Wednesday Worktable, December 12th : More Leather!

I'm joining in with WOYWW at Julia's Stamping Ground. Go and see what everyone else has been making (well, after you read my post, eh?)

I'm having a burst of successful sales, in my Etsy and Folksy shops!  This week I took three packages to the PO on Monday, three more on Tuesday and there are four waiting to go tomorrow (Thursday), as the PO was closed this afternoon. 
It seems that I should go out often too, as that appears to be when the customers sneak in and buy stuff!  Imagine, I can be a shopkeeper and make sales, without actually having to be on the premises! 

And this...

...was whisked off its (virtual and actual) shelf within half an hour of listing it... by a Person we all know well (but I won't divulge who that is, as they may not want me to!).  

Still, it's always lovely to have something bought by an online friend - it kind of gives you the "warm fuzzies" to think someone you know appreciates your work (even after getting all the gory details on my blog!). 

So the red leather chapbook is winging its way across the miles, to an undisclosed destination, to be a Christmas Gift for someone nice. 

Which makes me smile.

 

And I also sold a second leather journal:

This black leather and mulberry suede journal sold yesterday.

It's filled with a whole rainbow of paper!

 

 

The "thing for red" has given way to a "thing for leather" now!  I made three more chapbooks and a mini journal, which I have listed for sale today.  Wish me luck!

Another journal, from the same black leather piece.  I bought a large piece of Italian upholstery quality leather and I love it!

I used a rather gorgeous glass bead as the fastening.  It's black glass, with a green and aqua dichroic section in the middle.  I used teal suede strips to fix the bead to the front cover and as a tie to fasten it, attached to the back cover...

 

...and I used green Austrian linen thread for binding, to pick up the green in the bead.

It has 48 pages of that gorgeous cream laid text paper that I've recently acquired; I have lots and lots of it and I'm quite excited, as it's possibly the best text paper I've ever been able to buy - paper being expensive, especially if you buy it in packs of 500 full-size sheets (almost A1 size - around 30"x20", or around 80x55cm - that's pretty big!)

 

Then I made a second deep red chapbook.  This one has a strip of black leather, as decoration and for fastening, with another of those lovely metal Celtic Knots.

I used black waxed linen cord for binding..

The black leather is also on the back cover; it tucks through at the outside edge, so it can be wrapped over to the front and round the metal button.  (Don't you think that the leather strip looks a bit like a belt?)

I stitched the metal embellishment on, to keep the black leather strip in place on the front and to create space for the fastening tie strip to tuck beneath it.  It looks a bit untidy in the photo, but in real life it looks fine.  Who said that cameras never lie, eh?

 

This book is also filled with crisp, cream laid text paper.  Lovely!

 

The last of the chapbooks is my favourite.  This is made from the most gorgeous piece of Robins Egg Blue lamb leather.  It is amazingly soft and supple.  A bit thinner than the Italian calf leathers of the red and black books, but still nice for a limp leather binding. 

Because it's such lovely leather, I kept the overall thing quite simple - this is the back.

I attached a long glass bead to the front, as a fastening and plaited up some deep turquoise linen thread, to make cord for attaching the bead and wrapping round from the back cover, to close the book.  

I used the same deep turquoise linen to bind the book...

...and filled it with my favourite cream paper!

 

That's my little set of leather chapbooks. 

 

I also made this...

...or rather, I completed this little book, which I posted about the other day.  It was made up to this point...

...and I made a leather wrap-round fastening for it.

Now it closes neatly, with the leather strip wrapping right round and tucking under at the front.

I love this saffron coloured linen for the binding!

I think it looks quite smart like this.  

Of course, it's only a little book - just 3.5 inches high. 

But it still has 40 pages of great paper inside and I love it to bits!

 

I still have itchy fingers, to make more journals - watch this space!

 

And on another subject, I should be posting soon about James' new sports interest...  when the photos are ready!

 

Thanks for reading!

A Bit of a Thing for Red...

I've been busy bookbinding recently, even if I haven't blogged much.  The situation with my mum's health, has meant I have had to close my order book for the complex, bigger books and albums, that I was making up until the summer.  In an effort to keep the business running, at least in some measure, I'm fitting in as many smaller books as I can. 

 

I posted yesterday, about a batch of card-covered notebooks - many with rainbows of coloured pages.  These have been such fun to make! 

 

However, I've also made a number of other books in the last couple of weeks - and looking back, it seems that I currently have a bit of a "thing" for Red!

A ribbon-bound Japanese style stab-stitch notebook, size approx 6 x 4 ins.  Covers are in a deep red-purple marbled paper, which I "collected" recently, when exploring paper sources on the internet. 

The first book has a brother! 

This one is bound in black linen thread and has a deep maroon suede strip to wrap the bound edge, beneath the covers. 

Both have 60 pages of white paper and a hinged front cover. 
 

I love the gold marbling on this paper, but the shades of red, purple and magenta in the marbled paper are just beautiful too!

 

* * * 

 

A floral Japanese stab-stitch book, with a hinged front cover.  I found this paper when out for the day, in Cambridge.  It was so pretty and I immediately knew I wanted to use it for a book like this. 

 

The bound edge has a deep red-mauve suede embellishment on each cover.   It has 40 pages of paper, which is a medium-weight cream paper, with a lovely texture. It would be a nice guest book, I think. 

 

Not quite a "red" book, but certainly on the redder side of purple!

 

* * *

 

A pamphlet-style or "chapbook" journal, in a deep red leather. 

 

This is such gorgeous soft leather, that I left it completely alone - no lining, no adornment, other than the lovely Celtic Knot, which I used as a fastener, along with a charcoal suede strip. 

 

It's bound in a single section, with black linen cord and filled with some gorgeous cream laid paper that I bought for making text blocks. This comes in great sheets (A1 size) and I folded and hand-tore the pages of the book, to give a nice torn edge detail.

 

It feels great to handle and the cover is kind of soft and floppy - which just adds to its charm really.  I love this one and want to keep it - occupational hazard I suppose!

 

* * *

 

 

 

An addition to my "set" of five hand-embellished wool felt journals. 

 

This has a warm red felt cover, lined with so-soft deep grey suede. 

 

It's embellished with applique in red suede, black & moss green silk, plus two pieces of Liberty Tana Lawn, in the "Strawberry Thief" design. 

It has embroidery in gold and silk threads, plus three semi-precious stones and a heart-shaped nacre button. 

 

I made a knotted suede button and twisted linen cord, for the fastening (seen in the final photo).  It has 40 pages of lovely hand made paper, with the fab naturally deckled edges, plus "inclusions" of red rose-like flower petals and green leaf pieces.  I bound it in a Longstitch, using black linen. 

 

* * *

 

 

And still on the Table, is this little mini-journal.

 

It's made with the same red leather as the chapbook journal above.  But it is small - barely 3" high! 

 

The paper is also the same cream, laid paper, as the chapbook.  It translated beautifully, to this mini-book form.  I decided to make the book up with a longstitch binding, with six sections of pages - each with four pages, making 24 in total (that's 48 sides of paper). 

 

I like the shape of the wrap-over piece, which is why I haven't cut it off, but left it as a wrap cover.  However, I'm not sure what sort of fastening to give it.  It does need something... could be a button, or a single tie - leather strip, linen cord, or ribbon? I'm mulling over a few ideas and will try some options out.  It's such a sweet little book - I hope to finish it tonight!

 

* * *

So, there's a bit of a peek at my current "red trend".  Along with the Rainbow books, it's been pretty bright and cheerful at my binding table recently!

 

(Just in case you're interested, most of these books are for sale in my "LizzieMade" shops, at Etsy.com and Folksy.com ;-)   

 

 



 

Mini-Book Magic

Hello, I am back again.  Not posting very regularly just now, but I am trying to post at least once a week!
Before  I get onto the Real Subject of this post... Do you remember "Herman the German"? 
Well, if you do - and those who tasted him may well do - you may like to know that Herman has his very own Website!!  Follow this link - or the one in the "Stop Press" column on the right - to take a look!
I don't have a "Herman" just now, but I'd love to try and start one from scratch - I believe the instructions are there somewhere!

* * *

Sooo.. back to the Real Subject!

An Experiment with Miniature Books

There seem to be rather a lot of scraps sitting around my studio.  Strips of paper, trimmed from large sheets, when I cut them into pages; small pieces of bookcloth and suede; decorative paper scraps; short lengths of linen thread, too small for a large book... 

I don't like to throw away nice materials, so I thought I would do a bit of Experimenting and make some Miniature Books.

A Miniature Book is generally accepted to be a book that is less than 7.5cm/ 3" in height and width.  Which is really quite small.  Some people have made ultra-mini books... so tiny you'd need a magnifying glass to look.  Some have written tiny text in their miniature books.  There are miniature bibles, mini photo albums, mini cook-books, mini sketchbooks, miniature artists' books,  mini-book necklaces... all kinds of things. 

So... I thought I'd give it a try.  This is what I've made so far:

Three Miniature books...

The red pencil is a standard-sized pencil...

Teal suede leather miniature book, 5cm / 2ins square

This little book has a Longstitch mediaeval style binding in golden linen thread.  There are 20 pages of crisp off-white Fabriano paper.  It has a wrap-round leather strip to fasten it.

This little hardcover book measures 6 cm / 2, 3/8" by 5cm / 2". It has covers of Liberty Tana Lawn bookcloth, in William Morris' "Strawberry Thief" design, with a quarter binding of damson silk dupioni bookcloth.  There are 30 pages of white paper, with white endpapers to match.  It fastens with a little grey ribbon tie. 

A hardcover book, measuring 6.75cm / 2.5" by 5.5cm / 2.25".  It has covers of hand-marbled paper, by Rhonda Miller with a quarter binding of grey suede leather.  There are 30 pages of heavy-weight white artists paper, stitched with grey linen thread.  The end papers are a dark blue art paper and it fastens with a grey ribbon tie.

My three little mini-books!

These are by no means perfect - they are very much "learning" pieces.  Lots of little faults - such as the two hard cover books refusing to close, once I had added the end-papers (hence the ribbon ties!), and I didn't do the longstitch binding very well.  I still have lots to learn.

Still, I am pleased with them - they're fun and cute and quite pretty.  A couple of hours well spent!