I prefer it that way.

Well, I had better get back to work. I can't believe it's taken me so long to get another book up on my Etsy! The weather has been completely cloudy for about a week, so it's been hard to take decent pictures as well, since I'm using the natural light that comes through our living room window. Okay, I'm off to cover some more books. Toodlepip.

More Cords

I made another cord bound book. This one went a lot better, I think. Firstly, I didn't trim the leather too short, which made it look more finished. I may need to look into paring down the thickness of the leather in the places I'll be folding it underneath itself. Maybe so it won't look so bulky. The first point also plays into my second. Because I didn't trim the leather too short, I was able to make the endpapers the right size and not have to fudge and cut things like I did on the last one. I guess I'm glad I made the mistake in the first place so I could learn from it.

The cover paper I used for this book was some flocked damask paper in a dark rosy magenta color. It's really pretty paper, I've just been looking for a good opportunity to use it. Ever since I bought the black leather coat I've know this would look good.

I used red and black endbands on this. I would like to learn how to make my own endbands so I could match colors and whatnot. It's kind of annoying to me that the only endbands I have access to have really ugly color combos, or the colors themselves are ones that are really hard to match to other materials. Yellow and black? Really? Gold and red? When am I going to use that? Anyways...

Inside the book I used white lokta paper. I left the raw edge on the endpapers because I thought it would go nicely with the torn edges of the text block. I actually tore the end of the endpaper on the back cover. It was fun, because all those beautiful fibers stuck out. It reminded me of my mom's old mulberry paper that she would use for scrapbooking. Good times.

Book of Mystery and Intrigue

This is the book I mentioned in my last post. I found some green lokta paper that I forgot I had, and was able to finish it up nicely. The leather is recycled from a lovely coat I got at DI, and the paper is some I marbled myself in Book Arts. I really like this book and this technique. It has great finished results. Every time. I'm actually about to start another one, but I wish I had some different leathers. Colors, that is. I have some that has some kind of faux leather print on it and I'm not sure how it would work. Maybe I'll try it just for kicks and giggles.

This book is reversible! Yeehaw! There is no up or down, so if you want one side or the other to be the front, you can. Cool, I say.

P.S. I LOVE marbled paper. So. Much. (\____________(^.^)____________/) This much, actually.

Books, books, books!

I finally got a closure attached to my coptic stitch book from a previous post. I ended up hunting the little bugger down at a Michael's craft store. I think it looks pretty dang good, and it sure does the job.
As far as new books I've learned recently, there's the case bound and the cord bound. These were really exciting for me, and I think for the whole class, because they look like "real" books!
First off, there's the case bound. It's pretty basic, sewing wise. The new things about this one are the covered spine, the introduction of end bands (or headbands, you can see they're green on the second picture), and end papers (the lining or shell papers on the inside cover of the book). I struggled the most with the end papers. After doing a couple of books with them I'm wondering if thinner paper would work better than the thick stuff I've been using. On the book with the brown cover and the orange ribbon, the end paper was thinner and it looks beautiful. On the blue book it was scrapbook paper and didn't work so well.

Next we did the cord bound book, which has a leather spine stretched over cords. We used jute for the cording and it worked great. the biggest problem or concern i had with this one is, when I folded the leather down, the glue and the dye from the leather left pink residue on the pages. I'm not really happy with this, but I don't know how to fix it. You can see it on the first picture. We learned with this one how to round the spine, which is a more traditional look, as compared to the flat spine of the case bound book above. It looks cool, but I struggled with it.
This is just the practice dummy for the cord bound book. I'm excited to get the "real" one done. I've got some fun ideas for it, and I think I'm going to use some of my marbled paper that I made in class. I get so excited for this class it's ridiculous.