Jotters

I decided the little notebooks Jotters or a Jotter. as in you jot things down in them.

Anyway I think it's catchy and I like it.

I have them listed on my etsy account here

cut the cheese

Actually I was cutting a packing strap on a box of Calla Lilies while at work when I sliced my knuckle. It required 3 stitches and it hurts like a mofo. I was in the ER for 2.5 hours, i had to soak my hand for20 minutes in a betadine, peroxide and saline solution until it stopped fizzing. Did I mention that it bled a lot.

In traditional CSS manner here is a gory picture of my sad finger- 3 stitches and all, please don't click through if you can't take it. It is HERE.

I feel pretty stupid, it was a silly accident. LUCKILY it is on my left hand and appears to only impair my ability a little bit. While I'm out of work for tomorrow luckily I also have the weekend off it shouldn't affect my book making at all, as bookbinding is both clean and dry, something one cannot say about floral.

POcket Notes

So I said I post some pictures of my cahier styled notebooks, here are 2. I've gone with a 2 pack on these. While making them I realized that I need a professional paper trimmer now. I'm looking into one of the big boys- a Dahle. It's got to be rotary. That being said here are my notebooks, sewn on a swing machine.

I think they turned out really well.

Very vEry exciting

I have a sewing machine and up until now I haven’t done much with it. Sure I had stitch up the hems of almost all my pants and perhaps even a few books. As such I didn’t do much with it, it literally collected dust in the basement.

Last week I had some hemming and patching to do (damn favorite jeans always ripping out!) so I set up my machine, and lazily left it out.

Last night I stared at it for awhile, stared at my pile of hedgehog leftovers and stared at my pad of Strathmore renewal in black; and the thought formed in my head that perhaps I could make my own cahier style note book, which I think is referred to as a cicada on the hedgehog list. I’ not sure I’ll call mine that. But it’s a simple machine stitched notebook with 60 pages with a black card stock cover. That’s it simple and sweet.

I’ll post some pictures later, I didn’t take any, but these were so simple to make I couldn’t believe it when my sewing machine slipped through the paper like it was butter, no matter how many sheets I tossed under it.

I plan on making these with my usual assortment of papers and with black covers, later I’ll move onto other colors. Just think, these could come in a rainbow of colors; any color that card stock, canson, or scrap booking paper comes in. The possibilities are endless. I’ll be doing 50 pages pocket sized in a 3 pack, for an undetermined price. I’ll figure out other details today.

Here’s a quick disclaimer: I am using an extra heavy-duty needle, one you would use for hemming jeans or the like. I DO expect that it will dull VERY quickly on the paper. I’m thinking of how often I change blades in my exacto and it’s often.

7 hedgehogs all in a row

I've been terribly sick today. Bad enough I called out of work, which rarely happens. I was able to put the finishing touches on a couple of hedgehogs- 7 to be exact. I had previously done everything but put in the pocket and elastics. So that's what I spt the day doing. That and sleeping.

I'm putting up 2 on ebay now and they are here and there I'll have ome up on my etsy account later.

first order

I placed my first order for the website.


very exciting.

even if it is just pencils.

I received a catalog in the mail, with pricing info and what not- very reasonable. I will be hopefully placing an order asap from them.I'm going to work on the website while i'm in Maine, so y can expect to see some serious movement on the site ASAP. I st need to get my work schedule settled down.

Workbench

I think that there is nothing better in this world than spending a relaxing Sunday in the studio.

Today we took a nice walk to the beach, about a mile each way, ran the dog on the beach, walked home stopping at Atomic Café to drink lattes and munch on bagels. I’ll pass on the bag next time and definitely get the latte. I took a long nap a then hit the studio.

I decided to play around with some perfect binding. I cored a box of about 1000 sheets of 8.5x14 inch paper, cover weight probably 70 lb or so. Its stiff and nice, but printed in green on one side with information about olive oil. I cut it down to 4.25x5.5 sheets stacked them and cut kerfs into the edge (I’ll have to look in the book binding term for this, for now I’ll use the wood working term) spread glue all over and then threaded in a piece of thread, glued it again and let it dry. After letting the whole stack dry I measured out the block height (1/2 inch) and cut the glue and the thread. I added a bookmark and a spice reinforcement strip and then glued on the covers. I had planned on using signs I snagged from the store, only to realize at the last minute that I had cut them for regular moleskine size and that I needed to cut n covers. I decided to use a different set of signs that were also recycled from the store- a vinyl coated sign that is printed huge so when I cut a moleskine sized chunk out of it its all blurry and interesting looking.

I’m interested in seeing how this little experiment holds up. I plan on giving them as gifts to people at work. I’ll be making a few more before I sell any.

In addition to the recycled books I made I also cut, folded and punched stations for about a dozen hedgehogs. I’ll be cutting covers tomorrow after work and I think I’ll be able to get the majority of them sewn tomorrow. I hope to get a bunch of them glued up tomorrow too.

IT makes me super happy to walk into my studio and think #1 Its mine #2 I can set it up and move it around however I want. Know that I can leave a project set up on my bench is great too. Just having a spot specifically for everything is great too.

Website

A quick update on the website.

I’ve found vendors for nearly everything. I plan on selling the following journals: Moleskine, Ciak, Xonex a hopefully Miquelrius. I’ll be adding products slowly to the line. My hope is to start with moleskine and add from there. I also plan on carrying a few essential pencils and drawing utensils. They will all be my favorites as is the plan with everything on the site.

I’m starting small; my plan is to start with moleskine pocket sketchbooks, large sketchbooks, and cahiers of both sizes. I’ll then start adding to that with lined moleskine and the other products I then plan on adding Xonex and Ciak to the mix.

As for pencils and pens I’m carrying Palomino pencils, Faber Castell Design 3800, Pitt pens, Pigma pens and black, blue and red G2s and minis.

After that I’ll be looking at watercolor sets and colored pencil sets.

I’m hoping to have the website up and running by January, rather that is the goal.

THe studio

I forgot to upload some shots of my new studio, which I'm already making good use of! I've made 3 journals thus far. Thoughthe parts and pieces of them were cut and glued in Wakefield, I think that because I stitched them here they count... RIght???

here are some pics:








Check out that bench. The top is 3 inches thick, the storage area is 3ft high, and 22 inches deep and I think around 8 feet long.

When we moved in the bench had a door (in the far corner of the studio, not sure if its visible or not)and then applied 6 or 8 coats of polyurethane to its top and 2 heavy coats to the entire inside. I then took some scraps from the door and built a center divide put in supports and then cut shelves for the full sheet paper storage!

Pretty exciting.

etsy

THe journal in the previous post can be found here.

I decided to list it on etsy since eBay has gotten so darn expensive.

First Journal at Park Street Studio

I made the first journal in my studio today. It came out pretty well. I took plenty of pics, partially to try out the camera and partially for ebay or etsy. It’s a 400-page 4.25X5.5 inch journal with 25% cotton Strathmore 24lb paper. The cover is distressed sheep hide, raw edged flap and a strap closure. The inner lining paper is creamy white paper with chunks of mango leaf imbedded in it.

The binding is stitched with naturally colored unbleached Irish linen thread, lightly hand waxed. It’s a linked long stitch, simple and elegant.

Cleary I’m pretty happy with it.