Comfortable Shoes Studio

inkandclay

2010-02-19T09:07:00.001-05:00

Originally uploaded by inkandclay.

inkandclay on flickr does some really great work. This is just one example of their work.

Just a reminder, my official blog is now at ComfortableShoesStudio.com and you can find nearly daily updates there.

NaNoJouMo- Union

2009-11-10T06:05:00.001-05:00

NaNoJouMo- Union
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

I did this image for union. I used it as a technique video as well, you can find it on youtube. I started by putting a THICK layer of white acrylic paint on the background. I scratched into it to write. I used a mask to keep the center area white while I built up layers of color and grunge around it. I then pulled the mask off and added a layer of clear gesso, I could have used white but the clear left the little bits of color that made their way under the mask. I drew the face of the sheep in with soft pencil and white acrylic paint. I then added the original queen of merde image with a dragon from a bacardi ad wrapped around her head. I'm very happy with how this turned out.

nanojoumo- inspire

2009-11-03T21:51:00.001-05:00

nanojoumo- inspire
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

I had to think to myself what inspires me, then I had to think what doesn't? This is my way of thinking about that.

I sketched out the globe behind the figure first and then sketched in the image of the face, uplifted and with a smile. The next time I decide I want to draw a face on the fold punch me in the throat.

I used my ink brush (fine koi water brush filled with india ink) and inked in the face, body and around the world. I used watercolors to add color to the world and deliberately left the face black and white. I colored in the "shirt area" with watercolor pencil. Using a brush I filled in the black background with india ink and a brush. I spritzed the shirt area with water to allow the ink to run down it.

I hit all that with my drier and dried it out. I then used my gelly roll pen to add some fine line doodles and swirls. I used a brush with liquatex silver ink to add more depth and then added some white acrylic to add more swirls and doodles.

You can't see how awesome and neato the silver ink is in the pictures. Also the curve in the face distorts the face more than it is in reality and makes the whole thing look kinda weird in the photo. I'm not overly happy with it as a finished piece, but I tried to make this a little less complex than the last few images I did.

Censored by the Queen of Merde

2009-10-25T13:46:00.001-04:00

Censored by the Queen of Merde
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

This is image is being put out there with a creative commons license. You like it, download it, print it, use it in your art journal or blog or youtube video. All I ask is that you give me, LessHerger or ComfortableShoesStudio.com credit for it's creation. With either a link to flickr or my blog.

Hedgehog Notebooks- FInished

2009-06-27T21:49:00.001-04:00

Hedgehog Notebooks- FInished
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

Finally finished up these notebooks.
3.5x5.5 inches 160 pages in a variety of unlined pages in various papers. Variety of leathers and colors.

All are listed here on my artfire shop.

Love that Green

2009-06-23T05:28:00.001-04:00

More New Jotter Notebooks
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

These jotters almost didn't make it to Artfire. I'm so in love with the shades of green on the covers of these notebooks these almost remained mine.IF I didn't already have a box full of jotters these would have been mine. My lose is everyone's gain 'cause they are on ArtFire here.

More New Jotter Notebooks

2009-06-20T19:12:00.001-04:00

More New Jotter Notebooks
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

Just listed some items to my artfire shop These are my standard styled jotter notebooks, roughly 48 pages, this time with cream colored paper and a mix of colors on the covers.

Matchbook Notebooks

2009-06-20T19:09:00.001-04:00

Matchbook Notebooks
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

Just listed some items to my artfire shop These are my standard styled matchbook notebooks, roughly 100 pages, this time with my retro computer paper and nice stiff chocolaty brown covers. good stuff.

Also check out my blog at ComfortableShoesStudio.com

Book Blocks, Untrimmed and trimmed

2009-06-16T05:34:00.001-04:00

Book Blocks, Untrimmed and trimmed
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

Head on over to my new blog, Comfortable Shoes Studio for more information!

Chensio on Flickr

2009-03-01T09:21:00.001-05:00

Originally uploaded by chensio.

Great little moleskine image.

Habagat Garden: title page

2009-01-09T05:37:00.001-05:00

Habagat Garden: title page
Originally uploaded by Smallest Forest.

I'm drawn to this page, its the first page in the person's garden journal. AS a frustrated and somewhat terrible gardener I'm always wondering about how to garden better, maybe if I kept a garden journal....

quick boat sketches

2008-06-22T09:28:00.003-04:00

quick boat sketches
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

dane street

2008-06-22T09:28:00.001-04:00

dane street
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

dane street to the west

2008-06-22T09:27:00.001-04:00

dane street to the west
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

Spring is Here-Kiwi Vine

2008-04-19T10:26:00.001-04:00

Spring is Here-Kiwi Vine
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

I'm an amateur gardener. I love to do it, but I'm not all that good at it yet, but I'm working on it slowly.

A commenter on my flickr account said that there was something "dear" about how I'm cradling the edge of this vine, and when I think about it, I love my plants. I really do. There is something so very great about that first touch of spring and those first buds. The first buds let you know that the plant made it and can tell you how much fruit the plant will produce.

I love my plants almost as much as I love my dogs. With proper care and maintenance my plants will feed me. It's a good relationship.

Today I'm focusing on cutting a new garden bed in my back yard. We're going small this year, just enough room for a row of lettuces, peas, carrot, beans, squash and zucchini. I'm putting tomatoes and peppers in 2 spots around the house and a small herb bed next to the house. I'm looking forward to the payoff this summer and fall.

We've moved

2007-10-06T20:57:00.000-04:00

Well folks it's official the blog is moved to www.ComfortableShoesStudio.com all new content will go there and I won't update here anymore, change your bookmarks.

Wheeeee!

typepad questions

2007-09-28T18:49:00.000-04:00

So as I’ve written in here previously I’ve been toying with the possibility of switching to a typepad account and hosting my blog on my own domain as www.ComfortableShoesStudio.com, which is a domain that I already own. So I’ve already put that into process. I’ve purchased the typepad account, and set things up at my domain host and currently your able to see a basic version of my blog at ComfortableShoesStudio.com It won’t be stable for 14 days or so while I evaluate how much I like typepad or dislike it. So far I like it just fine.

However I realized right after I went through all that trouble that I managed to miss that Blogger offers the same damn service, for free. So I’m debating the need for the typepad account. I have a 14 day trial period to determine if I like the service or not, after that I’m paying.

So the major discussion in my head is whether or not I like the service typepad offers. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, I’ve been pretty happy with blogger, so I’m not sure a switch is a good idea or not. So for now I’m posting posts to both accounts.

whirlwind weekend

2007-09-23T20:24:00.000-04:00

I wrote on here about a week ago about how we were missing someone from my team at work. Well, I’ve been filling in for that person over the last 2 almost 3 weeks and I seem to have a talent for the position. So I’m applying for it! It will mean some changes to my schedule but nothing too major. I’m hoping I get it but if I don’t then I’m back to my regular schedule and same old job. We’ll see what happens. I think it will be good in terms of my art too, as it will leave me with regular hours, and working a typical week of only 40 hours. Yay.

So that being said I’ve been on a whirlwind of making books this weekend. My boss unearthed a treasure trove of old signs and passed them off too me. After a very funny request for a book made with the poster of our regional president, I was off with a good stack of posters. I, being the ham, I am obliged her with the book of our regional president and it was a hit. It is hilarious. I won’t show it here but it’s hilarious if you know the company.

Today I made a massive stack of jotters. 72 to be exact. Of course some of them are screw ups but most were good. I’ve listed 1 set to eBay and 2 sets to etsy.

I also finished a notebook for a custom order. I’m working on another custom project as well. So I've had a few busy weeks. Next week should be busy as well. BUT I have a pre-scheduled 3 day weekend coming up and it should be awesome. Well, I'll probably geek out, clean my house and watch all my Tivo'd episodes of the season premieres of the shows I like to watch.

BEST

2007-09-22T14:56:00.000-04:00

The Bookbinding Etsy Street Team (BEST) captured a tresury and it's viewable here:
Treasury, and yes I'm on it!

biz cards

2007-09-20T09:43:00.000-04:00

Let’s talk about business cards or as I like to call them Biz Cards. I’ve had a few great debates on the merits of the biz card over the years- about whether artists should or should not have them. Are they worth the money you’ll spend and time in design? How can you design them?

I recommend them. I love my biz cards. I refer to them as little nuggets of marketing and networking GOLD. Business cards condense your contact info down to a small readable format that you can slip into a pocket and pass off at a moments notice. If someone is interested in your work and pursuing more about it at a later time- what’s the best way to give them your telephone number and contact info? A post it fished from the bottom of your bag? Nope hand them a biz card.

The useful attributes of a biz card are as follow: Everyone knows what they are; you don’t need to reinvent the contact wheel, just go with the flow. They are small, immensely portable and cheap. So you can take them with you anywhere- plane, train and automobile. Putting 10 cards into your go bag won’t weigh you down. Heading out to paint in public? TAKE SOME CARDS! Because they are cheap and portable you won’t mind passing them out. The best thing about them is that in this small portable format you have everything you need for contact information- phone number, address, website and name. (All those items aren’t needed for a good card but are good prospects.) When someone asks you for your info, there’s no awkward attempts to remember your phone number or email address, it’s all there. All in all they are super easy.

I take a small stack with me everywhere. I keep a few in my bag, and a few in my to go notebook. Just in case I talk about my book or art and someone wants to see more I give them a card. I hand them out like they are going out of style. In my 5 or so years of using them regularly I think I’ve made and handed out thousands.

Most office supply stores offer an inexpensive service to make a basic black and white card- about $10 for a thousand. Staples is running a special to make a certain number while you wait. A great thing is to look at the publishing software on your computer and see what sort of templates are on there- adapt them to suit your needs. This is great if you move around a lot. You can print off 10 or 500. Office supply stores also carry biz card blanks- perforated sheets of cardstock in biz card size. Print and tear. Easy. I happen to use cardstock from the craft store- I buy the color I like by the packages- 100 sheets, print up 20 or 30 sheets at a time and cut them by hand. This lets me change them however I like and I can print them when ever I like- it’s on demand.

As far as information on your cards- name, title, website, email and a phone number (if you want). I include a blurb about what I do- artist and bookbinder and my location- city and state as well as my eBay id. I give them out freely- friends, people I just met, and I put 2 in every eBay package I send out. If you are using card stock think about ways you can use the template on your computer to make your cards a little different. They simply need to be around the same size of a biz card 2 inches by 3.5 inches. (I suggest keeping the width about the same as standard- that way they fit into a rolodex.) There are loads of books in B&N and Borders probably in a small local chain about biz card design, some of the ideas are impractical and many are so cool your going to want to use that idea. Take a look at those books make some notes.

Then head back to your studio and think about what you want to impart about your art/website with your cards- rough, rugged, different, tough, durable and earthy were some adjectives I used to describe my work. So I wanted my cards to reflect that. I picked out a paper- kraft paper. Initially I picked a rough chocolate coffee brown cardstock with a neat texture, but it didn’t print well, and then I happened upon a package of kraft paper cardstock, and it was perfect. So that is what I use for everything now. I also found some kraft paper that was perfect for my stationary, and thus I created a complete package around those adjectives that I felt described my work.

Put some though into your design and information and you’ll quickly have a great card that you’ll stick with and want to hand out to everyone.

* a quick note about those prefab cards from staples, I saw a really cool card from an artist that was a inexpensive card from staples- black ink on white paper that the artist quickly stenciled a design onto. The print of the card itself was tactile and nice, and then the image overlaid that and added more interest to the card- still one of the coolest cards I’ve ever seen. So spending $10 on pre-fab cards is great too- you can use them as is or add to them and end up with a fabulous card.

Cross posted to Comfortable Art Marketing blog.

ebay listings

2007-09-16T15:32:00.000-04:00

It’s been a long week for me here. I’ve been working extremely hard at the DayJob which has left me still little time to work on books. It will pass soon. We’re hiring for the missing person and all should be better after that.

PHEW!

However I’m listing some of my backstock items to eBay, you can see them here.

I’ve got 2 sets of 6 jotters, 2 one off graffiti jotters and a large hedgehog journal covered in marbled brown leather- it’s awesome.

I’ve also started to rededicate myself toward making art. I’m focusing on working in my moleskine with gouache and painting things out of the news. I should say people from the news.

I’m getting half as much done on books as normal and it’s frustrating me. I’m almost done with a hedgehog project that I started weeks ago only to find that I’ve not gotten it done… I’m like 2 steps from finishing it… GRGH, silly mortage, why do I need to pay you? Kidding.

Quick update

2007-09-11T21:08:00.001-04:00

UGH! I'm going to be working late all this week. At least it's not so hot I"m sweat my rear off.

Long days.

So a quick update- I'm working on the custom hedgehogs- they look great and are 90% done.

I'm pricing out a custom book. I"ll think about it while stuff loads tomorrow. While that happens I'll hopefully be able to price things out.

After the next 2 weeks I'm going to need a long weekend.

That being said I have my birthday off and my parents are coming to visit- this is exciting on a number of levels- my Dad rarely leaves the state of Maine and he's going to come down to help pick pear off my pear tree and advise me on which branches I should trim- I defer all this to him. As much as would like to pretend I know what I'm doing I might kill it. Then it would be like my fabulous kiwi plants- that I keep forgetting to water and killing, then watering them and bringing it back- it's a vicious cycle. However that means my weekend won't be as relaxing as it could me.

Anyhow, I'm busy but still making art. phew what a week so far.

Listings

2007-09-10T04:48:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note but the pictures below are all from the listings I have on eBay now. You can find them here.

A little Planning Goes a Long Way

2007-09-09T20:48:00.001-04:00

So I wanted to write about my DayJob a bit here and how it’s affected my ability to spend time on internet and art things.

Obviously the DayJob is important to me, I’ve learned a lot of useful skills from them, some of which I’ve applied here online and some that are universal- like when to shut my mouth. I worked 50 hours this week. Yup, 10 hours of sweet overtime. But it’s left me with less energy when I finally arrive home. Keep in mind that now I’m in the new location I drive about 1 to 2 hours per day for travel completely dependent on traffic. So my days are sometimes 12 hours long. Obviously that’s a lot of time, and I’m left exhausted on some days.

So I’ve had to carefully plan out my days when I come home from the DayJob- cook dinner and lunch for the next day, eat and pack it up. Then I clean up. I relax for about a half hour reading my email then I head to the studio for about an hour. Because I only have an hour I have to pick and chose what I do carefully. This week it took me 3 days to cut and fold paper for hedgehogs, something that normally I’d have done in 2. In addition to that I worked on the 2 portraits for my boss while I relaxed in front of the TV. Normally the portraits would have been done in 2 days or so.

Because I’ve prepared for the unknown things happening I’ve been able to plan ahead for certain things- like the covers for the hedgehogs have already been cut, so all I need to do is sew them and glue them up. But when unexpected emergencies arise- such as the recent instance with eBay taking down all but one of my listings it throws me for a loop. Thanks to eBay I’m out a possible $50. While not a big deal it is a burden for me, I simply didn’t have the time to relist those auctions, it would have required me to shift my other responsibilities.

I try to prioritize the studio, website and personal items. Obviously blog entries go to the wayside in weeks like these, custom orders that I would normally weave into my time get shifted to top of the pile and get done first and eBay listings are saved for weekends when I have more time. I keep a to do list in the front of my Jotter notebook that lists the items I need to accomplish during that week, I cross them off as I go. In terms of personal items, I’m keeping a shopping list on a post it in my jotter. The rest of the personal stuff is sort of a routine: dinner is made easier by having a lot of pre-packed veggies in the freezer and chicken ready to go, so for nights where I come home ready to sleep- I can throw a chicken breast in the frying pan, a package of green beans and maybe some rice in the rice cooker.

Essentially we plan for this sort of thing with my job- there are often times when an emergency arises- wireless dies, registers stop working or card readers stop working. In those instances I have to stay until it’s fixed. Sometimes I know I’m going to be there for extended periods of time- such as this past week and probably the next couple of weeks- though after this week things should calm down a lot.

I’ve also had to plan for things within my job too. I’ve had to dedicate a page in my planner to planning out important instances with my day. Appointments, interviews I’ve set up, interviews I’m conducting, call back etc. For the first time I’ve had to look at my duties and prioritize them and see what I can accomplish in half my day while shifting my temporary duties (human resources) to the forefront of my day. I spend my AM doing my normal duties while every 2 hours looking at a specific program for my temp responsibilities for a half hour; back and forth until noon. I then shift gears in the afternoon and work solely on the temp responsibilities.

Towards the end of this past week I started to feel more comfortable with the temp responsibilities which has lessened my stress level as well as the time I spent at work. My goal is always to get everything done that I can do in 40 hours. I like my job but my website and art are my real focus in life.

In short a little planning and focus have made my home and internet life run a little more smoothly though I’ve been wishing there were more hours in the day.

Relisted on eBay

2007-09-09T10:41:00.000-04:00

So after being completely angry with eBay for the last week I’ve decided to relist my items that were pulled down, they were all ready for eBay anyway, so I figured I’m not out anything but my precious time to relist them. So you can find them here.

Pro Blogger

2007-09-08T12:00:00.000-04:00

So I found a new blog that anyone interested in blogging; whether for art or not but as a way to promote their business should read and regularly check out: ProBlogger.net

It’s really great- good articles, informative articles that translate well to art- or anything really because the subject is blogging not just business. But I thought that their were some great suggestions and IDEAS for people interested in the subject. So head over to problogger.net for a good read and learn something.

Also in this vein of thought I’ve decided that I need to separate my art marketing interests from the art part of my blog, so from now on updates on my ‘zine on art marketing and blog strategies will be made here. Of course I’ll post links to let people know I’ve updated here but all real posts will be made to that blog.

oh ebay you fickle thing you

2007-09-06T05:26:00.000-04:00

Well, after yesterday I had hoped that my listings were safe but fully expected them to come down. So this morning when I got up I wasn’t sure what to expect. So to check my email and find that 2 of the 3 remaining listings were gone didn’t surprise me, but the randomness of the removal is what gets me. The final listing also had the same string of keywords and was also listed at the same time. So I don’t get it.

I understand that I’m in violation of the rules, but I’ve literally been listing with those same titles for years, with not one peep of rules violation or warning or indication that they were in violation of the rules.

I also removed the word “like” from my listing, replacing it with “better than.” Both of those listings were removed. However, the words “better than” were not on the list.

I sent a note to eBay regarding the matter and apparently you can’t compare your items at all to another in the listing title. So I can’t even include the word moleskine or cahier at all. Even though cahier is French for notebook. So I’m screwed.

I hate ebay even more today than I did yesterday. But I’m between a rock and a hard place. Etsy is great and I’d love to do all my sales through it but I’ve always done the bulk of my sales through eBay. I’ve stuck with it through thick and thin but this may be where I draw the line. I’m carefully weighing my options, and I’ll come out with a plan soon. I wish this could have happened on a different week, I’m working crazy hours at my DayJob and I’m literally coming home to fall exhausted into bed, if I had more time I’d be able to deal with this in a more effective manner and get the listings back up on eBay the next day.

So those of you who are bidding, I’m sorry eBay stinks these days but expect that one last listing to come down tomorrow. I’ve contacted someone at eBay regarding my attempts to edit the title and being unable to do so, and I’m hoping that having made those attempts will get me some slack but I expect not.

(On a side note- I took a look at some of the other listings, and I’ve noticed that they do seem to be cracking down on this across the board. Knockoff bags, shoes etc are all getting taken down too, so I don’t feel so bad, but I’m expecting that for me to come into the radar that some one reported me.)

eBay sucks

2007-09-05T05:18:00.000-04:00

Again eBay renews my love hate relationship for them. I listed 6 items using my templates. Everything looked good, bids were coming in, and then I got up this AM to find 3 of my 6 listings had been taken down, by eBay. I had a form email in my email telling me what I had done wrong- used LIKE in my title. I’ve been listing items for YEARS with LIKE in the title. Never once have I received an email telling me that I can’t do that.

When a listing is placed, if there are words in the title that uses a prohibited word their listing format should tell a seller when it may violate eBay’s rules, that way a seller can amend it then rather than have it taken down by eBay.

Here again eBay screws the little seller selling low cost items.

So if you are interested or are bidding on my current batch of items be aware that eBay may or may not take them down.

I’m not sure how I’m going to proceed from here.

ebay listings

2007-09-02T13:57:00.001-04:00

After 2 weeks off I've got 6 auctions up on eBay right now, one set of coffee jotters, 2 sets of regular recycled jotters, 1 set of 100% recycled jotters, and 2 auctions for the custom jotters.

You can find them all here.

One Shots

2007-09-02T10:00:00.001-04:00

So I was on YouTube watching som eThread Bangers episodes and I was thinking that those very same stencil design ideas could be applied to the covers of notebooks. I did a whoel art series a few years ago (okay so more like 9 years ago) of spray pained backgrounds, stencils and what not on paper, so I KNEW that the ideas in the threadbangers video would work on paper. SO I decided to take what I knew and apply it to a few covers of jotters and make a limited edition series of jotters. Here are the first few- I made 17 total, metallic spray paint, red and black and gray. I pulled a tribal wing flash design off the net and adapted it, a diagram of a heart and adapted that too, through painted up the back grounds, layers of paint, and gessoed covers, and finally embellishing with some snazzy stitching here are my results:

I decided to test the limits of my sewing machine too, I've added several extra pages- I went from 48 to 60! Yikes! I also went high end with the paper, some have 24lb 25% cotton and some have 100% cotton paper and some have hand stitchin. I'll have a few up on eBay later today and some on etsy too.

some graffiti jotter pics

2007-09-02T10:00:00.000-04:00

How it's Done

2007-09-01T13:05:00.001-04:00

I’m going to post some pictures of this a little later, but I’m writing out my process for my moleskine paintings.

I start with a photo from the AP or another website. I print it off fairly small. I then take a pen and outline the major areas of dark and light. Anywhere I see a shape of different shade I hit it with the pen. I scan this in and open it up in photoshop. I edit some of the darks and lights and make sure my lines are all visible in black and white. I use a little find edge filtering and really highlight the lines I made on the print off. Then I save it as a black and white jpeg. In the photo wizard I open up the image and go to print. I pick 4x6 print, which enlarges and distorts the image a little more. After printing it off. I cover the backside with a even coating of soft graphite pencil- usually a 4 or 5B- SOFT is best.

I tape the image down to the page in the moleskine and trace my lines with a hard pencil 4H, or a ball point pen.

After transferring the image. I start with my blacks and lay those in. I work progressively through the shade until I get to white. I’ve been told I should work in reverse and maybe I will one day but I find that when I try and change up the painting style it screws me up and I end up making the painting messy.

After I finish the face I lay in the background. Depending on how much soak through I have from previous pages I decide on watercolor or gouache for the background. Lately it’s been all watercolor no matter what.

After all that I let it dry and close up the book.

coffee jotter and finished order

2007-08-29T23:39:00.000-04:00

Last night I finished the big order I wrote about in a previous post. I took the book into work with out taking a picture of each of them. So… I’ll snap a quick pic today when I get to work of the spines. Since I can’t show the covers without photoshop anyway, it doesn’t make too much of a difference. I will say the matching bindings in hemp are very cool. The excessive company branding is even cool when you look at how totally random it looks even if it isn’t.

After a week of being used and abused the coffee jotter is standing up VERY well to use. The mylar packaging is showing no signs of wear. The stick-on label is showing slight signs of wear but this is not a surprise. The label is a sticker meant to survive the abuses of a short sweet life on the retail shelf, not the travails of my jeans’ pockets.

written:8/17/07

I never did get a picture of the books but I did get them to the person purchasing them! He was really happy.

jotter cover ideas

2007-08-28T05:17:00.000-04:00

Ideas for recycled jotter covers:

Advertising fliers in the mail- cardstock mailers

Covers from magazines

Paper shopping bags

Laminated plastic shopping bags

Old calendar pages

Old spiral bound notebook covers

Cardstock from the craft store

Advertising signs

Paint chips

Old magazine covers

The Finishing touches

2007-08-27T19:30:00.001-04:00

To make your coffee bag jotter can be finished easily now that you've prepared and cleaned your bag. Start by lightly ironing the mylar, use a very light setting on you iron and cover the mylar with paper to protect your iron.

Too hot and you mylar bag will curl. Be careful.

I like to stitch down the flap with a zig zag stitch but you could use any decorative or straight stitch- or not stitch it at all.

Here you can see where I've stitched down the flap. Now you want to trim all the edges and make your piece of mylar square- it's easier to work with this way.

Flip the bag over and measure out the size of your notebook with a sharpie. I'm making a small pocket sized notebook here, so I've measured 5.5 inches down from the top. Trim the mylar to the right size.
Measure the size of your front cover plus 1/4 of an inch- so for my notebook I've measure 3.75 inches in and 'scored" a line with a pencil. Measure the same for your back cover and score again with you r pencil. Fold along the back cover score and fold any remaining mylar to create a flap.
After you've created your flap cut an angle to allow for creating a pocket.
After you've folded and cut your flap stitch the flap down again.
Stack the cover with 15 sheets of paper and use binder clips to hold it in place. You should just be able to see the score mark you made originally.

If you use a sewing machine stitch down that score mark using a wide straight stitch. If you don't have a sewing machine you can punch 15 holes and stitch through them to make your notebook.

Fold along the stitches press hard, use a bone folder to really crease the fold.

Hold the covers tight to the paper and gently hit the spine with a hammer, sharp hits but not pounding hits.
Line a ruler up witht eh back cover and trim away the excess uneven paper.

Here's the finished book. If you don't like how the cover sits, run your iron over it. If the mylar is too flimsy feeling you can raise the temp of the iron and laminate the cover to the first page.

Vacation Photos

2007-08-26T17:58:00.000-04:00

This isn't at all book related but I'm back from my vacation. IF you are interested in seeing pictures from my vacation, you should be able to follow this link to my flickr account and see all kinds of pictures of Maine. I only loaded some of the best from the many I took. Enjoy!

Prepare a Coffee bag for making a Jotter

2007-08-25T12:39:00.001-04:00

Get one used mylar coffee bag.

Flatten it. Trim the bottom of the bag along the seam, just above it. You want as much usable mylar as possible to make your notebook.

After flattening and trimming find the air lock. On some bags it’s clearly visible and other’s it’s harder to find. I noticed that starbucks and Pete’s hide theirs in their logos. Keeping with the theme of keeping as much usable mylar as possible trim straight up from the bottom along one side of the airlock and them up the other side, you’ll be left with a strip of mylar about 1 inch wide with the airlock in it. Discard it.

Use a damp sponge wipe down the mylar. Then use a spray cleaner to continue to clean it. It may take several cleanings to get it clean. Don’t leave any of the coffee oils on the mylar as it will stain the paper when stitched in.

After this you can cut and stitch the mylar just like you would paper or fabric. I like to stitch down the seam along the back of the bag and then sew the jotter as if I was using cardstock.

Toner

2007-08-19T11:41:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty excited abou this- my newer printer allows me to make toner transfers! This is awesome in so many ways. My old Oki wouldn't work with toner transfer techniques, the new Brother does.

So many possibilities.

The Latest Completed Journal Notebook

2007-08-18T16:54:00.001-04:00

The Latest Completed Journal Notebook
Originally uploaded by E_Journeys.

Follow the link and read the person's words... very good thoughts. that's how I use and view my jotter notebooks- raw data- I thought I was the only one who used that expression.

Vacation PLans

2007-08-18T00:25:00.000-04:00

I’m officially on vacation. I kicked off my vacation with a dinner at a very nice restaurant in a central Mass town near where we used to live. It was very cute and very tasty. Meals were artfully arranged French style but more American fare. It was an expensive kick off to the week but well worth it.

My plans for this week are simple, relaxation in Maine. Heading to a few key scenic areas, making some art and mainly relaxation.

One of the places that I’m heading to is Cape Split in South Addison to see the area John Marin painted. I never understood Marin’s work until I took a wrong turn when looking for an office in which I had an interview and I ended up near Cape Split. It was a brilliant sunny summer day and I had recently seen some of his work in person and was amazed and overwhelmed by seeing suddenly with clarity the scenery in his paintings in person. It was suddenly clear. I could see the shapes in his paintings in the scenery. I guess you have to see it to believe it. I’m hoping for a few clear sunny days while we’re up there so I can get a few good photos in and maybe even some painting. The one big issue I have is that while we go to see some of the area it’s going to be some driving and gas up there is pretty expensive.

The other main attraction that we’re going to go see is Cobscook State Park. IT is amazing, particularly if we have a nice day.

The final place to see is West Quoddy Head. It’s an easy day hike, a few miles only, gorgeous rocky scenery that I never got tired of when I was in Maine. It’s a place that is easy to get to and easy to enjoy and take lots of nice touristy photos. It’s also the location of a pretty gruesome attempted murder- about 5 or 6 years ago a man and a woman were getting divorced and she asked him to meet her at the park to discuss a few things. The decided to hike and she pushed him off a 100 foot cliff as the tide was receding. There was only a few feet of water between him and the rocks, and it almost killed him. He was spotted by tourists and barely saved.

Anyway. I’m looking forward tot eh 9 delightful days off I’m going to have. I’ll be posting to Flickr and her from the road, and we aren’t leaving until Sunday night.

Beer and Moleskine'd thoughts and a future 'zine

2007-08-16T20:12:00.001-04:00

One of the things I really love in the hot summer is a good cold beer. I don’t drink a lot but damn in the summer a nice cold beer is wonderful. Today it’s HOT here in the northeast and I’m sweating my a$$ off.

I’ve been editing an article I’m writing for both my blog and for a prospective ‘zine. Well, I thought about the couple of beers I have in my ‘fridge and I decided to crack into one. This is a St. Peter’s Golden Ale. It’s the color of apricots and honey. It’s smooth and easy drinking, light and refreshing, perfect for the summer. It also only comes in very expensive 17-ounce containers. It also seems to be quite heavy on the alcohol…

All that stated my article is going darn well. I’ve got 22 half sized (11 letter sized) single spaced pages of good solid starting out online advice as well as hints and tips for marketing art. I’ve been devoting about 2 hours a day to working on it. I spend my evening writing up notes and ideas I’ve jotted down during my various breaks in the day and random ideas I’ve had while waiting for things to load at work. I print the pages out after all that and when I get home from work, edit the pages and fix all the edits I’ve put into the draft. Repeat process. Tomorrow I’m taking a break from the process as I won’t have free time and I’m going out after work.

So Saturday I’ll be working on it again. I’m expecting a 30 or 40 page half sized ‘zine out of this effort, in 2 or 3 weeks. I’m very very excited.

Give the Gift Of coffee Jotters- Congrats Peter!

2007-08-16T11:55:00.000-04:00

One of my coworkers has been promoted; he’s headed off to work with a subsidiary of the company I work for as a traveling coffee guru. I’m unbelievably excited for him. The job entails a great deal of travel in the North East as well as out to Colorado where the subsidiary has its head quarters. How cool is that?

As a farewell and good luck gift to him I’m making him a set of Coffee Jotters made of the packaging of the company employing him. I’ve enlisted the help of several people working in his current department. When they brew coffee for sample they are saving the packaging for me. We’ll see how many packages I get from the weekend but I was able to snag one on Friday and I bought anew package of coffee and made that into a jotter.

These jotters are cool in that I added pockets to the front of each one. One I simply folded the packaging over and stitched it in place before I made the jotter and the other I trimmed the packaging to size and used a piece of the cuttings to make the other pocket. I think they came out really well.

I also did a little experimenting on the mylar. I remembered from high school art class that mylar will tack to itself at a fairly low temperature. One of the packages had a lot of seems that I didn’t want and were too small to trim off the package it would have fallen apart. So I hit it with the iron at a very low temperature, and while it didn’t tack down all the folds and creases in the mylar and plastic disappeared. I didn’t get the results I was looking for I certainly got results that were in the end quite useful. (Cautionary note: When I say low heat, I mean as LOW as my iron would go.) Oh so in the end I ended up simply zigzag stitching over the offending seams. I like the look.

So here are a few pictures of the Coffee Jotters.

I see now I forgot to remove a logo, but we'll all have to deal with it.

book/'zine

2007-08-15T12:31:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note from my DayJob! The last few nights have been a whirlwind of working on a new 'zine. I realized after reading my post about marketing that I should write up what I know in an article and post it. After a few days of writing it and editing what I wrote and then realizing that it needed to have more added I decided to create a new 'zine. I have no idea what I'm going to call it. I suspect that I'll be done with the writing and editing in a month or so. The focus is Blog and Art marketing online. Thus far I have 21 half sized pages and I'm thinking I'm going to get to 30 or 40.

There will be 1 to 200 copies of the "first edition" and subsequent versions will simply be new editions with added and updated info.. I'm thinking about pricing so after it's all finished I'll print off a few copies and then price them out.

I'm looking at making this a hands on and useful book/'zine for someone starting out or who has been around for awhile. Unlike some of the books and blogs I've read on marketing this will be real tangible advice on marketing and promoting your art or blog.

I'm really enjoying this project as it's taking some of my already written marketing plan and applying it to what other people can do easily to up their hit count as well as recommending useful resources for the artist.

DayJob Sales

2007-08-14T05:23:00.001-04:00

One of my coworkers is heading off on vacation, which is pretty typical this time of year what’s not typical is that he has seen some of my work and placed a custom order. He’s getting 5 large recycled journals, 8 matchbook notebooks and a set of jotters. Not to forget the notebook he’s getting for himself. One of the main requests was that I include as many company logos on them as possible, as they are going to his former coworkers. I was more than happy to do that for him. The results are some highly company branded books. I’m finished with almost all of them except for one, his. I’m hoping to get some shots of the finished work tonight and post some highly photoshopped pictures.

Also my DayJob boss bought a large 400-page journal for her best friend who was recently married. I don’t usually like to sell books at work, but I figured what the heck, it’s a one shot deal. It’s always cool to see the reaction of a person who first gets the journal. I never get to see that, because the journals almost always go off into the mail. I’ve gotten to see the reaction twice now. It’s one thing when I make them for someone but another when they purchase them from me- the reaction is similar but so very cool. Anyway, the big smile on my Bosses’ face made my day. I can only imagine how excited her friend is going to be when she sees the giant behemoth of a journal for the first time.

Ebay Items

2007-08-12T14:46:00.000-04:00

I listed 5 items to ebay today. 1 large recycled journal, 2 sets of jotters and 3 sets of matchbook notebooks. I lost a day of work this weekend when we spent some time at a family function but it’s all good they fed us. (The food was good.)

So you can find the eBay items here.

retirement for jotter

2007-08-11T10:27:00.000-04:00

Its time for the notebook that I’ve been using for the last month or so to be retired. I have a particular process that I use each time.

First I reread the entire notebook, I then flag pages that need transferring to the new book. Either it’s information I’m still working on or something I know I’ll be looking for on a regular basis. I have 3 pages that I transfer to the first 3 pages of every notebook- a list of my friend’s phone numbers and volume and weight conversion info. So then I start transferring the info as needed. AS I transfer the pages I remove the post it notes.

When I’m all done I put a label on the spine of the old book- labeling what category it goes into- planner, ideas or what not. I also put a date range on the spine. The book then gets tossed into my bag for another week or two just incase I missed something in the transfer. After that it goes into my slipcase for easy reference.

Blog Marketing art

2007-08-09T19:12:00.000-04:00

When I talk about “marketing” my art I sometimes get funny looks. So I think I should clarify what I’m talking about when I discuss marketing. Marketing to me is anything and everything I do to promote my art and my website. Think about it, you probably got a website to promote your art but what are you doing to make that happen? If your response is doing nothing then I think having a website is a waste of time. If you aren’t investing a little time each week to promote yourself the effort, time and money of having a website or blog about your art is wasted. If all you do is allow Google or other search engines bring traffic to your site you’re not effectively getting the word out about your work. How can I say that? Because I spent the first year of having my website letting it sit there relying upon Google, search engines and eBay sales to bring people into looking at it. I qualified my website and blog’s dismal failure by telling people that it’s only there to show interested customers and collectors what I do.

Well, where the hell were those interested customer’s coming from? There weren’t many! Someone would email me to ask me about my work, usually from a referral from a friend of theirs who had seen my work so I’d send them to my website. That’s how it worked for quite some time. Until I decided to take it into my own hands and figure out how to get more people coming to my website, to my eBay sales and to me for custom work. Thus my blog was born. I was keeping a personal blog that drove a lot of people to my work- I saw the power in my personal blog (sadly Diary-X is dead now) for marketing and getting people to check out my work. So I started the blog about my art.

Here’s rule #1 about the art blog- it’s all about art and the trials and tribulations of being an artist. You will find very little griping about my personal life here, you will find NO complaining about my customers here, nor will you see much complaining about my DayJob unless it pertains directly to my art. I’ve heard a lot of argument about artist’s blogs and what they should or should not contain. Each blog is personal and you should make it yours however you want. But these are my rules and I’m going with it. So I keep my blog art focused. (This comes from my personal preferences in blogs- I like to read about art, how the art was made and the like; I don’t like to read about some one’s dog puking on the carpet, cooking dinner or what grades the kids got. I read other blogs for that sort of personal info.)

Rule #2 about the blog is: promote it. Trade links whenever possible, get featured on websites whenever possible. Provide links in the bottom of your every email address. The signature file of emails is a secret and powerful weapon for artists. At the bottom of every email people get form me- I provide a link to my blog. I have the address to my website on my business cards. Now if someone asks me about my art I tell him or her to check out my blog- they can learn far more about my art and me through it than they ever could have before.

Rule #3 about the blog. Use it. Post regularly. Most blogs have the feature of saving entries (Wordpress and Blogger) so that you can publish them later, work on them more or what have you. This is a rule I break a lot. I’ll post 10 entries over a weekend instead of spreading them out across the week. So that’s a change you’ll see instituted on this blog asap.
Marketing shouldn’t be a dirty word for the artist and crafts person- we just need to change our thinking of it form a big corporate idea to think that it’s just thinking about how we’re going to get more people to look and buy our work.

marketing this

2007-08-08T21:37:00.001-04:00

Holy moley it’s freaking HOT here in Mass. I’ve been printing lines on paper and the paper and printed are not liking the humidity.

The printer keeps jamming because the paper keeps curling. So instead of hitting print and walking away par usual, I have to listen for the printer not printing and then come back, fix the darn thing and then go back to what I’m doing.

It’s mildly frustrating. Especially as I have a lot of paper to print- I’ve got a l;arge order lined up and I need to print it now, I’d rather wait but I can’t.

I’ve also worked on my marketing plan over the last few weeks. I’ve got a good outline of what I need to do now I’m just in process of picking out actual actionable items to add to it. I need a good plan to follow otherwise I won’t do much of anything. Essentially the plan involved 4 to 8 hours a week of additional work- over an above work on the website, making books, ebay and etsy. The goal is to get more people reading my blog and interested in my books. The plan utilizes what I already do plus some use of google analytics.

Have I written about how much I’m in love with google analytics? It’s freaking awesome. If you’re an artist trying to learn more about the visitors to your website, blog or other site you can use analytics pretty easily. There are a lot of screens to look at and see: where your customers/readers are coming from, how long they stay, what they look at, where they are from, among a large number of other things. You can also set up specific pages and entries to track. It’s highly customizable and the reports are really useful.

I’ve analyzed (yes I’m a total geek and this is what I partially do for my job) some of the reports to see where I can improve my links, referrals, and length of time spent on my site.

Anyway, I was pretty happy with how much time I spent on the plan today so I congratulated myself with a bottle of Magic Hat Hocus Pocus. I rarely drink these days but occasionally a nice ice cold beer is very nice.

Matcbook notebook redux!

2007-08-08T12:29:00.000-04:00

It seems my little matchbook notebook re-design has led to some great interest! I'm pretty excited to say that my stuff is going to be featured on yet another blog!

You'll be able to read more about it here:
http://craftandfound.com/

Flickr Mosaic

2007-08-07T19:39:00.000-04:00

In celebration of getting a Flickr PRO account I've made this with fd's flickr toys:

My creation
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

1. Stack of 17, 2. Coffee Bag Jotters, 3. Coffee Bag Jotters, 4. Jotter Cahier Volant Slipcase, 5. Recycled Matchbook Notebooks, 6. My 3 notebooks, 7. mine all mine in macro, 8. chase, imprint and mole, 9. Hedgehogs

ebay and etsy sales

2007-08-04T10:52:00.000-04:00

I’ve got 4 auctions ending Sunday. One each for the following items: PenSlip, Recycled Sign Cover notebook, Hedgehog with Graph Paper, and a hedgehog with cardstock pages.

I’ve got 3 items just listed, a set of 6 jotters, a set of graph paper jotters, and a set of recycled matchbook notebooks.

I’ve got some low buy-it-now prices and I’ve opened up my shipping to offer first class mail rather than just priority mail. I actually added this option after the USPS upped the price on their priority mail shipping but never announced it. I still believe that in most cases priority mail is the best way to go, especially if your ordering multiple items but I thought I’d give people a choice.

I”ll be loading some items up to etsy today as well. I’ve got a load of items on etsy- too many to list but you can see them all here.

Coffee Jotters

2007-08-03T13:32:00.000-04:00

If you know me personally you know tht I love coffee. I love almost all forms of coffee but my favorite is fresh locally roasted coffee. There is really nothing like it. It’s a flavor sensation unlike any other coffee. Once you’ve had a really good fresh roasted coffee you can’t go back to folgers or other commercially available ground coffees.

My recent excursions into locally roasted coffee have led me to several new brands. One is not really a new brand it belongs to the coffee shop I walk to in my town called Atomic Coffee. The roast and brew their coffee on the premises and in the front room of their shop you can see the roaster. Coffee is fairly priced and damn good, plus they offer free WiFi.

Recently they have started to sell their coffee in limited amounts in some local stores. I saw a bag recently and had to buy it. Wonderful, even better at home than in the store. Truly awesome. If you are ever in Beverly Mass, I suggest you get over to Atomic and have some coffee and buy a bag to take home.

Then a recent excursion had me run into a brand called Karma Coffee. Silver foil bag and an elephant on the label. I was told by the guy selling it (Dan) that it’s a small roaster and coffee shop in Weston Mass. They roast in small batches and sell a lot of coffee. I was game so I bought myself a bag of Ethiopian Harrrar I can’t compare it to the stuff in the shop but if it’s half as good as the stuff I brewed at home that it’s got to be amazing stuff.

At this point you have got to be asking yourself what this has to do with bookbinding.

Patience!

I took one look at the bags and I wondered how I could make that into a book. Seriously I almost always think about how I can make something into a book. A coworker pointed out a sign- made of thick 1/8th inch plastic and asked if I could somehow make that into a book. I said of course I can.

So I cleaned the bag out- some spray cleaner really helped. (a quick I noticed item here- the locally roasted bags had far fewer oils on the inside of the bag than a non-local fresh roast bag that I also tried this with, and thus were far easier to clean.)

I then cut the vacuum valve off, and trimmed the bag to a useable piece. I then stitched it just like I would a regular jotter. I then trimmed it all down to the right size.

On a recycling note, most coffee bags are made of mylar and layered with plastic. They are not very recyclable. While I wasn’t able to re-use and upcycle ALL the bag I was able to get a lot of the bag into a new use. I’m pretty happy with it.

These are all mine, and not for sale.

An Ode to Jotter's and a slip case

2007-08-03T12:43:00.000-04:00

I’ve wanted to write a post about my favorite notebook of all time: the Jotter. I used the dimensions of the Moleskine Cahier and adapted it to work for me. I eschew the pocket in the back, use only 48 pages (depending on thickness), don’t perforate any pages and use whatever cover material strikes my fancy. They are easy to make either by hand or with a sewing machine. They are also super durable.

Where my other notebooks are pretty and contain a lot of my ideas my Jotters are my filter and my workhorse. Almost everything goes into these little beauties first, and then gets translated to my larger books. This is the spot my rough ideas for posts start, quick sketches for product ideas with brief descriptions, notes for work, grocery lists and yes, my to do lists.

They are a containment device, an idea capture, a funnel and a filter all in one. Because they are so easy for me to make I have no qualms about crossing out entire pages, filling up the pages with UPCs from work, or jotting down my hair brained schemes or funny quotes from friends. At this point everyone I know is accustomed to my whipping out my note book at a moments notice to take a note, jot down a phone number or copy down a to do list.

Theoretically they could be tossed out after I’m done with them but I can’t bear to part with them. There is so much RAW information contained within that I decided to keep them all. I used to have them in a rather untidy stack on the edge of my desk. (Who knows when I’m going to need to refer to mortgage information, or refer to my raw website plans to see if they translated well.) I knocked the stack over a few time and figured I could build myself something to store them all, so I did. I made myself a little decorative slipcase. Using binder’s board I built 4 sides and a base just tall enough to fit the jotters snuggly. It holds about a dozen, give or take what I’ve shoved inside. Now the notebooks sit on my shelf proudly, contained and within easy reach.

I’ve organized them oldest to the left and most recent to the right. I have 2 I refer to on a regular basis- the one for recipes and the one for quotes. When I finish a notebook I get out the label maker and apply to the thin spine a label of what is in it and it’s date range. I keep an assortment of new notebooks in the slipcase to keep everything square and looking neat. This way I can also pull out a new one whenever I need it.

As for the jotters, about a month into being stored and carried in my back hip pocket they get a little curved and a little beaten up. The paper along the spine gets a little worn but the sewing stays true. I’ve abused several of them, as have my friends and coworkers and man do they stay strong.

I set them up much the same way I used to set up my Volants- I apply a series of post it flags in the front, a small stack of post its and a mini 1/8 binder clip for anything that I might want to cart around but not glue into the pages. I carry an assortment of business cards (mine and others), coupons and little snippets in the back. I”ve given up on the PigPog style organization with my new job. I don’t need to have anything that structured, the new job is structured enough. But I DO organize it thusly: work info starts on the back page and goes forward, while all other information starts at the front. My current to do list and shopping list gets a little post it tab and the rest of the book is a catchall. Far more useful this way for my current position than the other styles I’ve tried in the past.

Matchbook Notebooks- Instruction

2007-08-01T19:34:00.001-04:00

So here are some instructions for the matchbook notebooks. I used all recycled materials but you could use whatever you would like. I think they would look particularly attractive with some decorative papers that are available.

For my 2.5x3 inch pad of paper, I used a strip of cardstock that was 2.75 inches wide and 8 inches long. Depending on what you have around you could used longer paper and wider paper.

To start this notebook out. place your stack of paper right side to right side of the cover. Press in your staples. I used a 1/4 inch stack of paper and a heavy duty stapler and 2 staples, You could do this with one staple through the center.

IN the picture above you can clearly see the score marks that allow the cover to fold around and cover the staples. I scored about 1/2 inch up from the staples. I then folded on that score and wrapped the cover around to the back of the notebook.

As you wrap the cover around to the back press it into place. The pressure from your fingers will cause it to crease around the block of paper.

Now flip the stack over. You'll be looking at the right side of your paper and the inside of your cover, At the top part of your pad, score a line for the cover to fold up and around the block to make the cover. I then scored again 1/4 inch (the thickness of my pad) above that score. Fold the cover up and over your pad. You'll have a lot of overhang, I folded and glued my overhang to the cover.

Recycled Matchbook Notebooks

2007-07-31T20:58:00.001-04:00

Recycled Matchbook Notebooks
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

Matchbook Notebooks. 100% recycled. What more to say?

Recycled Matchbook Notebooks

2007-07-31T20:57:00.001-04:00

Recycled Matchbook Notebooks
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

Matchbook Notebooks. 100% recycled. What more to say?

3 days

2007-07-29T21:09:00.001-04:00

I got an amazing amount done over the last few days off. 3 days really up s the ability to create and do. Not only is it relaxing but it frees one from the confines of work, in my case my commute.

So I finished several jotters, 7 hedgehog journals, 2 large hedgehog journals, listed an amazing amount of items on ebay and etsy. Packed and shipped quite a few items.

I took hundreds of photos of journals this weekend as well. So I’m ready to list them at a moment’s notice.

Cant’ wait for my next 3 day weekend- next weekend!

Featured Recycled Crafts

2007-07-29T16:19:00.000-04:00

There's a website called Craft Gossip and one of the sections on the site is about Recycled Crafts! I'm featured so check it out!
A visit to the site will put it onto your frequent reading links.

Giant Hedgehogs!

2007-07-29T14:04:00.000-04:00

I've been playing around with making hedgehogs in larger sizes fo awhile now, I make them in a VERY limited amount because I don't like the size as much as I like the smaller size. After all its all about making what I like. Occasionally I'll make something with other people in mind, but I conciously believe that my work turns out better not only when I believe it but when I like it. If I don't like it, they they don't turn out good at all.

Anyhow here are the 2 giant hedgehogs I made. I'll be listing them soon!

Recycled!

2007-07-29T14:02:00.000-04:00

So All of these journals are done and have had their photos taken and will soon be listed on eBay or etsy.

Up on ebay and etsy.

2007-07-29T10:42:00.000-04:00

I've spent a considerable amount of time in my studio the last 2 days. It happens to be the coolest place in the house! I've made a few penslips- listed 1 on eBay and 3 on etsy.

I've listed a recycled sign journal on eBay. I'll be listing a few more to etsy later today. I've gone through a frenzy of photography today and I must say that I think it's been good. I probably shot another 75 or so pics of journals. Crazy huh?

Jotters. Like I wrote below I made a load of them the other day, and you can expect fresh ones coming soon. I just got some fresh/ old signs to make new jotters. Some of them have a lot of print on them so they will be very interesting!

I'm melting

2007-07-27T23:52:00.000-04:00

I’ve spent the majority of the day working on books and gluing up spines. I finished 3 small notebooks, with cardstock pages and place markers. 2 of the 3 have leather covers, flap and strap and the other is covered in recycled sign vinyl in pink.

I also spent a lot of time sewing up some hedgehogs. I did a bunch of them in card stock and a few with the new graph paper. It took a lot to make a regular thickness hedgehog, I think it was something like 250 pages! (Just checked 256!) That’s just a lot of paper. I’m used to cutting and folding about 160 to 180 pages for a hedgehog. This paper is SO thin. It’s nice though.

Tomorrow I’ll be gluing up the spines and putting them all in covers.

I also got some more recycled covers ready to go, so I folded up a bunch of paper for them. I’m going to print lined paper tomorrow morning and get that ready for Sunday.

Hopefully tomorrow will not be as freaking hot here in the North East as it was today. Luckily for me my studio is in the basement and that stayed pretty cool all day, but it is warmer than it was. This heat is crazy!

PIcs of the new journals tomorrow AM too.

New Jotters and Recycled journals

2007-07-27T13:21:00.001-04:00

I made a bunch of new jotters and I've loaded a bunch of them up to ebay and etsy, find links below. I finally found a moderately priced pack of gridded paper, well, I suppose it moderately priced, as compared to other graph paper. 5 lines per inch instead of the overly large 4 lines per inch. I've got 2 packages up on eBay now and 1 on etsy.

Lined Sign Vinyl Journal on etsy.

Unlined Sign Vinyl Journal on etsy.

JOtters 100% recycled set 1.

Jotters 100% recycled set 2:

Jotter Wausau Paper Inside.

Jotter Recycled Graph Paper eBay.

Jotter Recycled Graph Paper 2 notebook Set.

jotters and graph paper

2007-07-27T09:45:00.000-04:00

I’ve got a load of pictures to take and upload things to eBay and etsy. I’ve made and have bunched up a load of Jotters. Some are 100% recycled, some have Wausau paper and lastly some have graph paper. I found some graph paper in pads and I’m Cutting the glue off and using the paper.

About the graph paper, It’s not as easy to work with as other papers. It has a very soft feel too it, if that makes sense. A stack of 15 sheets is less stiff than most paper. Because it is soft feeling I’m able to put more pages into a jotter and most likely into a hedgehog as well. So these graph paper jotters have 60 pages. While sewing I also found the paper to be more slick that other paper, meaning that while I was working with it I could feel it shifting around. Knowing if I left it as is it would give me big problems on the sewing machine I used extra clamps to hold it in place while sewing and went very slowly. I only messed up one but even that one is good enough for me to use. So I’ll have some graph paper jotters up on etsy by the end of the day.

Because of the difficulty of making them and the expense of the paper I won’t be making a ton of them, I think anyway. I do like them, so I guess I have to weight out my option. Price wise they are a lot more expensive for me to make than a regular jotter of the same size. I guess we’ll see.

tonight tonight

2007-07-26T04:55:00.000-04:00

Tonight I'll be posting more items on eBay. I had hoped to last night but I was totally wiped out after work so i came home and crashed. Work has been like that lately- exhausting.

I have a long weekend coming up so I'll be able to post plenty of things!

Returned

2007-07-25T12:31:00.001-04:00

Apparently just the right amount of griping about stolen property inflicts just enough guilt to bring it back, my space pen appeared on my desk overnight. I won't ask questions I'll just be happy I have it back, and I won't ever leave it on my desk when I step away.

Lesson learned!

Ebay and Etsy- regarding Sign Vinyl Notebooks

2007-07-25T12:26:00.000-04:00

In regard to notebooks made of sign vinyl for sale, I have a few up on etsy and I usually have them up on eBay as well. You can find them here and here.

(The one I had on eBay just sold, when I get home from the DayJob tonight I'll put another up.)

sign vinyl all you wanted to know and more!!!

2007-07-25T05:30:00.000-04:00

Welcome notebookism readers!

I haven’t had much of a chance to write abot my sign vinyl journals, but here I go now, this is a quick post, so feel free to ask more questions and I’ll answer as they come up!

I start with large signs I scavenge from a local store. I asked permission for them and a lady holds them for me. It helps I also work there. However I suspect if you talked to the local manager of a mcdonalds or something you could say your willing to recycle their old signs and they’ll let you have them. Advertising posters are usually good for one season. And they need to get rid of them somewhere and most places have to get rid of the signs and have to pay for removal.

Vinyl takes 100s of years to decompose and when it does break down it becomes some nasty stuff. I won’t go into my recycling philosophy here, but here in the states we need to keep as much out of the landfill as possible.

So I clean the vinyl, they can get nasty. I use spray cleaner and a rag. Wipe it down and scrub anything really nasty off. I then trim off all the folds and rings and cut them down to manageable sizes. Depending on what kind of sign you get, they can be tent sized!

So I then take a template and cut cover sized chunks out of the signs. This dulls the heck out of my rotary cutters. So I switched over to using a box cutter, it works much better.

The inside pockets are also signs, these coated in vinyl. Here again I ask for them, and I get them. I also wipe these down with some spray cleaner and then cut them into smaller manageable pieces. I then cut and fold them to the pocket size and shape and use a sewing machine to stitch them into place.

I use another template to decide the placement of the holes and I then stitch the journals up. I fill them with either Wausau or Xerox paper that onto which I’ve laser printed lines. For stitching I then use hemp or Irish linen.

Sign vinyl is a great material to work with. Sure it’s rough on the tools , but it responds well to a lot of uses, and makes on hell of a tough notebook. The great thing about it is that if you spill coffee on it you can wipe it clean with a damp cloth, just like the car seats of the late 80’s. I have one request, if you (the reader) decide to go ahead and make these please don’t use my exact design especially if your going to make them for sale. Book and journal sales amount to a portion of my income that I’ve come to need, so snagging my design would be bad for me.

my 3 notebooks

2007-07-22T11:59:00.001-04:00

my 3 notebooks
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

Same deal as post previous. My 3 daily notebooks, full of ideas and work secrets.

My 3 notebooks

2007-07-22T11:57:00.001-04:00

My 3 notebooks
Originally uploaded by lessherger.

I carry these 3 notebooks with me everywhere. The large one is my work notebooks, on the weekends it sits at home. But the other 2 they are always in a man bag of some sort and with me almost everywhere. The top notebooks is a moleskine pockets gridded with a PenSlip in black leather and antiqued brass eyelets. I carries 2 pencils, and it used to carry my Space Pen until someone stole it off my desk.
the second is a hedgehog covered in distressed sheep hide filled with cardstock pages. I use it for ideas and notes about products and possible art. I also sketch out some spine designs in it.

JPG.polaroid

2007-07-22T10:10:00.001-04:00

JPG.polaroid
Originally uploaded by chpaquette.

Another great "action shot" of a PenSlip! awesome. It has inspired me to take a few shots of my penslips in "action."

Everything Ends Today

2007-07-22T09:25:00.000-04:00

Everything I have up on eBay ends today. I'll be loading a few more items up but not many! I'm keeping my eBay items limited. I'll have the majority of my items up on etsy.

This particular journal:

I would sell as a custom order for around $125. It's at a super low price right now. Get it while the getting is good!

photograph.polaroid

2007-07-21T20:50:00.001-04:00

photograph.polaroid
Originally uploaded by chpaquette.

Check out this artistic rendition of my penslip. :) much better photography than I can dream of.

Oldie But goodie

2007-07-19T20:27:00.000-04:00

I wanted to post a link to my on of my first posts about penslips from over a year ago.

Enjoy this oldie but goodie.

Final Post of the night- Work Drama

2007-07-16T20:43:00.000-04:00

I'm not going to go into too much other than to comment on how drama at work can affect creativity.

There was a major dramatic episode at work, that had me as part of the food chain involved. I had to work around issues that are known in the system and not known in the system, and figure out how to work it, all the whilest dealing with my coworkers.

The general air was somewhat stressful and overall irritating, but not unmanageable. Or so I thought.

I had made plans that tonight, during my precious alone time I would head to the studio and work on some of those books I have on the back burner. (Leather and nice paper, I'll say no more!) Arriving home I found myself exhausted, it was all I could do to drag myself to the kitchen to make a nutritious meal. So here it is just after 8 and I'm ready for bed.

It's pretty amazing to me how all I wanted to do when I came home was unwind, drink a nice cold beer, and go to bed. This after a full and restful sleep last night!

chocolate covered cotton

2007-07-16T20:40:00.001-04:00

I'm going to let this one stand on it's own it doesn't need a lot of fluff to tell yo much about it.
The basics:
6x9 inches, 400 100% cotton pages, black irish linen thread, a simple yet elegant and interesting linked long stitch. Chocolate butter soft deer hide, chunky mango paper inside the covers.

It's on eBay here.

recycled on etsy

2007-07-16T20:35:00.001-04:00

I listed another recycled journal to etsy, I like the unlined pages of these journals more thanI like them lined. I'm not sure why. I guess I feel constrained by the lines, even though sometimes I like them. That makes no sense at all but I'm sure that there are people out there who completely agree and share my sentiments.

I also decided to keep the recycled journals on sale for the rest of the summer. So this little beauty is only $9.99 plus shipping.

More Peslips on etsy

2007-07-16T20:11:00.001-04:00

I loaded up a bunch of penslips on etsy, here, and I dare say these are pretty good looking. I forced myself to use yelets that I normally dont like- pure copper, and I like the combination. This is a small selection of the penslips up on etsy:

Recycled JOtters and NOtebooks on eBay

2007-07-15T16:29:00.000-04:00

It's HOT HOT HOT here in Mass, but I'm lucky I've got a cool ocean breeze. Mowing the lawn was a lesson in dehydration! Wow!

I've managed to list 3 sets of recycled journals on eBay. I've got 1 large recycled with lines, 2 small double sets of jotters, one with full recycled pages and one with plain wausau ivory paper. Each set of Jotters has 6 notebooks for only a dollar more than my usual buy it now price. Youcan find the eBay recycled sales here.

blurry

2007-07-15T09:15:00.000-04:00

I recently noticed that my pictures are blurry… I couldn’t figure out why and then I took a look at the settings on my camera and realized it’s set to take pictures at the smallest setting, which means that after I crop my pics they are too small to fill the image space on etsy and even ebay, so they get blurry. Of course the light in all areas of the new house is nust not as nice as the light in the apartment. That place juts had the perfect light for photography. I’m afraid that I might have to purchase special lights to get good pics, of course if I would stay in one place and shoot jut there it would be helped greatly too.

I’m putting a leather journal up on eBay as well as a set of jotters an I might put another large recycled journal up there as well.

The couple of journals that I plan on putting up on eBay I've already taken pictures of them, but I can't find them anywhere. I've looked on my photo bucket account, all through my computer etc and they are no where to be found. I'm worried they were on the OTHER computer before I wiped it out. Sigh, I didn't want to re-shoot them as I wrote above about the blur situation...I guess we'll see what happens!

2007-07-09T20:39:00.000-04:00

Back on eBay!

2007-07-08T12:49:00.000-04:00

Okay I’m back on eBay! I’m excited. I’m starting off with some recycled notebooks, a large and a set of Jotters. I’ve also been looking at my back stock and I’m thinking of adding a leather journal or two to the offerings this week.

Here is the large recycled:

You can see it here!

And here is the set of 3 jotters:

You can bid on them and see more pictures here.

I have low starting bids on these and buy it now.

future planning

2007-07-04T10:18:00.000-04:00

So next week I plan on reintroducing myself to eBay. I’ve got a few smaller journals and a few sets of jotters to auction off, as well as a few other items. Sunday I’ll post the listings and they’ll be active for a week, as per usual.

I spoke with my brother about making me new buttons, he sounds a lot happier now that he’s got a job and new friends who have similar interests. He’s got some plans for a web comic, and once he gets it set up I’ll post some links, even though its not the sort of things I’m interested in, he is my brother.

So I’ve firmed up about 50% of the “new” website and now I just need to wait on the buttons from my brother. Or course I also need to think about what I want for buttons and how I want to present the new set up. But all the old pages are down already and the new set up is starting to emerge from the ashes. I’m pretty excited.

I’ve also been making books again. A few hedgehogs, some jotters and getting paper ready for other endeavors. I also printed out my own copy of Walden, which I found at B&N for $8, minus my 10% discount…. Grgh. My copy will be an heirloom. I also found a copy of The Jungle for less than $10! (Given my recent reading of The Ominivore’s Dilemma it’s right in line with my reading interests right now.) However I’m going tolook online and see if I can get a copy used.

changes

2007-06-24T12:04:00.000-04:00

So I’ve taken more time off from binding than I had expected. I needed some time to relax, think about the direction of my website, what I wanted for my website, what I wanted with my art, and realistically look at what and where I was willing to go with it.

I’m really good at retail. I do a great job with it, but that doesn’t meant hat I want to spend all my free time selling journals and supplies that I have nothing to do with other than to order them. I have less free time now than ever and I don’t want to spend that time dealing with retail issues while I’m at home. While I want to create a great website with all those fine journals that I love; I don’t want to spend time ordering, filling orders etc. I see a huge opportunity out there for someone who has the time and energy to create a website fulfilling those needs for people. I think also I was going into it for the wrong reasons- I saw it as a way out of the world of retail hell and it was simply a different level of that hell for me. I think that if I were in a different place financially I would be able to make it work. I just wasn’t able to take out another loan and take a chance that it was going to pay off or not. That being said, when I am financially bale to make this work, I’ll be on top of it in a heartbeat.

So, what I will be doing is focusing on the last of the stock that I have, keeping a few hard to find journaling items- the pencil sharpeners, pencils etc… The main focus is now for me to concentrate on my bookbinding. I’ll have three areas of that: the leather premium journals, the recycled premium journals and the 100% recycled journals. Obviously the 3 lines are going to appeal to different people but I like all of them and that’s what I’m interested in making, so that’s where I’m going to go.

So over the next 2 weeks I’m going to focus on revamping the website, photographing some books, and resetting the crappy paypal shopping cart system. So I’ll set myself up with a schedule and then work on things according to that. I’ve already ripped down the links to moleskine, ciak, and all the other stuff I wanted to carry but didn’t. So We’ll see how things look and go. Hopefully it will be back to basics and better.

Taking Some Time Off

2007-05-20T17:13:00.000-04:00

I'm taking the next 2 weeks off from listing things on eBay and I'll leave my current etsy items up but won't be adding anything new for a few weeks.

I'm also leaving the etsy items on sale!

Why you might ask? May and June are popular months for graduations, and as such we have been invited to a graduation party every weekend for the next month and a half. Yes my significant other has a large family.

In other news I've been spending some time in my garden and it's coming along nicely. I havea ton of sprouts and they are looking great. Now if I could just keep the neighbors cat from using my garden as a litter box I'd be a lot happier.

neglect

2007-05-07T20:41:00.000-04:00

I apologize for neglecting this blog. I decided to take a few days off from making books and work on my household chores. I’ve also been dealing with massive allergies. It’s been wonderful and miserable!

Summer is getting into full swing here, my yard is bright and green, lilies are poking their heads above the surface of the ground and my pear tree is in blossom. This is one of my favorite times of year- temps are perfect for being outside and sleeping is comfortable. Light spring breezes pas through the house and everything is sunny and great.

My brother is making more cradles and presses. I have a cradle and an awl on eBay ready to go. The press goes up tomorrow.

Anyway. I’m going to take it easy with books over the next few weeks and plant my garden.

Ending Tomorrow

2007-04-20T22:06:00.000-04:00

Well the sun has come out here in the North East and tomorrow I"ll be enjoying the warm sun and all 60 degrees of fantastic weather.

So I'll point out right now that I have 2 items ending tomorrow and 4 more ending Sunday. Tomorrows auctions are for journals/notebooks and Sundays ending auctions include a sewing cradle, an awl and journals. Everything is at super low bids right now and several items have no bids. So this is a chance to get some of my work at lower prices. Ebay here and Etsy here.

Also I think it bears mentioning that I have a sale on ALL of my items on etsy (you can see the pricing in the entry below.) I need to make room for more items that I'll be making over the summer and fall. So take a look there are lots of jotters and recycled as well as a few hedge hogs.

I've been at work the last few evenings as well. I've folded up several bundles of hedgehog pages, both in large and small sizes and I've also managed to sew up a bunch of them. Tomorrow I'll be gluing several of the blocks up.

I'm also making some notebooks for work. I'm on a local product team and I'm making some journals for the people on that team. They will all be recycled. I'll post a few pics when I get the project finished.

tragic

2007-04-19T21:37:00.000-04:00

I want to write something here poignant and deep about the shootings but cannot. My thoughts go back to tragic deaths which occurred while I was young, people I knew whose lives were ended early; and all I can think about is that raw overwhelming sense of numbness as your mind starts to process the tragedy which you are now forced to face and live with.

So for all of you who have had to suffer during this tragedy- you are in my thoughts, and that is all I can muster.

Hard Workin' Bro'

2007-04-16T18:57:00.000-04:00

MY brother has been hard at work. He's made a few more cradles and some more awls. He's got them on his etsy site and I've listed one of each on eBay.

YOu can find the awl here.

And the cradle here.

sales links here

2007-04-15T09:04:00.000-04:00

The links to the sale items are as follows:
Large Journals ON Sale
Smaller Journals ON Sale
Jotter Journals ON Sale
Hedgehog Journals ON Sale
Recycled Journals ON Sale

Sale on Etsy!

2007-04-15T08:24:00.000-04:00

Having worked in retail for many years I know that having your stock sit anywhere for a long period of time is not only frustrating but it means it's time for a sale. My books don't go bad like bananas but I htink it's time for s spring cleaning sale- I have a drawer fullof etsy items that I need to clean out to make room for new journals and notebooks- I need to have an empty storage area to be sparked to create new interesting items.

So here's the break down:
Jotters regularly $4.99 $1 off now $3.99 a set
Hedgehogs regularly $19.99 $1 off now $18.99 each
Hedgehogs regularly $29.99 $5 off now $24.99 each
Naughty Bits Journals regularly $2.99 $1 off now $1.99
Recycled Journals regularly $14.99 $5 off now $9.99
Large Leather Journals regularly $99.99$10 off now $89.99

Those are some great deals. I'll post links to the various etsy areas of my shop a little latter today- be patient I have a ton of stuff up there and it's going to take me a few hours to edit everything!

todays sales and tomorrow's sales on eBay

2007-04-14T14:16:00.000-04:00

I noticed that alot of the books I had listed on eBay were well, boring in color so I decided to list a few that were a little more exciting or had more going on than just blue.

Obviously the above journal is blue, but this one has a cool pattern on it- a fish-like pattern. I thought it was a little more interesting than just blue. the paper is 24lb and unlined. it's on ebay now!

Okay so this one is boring too, it's all white on the outside but it's got some color inside, but I figured that the white would be perfect for decorating or for those of us who like to recycle but don't want to advertise that fact. This is also unlined with 24lb off-white creamy paper. This one will be on eBay tomorrow afternoon!

Okay so this one is really not boring. I can't take credit for the picture of cheese, olive and a pear, that was from an ad, but I thought it would make a cool picture on a journal. So I cut it out and did a little stitching and here's a super cool notebook/journal. The paper is Wausau cream 24lb lined paper. It will be on eBay tomorrow night.

This is also a cool cover- a mottle orange and brown with some letters- perfect for someone with the initials of N and S?!? I also live the little detail on the back of a pineapple. The paper is Wausau cream 24lb lined paper. This one is on eBay now!

pictures soon

2007-04-14T14:07:00.000-04:00

Phew it’s been quite the week. I’ve been unbelievably ill but in a way that makes me feel like a wimp for saying that I’m sick. What does that mean? I’ve had a nasty stomach flu that has been going around, I’ll leave it at that- you don’t want details. That being the case I’ve not done much in the way of listing things to eBay, until this weekend. I’ll also be updating my etsy site as well.

I’ve been working on a stack of book blocks and various book projects. I sadly had to turn down an order because of the size of the paper, they wanted a hedgehog 400 pages long but filled with heavy larger paper that I just don’t have access to. It’s a long convoluted story that I find frustrating. IN this case even iof I had bought the paper cutter I so desperately desire I would not be able to cut the paper to their desired size- yes it was that large. Anyway.

I also have been avoiding having my taxes done. Doing my taxes fills me with an anxiety I can’t quite describe, ever since I had to pay taxes into the state of Maine I’ve hated doing my taxes. So last year I went to H&R block to have mine done and it was much better, this year I did the same and I’m happy to say that I’m getting a wonderful return. Next year I will remember that as long as I have everything all together it only takes a half hour for them to enter everything in and it will not be bad and that I do not have to avoid it.

I had to drive into Cambridge 2 days in a row for the DayJob, I’ll tell you that I will avoid that if at all possible in the future. Morning traffic into the city is terrible and wears me down.

That being all well and good I”ll do another update with more pictures and details of the books I’ve listed.

jam packed

2007-04-08T11:02:00.000-04:00

I had a jam-packed day yesterday. Most of it related to housework, yard work and cleaning of both. I made a few recycled books but I also watched the UFC. I could go on forever about the fights but I won’t here. But I will say that I’m pretty bummed out about GSP losing. I’m a big GSP fan so to see him lose the match in the manner he did was a bummer.

Enough on that subject. Today I’m planning on folding up some paper for large sized hedgehogs and maybe getting the signatures partially sewn.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it, for those that don’t I hope that you are all enjoying the fantastic weather thus far in the day!

cradle awls

2007-04-06T19:49:00.000-04:00

I forgot to mention that I have books and cradles and awls up on eBay and etsy….

Take a look here and here

whole sale

2007-04-06T19:47:00.000-04:00

I haven’t had a chance to post about it because I’ve been too busy with work, but I’ve been working on books. And wow books. I’ve made a ton of recycled covered books over the last few weeks, 24 to be exact. I landed some very cool signs from the store and I’ve managed to cut some nice covers from them.

I also made a stack of covers ahead of time. Half of them are lined and half are unlined. I’m pretty happy with the results. Now I’m just figuring out the aspect of money.

I’m having a hard time with it. I’m not sure why, but I am. I know the retail price of them but I’m not sure about it. I might re-price them. I’m so familiar with how the company does it’s pricing that I can’t step away from it. I want to give the people who would carry the books a fair price and make my money but I also want an item that will sell.

I’m looking for any ideas of pricing and wholesale info out there. Anyone have any good ideas or recommendations about heading into this?

Some words before bed

2007-04-02T19:25:00.000-04:00

I wrote earlier that Allen, my brother, had made a bunch of awls for bookbinding, but that he hadn't taken pictures of them yet. Well, he took many pictures today and loaded them up to his Photobucket account- you can see them ehre BookWorks Photo Album I'm pretty happy with how mine turned out.

The sewing cradle is listed on eBay here and it has a low Buy it now. They've been selling pretty well.

I've got a load of lined paper (see previous post) and I'm going to fold some signatures tonight. Sometimes even when I don't have time to make books its good to get in the groove and just do something linked to binding. So I'm going to veg in front of the TV and fold paper.

I can't wait for things to totally even out at my DayJob so that I can devote some real time to binding. As of right now it's blowing my mind how much there is too learn. I did bind myself a fat recycled notebook so that I can take notes as often as I would like. It's come in pretty handy, especially with the pockets- I've stuffed those full of things. I also love how I can spill coffee all over it (my thermos leaked one afternoon and my book was covered in the last dregs of my coffee- sugary mess.) and then just wipe it clean with some spray on cleaner. (Method multi-surface for me.)

Anyway, time to veg.

2007-04-02T05:45:00.000-04:00

Visiting my family was a 2-fold activity. Partially to unwind and partially to see all the awls and cradles my brother is making in person.

I’ve got to say that it’s pretty impressive to see 22 awls lined up, coated glossy with polyurethane, and ready to be sold. My brother has skills in woodworking that I would kill for, he has a certain mastery of the tools that I’ll never have. Something of taking woodshop while young and a proximity of tools that lends one skill you can’t learn later in life. In short the boy can turn wood into useful things, a skill I wish I had.

That being said the awls are Black walnut and maple laminated together and hand turned, each one is a little different, and thus he must take pictures of them, each one. Which he hasn’t done yet. When he does get pictured of them, we’ll list them up on my etsy and his etsy and ebay. He’s asking $12.99 each for them.

I’ll take some pictures of mine. I chose one with a medium flair on the top and a few grooves along the side. It feels really nice in my hands and I can see now how much of an improvement over mine it will be. Mine may have been easy to make but this one will be far easier to use.

Allen also has a bunch of cradles ready to go, as well as the parts for a few more ready to be put together. I put one up on eBay last night.

I have to go to the DayJob now, it’s what is paying the bills!

just a bit

2007-03-31T18:53:00.000-04:00

I’m in Maine visiting my family. Its significantly coder here than it is in Mass. But it’s nice.

I have several items ending on Bay tomorrow. Several recycled covered notebooks, jotters and a hedgehog. You can see them here.

I made a custom hedgehog for someone, pics below. The pictures aren’t very special but filled the inside with 100% cotton paper. I so used a different method for gluing it up than I normally us. I clamped the block with binder clips applied thick glue, removed the clamps and then pressed it until it dried. It made a very good binding. The spine is no thicker than the rest of the book block- binding perfection. It heads for England.

layyyzahhh

2007-03-27T20:40:00.000-04:00

One of the many reasons I love the laser printer and initially the reason that we got one is that I use it to print lines for journals. I don't do lined journals often, usually at request for a custom order. Since I may or may not whole sale the recycled journals I bought 3 reams of Wausau paper in cream. I thought I might make a few journal with lines.

Being myself I couldn't just print 2 or 3 journals worth of lined pages. No, being me, I had to print a full ream of paper, 500 pages. It takes a long time to print 500 pages of lines. I've been chipping away at it all evening.

I also found that the printer didn't like printing essentially 1000 sheets in one day.

From now on I vow to print fewer sheets per day. Besides printing 1000 sheets is boring.

Also if I can urge anyone to get a laser printer- even a black and white one I would do so. They are just as fast as an ink jet now, but the amount of sheets you get out of one cartridge is crazy, usually they rate the cartridges for 500 sheets less than what they will actually do. My cartridges are rated for 2500 sheets, but usually I get 3000+ out of them. The other fantastic thing with them is that they never clog up. THey are virtually maintenance free. Go laser you'll be happier.