Worktable Wednesday

Custom order day!

As I mentioned in this post, some customers brought me a pair of their chopsticks to incorporate into my Purple Plum Blossom journal. They’re really beautiful.

They look great with the cover paper – they pick up on the green in the leaves.

All packed up and ready to go!

I also had two custom accordion books to work on.

The one on the left is covered in a handmade paper that has cocoa beans in it. The other one has a fun bug paper by Reminiscence Papers.

If you have a fabulous, crazy, or fabulously crazy idea for a custom book, let me know about it. I love custom work!

The Paper Place and their 2nd annual rocking giveaway

Here we go again…let the paper dreams begin.

Mine mine mine please.

The generous folks at The Paper Place are giving away (for the second year) a super fat sample pack, which includes an 8.5″ x 11” sheet of every Chiyogami paper they carry – over 700 patterns!

Enter the giveaway here.

If you’ve never worked with Chiyogami paper (a.k.a. Yuzen) before, it’s just fabulous. I’ve often referred to the stuff as the butter of paper – it just behaves so well.

Compliant paper makes me happy…it’s so dreamy!

The Paper Place is located in Toronto, Canada…luckily within driving distance for me. In addition to their fabulous Chiyogami selection, they also offer workshops, art & papercrafting supplies, and gift items. You can even shop online if you can’t tolerate a trip out of the country. Just to tease you, they now carry Divine Twine.

So if I haven’t been successful in enticing you to enter this giveaway, all I can do is leave you with the following image:

If that doesn’t motivate you, then are made of some seriously strong stuff.

Worktable Wednesday

A while ago, I bought a grab bag of Debra Glanz’s (a.k.a. Reminiscence Papers) awesome printed papers from Paper Mojo. I decided to take a few of them for a a spin and make some accordion books.

So I have this tendency to reuse wax paper a lot. A LOT. It’s pretty gross.

Actually, it’s pretty cool. There’s a lot of history in those layers of glue.

No. I think that at some point, reuse just becomes abuse. This wax paper is so strong that it should just walk right outta here.

And today’s laugh comes from…

At the Art & Artisans Holiday Market this past weekend, I met a lovely woman who wanted custom books covered in bug paper.

I knew exactly what paper to show her – Debra Glanz of Reminiscence Papers makes awesome printed papers, including three with bugs. She chose Things with Wings, one of my favorites.

Today I received my order and along with the bug paper, I received the cutest little package of printed papers.

In the back of the package was what probably one of the funniest notes I’ve ever received with an order:

These are samples of a few of the papers available in my shop: www.reminiscencepapers.etsy.com. Have fun using them in your own card making, scrapbooking, collage or even better……make tiny little paper airplanes to annoy your family and friends.

Debra

LOVE.

[waiting for husband to come home to pelt with airplanes]

Worktable Wednesday

Simply put, I simply cut.

The Bed Pan of Triangles

I have a bed pan of triangles in my studio.

Wait – you don’t have one too?

I guess I should start with the origin of the bed pan. Earlier this year, I had all of my wisdom teeth removed. My sister came with me to the appointment as I wouldn’t be able to drive myself home.

So I’m in recovery and I start to feel nauseous. I really don’t like throwing up and I’m doing my best to hold it together.

It is at this time that my sister decides to reminisce about the previous night’s episode of Glee, which included a group vomit scene.

And then I throw up. Thanks Sis.

The doctor gave me a bed pan to take with me in the car, just in case. Thankfully, I didn’t need to use it.

But I just don’t throw things away. Never look a gift bed pan in the mouth.

So I also had a bunch of paper triangles.

When you make books and are covering boards, you trim off the excess material to eliminate unnecessary bulk.

Did I mention that I just don’t throw things away? Never look a gift paper triangle in the mouth.

It seemed like a natural fit.

Worktable Wednesday

This morning was spent much like last Wednesday – I glued coptic journal covers using two more sheets of the paper I got from Chena River Marblers.

I was bummed to find that the purple marbled paper was grain short, so I could only get one journal out of it. Poo.

Things got more exciting once I went on a field trip.

I’ve mentioned that my new bookboard is too large to fit in my Kutrimmer (argh). In order to get my board cut, I had to travel to a friend’s studio to use her Kutrimmer. She has a 1080.

Me? Jealous? Yes. Very.

The thing is beauteous. In addition to having a larger cutting length (31.25″), it has a rocking foot-operated clamp. My foot never gets to help when I cut board at home.

17 boards later…

I didn’t cut the boards all the way down to finished sizes – I didn’t want to kill the blade and I can finish the rest at home on my inferior 1071.

I think I’ve become a bad Kutrimmer mommy.

There was a fun and gross discovery while cutting the bookboard – a smushed, bloody bug.

I performed several Google searches to determine whether smushed bugs are either archival or acid-free, but had no luck.

If you have any knowledge on the subject, please share!

Worktable Wednesday

Back in the studio!

Today I glued coptic journal covers using two sheets of the paper I got from Chena River Marblers.

I simply cannot resist this marbled paper. I want to eat it.

Working with it has a super-positive effect on my mood. And I’d like to express my gratitude for the fact that it’s grain long – I can get two journals from each sheet.

Now to sort out the linen thread colors…

Guild of Book Workers – Standards Seminar 2011

Last week I attended the Guild of Book Workers‘ Seminar on Standards of Excellence in Hand Bookbinding.

It was both inspiring and intimidating.

Don’t get me wrong – I had a wonderful time. I did, however, often wonder how exactly I ended up at the grown ups table.

Conference presenters included Dan Essig, Katherine Beaty, John DeMerritt, and Todd Pattison. I’ll talk about their presentations in future blog posts.

For now, I’ll just focus on the goodies. Oh yes, there was lots of shopping going on.

The first stop was Akkra. In a nutshell, these nice folks specialize in tools that don’t stick. I started off by purchasing two teflon burnishers – I’m looking forward to trying out these new shapes.

Then I picked up a teflon-coated spatula set. I’m not a big fan of picking glue boogers off of my tools.

The last purchase was a tweezer set. I’m really digging the soldering tweezers (the pair at the bottom of the image).

Next was a purchase from Colophon Book Arts Supply. I am now the proud owner of an 18″ Incra Precision T-Rule – I’ve been dying to get one of these since I attended the Focus on Book Arts conference earlier this year.

I bought two bookcloth sample books from Hiromi Paper. These books include samples that aren’t available from Talas. One book is for World Cloth (a.k.a. Asahi)…

…and the other is for Text Libris and Text Lifil.

The last thing I bought from Hiromi was some awesome apple papyrus from Germany. It’s a lot thinner and lighter than you’d expect. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it.

I bought the most amazing book from Bookbinders Workshop – The Exquisite Notes by Sylvia Ramos Alotta. I was told that this book was just released within the past few weeks.

The book is an instruction manual on bookbinding, presented in a sketchbook format – the sketches are so lovely! Techniques range from pamphlet stitch to the Armenian binding.

Last, but certainly not least, was the wonderful marbled paper from Chena River Marblers. I’ll be using these on a series of coptic journals, making their debut (hopefully) at my next craft show.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my tour of what emptied my wallet. Anyone want to help me put it away?

Claire Van Vliet: Celebration of Paper exhibit catalog

As I mentioned in this post, I recently visited the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center to take in the Claire Van Vliet: Celebration of Paper exhibit.

I was happy to hear that the Museum didn’t suffer any damages from Tropical Storm Irene. That means that it’s not too late to get yourself to the exhibit – it runs through September 26, 2011.

I picked up an exhibit catalog in the gift shop – I never do this. But I had to do it this time. The cover is a textured paper with a deckle edge – it’s the color of wheat. Does anyone know what it might be? I don’t see any watermarks.

I dig how it was put together.

I love how the folios are nested. I might have to try that sometime.

I wanted to find out more about the book, so I did a search on the publisher, Bates College Museum of Art.

Here’s what I found via The Old Print Shop:

Title: Claire Van Vliet: a Celebration of Paper.
Artist: Claire Van Vliet
Writer: Genetta McClean
Category: Books > Monographs > Artists V
Publisher: Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston/Mary Ryan Gallery, NY
Year: nd.
Description: (12) pp., 5 ills. (3 color, 2 gate-folds), obl. 16mo., wraps.

Nothing new, but it’s still interesting to see how they organize the information.