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I like to make books, as well as read them, and I like to experiment with glued or sewn bindings and different cover materials and papers.
Click on the images to enlarge the photographs.
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Coptic Stitch Notebooks
These are made with new but "repurposed" cards. There are 4 cards in each notebook; two for each cover front and back.
I make these to sell so please inquire if you are interested.
I hand cut the paper and use a corner rounder on the pages so they fit nicely inside the covers. I also hand dye the linen bookbinding thread to get subtle variations in the thread while sewing.
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They are bound with Coptic stitch so that the pages inside lie flat. I wrap the signatures with fun papers on the outside to provide interest inside the booklet and to make a beautiful pattern of colour on the spine. |
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This is a model I made of a piano hinge book with a varied collection of stationery letterhead and scrapbooking paper with a beautiful cardstock in purple for the covers.
I dyed silk twist thread for the wrapping on the skewers and added a few beads. I've seen these made with huge hunks of beads on a dozen or more threads and fuzzy wool and such for decoration but, I prefer to see the book and paper without too much distracting decoration.
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The collage on the front uses a playing card from my collection, scanned in and then printed and folded, along with some papers from the signatures of the book. I am now making a slightly bigger one in a blue and yellow colourway and nautical theme with some maps from an atlas.
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 | I am going to be involved in an online study group for the James Joyce book Ulysses in 2009, and wanted to make up a special little journal to make notes and keep track of my daily reading increments.
This was made with legal size photocopy paper, cut lengthwise and folded into long folios. There are eight folios in a signature and eight signatures, so quite a few pages. The cover is made from Canson Colorline paper and reinforced at the spine and corners with snippets of scrapbooking paper.
I found a nice image in one of my books on illuminated manuscripts, from Homer's Odyssey, which the Joyce book is based on. This manuscript is from a time earlier than 1500 and made in Italy. It shows scenes with Polyphemus, the cyclops, and also the incident where the sirens tried to lure Ulysses and his men to their deaths.
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 | Then I decided I needed a visual prop for studying Ulysses and found a free pattern online from Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto for a jumping jack.
Naturally, I had to modify this, so he became Jumping Jack Joyce and is wearing a charcoal-coloured wool suit with two-tone brogues, some nice diamond patterned socks, and a striped tie.
I sketched the head from a photograph of James Joyce and put the whole thing together in Photoshop before printing it on matte paper and gluing it to archival board.
So now he's ready for the adventure! No doubt he will point out and explain pertinent passages in the book for me.
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Since I believe that everyone should own and read many, many books, I decided Jumping Jack Joyce needed several editions of The Odyssey to study and compare.
He is very happy lugging his various translations about, even though his arms are getting tired.
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A customer of mine sent me a "care package" of bits and pieces she wasn't using in the hope I would have some fun with them. Fellow artists are the nicest people!
She sent some large pieces of suede that had originally been a skirt and possibly a pair of pants. I've been wanting to experiment and make myself some sewn journals, and using this suede as covers was a great impetus.
Here is my first result, made with grey parchment paper and some scrapbooking paper for the endpapers. The bird on the cover is Henrietta, and her friend Percy is on the back cover. He is shy and won't be showing himself online.
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 | I then made a larger sewn journal with Stonehenge printmaking paper and some odd folios of Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper inserted for bolder colour.
I wanted this to have a slightly Renaissance feel, so inked an appropriate picture. The flap is scalloped with an inked floral arrangement and two buttons, satin ribbon, a dragonfly charm, and some glass beads with two of my handmade paper beads with my friend Steve's floral designs.
I like the soft colouring of this, which reminds me of frescoes by Giotto.
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 | I decided to use the small journal to make notes and poems, and to jot down ideas for pictures to draw and paint tin the bigger art journal.
So here is the matching set. I had such fun with this project and expect to use both journals for several years.
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 | Accordion Sketchbooks/Art Journals
The four smaller journals have 14 pages plus two endpapers, and the larger journal has 22 pages plus two endpapers. I am doing random sketches and studies while practicing my calligraphy with gold ink in the larger one.
The four matching journals are for sale on the Art & Sewing For Sale page.
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There was a loosely Victorian theme for this, and since the Victorians were fond of Japanese art, I used some lovely Japanese woodcuts to embellish the covers.
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