How do I blog?

What do you feel when you write by hand?

Did you know that you are more likely to organize your thoughts and be more creative when you put pen to paper?

I found this out through my own experience and it has directly led to my bookbinding.

Ever since I ended up under the influence of the world fountain pens, I have been handwriting every day. Some days it is little more than mapping my day with lists and notes, but sometimes I get a little more personal. I have noticed that I can focus and get things done much quicker this way. No Youtube, Twitter, Facebook or blogs to take me away from what I am doing.

So I am drafting my blogs by hand in my trusty handmade notebook. Yeah I know I'm lucky, I can just make one to my liking anytime I need a different size or format. The funny thing is that I never used pens before, or never liked them, pencil was always my thing. Ever since I forced myself to switch over to fountain pens, no longer comforted by the trusty eraser to fix what I thought were my mistakes, it has forced me to think about what I am writing before I put it to paper, but more often than not I just go with it, stream of consciousness style.

This process really has helped ignite my creative spark, I find that I can get a lot more done on paper than I can on the keyboard in the same time. You may think that you can type faster than you write, but if you factor in all of the on the spot revising and distractions that are really difficult to avoid, it is really awash, at least for me it is.

I think part of the reason, or most of it, is that handwriting imparts a personal imprint on my writing as much as what I have to say does for my overall message. My handwritten drafts most likely will never see the light of day, but I get to keep them in one place and look back at what I had to say, and see how I have grown as a handwriter as well as a writer.

Take some time today to write something by hand, this should be in something that also says something about you, it could be a love letter that will never see the light of day, a thank you note that you know you need to write, or just something you have on your mind. Your writing medium is an integral component of this process. You may write something profound that you will want to hang on for some time.

Giveaway time. How to get a free book!

Scroll to the bottom to the bottom paragraph for how to win this book!

I promised my Facebook fans I would do a giveaway of one of my handmade books and journals if they helped me get to 30 fans.

Well, we did it. Now it's time to give away a free book! This is a beautiful leather-bound sketchbook with 117 cream colored laid textured pages. This book would sell for about $50 on my Etsy shop. The front flap and the loop are hand stamped and the leather is hand dyed by yours truly.





How do I enter the give-away?

I'm glad you asked. All you have to do is click here to retweet my pre-written tweet. If you follow me, you'll get extra points! I will be picking my winner this Saturday, December 15th, 2012

Cyber Monday is here!

To find out about my 20% off Etsy Promo and a chance to win a free book, scroll down.

Today I got the chance to spend the day with some local artists and crafters at a locally owned craft/fabric shop here in town for the first annual Small Business Saturday craft fair. I had been frequenting The Cotton Ball lately and while scouring their scrap bins for book materials the owner asked me what I had planned for the random lovely fabrics I had meticulously picked out, or maybe I told her, I don't really keep things close to the chest. When she heard about my books she invited me to take part in a craft fair in front of the shop. I met some other wonderful artists, a painter, a quilter, an embroiderer and a few others. They were all very nice and their made me feel right at home. Sadly I didn't sell any books though I did have quite a few people interested in the process of how I make my books, and where I learned how to make books, so while I was there I actually finished one!


But their loss is your gain. I will be offering all of my books for 20% off through the end of Monday 11/26. Read below.

About the book giveaway: when my fanpage: facebook.com/IArtBooks reaches 30 likes I will be giving away one of my books to a lucky reader.


Cyber Mon Promo

As always, my you can find all of my social media links on the upper left of this blog, follow @iartbooks.

New books and an art show!

Just finished adding five new books on my etsy (check them out on the left side of this page). The first two were made from a beautiful green leather, and the pages are made out of sugar can pulp!

The next three are part of a series of five. I only posted three because I wasn't happy with the quality of the other two. I'm thinking of starting a give-away program with the ones I am not 100% happy with so stay tuned.

About the art show, my brother and I are working on two books to enter into an art show at a local art shop and will be on display through January. We are working on the cover today. Both books are geared towards artists.

The first book will be a combination sketchbook/journal, a reversible two books in one

The other will be a mixed media art book, using two different water color (hot and cold press) charcoal and sketch paper. Too much fun!

A Family Affair, cont. Five books finished

Working on a collaboration with other artists sounds like a potentially hazardous situation doesn't it? But when you have a common vision and you are working with people that respect each other, in this case, my brother and mom, it can be a fun and rewarding experience. I had just finished my new workbench, and immediately got started on new books, and now with five times the space I can work with other people.

Mom and Brother helping out.

When it was all said and done we got quite a bit done. Five books were finished, photos were taken, mistakes were definitely made and lessons were learned.

At one point after we finished sewing up all five books I realized that there was a flaw in the engineering creating a weak point on the binding. I got to sew five books twice this day!

 Anyway, you are here for books. You want to see books? I got your books right here.

The first two books finished!

So these books are made using the secret Belgian binding, covered with different cloths as the cover and spines, (except for that black white and red one in the picture there, that's leather). Most of the books have a sewn design that my mom did and a couple for now, (maybe more to come) have some painted artwork on the covers.

About the artwork:

My brother is a phenomenal artist and I asked him what he thought about doing some artwork on the cover and this is what he came up with. I am in the process of putting these up on Etsy, but if you message me ahead of time I'll give you five dollars off. I will be selling these for $30 on Etsy.

Hand painted pelican

Hand painted parrot

Complementary decorative endpapers

Sewing design by Maggie Lightfoot

Notice how the binding allows the book to stay open for an easy journaling/sketching session?

That's it for now, you can see all of these pictures and more at my flickr page. Like and follow me on Facebook if you want (link to the left). Or just say hi here below.

A family affair book project

I spent much of the day working on my new workplace with my brother who is a fantastic artist and my mom who's fabric skills are great to have around.

It was too much fun to be doing something collaboratively with my family, working together with a common goal: Make functional art that people will enjoy as much as we do.

We got to work on an edition of five books, some featuring art by my brother.

We'll finish the books later today most likely and I'll post more.

Here's a teaser:

A new workbench for a new process

I had plans to get at least five books done today, but life had other plans. A neighbor missed the bus to the next town so I gave him a ride. I ended up visiting a few stores while I was there and before I knew it, half of my day was gone. When I finally got home I was wiped.

I have been working on a workbench about 32 inches long by 24 inches wide for a while now. When my neighbor who is a carpenter and a craftsman himself told me he was interested in my books a light bulb went off in my head. I needed a workbench badly. Up until now I had to constantly clear whatever tool I was using to make way for the next tool in the process of my bookbinding. I essentially had one station for measuring, cutting, pasting, folding, sewing, etc. This really limited my productivity and my flow. My neighbor came knocking today and had something to show me. I followed him to his truck and he had a solid core door waiting for me.

"There's your table Jesse," he said "and let's get you the rest of your wood." He took me into his backyard and started piling on the lumber for me. I thought this would be a nice weekend project and I maybe would have it done in a week or so.

I got to work and about 3 hours later this is what I had:



See that plywood top bench in the foreground? That was my old bench. I decided to mount the new table onto the old one and made one long beautiful bench for all of my needs. I can now set up an assembly line and work my way down the stations. No more moving equipment around, a niche smooth finish that cleans up easily. Ahhh... a nice change of pace.



Here is the bench in action, I mounted on some shelving and put in a power distributor. You can see a preview of some new books I am working on. I will post those when they are done. All in all it was a very productive day.

An oldie but a goodie

So I woke up to the sound of a Facebook message from a friend who has a friend with an art store who wants some of my books!

My Blog and Facebook fan page had been up for a whopping 10 hours and I had 10 fans and 2 requests for books.

So I guess i better get to work.

I wanted to share a book with you. This book was one of my first and it has sold already, sorry. It was hard to let it go because it is such a beauty.

This book is constructing using a french hinge type binding and makes a beautiful rounded spine, accented with a hand sewn headband:



A headband is the pretty little woven part at the top and bottom of hardbound books.

First I made the innards of the book, called a bookblock, then I picked a cover:


Then I put the book block in the cover.



Roll on some glue.



Schmoosh it all together.



Shape it to look pretty.





Put it in the press and set it and forget it!



And voila!



Simple right? Hey I didn't say it would be a comprehensive tutorial or anything. These pictures represent several hours worth of work.

Coping with my hobby ADHD

"Do what you love and the money will follow" -Marsha Sinetar

 

 

 

So, I finally decided to document my crazy obsession with doing whatever it takes to keep myself busy. What do I do to keep myself busy you ask? Bookbinding.

"Bookbinding? Well that sounds...interesting." Yeah, people still do that apparently.

How did I get started with such an obscure craft?

Funny story actually. I describe myself as a serial ADD hobbyist. I'll start one hobby; say bonsai trees. Then I'll realize that I need a bench to display and work on my bonsais so I need to build one, that requires woodworking. Oh well then I need to learn the basics of working with wood and once I scour thrift stores and garage sales to get the tools I need to build my bonsai bench, I'll realize that I need a woodworking bench to make the bonsai bench. Now, I have the bonsais going and the woodworking to support the bonsai hobby.

A similar thing happened with bookbinding. I started writing about a month and a half ago and in the process I had a need for a nice leather journal to keep track of my mind when I was out and about. So naturally I went out and bought a journal right? Wrong! I couldn't find my ideal journal, so after a few minutes online, I found a nice tutorial on how to make a handmade leather journal.

When I was a kid I wanted the Indiana Jones Grail Diary terribly. The way it fit into Indy's jacket pocket, the little black elastic strap, the rustic cover *sigh*... it all appealed to my 10 year old brain for some reason. It's never too late to fulfill a lifelong dream, so I found a simple tutorial over at zenseeker.net and next thing I knew...

I had my own handmade blank grail diary!

Look at that! Isn't she beeeautiful?

Now, look, I realize that this is probably only interesting to me and a few Jonsians hanging out in front of Skywalker Ranch waiting to get picked up by the Tardis and taken away to 1938 for a chance to get a nod from Indiana himself. But, I just couldn't stop! I was hooked. One book wasn't enough. I needed a smaller one, one with lined pages, one with a cloth cover, a paper cover, yada yada yada... Then I had more than I needed, so I started showing my books to friends and co-workers. Next thing I knew I had sold 9 books in a week and a half, making back the money I put into this "hobby" tenfold. I made an extra week's pay from these 9 little books, now everyone wants one! I'm onto something, I thought, gotta blog it, put 'em on etsy, tell mah friends. Now that's where you come in, tell yer friends, ask me to make you one, they make great Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanza/Solstice-what-have-you gifts.

Where can you get one? Well, I'll have an Etsy shop soon, working on my stock at the moment, but for the time being I'll post my available items here and I can create a custom item on my Etsy to fill special orders. Let me know! I take requests and suggestions for materials/techniques/custom line printed pages/etc. You don't have to buy one, just take part in my (mis)adventures by checking in here periodically.

But if you are interested *wink wink, nudge nudge*...

My base price for a 4 inch by 5.5 inch blank journal with 192 pages is $25. If you want extras such as leather, custom line/grid/etc printed pages and any other ideas you have there will be an additional cost, generally between 5 - 10 dollars per addition. I can also do embossing for an extra fee.

Let's make a deal. You check out my blog periodically and I'll keep feeding your little brain with updates of my obsessions!

Here's a teaser: