A New Year, A New Start

 Since my "junk journal", that was bound with washi tape, was completed at the beginning of the month, it was time to create a new one. I decided this one would have a coptic stitch binding. I took me forever to put this one together. I worked on it in dribs and drabs for two weeks. 

The paper for the cover is gel printed using multiple layers of acrylic paint and a stencil. The signatures are mixed media paper. The mixed media paper is less expensive than watercolor paper and it should hold up to multiple layers of paints, ink, and pastels.

This is the fourth coptic stitch bound book that I have made and this one has the fewest mistakes! I had one row of stitching wrong but caught it before moving forward so I was able to pull it out and make the correction. I wanted to give it an embellishment so I dug through my bead box and found this little do-dad of beads and copper wire to tie on. I think I made it when I was practicing make swirls with wire. After looking through my box I am inspired to incorporate some raku fired beads or buttons into a future journal.

So here I am with lots of blank pages staring at me. Putting down the first marks are the hardest.

Busy Hands

 Here is a little sampling of things I have been working on.

I watched a few YouTube videos this summer about making glassine envelopes using deli paper.

I spent an afternoon printing the deli paper using my larger gel plate. The printing process is always fun. Not every print is a success the first time around, but you can almost always print layers over it and turn it into something cool. I keep everything I print and often use scraps in other projects.

The envelopes were fun to assemble and add details to them. These were made in random sizes and I will probably use them as little gift bags. I plan to make more that are a standard card size. Not good for mailing, but nice for in person gift giving or to tuck in a box to be shipped.

I have a finished a fourth coptic stitch bound book. I made this one for my daughter who loves all things French. I bought a set of Paris stamps some time ago and thought they would be perfect for this project. I used a combination of parchment and glassine papers for the signatures and they were much easier to bind than watercolor paper. I gel printed the cover papers with this book in mind.

And YES, I still make pots! I am currently overwhelmed with piggy bank and salt pig orders. In between making those I am trying to make a few cheese stones for each firing. They are starting to sell online, which is a good thing since our gallery is still closed for in person shopping.

Have a great week, and if you are in the path of hurricane Sally, or the terrible wild fires on the west coast, I hope that you stay safe.

Always remember the three W's.

Wear

Wash

Wait

I've Gotten Myself Into A Bind.............

 But in a good way!

At last I gathered or purchased everything I needed to learn coptic stitch bookbinding. I FINALLY found a YouTube video that had easy to follow instructions. Last night I made my first book. 

I took the advice from the tutorial to start small. I am quite happy with my first attempt.

The cover is wrapped in paper that I mono-printed used a gel plate.

The nice thing about coptic stitch binding is that the book opens flat. The stitch is supposed to be loose but I do think I could tighten mine up a little more.

You will notice that the pages on the right are not even. Evidently there is a tool you can buy to trim edges. I am not going to let that bother me. I want it to look handmade.

Next I will move up to binding a larger book with four rows of stitching. I had so much fun making this book from start to finish. There wasn't any part of the process that I didn't enjoy, which is unlike pottery... darn I wish those pots would glaze themselves.

Here is a link to a video about Paulus Berensohn's journal making. It was my inspiration to learn this technique: Soul's Kitchen