30 days of babble, dec 12 - bookbinding, and dec 13 - superstitions
yesterday was poisontaster's birthday (she of the interesting writing process posts and the fabulous nail polish pics) and coincidentally the day she gave me a topic for babble! which was about journal making - how, why, and what's my favorite one that i've made.
(for folks who might be new - i make books. very infrequently. like, once a year now, for wincon.)
first, how. i know how to make about four different bindings: accordion, case, coptic stitch, and long stitch. i've only made case bindings in a class, so if i was to try again it would take me forever because i wouldn't really know what i was doing. plus it's not the fastest of bindings. most of my books are coptic stitch. it's portable. :D and you can make covers out of anything you can put holes in - wood, bookboard, plexiglas. and the books open flat.
i have not learned any of this on my own. i took a couple classes at paper source, which is a paper/craft/stationery/nifty things store, and the north bennet street school, and i started out way back when at a one-day workshop at the cambridge center for adult ed and then decided to make a guest book for ephemera's wedding. i make them because i like making stuff with my hands - diy furniture is my favorite kind - and because i like being able to make things that are useful and pretty and crafty. i don't know how to knit or crochet, so i make books.
i don't have one favorite. it's kind of like writing - my favorite book is always the one i just finished. so i will share some of the ones i really like.
the last outpost of all there is
stay tape (aka the corset book)
keep you (aka my book)
the monastery au (aka the stab binding with the fish paper) oh, i guess i know stab binding too.
the delta blues
the wee accordion book
out of this darkness (this book gave me so god damn much trouble. i had no idea what i was doing. and then it was done and i didn't want to send it off, i wanted to keep it.)
also four books for wincon raffles (2010 was pretty), three more for charity auctions (including one for which astolat bid like $100 and that was some pressure to make a nice book, let me tell you) (out of this darkness was my first auction book, for sweet charity), and a bunch of books i made for people for the hell of it.
i still haven't shared pics of this year's wincon raffle book or last year's. i like the paper i used last year - it had sunflowers on it.
the topic for dec 13 - friday the thirteenth :D - is, appropriately enough, personal superstitions, mine or other people's, for halfshellvenus. and i don't know if i have any! aside from a. not opening umbrellas inside, and b. not walking under ladders. if there's a ladder leaning against a building, i'll walk into the street if i have to, so i don't have to walk under it. and once i yelled at rich the coworker at my old job because he'd gotten an umbrella in paris he wanted to show off, so he opened it inside. i was appalled. i guess there's a practical basis for the ladder one - i mean, what if someone standing on the ladder drops something on your head? but opening your umbrella indoors is just asking for trouble.
i used to hold my breath driving past a cemetery, and then we moved to new york and there are some big-ass cemeteries off the long island expressway. so now i just hold my breath if it's a little one.
and now it's very late and i still need to make cookie dough so it can chill overnight so i can make cookies tomorrow. thankfully it's an easy recipe.
(for folks who might be new - i make books. very infrequently. like, once a year now, for wincon.)
first, how. i know how to make about four different bindings: accordion, case, coptic stitch, and long stitch. i've only made case bindings in a class, so if i was to try again it would take me forever because i wouldn't really know what i was doing. plus it's not the fastest of bindings. most of my books are coptic stitch. it's portable. :D and you can make covers out of anything you can put holes in - wood, bookboard, plexiglas. and the books open flat.
i have not learned any of this on my own. i took a couple classes at paper source, which is a paper/craft/stationery/nifty things store, and the north bennet street school, and i started out way back when at a one-day workshop at the cambridge center for adult ed and then decided to make a guest book for ephemera's wedding. i make them because i like making stuff with my hands - diy furniture is my favorite kind - and because i like being able to make things that are useful and pretty and crafty. i don't know how to knit or crochet, so i make books.
i don't have one favorite. it's kind of like writing - my favorite book is always the one i just finished. so i will share some of the ones i really like.
the last outpost of all there is
stay tape (aka the corset book)
keep you (aka my book)
the monastery au (aka the stab binding with the fish paper) oh, i guess i know stab binding too.
the delta blues
the wee accordion book
out of this darkness (this book gave me so god damn much trouble. i had no idea what i was doing. and then it was done and i didn't want to send it off, i wanted to keep it.)
also four books for wincon raffles (2010 was pretty), three more for charity auctions (including one for which astolat bid like $100 and that was some pressure to make a nice book, let me tell you) (out of this darkness was my first auction book, for sweet charity), and a bunch of books i made for people for the hell of it.
i still haven't shared pics of this year's wincon raffle book or last year's. i like the paper i used last year - it had sunflowers on it.
the topic for dec 13 - friday the thirteenth :D - is, appropriately enough, personal superstitions, mine or other people's, for halfshellvenus. and i don't know if i have any! aside from a. not opening umbrellas inside, and b. not walking under ladders. if there's a ladder leaning against a building, i'll walk into the street if i have to, so i don't have to walk under it. and once i yelled at rich the coworker at my old job because he'd gotten an umbrella in paris he wanted to show off, so he opened it inside. i was appalled. i guess there's a practical basis for the ladder one - i mean, what if someone standing on the ladder drops something on your head? but opening your umbrella indoors is just asking for trouble.
i used to hold my breath driving past a cemetery, and then we moved to new york and there are some big-ass cemeteries off the long island expressway. so now i just hold my breath if it's a little one.
and now it's very late and i still need to make cookie dough so it can chill overnight so i can make cookies tomorrow. thankfully it's an easy recipe.