Up on ebay and etsy.

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!

Oldie But goodie

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.

More Peslips on etsy

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:

changes

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.

BLack and red all over

I just put the journal below up onto eBay. It has an integrated penslip. I like how it came out and I've figured out how it can be done without adding a whole addition strip of leather, I could simply turn over the leather and add some eyelets. Trial and error. I went with my gut on this one and I think it turned out well. It perfectly holds a pencil or two. It's pretty sweet! 200 pages of Southworth linen textured paper in light gray. I used brht red linen to sew it up and cut a rough jagged edged red strap from a deer hide. Pretty good if I do say so myself.





I used this book as a way to experiment with a few things for a couple of custom orders I've got in the works. I'm pretty happy with both of the things I'm playing with here.

PenSlips

IN response to Dustin's comment about my PenSlips, I do me them and sell them. I carry them on my etsy account HERE! I can also take orders for them in specific combinations of colored eyelets and leather.