Little Leather Library: Rebound

I was eying a stack of Little Leather Library books as I was browsing a vintage shop with my mother-in-law around the holidays, but decided that they could find a home with someone else, because I was looking for a little text block that I could put a new cover on and it wouldn't feel right to take the books apart when they were functioning just fine, otherwise! We ventured toward the back of the shop, at the promise of a sale section, and low and behold there were a few of these books that were falling apart with their covers detached! My mother-in-law scooped them up, and away she sped to the register. On Christmas morning I had three little broken books to unwrap, and they are such treasures!

I've started working on the book in the photo in between projects. I took the sewing apart and reinforced and re-hinged some of the pages with Japanese tissue. The paper on the left will be made into endsheets, and the leather on the right is for the new cover. The poems inside are so sweet, it'll be exciting to finish the binding so I can sit down and read all of them!

Recent BBB News

I have a blog post up over on the Guild of Book Workers blog. I've shared a few photos of my trip to Relma, the fabulous bookbinding store in Paris.

George from Tedorigawa Bookmakers kindly interviewed me for his podcast a few months ago. I've been shy to share it, there's always something funny about hearing your own recorded voice, especially since it seems I'm prone to giggling. It was a pleasure to speak with him and fun to connect with another book lover all the way in Japan!

Annette from CraftStew.com wrote to let me know that she included my Star Book Tutorial in their "How to Bind a Book" post. The post is full of all sorts of links to great tutorials.

I just read a great article about Mark Andersson, my instructor for most of my time at NBSS, and it is a fantastic read. The article, from the Explorer Newspaper, is actually an old one, so I either missed it the first time around, or it's so well written that it feels new every time you read it! Josh made the above illustration for us to put on a poster that we could sign when Mark was leaving NBSS and headed for the land of rattlesnakes. He always told us tall tales of bookbinding in the trenches, or whilst riding on a motorcycle, or who remembers what? Sometimes when you don't have an awl handy the next best thing is gonna be bullets.

Paper Quilt Cards

Around Christmastime I started arranging some of my many itty bitty scraps of paper into tiny 2.5" x 2.5" paper quilt squares. I didn't do this with any specific purpose in mind, but just as a little break from some of my more tasking projects.

I decided to adhere them to some heavy paper and turn them into blank notecards. I've given them all little names for fun!

Quilted Northern.

Moulin Orange.

Lily Pads.

Terminator meets Tron.

 Triclops.

Would you like one? I just have these five, so leave a request in the comments with your email address & I'll get in touch and send one to you! You can send it on to a friend or I can write a little note inside.

Vintage Paper Lace

Over a year ago I was browsing Etsy for some vintage ephemera, and fun papery delights that I might use in the bindery. I stumbled upon this spool of vintage paper lace and immediately called my friend Lisa (fellow papery delights lover, you know, it's a technical term) to see if she wanted to split the spool. And, of course she did! Wouldn't you?!

Since the spool arrived, packaged in a sweet box, it has been my bench-top staple. I haven't used it in a binding, but I've been using it on just about everything that's in need of wrapping! And as it turns out, paper lace is a bit like the old Lay's slogan. I can't get by with just one color.

Several months ago I added these gems to my collection.

They have a way of making simple packages feel so special!

All of the paper ribbon I've purchased has come from an Etsy shop called A Bohemian Market. The proprietor, Carole, is friendly and helpful. We've only ever communicated online, but her kind personality can't help but shine through in her words. I was excited to see that she had listed some new white lace ribbon in her shop and wrote to her last week to check on availability of some other colors... it was my lucky day! The white and peach above, as well as the orange below are all recent acquisitions.

Aren't all of the eyelets lovely? Most of the little shapes are punched out, but not all, so if I ever need a little bit of quick confetti I can just run my fingers across some length of the ribbon to loosen the remaining pieces.

By itself, or dressed up, Carole's paper lace would make a nice addition to any supply box! As I write this, her shop is full, so feel free to take a peek!

The nitty gritty, as written on the large spools: Maxi Paper Lace, Ideal for Bows, Packages, Floral Arrangements, & Trimmings, 3" Wide 12 yds Maxwell Wellington Greensboro, GA,  Made in the U.S.A.

Cecil's Magic Yellow Pants: A Custom Project

Recently, I had the opportunity to be a part of a family's special project. A grandmother had carefully illustrated a series of flat watercolor pages to create a delightful story for her granddaughter. It was my task to take the flat sheets and hinge them together so I could bind them into a book.

The book is about a real cat named Cecil who has a patch of yellow fur that makes it look like he's wearing pants! These pants make anything possible for this fun-loving cat, however, it is revealed that the pants aren't magic, nor are they even real! The moral of the story is that being special and doing special things comes from within. Don't these illustrations make you smile? I just love Cecil on his magic carpet!

It almost looks like a duplicate, but this smaller version of the book was made so grandmother could have her story on hand when the grandchildren visit! This version was made using scans of the original illustrations.

Thanks to Cecil's family for including me in your special project! It was a pleasure!

Monogrammed Pocket Notebook

 The book above is the gift I gave to my Valentine on Monday night. The card underneath is an oldie from a Current catalog, it was fun to put my colored pencils to use! By the way, it's true. He really is tops!

My Valentine is great at filling up little sketchbooks, and really enjoys those made by Moleskine. I must admit, I do too. I especially like their city notebooks and went through two of them in Boston, and one in Paris. I thought I'd try my hand at making this nice little size, complete with the elastic closure.

Hope you're having a special day!

First Etsy Treasury

 Back in December I thought I'd try my hand at making an Etsy Treasury. I added a few items and then got busy with something else, but I picked it up on Monday and finished my first treasury. I enjoy looking through other people's collections, and my Favorite Items list just keeps growing and growing, so I thought it would be fun to start grouping my favorites together!

I wrote to those I included with a note and a link, and then my favorite part happened, their comments rolled in all day long! They sent private messages and left comments under the photos and it just made it fun and exciting! This might have to turn into a habit! All of these people have great shops, here's a link to check them out.

Custom Folding Trinket Boxes

Upon our return from France, my bags were a tad heavier with the weight of souvenirs and trinkets. Among my favorite were beautiful silky cotton prints by Liberty of London. My friend Camille introduced me to the fabric and the Liberty craze that seemed to have taken over all of the shops in Paris. 

I didn't have a specific plan for these treasures, but they just had to come home with me! I spread all of the fabric out for my family this summer and one of my aunts had the idea to have me use some of it to make something for her and my cousins for Christmas. These photos are of the boxes that were under their tree on Christmas morning. The box above uses Liberty's Small Susanna print.

I sent thumbnails of all of my fabric to my aunt and she asked my cousins to pick their favorites, without giving them a reason why. This was a top-secret project! This Liberty print, Mauvey, is the first that caught my eye. I bought a metre of it at the most fabulous store, Merci, also introduced to me by Camille and her friend Cynthia.

This sweet floral print was a JoAnn's find.

For the guy in the brood, Liberty's Pelagia print gave a bit of a masculine touch.

 

I found this print of the Tuileries Gardens at Hearbeat Quilts in Barnstable, MA. You can just see a few details in this shot, but I have a couple of yards of it, so I imagine it'll make its way into a quilt (and more photos) this year.

These boxes were based on a trinket box that I made for my dad to give to my mom a while back, and now that I've gotten back into the groove of making them, I'm thinking I'll have to make a lot more!