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... :)

Exhibition of Artists' Sketchbooks

The Fogg Museum at Harvard University has an interesting online exhibition, "Under Cover : Artists' Sketchbooks". On their website, they note that "Artists have used sketchbooks for centuries, entrusting travel sketches, figure studies, compositional ideas, and notes of every kind to their pages. Designed to be easily portable, sketchbooks are often kept in a pocket, and offer an unusually personal glimpse of the artist at work."

The Fogg Museum has a collection of 150 sketchbooks, and the online exhibition features 10 of them, including sketchbooks owned by John Singer Sargent, Jacques-Louis Divid, and Edward Burne-Jones.

You can see the online exhibition here:

 http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/sketchbooks/

Incredible, Edible Egg Book

April 1 has become known not only as April Fools Day, but also as the day various groups worldwide have been hosting edible book festivals. I belong to BEST (Bookbinding Etsy Street Team), and this year we're having an online Edible Book Festival. Anyone can participate (children, as well as adults)--here are the rules:

1. All entries must be completely edible. They can be in the shape of a book, or "booklike" in some way, or inspired by a book title.

2. Upload photos of your creation to our BEST Edible Book Flickr group before midnight EDT on April 1st.

There will be awards! For more information, and photos of some edible books, check out the BEST blog.

Here is my entry, "Breakfast of Champions" :

I've made many, many books, but this was my first edible one.

-Cover: egg whites

-Pages: egg yokes

-Title: coffee beans

-spine: fruit leather

Easy on the Eyes Shakespeare

According to the Guardian, a portrait that has been mouldering away in a great house lo these many years has been determined to be an actual painting of Shakespeare done during his lifetime.

I don't know if the man in the portrait really is Shakespeare, but that doesn't matter--he LOOKS like Shakespeare should look. Dashing, but very intelligent. Nicely starched collar. More hair than one would imagine. In other words, very much a thinking woman's bit of crumpet. :)

Here he is. What do you think?

Leather Journal Giveaway

I know Valentine's Day is over, but in the spirit of universal love and sharing :) I'm doing my first blog giveaway. I'm giving away one of my moon journals (pictured above and below). This one has a medieval replica binding (see this post for more information about the binding), and a quote from Walt Whitman about the everyday miracles all around us.

The quote is on the first page. The rest of the pages are blank, ready for you to fill them.

All you have to do to enter is to leave a comment with this post before the end of the day on Tuesday, Feb. 24th. I'll put all the names in a hat (or hat-like object), and one person's name will be picked. Then I'll announce the winner on my blog. Good luck!

UPDATE: I put all the names from the comments into a hat-like-object, and had my husband draw one out. And the winner is: Kitty!

Congratulations, Kitty!! And thanks to all of you who entered!

NowPublic Feature Photos

Someone from NowPublic, an online participatory news network, contacted me yesterday to see if they could use some photos of my books for an article on how keeping a journal can help with stress. If you'd like to see the article, click here (to see my photos, you need to click on the little "see all footage" link at the bottom left side of the article).

The NowPublic article comments on a news article from the Guardian Online called "Keeping a diary makes you happier". According to the Guardian article, "Brain scans on volunteers showed that putting feelings down on paper reduces activity in a part of the brain called the amygdala, which is responsible for controlling the intensity of our emotions. Psychologists who discovered the "Bridget Jones effect" said it worked whether people elaborated on their feelings in a diary, penned lines of poetry, or even jotted down song lyrics to express their negative emotions."

The studies showed that men particularly benefit from journal writing. One of the scientists involved in the study speculated that it is because men are generally less likely to express their feelings in words. Interesting....

Impractical Workers of the World, Unite!

Recently found out about a new organization called Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts (ILSSA).

According to their website:

"Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts is a new organization for those who make experimental or conceptual work with obsolete technology....Impractical Labor is a protest against contemporary industrial practices and values. Instead it favors independent workshop production by antiquated means and in relatively limited quantities.

Economy of scale goes out the window, as does the myth that time must equal money. Impractical Labor seeks to restore the relationship between a maker and her tools; a maker and her time; a maker and what she makes. The process is the end, not the product. Impractical Labor is idealized labor: the labor of love."

Their motto is "AS MANY HOURS AS IT TAKES".

Finally, an organization that celebrates those of us who toil away in our dusty little garrets, poking and daubing and putting things together verrrrrry slowwwwwly! Of course I had to join up.

If you suspect that you, too, are an impractical labourer, and want to know more, here is a link to their website:

http://www.impractical-labor.org/

A Peak At My Studio

Jennifer, at Gypsymarestudios recently posted some photos of her studio, and asked other artists to do it, too. I love seeing photos of other people's studios, so I thought I'd join in. Here are shots of my bookbinding studio:


I'm starting work on the second of the limp leather bindings that I talked about in my previous post, so I have some possible leathers spread out on my worktable right now. Decisions, decisions....

This is another work table where I punch holes in the leather covers so I can stitch the pages to the cover. There are some finished covers, plus my handy hammer and awl. Lots of hammering goes on here. Probably drives the neighbours crazy when I have the windows open in the summer.

This is what I see outside while I'm hammering. Notice the frost outside along the bottom of the window. Brrrrrrr!!!



My bulletin board. I never take anything off--just keep pinning on new layers.

My supervisor, Gretta.

An excellent old card file where I keep spools of bookbinding thread.


And finally, another work table with some of the books what I made :)

Book Tag

It's time for a confession. Dear Dana, over at A Cat In My Lap, tagged me clear back in November, and I'm embarrassed to say that only now am I getting my scattered thoughts together to complete the book tag.

The rules are:

Link to the the tagger, list 7 random book facts about yourself, and tag 7 more friends...so here we go:

1. I am a book junkie. I have a stash of unread books tucked away so there's always a new book to read once I've finished the current one, and I get a bit nervous if the stash starts getting too small.

2. Sometimes I turn the corners down on pages to mark my place (but only in cheap paperbacks). Some book lovers would consider that an evil act, but sadly, there it is.

3. I hand-built 326 books in 2008. I'm not sure whether to be happy or a little freaked out by that fact.

4. When I'm making books, I like to listen to music. Sometimes I dance around a bit.

5. One of my earliest memories is of seeing my mother sitting in her armchair in the living room, smoking and reading novels.

6. I grew up in a fairly remote part of Idaho (in the U.S.), and went to school in a one-room schoolhouse. All of the library books fit into one bookcase. I used to start at the "A" titles, read my way through to the "Z" titles, and then start over again.

7. When I was studying literature at university, I lived in a tiny little apartment with a cat who would lay on top of my books and purr loudly. I knew exactly how he felt.

Now, on to the tagging. I'm only tagging five people, but that's a goodly number, I think. Here they are:

Judith HeartSong, that wonderful artist who, of course, loves art books;

Rhonda at Myhandboundbooks, a fellow bookbinder who trained to be a librarian;

East of the Sun, who inspires with her art and photos of Cornwall;

Kiley, another bookbinder who keeps the tradition alive;

PG, of Middleofnowhere, who often includes the most wonderful book quotes in her blog posts

And now for something completely different...

Here is a link to a fun digital book by bubbly numbers: http://www.book-of-numbers.com/

Be sure to watch each page for a little bit (and turn on your speakers, as there is music). Sometimes a surprise will appear....

Update: as I had no graphic to go with the digital book, here instead is a completely gratuitous shot of my dog, Gretta, who wandered into the kitchen the other day with a piece of a Post-It note stuck to her bum. Definitely not a high-tech dog:

First Show of the Year

Did my first craft show this year in Vancouver, British Columbia (about a four-hour drive from where I live). It was a good show, so I'm happy. My husband made me some excellent book stands(this is a picture of one of them).



Doing attractive displays is a real art. I've tried different ways to display my work--some ideas were good, and some were definitely not good! I'm really happy with these stands, though--I think they'll work very well.

Studio Remodel Update

Finally, after three days of desperate hacking and yanking and hammering, my studio is finally re-done! Instead of torn vinyl wallpaper, I now have walls in a soft, golden brown color which makes me happy to be in my studio.

I kind of suspected that underneath the stained white carpeting I might find some lovely hardwood, and sure enough there it was! Yay!!! My house was built in the early 1900s, so it has wonderful amber-coloured hardwood elsewhere in the house, and now also in my studio. In the photo above, you can see it as it was being uncovered.

I also got some more storage thingies, so I can put things away (she sighed happily...). Amazing how much difference small changes can make.

Here is a photo of the studio now that it's finished (not the best photo, but hopefully you get the idea). I still have storage issues, as you can see from the boxes, but that's an eternal problem, not to be solved in this lifetime :) I always liked my studio, but now it's really a wonderful, peaceful space that I'm going to love working in.

The Best Laid Plans....

...don't always work out the way you think! At the end of the first week of my vacation, I got a MONSTER head cold, so instead of repainting and generally beautifying my work studio as I had planned, I've been laying on the couch, hacking and wheezing, and generally feeling sorry for myself.

However, I am determined to triumph over that vinyl wallpaper and old carpeting! I'll just have to carve out some time to do it in the next two weeks or so. Thanks to all of you who commented in my previous post, and shared info about your studios. I'll be sure to post some "after" pics of my studio once the work is done.

In the meantime, there is one small area of my studio that I'm already very happy with, which is the cabinet pictured here, where I keep my binder's board and text paper. I got this cabinet from Jysk, which for those of you who don't already know, is a Danish store that's sort of like a lower-budget Ikea.

I had to go through a monumental wrestling match with the pieces to get the thing together (it was one of those "you-assemble" things, and I am not a "you-assemble" kind of person), but the memories and scars from the assembly process are finally fading :)

The shelves are nice and deep, and I love the glass doors--keeps out the dust, and I can still see what's inside.

Takin' a Little Break

I'm going to be closing my Etsy shop for a couple of weeks. Between tomorrow and April 7th, I'm going to spend some time resting and recharging. I'm also going to overhaul my bookbinding studio. The ripped, vinyl wallpaper is going out! The old white carpet is going, too! My husband and I live in a wonderful old house (built in 1922), and I can't wait to see the lovely hardwood that's hiding under that white carpeting. We moved in just over a year ago, and have been slowly painting rooms and doing some fixing of things.

Right now, my studio is a bit of a rat's nest--I have a hard time getting rid of things ("....but, I might NEED that two-inch piece of hemp cord someday..."), and I have a tendency to stuff things I'm not currently using under various work tables and in the closet without any real organizing principle at all.

The sad reality:

Note the massively overflowing waste basket under tall table :(

This may just be a long moment of self-delusion, but once I have repainted and un-carpeted the studio, I'm also going to add more shelves, and maybe, just maybe, create one of those supremely serene, organized artist's studios like the ones you see in magazines. Or not.

Now, this is what my studio SHOULD look like (sigh):

It's the studio of artist Veda Stanfield, who creates amazing paintings of the natural world. She describes her work as "haunted realism". I love her work--it really gets at some undefinable quality about living in the country (I grew up on a farm).

How about you? Is your studio/creative space everything you dreamed of? Or more of a nightmare? :)

New Banner

Amy Blandford did the new banner for my shop and blog that you can see above. I'm really happy with it--it has an Arts & Crafts design, which I love, and even a little moon :)



In case you aren't familiar with the Arts & Crafts movement, it was started by a group of artists and thinkers of the mid-19th century, including William Morris and John Ruskin. They were reacting against the increasing industrialization of England, and the way that true craftsmanship was being replaced by cheap, mass-produced junk (sound familiar?). They promoted crafts, and the highest standards of craftsmanship. Here you can see an example of a wallpaper pattern William Morris designed. They were also a bunch of free-thinkers, and got involved in all sorts of juicy scandals, which I confess I also love to read about (hee, hee).


You can check out more of Amy's great designs at her Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/profile.php?user_id=5084799

and her website at http://www.amyblandford.com/index.html