I'm on the move.....

I'm shifting everything over to my new blog, Moon and Hare, so this will be my last post on my Moon Bindery blog. Hope you will come over for a visit: http://moonandhare.blogspot.com/  :)

Eco Friendly Leather Journal

Yesterday, I finished a new leather journal for my Etsy shop. The writing paper in this journal is made from a combination of recycled paper and coffee fibre. The paper is soft and has a nice laid pattern. I really like the random designs the coffee fibre makes in the writing paper, too.

I call it the "Tree of Life" journal, because of the tree of life charm on the attached bookmark, and also because the paper is recycled, so no trees are cut down to make it.

Book Arts: Strasbourg, France

Strasbourg, France, besides being the capitol of the European Union, has a wonderful history relating to crafts and craft guilds, which includes a strong connection to Johannes Gutenberg. Gutenberg lived in Strasbourg for a time, and is commemorated in various ways:


Here is a statue of Gutenberg that resides in the Place Gutenberg:



The decorations on the statue were very interesting. They focus on the symbolic value of the printing press -- how it opened up a world of music and literature and ideas:



In the historic centre of Strasbourg, I visited the Palais Rohan, which houses the Decorative Arts Museum, Fine Arts Museum and Archaeological Museum:



There are some finely worked bindings made by local craftspeople there, including this one made by Johannes Beck in 1731:



After stopping off for a bit of refreshment at a wonderfully mad little cafe full of birds (artificial) and fairy lights.....



....I went on to the Strasbourg historical museum, located at 2 rue du Vieux-Marché-aux-Poissons.

They have information about Gutenberg's time in Strasbourg, and about the history of printing in the city. Strasbourg had a number of printing establishments in the early days of the printing press. There are also some beautiful books from the late 1400s on display:





If you know of any other interesting book arts-related places to visit in Strasbourg, do feel free to share them in the comments.

Mini Halfwood Press

I bought a Mini Halfwood etching press a while back, and am really loving it. The bed of this little press is 6" x 16." I'm planning to use it to make miniature books, so it's just the right size for me. I've had huge fun using it, and I must confess I've gotten embarrassingly attached to the little beast -- almost to the point of giving it a name. I haven't done it yet. But.

Printmaker Bill Ritchie invented the Mini Halfwood, as well as other tabletop presses. He says on his website that he wanted his presses to have the feel of a sailing ship interior, and his presses are wonderfully elegant looking, as well as functional.

I've been playing around with different tools to see what kind of drypoint marks they make. Above is one of my scribblings, printed on the Mini Halfwood using Arches 88 paper. I've found that some of my bookbinding awls make interesting lines.

Below, I printed the same plate on handmade paper:

Book Arts Links: United States

Here are some links to book arts-related places in the U.S. Haven't been to them all myself -- maybe someday! I'll be updating and adding more links as I find more to add. Right now, this is a quick and dirty list -- I'll fix it up more and make it look pretty when I get the time.

If you know of some other great book arts places to visit in the U.S., please let me know about them in the comments section, and I'll add them to the list.

State Centers for the Book: The Library of Congress website has listings for all 50 state centers for the book. They are non-affiliated organizations, and their programs vary quite a bit, but I'm including this website, as some of the state centers may have postings about book arts - related events.

http://read.gov/cfb/state-affiliates.php

Alabama

University of Alabama M.F.A. in the Book Arts Program
http://www.bookarts.ua.edu/

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

The American Bookbinders Museum - http://www.bookbindersmuseum.com/

The San Francisco Center for the Book: http://sfcb.org/

Bay Area Book Artists' Book Arts Jam: http://www.bookartsjam.org/index.php

Pacific Center for the Book Arts: http://pcba.info/

Sonoma County Book Arts Guild, Sebastopol, CA (www.socobag.blogspot.com)

Colorado

Conneticut

Delaware

Florida

University of Tampa Book Arts Studio: http://tampabookartsstudio.blogspot.com/

Georgia

Georgia Tech Paper Museum

Hawaii

Idaho

Jim Croft -- Old Ways Bookbinding Workshops: http://www.traditionalhand.com/oldway/

(I blogged about attending one of Jim Croft's workshops -- you can find the posts here)

Illinois

Chicago

Joan Flasch Artists Book Collection, School of the Art Institute
http://digital-libraries.saic.edu/cdm4/about_jfabc.php?CISOROOT=/jfabc
Newberry Library
http://www.newberry.org
Columbia College Center for the Book and Paper Arts
http://www.colum.edu/Academics/Interarts/index.php?site=CBPA
Northwestern University Library - Special collections
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/libraries-collections/evanston-campus/special-collections
University of Chicago Library - Special collections
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl
Bookman's Alley-Evanston
http://evanstonillinois.net/booksmansalley.html
Powell's Bookstores
http://www.powellschicago.com

Center for Book and Paper Arts: http://www.colum.edu/book_and_paper/

Indiana

Iowa

University of Iowa Center for the Book

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Pyramid Atlantic

Massachusetts

Boston Paper Collective: http://bostonpapercollective.wordpress.com/about/

North Bennet Street School (has bookbinding courses): http://www.nbss.org/

Carriage House Paper's papermaking museum in Brookline, just outside of Boston (by appointment)

Michigan

Kalamazoo Book Arts Center: http://www.kalbookarts.org/index.html

Minnisota

Minnesota Center for Book Arts

Cave Paper (in Minneapolis): http://www.cavepaper.com/

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

Wells College Book Arts Center: http://www.wells.edu/bkarts/info.htm

Western New York Book Arts Center (http://www.wnybookarts.org/

Women's Studio Workshop

Genesee Center for the Arts: http://www.geneseearts.org/

New York City:

The New York Center for Book Arts: http://www.centerforbookarts.org/

Dieu Donne : http://www.dieudonne.org/

Lower Eastside Printshop

Bright Hill Press & Literary Center: http://www.brighthillpress.org

The Morgan Library: http://www.themorgan.org/home.asp

Booklyn artist's book alliance: http://www.booklyn.org/index.php

Central Booking: http://centralbookingnyc.com/

Calvin-Morris Gallery (sometimes has artist book exhibitions) : http://www.cavinmorris.com/

New York Central Art Supply (has book art supplies): http://www.nycentralart.com/

North Carolina

Asheville Book Works

Penland

North Dakota

Ohio

Dard Hunter's Studios http://www.dardhunter.com

Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland http://www.morganconservatory.org/

Paper Circle (South East Ohio's Center for Paper and Book Arts): http://www.papercircle.org/

Oklahoma

Oregon

C.C. Stern Type Foundry  http://www.ccsterntype.org/

Pennsylvania

University of the Arts - Bookarts

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Museum of Printing History in Houston, TX. The Houston Book Arts Group meets there.

Utah

Book Arts Program at the University of Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

Seattle Center for Book Arts: http://seattlebookarts.org/

Book Arts Guild: http://bookartsguild.org/

University of Washington Book Arts Collection: http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/collections/bookarts.html

Wessel and Lieberman Booksellers (they sell artist books): http://www.wlbooks.com/cgi-bin/wlb455.cgi/index.html?id=2QbhcRj6

Washington, DC

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Book Arts: Florence, Italy

First off, a small confession: when I visited Florence, Italy, in early April, I was so busy looking all the beautiful things around me (it was my first visit) I didn't spend very much time seeking out bookbinding/book arts related places to visit. So my "Book Arts in Florence" post will be on the short side.

That said, I did visit a wonderful establishment called the Officina Profumo Farmaceutica di Sant Maria Novella. It was established in 1221 by Dominican monks, who grew medicinal herbs and used them to create medications and ointments. Here, you can see part of the interior of the pharmacy:



In 1866, a layman took over the pharmacy, and it's now open to the public and has exotic, herb based perfumes, pot-pourri, liqueurs, elixirs and more for sale. There is a small museum about the history of the pharmacy, and it's well worth a visit just for the unbelievably wonderful smells that greet you when you walk in. In one of the museum's display cases, I found a couple of magnificent herbals that had belonged to the monks:







In my rambles around Florence, I also ran across several shops selling handmade journals and marbled papers, but only thought to write down the names of a couple of them:

• Il Torchio (marbled paper and journals) at Via dei Bardi 17, San Niccolò
• Zecchi (http://www.zecchi.it/), Via dello Studio 19r. I did briefly visit Zecchi, which has marbled papers and other art supplies.

If you know of any other interesting book arts related places to visit in Florence, please feel free to suggest them in the comments section for this post, as I (and I'm sure other people) would love to know about them. :)

International Women's Day

To celebrate International Women's Day in my own small way, I've been making some goddess - themed journal/sketchbooks:

This journal has a rustic ceramic pendant on the cover with a stamped Nile River Goddess. The Nile River Goddess is a very old symbol of fertility and strength. The woman in the photo next to the journal is Isadora Duncan, the artist and free spirit who created modern dance.

I also made a Moon Goddess journal/sketchbook:


This one is black leather, and has a full moon-shaped ceramic pendant with the image of a goddess holding the moon. I've been a bit obsessed with these little goddess images lately. Something about them makes me want to put on some flowing robes and do an Isadora Duncan-type interpretive dance. I'm afraid I might frighten the dog, though. :)

Happy International Women's Day!

New Bonefolder

The latest copy of the Bonefolder (a most excellent online journal for bookbinders and book artists) is out, and (yay!) one of my books is in it. It's a book (pictured above) that I talked about in an earlier post -- I submitted it to the Bonefolder's annual Bind-O-Rama, and it was accepted. A nice bit of news in the dark days of winter.

This issue of the Bonefolder has an interesting article on book arts in Cuba. Cuba has a really vibrant printmaking and book making scene. I visited a studio in Havana a few years ago, and bought a couple of artist books. The diverse cultures in Cuba make for a rich mix of influences in the book arts scene.

Eco-Friendly Journal and Some Other Stuff

Here we are in the depths of January, and I think I'm trying to deny it by making books with trees and birds and other things that make me think (prematurely, I'm afraid) of spring.

This is a journal I just added to my Etsy store that has eco-friendly paper. This paper is made from a mix of coffee fiber and recycled papers, and it has a kind of marbled or antiqued look. I added a leather bookmark with a tree of life charm:






This one has a little ceramic bird pendant on the cover:

I've also been making some new quote books. This has a quote on the first page by George Bernard Shaw -- a little inspiration for the new year:

"You see things, and you say 'Why?'"

I see things that never were,

and I say 'Why not?'"

New Hippie/New Age/Nature Journals

The ol' brain has been working overtime lately, and I've come up with some new leather journal designs. These are all kind of hippie, nature, and spirit - themed journals.
I've added leather bookmarks to some of them, and also, in this one, used eco-friendly banana fiber paper for the pages:

I've been planning to use some eco-friendly writing papers, but it took me some time to find papers that I liked. The banana paper has a nice, natural color, and little brown flecks:

I'm also doing some journals with ceramic pendants on the covers. This one has a wee owl design:

Away You Go...

Recently finished a big (24 notebook) order for a business. They will be giving them out as gifts to visiting speakers and other guests. I boxed up my little children and sent them off to their new home, but now, sadly, there's no time to sit around drinking eggnog and eat rum-soaked cookies, as the holiday shopping season is here, and I am busy making many more books for my Etsy store. Not that I'm complaining--it's good to be busy!

I vaguely remember reading a story when I was a child about elves who came at night to make shoes for a cobbler and his wife. When the cobbler woke up in the morning, lovely shoes would be finished and waiting. Where are those elves when you need them? :)

New Quote Journals

Has is really been two months since I posted here? Where did the time go? Well, I haven't been lounging around (ok, well some lounging, but not too much, anyway :) . Among other things, I made some new quote journals.

This one has a George Bernard Shaw quote:

"You see things; and you say 'Why?'
But I dream things that never were;
and I say 'Why not?'

And this Writer's Inspiration Journal, with a quote by Ernest Hemingway:

"My aim is to put down on paper
what I see and what I feel
in the best and simplest way."

The Thread that Binds, Part II

I finally finished binding my copy of The Thread that Binds. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had thought about doing a wooden cover, as a tribute to master bookbinder Jim Croft (who is interviewed in the book) but as often happens, went charging off in another direction altogether.

I created a medieval-style leather binding that emphasizes thread and stitching, which seemed to fit the content of the book:



This copy of The Thread that Binds will have a home in my ever-growing collection of books on bookbinding.

Small Universe

This is my latest coptic stitch book with wooden covers (you can see some others here). I'm working on a series of books that are interpretations of random designs that I find in nature. The cover of this book is based on a pattern of naturally occurring lines in a piece of mica. The name of this book is "Small Universe".

This was the first time I'd worked with milk paint -- lots of layers of colour, then working my way down through them to reveal the design.

Book Arts: Edinburgh

After spending a few days in Sterling, our next stop was Edinburgh. I'd briefly visited Edinburgh years ago, and was glad to have several days there this time. Book arts-ish places that I visited included the Owl and Lion, located at 15 Grassmarket in the old town (a hint if you plan to visit them--if you think you're at the right address, but there's a sort of dance studio where the booksellers should be, try looking across the street). They make silkscreen covers for their handmade journals, and have lots of lovely things to look at. Here you can see some of them in their front window:

Also in that same area (at 102 West Bow) is Analogue Books. They have a variety of zines on display:

I also visited the National Library of Scotland, but have no photos to share, alas. If you know of any other good book arts-related places to visit in Edinburgh, I hope you will post them in the comments.

And finally, to continue the animal obsessed portion of my journey, here is a photo of a little dog outside an antique shop. The owner has him tied up there, and if you squint at the photo, you can see above him a picture of Greyfriars Bobby, a famous former citizen of Edinburgh. Bobby's master died, and for many years the little Skye Terrier kept watch over his master's grave. The dog in the photo is also a Skye, and looks about as long suffering as the original Bobby must have been.

Other book arts related places to visit in Edinburgh are:

The Centre for the History of the Book http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/chb/

The National Library of Scotland http://www.nls.uk/

[NOTE: if you know of any other great bookbinding/book arts places to visit in Edinburgh, please do share them in the comments. Book arts - obsessed people like myself would love to know about them!]

Traveling in Scotland

My husband attended a conference in Stirling, Scotland, last month, and I got to go along and just be a tourist. We stayed in a lovely old B&B called Kilronan House:

Later on, we moved to lodgings on the Stirling University campus. There was a beautiful lake in the middle of the campus, and I some happy hours walking around and taking photos of all the wildlife (Ok, confession time: this post isn't really about book arts at all. It's more about the fact that I'm a real softie where animals are concerned :)

Here is the lake:

and a sleeping duck:

And a tiny tree frog, who kindly, if somewhat reluctantly, posed for me:

A swan in the evening:

And a bunny, one of many, many, many, on the campus.


Can anyone tell my what kind of bird this is? It wasn't one I recognized:

To redeem myself on the book arts front, let me say that we did visit other cities in the U.K. on this trip, and I visited book arts-ish places in all of them. More posts to follow....