Eda Doreen

Happy Friday

“Peace, if it ever exists, will not be based on the fear of war but on the love of peace. “

Julien Benda

Just a quick post today, as I have been bookbinding all morning :). Well not all morning, I slept a little ha!

I just listed a cute blank journal from the "How Green is My Valley Series" here :

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=44446778

This journal would be perfect for writing in recipes, thoughts, garden ideas, plantings, or even just to sketch in under the maple tree this summer.

I also got  a chance to plod around the garden and observe the early spring flowering plants, and watch my two doggies, Sarah, and Benny play crazily.

I am in the process of trying to seed the beds, and await the beauty of the summer glory to come into its splendor. I just love gardening!!

 

 

Have a wonderful Friday evening wherever or whatever you all might be doing.

 

Best,

 

Sam

In flight entertainment

“Hold fast to your dreams, for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”-Langston Hughes.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

So the spring rains here in the Deep South are starting to bring on some mighty windy nights. The days are longer, and the many families of birds are showing in full splendor each crisp spring morning.

Mighty as they look the redbirds are probably one of my favorites, simply because their colorings stick out amongst the greenery in the hot summer afternoons. Such color has inspired my collection today of handmade works by more great Etsian artists.

 

Top Left: Darwins Finches Bird t-shirt, Top Right : Garden Gate Locket , Bottom Left: Peacock Bird Notecards, Bottom Right :

Small Pleasures Purse .

 

  Of course readying the yard and the flower beds around your home is a welcoming transition for those of us who want to encourage bird life. Simple as it may sound, setting up safe and suitable feeding sites, and housing for our feathered friends can be thought about in the next month. Look around for quaint, cute, and handmade bird baths, bird houses, and feeding stalls and stands. An ideal place to look for these items can be on etsy, and also the many informative online sites around the web. A great magazine is the Birds and Blooms, and if money is a budgeting issue, which seems to be on most of our minds lately, the local audabon societies also offer free bird watching, and feeding classes for us as well.

 

Reindeer and Owl Original watercolor

 

Over the weekend, I finished a cute birdy themed journal which kicks of a new series of journals of which I have named the 'shes such a tweety' series. These journals will have the environment, mother nature, and animals in mind when making the front covers of the journals. The journal is lined throughout, with over 3oo pages, and is covered with a natural linen fabric.

 

'Shes such a tweety!'

 

Well in saying that, I will be off out of here for now. I have got to complete two more journals I have been meaning to list for a week now, then I will be introducing some more journals in the coming week, with a creative coloristic feel, including the poppy look, and the colors of the rainbow look. Either way, keep a close eye out in the coming weeks.

a book speaks a thousand words

“If a book comes from the heart it will contrive to reach other hearts. All art and author craft are of small account to that.”- Thomas Carlyle

 

I first learnt my craft of bookbinding last year. What fascinated me more about the craft was the ability to sew a collection of papers together to form a book, and ultimately to be able to open, close, read, write, and collate writings, sketches and ‘what not’s’ in a book that I had made myself.

Learning a self taught skill is very rewarding. It is easy enough to buy a how-to-book to teach yourself a skill, craft or art, yet the greatest challenge is perfecting your art. After buying my first tutorial as I have talked about in my prior bookbinding post, it took at least four or five attempts to get the sewing down pat, and a few more attempts after that to learn that all books would not be the same when handmade. And, due to my perfectionism, I had to continually tell myself to relax, and enjoy my new found craft.

single signature notebook

So how is a book made?

Firstly, let’s look at the functions of a book. It has two covers, a spine, and the papers inside the book, of which if collated together are named a signature, or signatures. Some books can have only one signature while others can have several, with no set amount. One thing is paramount however, each signature has to be functional for the book to open and close properly. In order to make a signature, take four pieces of paper, blank for the time being, and fold them in half and put each folded piece inside the next, and then you have a signature with 16 pages total. Four full pages, with four sides when folded, which totals a 16 page signature.

This coptic bound exposed spine book has four signatures. 

Single signature style notebooks can be a perfect fix for handy pocket purses. In order for the book to be completed, some kraft card stock folded in half can act as the covers to the notebook, and stapled to keep together, or even sewn together if opened to the middle, and  linen thread used through a hole at the top of the signature and the bottom of the signature and tied in the middle of the booklet from the outside to the inside in.

 

Artistic sketch journal Hollywood style 

Stay tuned for the next bookbinding post for a full photo spread with a tutorial in making a booklet single signature notebook.

On Bookbinding...

Happy St.Paddy's Day!

“When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees, maimed, stark, misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.” –Edna O’Brien (1932)

 

On Bookbinding….

 So, I’ve not gone too much into my craft, only that most who have visited my shop, know that I take a big interest in bookbinding, paper, and stationery. My forte however is my passion for books, and as most will see in my etsy profile, I have always loved to write and express myself, and with the use of a journal what better way to engross one's eyes and fingers when manhandling a book?

Books

 

 My love of books starting emphatically over ten years ago, and  my penchant for words still exists today. When I came to the States, from Australia close to eight years ago, I found myself attracted to the big box bookstores, the Starbucks coffee grandeur, and the smell of paper! I knew little about writing as an art, and even less about binding a book. But as time grew longer, and my checking account smaller, I had accumulated a mass amount of books. I really do not know how many books I have nowadays, but I know my collection is substantial. So, then one day I stop and thought about it. How about making my own book? What does it take to make, construct, or bind a book? What tools will I need to bind a book in the making ?

My first knowledge of binding came from a tutorial I purchased from Evalicious on Etsy. It was a 15 page pdf file, with pictures that helps to show the artist how to go about binding a Coptic stitched (exposed) book. My first attempt was hilarious to say the very least. Actually I still have all of the first books I have made, and I am keeping them to remind myself how far I have come in my bookbinding journey.

Would you like to know how to make your very own journal?

A somewhat helpful and handy tutorial can be found on Hugh Spark’s online base. I used it to make my first cased in journal. Although it takes some mastering, I can highly recommend this tutorial. I am still yet to master the fully cased in, pasted cover book.

Anyway, have a think about what it takes to make a book. Look at its pages, the booklet of pages, which is called a signature, and the covers. Inspect the spine, is it fully encased by the covers, or is it exposed?

I once heard a beautiful quote about books,

“A room without a book, is like a body without a soul”- Cicero ( 106 BC-43 BC )

Wouldn’t you agree?

 Stay close by, as I will be going into the bookbinding process in the weeks to come.