Moon Bindery, Here and There

Some excellent news this week--I entered one of my books (pictured above) in a book design competition held by The Bonefolder (a e-journal for bookbinders and book artists), and it was one of 25 books selected to be part of an online exhibition featured in the Fall, 2009 issue of The Bonefolder. If you'd like to see all the selected books, the fall issue is free and online now--You can find it here. The exhibition is called the Bind-O-Rama (page 54) .

Also, the Style Collective blog has kindly done a nice writeup about my books:

http://www.stylecollective.com.au/livingstyle.asp?idcontent=491

Ok, I'd better get back to work... :)

Making Journals with Wooden Buttons

I've been making large leather journals with wooden buttons on the covers for a while now, and in the past I ordered the buttons from various woodworkers on Etsy. It was surprisingly hard to find someone who was interested in making buttons for me -- I guess making buttons isn't as exciting as doing other kinds of woodworking. :)

The buttons I purchased were great, but it seemed to me that it would be even better if I made the buttons myself. My dear old Dad has been doing woodworking since he retired, so I joined forces with him, and "Dean Simler and Daughter" has been busy cutting and sanding and polishing wooden buttons. The sawdust has really been flying in his little workshop!

Here are a couple of the finished buttons on journal/sketchbooks that are in my Etsy shop:

The button in the photo above is made from cherry wood. The buttons I make are very natural and rustic -- not too uniform in shape, so each one is slightly different. I sand them until they are very smooth, and then finish them with walnut oil and a coat of special beeswax polish.

This one has a bird's eye maple wood button:

The bird's eye maple was roasted in a kiln for 12 hours, which makes it darker in colour. It also brings out the natural sugars in the wood, so the button has a slightly smoky, maple sugar smell, which is very nice.

European Bookbinding Trip

Where have I been, you might wonder, all these weeks that I've been sadly neglecting my blog. Well, I just got back from a trip to Germany and Australia (my husband went on business, and I decided to go along). Bookbinding nerd that I am, I was keen to see as many examples of medieval bookbinding as possible.

First off, I made an appointment to visit the City Archives in Freiburg, Germany. Freiburg is a lovely city on the edge of the Black Forest in Southern Germany. The head archivist, Dr. Ulrich P. Ecker, showed me some wonderful things, including some medieval illuminated manuscripts

that were created by local nuns. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take any photos of the books, but here's an exciting shot of the front door of the archives:

Next, I went to Vienna, Austria, and visited the Austrian National Library. The State Hall at the Hapsburg Palace is the part of the National Library that's open to the public, and as the Hapsburgs were enormously powerful and wealthy in their day, it's a grand sight, with hand bound books from floor to ceiling.

The current exhibition at the State Hall is Approaches to Distant Lands. Geographic Gems from the Austrian National Library, a collection of 17th century atlases showing how Europeans viewed the world outside of Europe. Here is a photo of one of the displays:

Not surprisingly, those 17th century Europeans got a few things wrong. My favourites were the drawings of men (I'm not sure from what country) with no heads--their faces were located in their chests. They all looked a bit surprised about it. You can find out more about the exhibition here:

http://www.wieninternational.at/en/node/15642

and see some photos of the State Hall here: http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/exhibition/buildings/countries/austria.html

Saving the best for last, I wound up the trip by visiting Mainz, Germany, home of the Gutenberg Museum, which also houses the Bookbinding Museum. Here is a photo of the museum building:

and one of a book-shaped sculpture made of stone. There were several book-related sculptures at the entrance to the museum.

I spent some happy hours wandering through the exhibits, and a nice, long chat with the resident bookbinder, who sported a magnificent 1400s-style long beard, and was most friendly and helpful. Gutenberg invented the art of the printed book in Europe in the 1450s, and two of his first books, Gutenberg Bibles, were on display. I wasn't allowed to take photos of them, but here is another book at the museum, a sort of printing manual, I think:

Lastly, we visited Frankfurt, Germany, where I didn't see any medieval books, but did get to sample some sausages:

And then I came home, tired but happy, with a couple of books on bookbinding that I bought at the Gutenberg Museum. Now, I just have to get my husband to translate them from German into English. Should be interesting...

I recently dipped into my treasure chest of vintage buttons and made a couple more medieval-modern style leather journal / sketchbooks for my 1000 Markets shop:

The one above is make with black elk hide, and has an jazzy olive green Art Deco button from the 1920s-1930s on the front cover.

This one is made with sea foam green deerskin, and has an elegant button from the 1940s-1950s on the front cover. I was watching The Big Sleep the other night, and could just picture Lauren Bacall writing down her dark family secrets in this book. :D

Noodling around on a holiday weekend

In an earler post, I talked a little bit about a new project I'm working on, which is evolving into a series of small books with wooden covers. I really just want to explore the possibilities for making wooden books without worrying whether the result will be wonderful or horrible. I have a set of qualities that I have in mind as I work:

simplicity
tranquility
naturalness
impermanence
roughness

form that comes from the physical qualities of the materials used



I was thinking about these things today as I wandered around my yard taking photos.

Impermanence seems like an especially appropriate concept.....

as this lovely holiday weekend comes to an end.....

....and the first maple leaf falls to the ground. This time of year always makes me feel a bit melancholy, but in a good way.

Moon Bindery on 1000 Markets

Operating on the principle that you can never be too overextended, I recently opened a second online store at 1000 Markets. 1000 Markets is a really beautiful site dedicated to high-quality handmade items. (you can see my 1000 Markets mini at the right side of the page). So far, I'm really happy having my little store there, as well as on Etsy.

One thing that sets 1000 Markets apart is that if you're in the mood to browse, it has lots of artisan markets with items by different sellers grouped together according to themes, like the Steampunk Style Market, the Pacific Northwest Market, The Artisan Cheese of the Pacific Northwest Market, and so forth. So, for instance, if you are looking for that perfect cheese (and who isn't?), you can find a range of choices in the Artisan Cheese Market.




Right now, I'm in the New Romantic Market, in the Book Arts section. Lest you be frightened, I can assure you that the New Romantic Market isn't excessively lace-filled. It's more about things that are elegant and sophisticated, but also very lovely and tactile. Stuff for those of us who just can't resist smelling every bar of soap at the farmer's market, or picking up one of my journals and stroking the leather cover, cause it's so soft. You know who you are. :)



Right now, 1000 Markets is only available to U.S. buyers, as it takes Amazon Payments (a really nice, easy to use checkout system) instead of Paypal, but that will change (hopefully soon). Amazon is currently working to add payment options for international buyers as well. In the meantime, if you see anything in my 1000 Markets shop that you like, but don't live in the U.S., just send me a message about it (there is a link in my 1000 Markets shop), and I can send you a Paypal invoice. Easy-peasy. :)

Part III, Bookbinding Workshop in Santa, Idaho

Days 6-9: Well, things are getting a bit intense now. I only have three days left, and many, many things still to do. I carved my wooden pegs (you can see them at upper left). I will hammer the pegs in the holes in the book covers, so the cords will stay securely where they're supposed to. The book is opened, so you can see where the cords came in one hole and went out another:

I also needed to cut out the brass pieces of my book clasp, and then use nippers and files to shape them. Jim believes in doing every little part of the book in the "old way", so I even designed and drew the pattern for my clasps by hand.

Here are the brass pieces for my clasps, plus the cardboard patterns and some of the files I used to shape them. The brass is some that Jim got from architectural salvage places.

And here are the clasps, ready to be attached to the book covers. The brown parts are pieces of leather that I glued around a piece of parchment, then attached to the brass pieces (sorry about the fuzzy photo--I must have been overly excited when I took it).

Next, I carved out places on the cover boards for the brass clasps to fit into. You can just barely see my pencil marks on the cover board showing where the clasps will go. This board is sitting on a groovy little thingie that hooks over the table edge and has a lip at the back edge to rest the board against. That way, I can put pressure on the board while I'm carving it without the board sliding all over the table:

My book will have a leather covered spine. Here Jim is demonstrating how to pare the edges of the leather so it won't bunch up at the corners of the book spine.

Eeek! It's the last day, time is running out, and I'm still behind. Here I'm putting a thin tissue backing on the spine of my text block.

The next thing I did was assemble the book and attach the leather to the spine. It's a pity I didn't take any photos, as it took place at 10 o'clock on the last night I was there, and I wish I had a record of my desperate attempts to coax a chunk of limp, wheat paste soaked leather around the cords and generally where it was supposed to go. In lieu of photos of that event, here are some of other accommodations on the Croft place. If I had been more adventurous, I could have set up my sleeping bag here...


...or in this sweat lodge/ tepee affair (I think they put on a canvas cover if someone stays in it).

And here is my finished book. Yay! Note the leather spine that fortunately shows no sign of the late night pasting struggle:

Here is a view that shows the clasps. I made every bit of the clasps by hand, even down to making the nails out of pieces of brass rod. I will keep this book forever, as a memento of my time at the Crofts, but will be making other books with wooden covers (a slightly different design), which I will unveil here at a future date.

And so, after nine amazing days of dirt, mosquito bites, sawing, filing, gluing and general backwoods bookbinding, I packed up my stuff, hopped in my car and headed back down the road, sad to leave, but so very happy that I came here.