Wednesday Worktable - 18th February 2015 - Little Leather Journal

This is my contribution to WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday), over at JuliaDunnit's Blog. Each Wednesday, Julia invites fellow crafters and bloggers to show a photo or two of their worktables, and explain what they've been doing. 

My desk just now... Its usual messy self!

 

There, in the middle is my current project.  A little piece of lovely deep chocolate brown leather and a sheet of beautiful hand-marbled paper, by bookbinder and artist, Rhonda Miller. 

I plan to make a small, pocket-sized leather journal.  

On my small table, a pile of folded pages, made with creamy-coloured squared paper. These will be bound into the leather cover with longstitch. 

This is its big brother - an A5 /8" x 6" Journal, lined with a fabulous geometric design paper, by Cambridge Impressions. It also has pages of squared paper (slightly larger squares), and is hand bound in longstitch, with green Austrian linen. 

Haven't quite finished the planning of the little journal yet. I think I will go with a wrap-round cover and some kind of interesting fastening. 

Once I've finished, I will post it in my blog, so feel free to come back and look! 

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That's my contribution to the WOYWW Story this week - thanks for reading.  

Why not pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and see what else is going on in the crafting world?

India and Africa

Two more books completed over the weekend.  A continuation of the Rainbows theme... and something quite the opposite.

A Rainbow of Handmade Indian papers.  The paper for the pages is 100% cotton-rag handmade paper. Ten sheets are coloured - each one different - and each wraps round a sheet of plain white.  You can see all the deckled edges, from making each page in a mould. You can also see the texture of the mould on the paper's surface (see third photo). 

I used another Indian paper for the covers - this has been printed with gorgeous, bright butterflies. And glitter - there is So Much lovely glitter!  

For the lining of each cover, I found some hand-made mulberry paper and I used bright orange hemp cord for the Coptic binding.  

I love this one! 

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And, for a total change, I made a book with black and cream papers.  The cover paper has African animals, in cream, on a black and charcoal African-style geometric background.  

I chose black dupioni silk for a quarter-binding on the traditional-style "case" hard cover binding. Inside, I added end-papers of black, embossed, snake-skin design paper, which is a mixture of matte and glossy black - very effective.  

The pages are smooth, crisp cream text paper.  

It turned out pretty well. 

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I'm very pleased with these... Now I'm off to make more! 

Thanks for reading! 

Happy News!

We have another new addition to our family.  A new baby - I'm a Great Auntie four times over now!

This little man is Jenson James, born on 27th February.  He's a baby brother for my middle great niece, Alexie, who will be five next month.

Here's his clever mummy, my lovely niece Caroline.  

She looks so much more relaxed than when Alexie was born. Five years older and wiser, with the knowledge that she has done it all before! 

(This one's Alexie!)

And he's a lovely little chap, very quiet and no trouble, so she has been able to settle down to being his mum with little fuss and bother. 

I paid my first visit on Tuesday morning and was so thrilled to meet him.  

Lovely, isn't he? 

Wednesday Worktable - 11th February 2015 - Just finishing Off...

This is my contribution to WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday), over at JuliaDunnit's Blog. Each Wednesday, Julia invites fellow crafters and bloggers to show a photo or two of their worktables, and explain what they've been doing. 

It's really rather messy...  I'm working on a photo album for Elien, with covers of a lovely peacock-feather patterned paper and silk trim (more photos in my previous post!).  Just the finishing touches now - she would like a nice label on the first page, with her name. 

I've made up a couple of examples and now know what she would like (a long rectangular label, with the text on one line, in a nice curly font, double-mounted on silk and blue paper, to match the book covers).  So, I just need to make up the label and attach it - then the book is ready for despatch to USA! 

And what else?  Well, the pile on the left is sketchbooks and planning notebooks - not much to see there. At the back are some Kraft card notebook covers, with little square apertures, all ready for another batch of 4"x6" notebooks.

On the right, amongst the jumble, is a shimmery pink ribbon rose, a ribbon bow, a green felt leaf and a gold-painted piece of dowel.  What will it be?  A Fairy Wand, for a certain Rose Fairy.  

More about Fairy Wands in a post very soon! 

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That's my contribution to the WOYWW Story this week - thanks for reading.  

Why not pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and see what else is going on in the crafting world?

Making Rainbows!

It's been a month since I found time to blog.  Time does fly!

I've been busy enough... but I have managed a bit more bookbinding work too: -

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A Valentine's Journal, with covers of soft red leather...

There is an embossed heart design on the front cover

...and a fancy stitched back, with hearts in longstitch...

...black cover linings, for a good contrast and white pages of lovely textured paper.
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Some 6"x4" Kraft notebooks, with windows - 

these have woodland creatures on their endsheets. 

...these have floral paper...

...a couple have African animals...

...and one with bees and daisies.

There are seven different designs and they seem to have gone down well in my shops!

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I also completed the binding of a Photo Album, for a customer: 

Peacock Feather Album, with Silk Trim...

...Decorative binding, in French Stitch, with deep teal linen thread...

...The stiff white pages have linen-embossed glassine tissue between them.

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And Finally... On my Binding Table Now:-

A Grey Linen Photo Album, with Rainbow Pages...

Each set of pages is individually stitched to a pleated linen spine, with coloured linen, to match the page colours...

... The Covers are plain grey linen, but they are not attached yet.  The idea is that the purchaser can choose a custom trim for the cover edges - they can have a coloured strip of silk, or a ribbon, in a colour of their choice.  And also, the covers can be lined with coloured paper of their choice (or even patterned paper!). 

I'm looking forward to completing this project, with whoever chooses it. 

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Thanks for Reading!