I made a book!

Two books, actually.

I followed the very good instructions from the Mindful Art Studio's Coptic Bound Journal workshop, and without much trouble made these two small sketchbooks.

The individual steps are not difficult, but they took time and care to ensure a nice finished product.  There was a lot of cutting, glueing, folding, and finally sewing to bring it all together.

The process starts with cutting the materials for your covers and the inner pages, called signatures.  I used watercolor paper for these, but any paper can be used depending on the purpose of the book.  The cover is made from chip board covered with decorative paper or fabric.

The paper cutter I bought a while back was a real life-saver.  This could all be done by hand, but that would take a long time.  It took a while as it was.  This is not a process to rush through!

The final step before sewing is to poke holes in the signatures and covers.  Again, having the correct tool really makes a difference!  When I made my first simple sketchbook a couple of months ago, I did not have an awl and improvised with a sharp screw Michael found in the garage.  It worked, but was slow and hurt my hand.  Because I enjoyed making the sketchbook and knew I would make more, I bought a beginner's bookbinding kit with the various tools needed to make different books.  I've used almost everything in the kit already.

Look at those neat and tidy holes!

The next step is sewing the pieces together.  As you can imagine, this is a bit awkward at first while trying to figure it all out.  I was really happy to have the curved needles from the bookbinding kit!  A straight needle can do the job, but requires a lot more fiddling around with the book which might lead to loose stitches.  Lots of sharp things involved in book making!

Once you have the hang of it, the sewing step is very enjoyable.

By the time I was finished with the second book (the blue one) I was feeling really good about the process.  I did learn one very important thing - make sure you have enough thread!  I barely squeaked by with just an inch or so to spare on the second book.  Not much more on the first one.

Here's a close up of the stitching.  I know with practice the stitches will be more uniform, but either way they look pretty nifty.

The books lay flat when open, which will make painting in them easy.  The other sketchbooks I've made don't do that, so the paint tries to pool in the middle.

I made a painted piece for the inside cover.  Next time I'll cut the inner pieces smaller so they don't have holes poked in them (and I'll make sure the outer cover paper is big enough to fold in further and cover the board better.

Now I've got these two great books to fill with art!  I know I'll be making more of these, and am really looking forward to visiting a craft store in person to pick out nice paper for the covers.

So many possibilities...

Adventures in ink making (sort of)

When one dabs colorful liquid on paper with a brush, it's only natural to begin to wonder what colors might be obtained from nearby plants, such as this red currant growing across the street.

I've been reading up on how to make inks from natural materials, and following the experiments of others.  It's not a difficult process, but I don't have quite everything I need at the moment.

No worries!  I decided to go ahead and try a very crude method today without fancy stuff like a dedicated pan for boiling things in (instead of one of Michael's cooking pans).  I also don't have gum arabic, or an essential oil to prevent mold.

First, I picked a lot of flowers off of that plant across the street.  In case you're wondering the stems are incredibly sticky.  I washed my hands with soap and that did not get rid of the stickiness!  I tried some hand sanitizer with alcohol in it and that did the trick.

The flowers have a nice fresh smell.  Not "flowery" at all - just fresh.  And they're so tiny!

I picked them off of the sticky stems, and filled up a salsa jar.

Then I smashed them with a stick!

Since I didn't have a pan to boil them in, I poured boiling water over them into the jar, then set it in the sun all afternoon to keep it warm as long as possible.

The water is taking on a pink hue, and I've tested it on a piece of watercolor paper - pretty pale!  The color shows up a bit better on a paper towel.  Tomorrow I will strain the flowers out, and let it sit in the sun again with the lid off so it can evaporate a bit.  For a first try and not following the directions closely, it's still turning out interesting!

I really miss being able to dash off to the thrift store - soon!  I'll get my hands on a dedicated plant boiling pan before long, as well as a few of the other vital ingredients to make proper ink.  In the meantime, I'll report back tomorrow after I've messed around with this batch some more.  I should have some decent marks on paper to share.  If nothing else, it's very pretty pink water!

Cheers!

Three Links

 A few things you may find interesting...

Get out of your geographic music bubble

Are you stuck in a music bubble based on where you live?  Analysis of the #1 song where you live vs. your nearby neighbors indicates yes!  You probably are.  If you listen to pop music that is.  I scrolled through and discovered that I'd never heard of any of the songs or performers listed for my area.  I'd say I must be getting too old, but I'm sure it's really that I have better taste in music.  Explore the maps to learn about the top pop hits around the world. (H/T University of Winds)

Dancing Light Paintings Contour Nature With Fiery Streaks of Illumination

Brazilian photographer Vitor Schietti uses fireworks and slow shutter speeds to create his photos of illuminated trees.  Also required - perfect lighting (available for only a few minutes at twilight) and a bit of composite work in Photoshop.

Schietti finds his inspiration among the tree-lined streets of his hometown of Brasília as well as in more remote landscapes. The natural background is a perfect canvas for the photographer's abstract creations. “The light becomes a brush, the space around me is the canvas,” he says of Impermanent Sculptures, “the paper on which I write questions, sketch answers, rehearse thoughts, reveal or hide mysteries.” (My Modern Met)

Exhausting dialogue and conversational shortcuts

Let's face it - nobody is doing very well these days.  We might have a good day here and there but when somebody asks us "how are you?" chances are good we're not okay.  We all ask that question out of habit, and maybe now is a good time to work on trying out a few different things.  Austin Kleon shares some suggestions he's gathered for alternatives to "how are you?" and for livening up conversation in general.

In the spirit of lively conversation - what's one thing that made you laugh today (or yesterday or the day before)?

I'll go first - yesterday Rowland tried to chase the FedEx truck when we were out on our walk.  He's convinced every big delivery truck is the source of treats ever since he made friends with the UPS driver.  He pulled me along for a good half block, but the truck had disappeared from sight.  Poor fella.

Wash Your Cardi

Winter is still trying to cling to us a little longer.  Not in an horrible snowy way, but today was cold, gray, and a bitter wind is blowing.  Rain is lurking nearby.

Thank goodness for the bright flowers that are starting to pop up everywhere.  This little cutie is in my garden.  Tulips are blooming, and I saw a bright red rhodie while out with the dog.

All we need is for the sun to stick around longer for a day!  Temperatures will allegedly hit 70 a week from today.  I certainly hope so, we could use a little warmth.

I spent some time playing around with my new Daniel Smith tube watercolors.  Michael has been encouraging me to delve into tubes for quite a while, and I finally did it!  I ordered the Pablo Rubén’s Master Artist Set which has some lovely colors in it.  I was not familiar with his work - he does amazing realistic scenes some of which almost look like photographs.  Wow.

Here's a bit of what I ventured to do today...

Not quite a masterpiece, but it was fun.  The superior quality of these paints was immediately obvious.  It will take some practice to get the hang of working with these paints as opposed to the pans that I'm used to.  I need to do some swatch pages and learn how to mix them.

Heck, I need to do swatch pages for all of my paints and other art supplies.  That will be a good summer project.

I've got a few days of access left to all of the Sketchbook Revival videos. There's not way I'll get to them all, and that's okay!  There's a couple that I've watched but haven't tried yet, and a couple of others that I'd like to revisit before they disappear on the 18th.  This crummy weather weekend will be perfect for it.

Today I did the exercise from Using Your Inner Voice to Create a Powerful Visual Message to Yourself with Jessica Swift.  Don't be fooled by the title of it and think that I've gone off the deep end of wooey motivational-think.  This workshop was really about creating a fun lettered piece with markers.  My internal voice only provided me with some misheard lyrics from a Fontaines D.C. song. 

WASH YOUR CARDI.

Wash your cardi, wash your cardi, wash your...

Paint sort of close to the numbers

Isn't this just the most glorious thing you've ever seen?

No?  Are you sure?  Maybe you should take a closer look!

Ohhhhh, look at that adorable little kitten!

What?  Still not convinced?

Somebody worked VERY hard on this, you know!

I'm ready to put my artistic skills to work after seeing this - anybody have an unused paint by number kit?

And now...

... for something completely different.

Jumping, courtesy Philippe Halsman.

Art?

I'm a bit tired tonight and feeling a bit lazy... it's a busy week for me, but I still wanted to post some sort of Christmas joy.  I was searching for "bad Christmas art" (no quotes - I always feel as if I should put quotes around what I'm searching when I mention it, but want to specify I did not use the quotes while searching - it's a librarian thing).

ANYHOW, anyhow, anyhow...

I came across this lovely sight.

That's not art!  That's frightening!  What's wrong with you people?

Tiki Santas - that's sort of bad.  Certainly not good.

Oh no.  This is really not good.

Whooops!  Sorry ladies!

I think it's time for us to move along.

G'night!