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.

Boom shaka laka laka

Yay! I got another book posted on my Etsy. This one is a pretty black and red number with some black and white floral paisley lokta paper (that I LOVE). The end papers are black lokta.

 

You can actually write or draw right down to the margins of this book.

 

 

On the back cover you can see there's was a little issue between the glue and the paper (in the upper right). I don't know what happened, but you can see the book board through the clear spot of glue. It's all rather upsetting. Between that and the fact that somehow I let this book only have seven signatures (112 pages total!), which is way too small, I'm selling this book for $20.00. It's a great starter journal though, or a good journal for someone who only writes sporadically. And I really love black and red together. I've seen some really pretty weddings with this color scheme.

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.