March Madness

It has been a busy few weeks and I have a few photos of my recent projects to share. Above is a Japanese stab portfolio that I made for Josh. He needed a portfolio that would look professional, and could be made quickly. Japanese 4-hole bindings are a good fit for that criteria. The only downside to these books is that they don't open as well as some other bindings. To compensate for that, I suggested that he use a very large gutter. As can be seen in the image above, thanks to that large gutter, all of J's artwork can be seen without forcing the book to lie flat.

Speaking of Japanese bindings, my friends, Hannah and Clint came to visit recently and were up for a little how-to lesson in the bindery!
Here they are posing with their joint creation. They did a great job from start to finish! I showed them how to use Heat'n'Bond to iron fabric onto the light weight cover boards. Then we experimented with some screen printing for the front cover using one of Josh's screens. That part was especially fun because it was my first try with the technique. I was a little bit worried about the ink sticking to the screen. We made several prints in rapid succession and then raced to the tub to wash the ink out! It all came out and the screen is ready to use again! Han and Clint took turns punching holes in the covers and the pages and then Han sewed the book together. Job well done.

I'm teaming up with fellow NBSS alum, Wendy Withrow of Windy Weather Bindery, for a production project. My dad, who is currently the president of a professional association (to be named later!), is the client. As he is nearing the end of his presidency he would like to offer a book as a token of thanks to the members of the board. Lined pages were the preference, so, instead of trying to line pages myself, I ordered pre-sewn text blocks from Hollander's. That little step ended up saving time and money.

Last week I made all of the covers for the books. The USPS got them up to Michigan in record time. Wendy will be working on stamping the names of the members as well as the association name onto the covers. When she's done, she'll send them back, I'll case them in, and then send them to Texas where an annual conference is taking place.

Spring into Handmade was the name of the arts and craft market that Cottage Industry, of Orlando, hosted this past weekend. I shared a table (photo above) with my friends, Sarah and Lisa, from Orange Blossom Ink. Visit their website here to read more about our experience at the market and here to read about a field trip they took to Cottage Industry last year.

The three of us decided that we should collaborate on an item to sell at our table and settled on boxed card sets. Orange Blossom Ink designed cards and lined envelopes with decorative paper that Lisa found at Paper Source on a recent trip to Chicago. I used the same decorative paper along with some Japanese Asahi cloth to make the boxes. We made two sets for the show. Here is a photo of the other set. Each box houses eight cards with four different prints. I imagine that we will collaborate again in the future and that a person might be able to find one or two of these sets listed in our respective Etsy shops!

Below are a number of my miniature book earrings in progress. They turned out to be my number one seller at the market. Definitely fun to make! They are all pamphlet bound, and just as much work went into each tiny book as would go into a larger pamphlet binding. It was satisfying finding just the right size papers in my collection of smaller pieces.

So now, the March madness continues! I have an interesting and complicated box project to work on today, as well as some book repairs that are nearly complete. The two books I'm repairing are eager to return to their home in Massachusetts! I've been updating my Boombox Bindery Facebook Page with photos of the new work I'm adding to Etsy. I have a few more things in the store and will continue to add to it, little by little.

Boom Box Bindery

Boom Box Bindery is underway! In January I signed up as a seller on Etsy.com. Yesterday Josh did a bang up job on the Boom Box logo and today I posted my first item. For about three years now, I've been mulling over what the name of my bindery should be. Boom Box Bindery came to mind during some brainstorming this past September and it has had some staying power. The product focus of the store will be books, boxes and cards.


As can be seen in BBB's first posted item, Josh and I will be collaborating a bit. He did the screen printing on this book. I came up with the idea for these little books when I was thinking of a shower gift for two of our friends who are getting married next month. They will be getting the two books pictured in the middle ground of the photo below. One of them has the same cover, with the word "lists" on it, while the other has the word "ideas" printed on it. Josh and I have written down many lists and ideas in our few months of marriage, and I thought it would be nice for our friends to have official books for this purpose that are easy to keep handy because of their size.


One of the many neat features on Etsy can be found under the "Custom" tab on the navigation bar. This brings the craft shopping patron to "Alchemy," a spot where they can request custom items. The requests come in varied specificity. You'll find a post in which someone is just dying to have the very same brown sweatshirt as so-and- so in such-and-such a movie, next to a post for a general gift for grandma. I have put a few bids on projects for those people looking specifically for books or boxes. I also bid on projects that are vague, where people describe the person they are trying to find something for, and request any and all suggestions. Most of these have upwards of 20 bids on them, so I'm looking at my bid writing as an opportunity to gain some experience interacting with clients.

Now that my online selling presence is somewhat of a reality, I am increasingly excited to make new work and get selling! In addition to working on items to sell on Etsy, one of my new goals is to join Orange Blossom Ink in sharing a table at the upcoming arts and crafts show to be held at Cottage Industry. I heard that there was going to be a Sailboat consignment event going on across the street on that day and decided I'd try to work some nautical themes into one or two items. When I actually read about the event I realized it is Sale Boat rather than Sail which turns out to be upscale children's consignment... so children's themes it is!

Paper Storage

Several Years ago when I was meandering the wooden walkways of Gilman Village in Issaquah, Washington, I noticed a contented woman sitting on a bench in the sun enjoying a snack. It took merely a second for me to memorize that comfortable picture, and what happened next is why I still remember it. I glanced to my right and saw an open door and a sign that read "The Paper Fix." Always having been a fan of paper, it was only natural to walk inside.

The Paper Fix turned out to be a shop with a balanced offering of decorative papers, fine stationary, and custom gift wrapping. Those are three things that I thoroughly enjoy. As I was taking in my surroundings, the woman from the bench came inside. It turned out that she was Angela Fix, owner of The Paper Fix. I had a great time talking to her and learning about her business. Seeing what she did for a living and how content she was, gave me a little glimpse of something I might like to do in the future. We enjoyed the same things.
Cutting, folding, tying, gluing. At the time I thought, someday I'd like to be surrounded by beautiful paper, just like this. Happily those likes of mine led me to bookbinding, and voilà, I'm on my way to being surrounded!

The paper shown above is a piece purchased from The Paper Fix. The papers were displayed hanging on wooden rods that were suspended from the ceiling using heavy chains. From what I remember the rods just slipped through the large eyes of the chains.

I have a small collection of papers that I like to have at the ready, and at this time, my bindery lacks a good spot for flat files. After telling my husband, Josh, the story above, he set to work recreating similar paper storage for me. I think his variation on the theme might be a bit sturdier than the original.
Instead of threading the rod through the eyes of the chains, he screwed eye hooks into the rods so that they could accept S hooks which could then be attached to a length of chain. The eye hooks are also what hold the contraption to the ceiling. His final step was to add rubber feet to the ends of the rods. I thought that was a nice finishing touch. Below are close-ups of the attachments.








There are some pros and cons to storing paper this way. The major pro is that a lot of color is instantly added to the bindery. Also, because of the way I've arranged the papers, with a little sliver of each showing, I am able to take stock of what I have and readily select the paper I'd like to use. I don't have to sort through a drawer of papers stacked on top of each other.

After a few hours hanging on a rod, the paper is trained to have a little bend in the center. Luckily it is easily trained to do the reverse. Surely, the actual hanging on the rods must not be a major issue considering how many stores use a similar hanging method.
A possible con is light damage that may occur. The paper is located on the wall furthest from the bindery windows, but I think there is a fair chance that if I don't plow through these papers, those slivers will be discolored in a few months. Time will tell.










For now, I'm pleased that my decorative paper is out of tube storage and off of the floor where it was stored between pieces of binders board. The rest of my paper has a different story. I store cut pieces on shelves of my desk, and other pieces on a shelf made out of binders board, that is fitted to my Kutrimmer. This shelf holds large plain sheets, decorative papers that aren't quite the right size to hang, as well as rolls of bookcloth.

Sadly, The Paper Fix is no longer in Gilman Village. I'm not sure if the store moved, or if it closed. Hopefully Ms. Fix still has beautiful paper in her life, and is just as content as the first day I saw her.