Breaking the silence

Rhonda of My Handbound Books was encouraging me last weekend to break the blogging silence, and I am now finally sitting down to do so! I really must apologize again for my lack of dedication to blogging these last few months, life has been such an exciting whirlwind with a new job, new house, and a new puppy that I just haven't had a lot of time to take it all in-let alone share it with everyone else.

I've been hard at work making lots of bright & colorful star books, which make fantastic holiday decorations!

I think one of the reasons I love making these stars so much is I love the paper I have been using to make them-Lokta- Lokta is a handmade traditional paper of Nepal. Lokta is a native fiber which is a very long and has remarkable strength. Each batch is hand dyed and normally a sheet has a different color from each side making each star unique. Lokta is sustainably harvested & has no impact on the forest eco system of Nepal. I could go on and on about the paper, but I can't tell you how happy it made me to buy several sheets in all the colors they had! I've been slicing them up and making lots of different color combination's.

There is new section in my Etsy store with an ever growing collection of star books. The star book craze came about because I was looking for something special to send for my contribution for the BEST Holiday Book Event. I was looking through my example book box and was just delighted when I found the one of these I first made in June.

Speaking of the BEST Holiday Book Event it is being held Nov 27th - Dec 5th.
If you purchase books from participating shops during this time, you have a chance to win prizes from BEST team members and gift certificates to participating shops!
A drawing will be held with the winners announced December 7th on the BEST Team Blog.

For every $10 you spend in participating shops, between Nov 27th - Dec 5th your name will be added to the drawing. For example, if you purchase something for $50 your name goes in 5 times! If you put "BEST Holiday" in the note to seller box then you can have an extra ticket in the drawing!
Here is a list of the participating shops:

ParksideHarmony

NatalieAsIs

LadyArtisan

Kiley's Handmade Books

Flurrsprite

OliveArt

UsefulBooks

BoomBoxBindery

KarleighJae

CinderLisaDesign

MyHandboundBooks

notuboc

BadonHill

LizzieMade

Anticovalore

PrairiePeasant

BooksByStephen

BookgirlsStudio

AnagramForInk

WeeBindery

Buechertiger

BookWraps
Re:Paper

Three Gift baskets, each with 9 great prizes, will be given to three winners! Click the picture below to see all of the prizes. The separate baskets will be highlighted in three different posts on Monday-Wednesday.

You could also win one of two $30 Gift Certificates to the participating shops above!

Wow

As the title of this post says, wow.... I can't believe it's been a month since I've last posted it really feels like it was just a few days ago! Thanks to everyone who is still with me, I am going to try to get back on a once a week schedule.

While I haven't been around online I have been working away in my studio and at my day job. Things in both the studio and my day job have been very exciting lately. As I think most of you know I work for Luna & Larrys Coconut Bliss and things have been a buzz with our Night of Bliss preparations-which in retrospect I feel terrible for not telling all of you about.....
If you live in Eugene you should clear your calendar for Novermber 7th to attend our local Night of Bliss event, because we have a rocking party planned. Actually it's a community benefit/party with endless Coconut Bliss Sundaes, so if you are in the Eugene area be sure to spend the evening with us from 5-9pm enjoying some Bliss and helping out some great people at the same time!
In other work related news you follow my Twitter feed you may notice from time to time that there is a tweet in there that probably should have gone out by @lunaandlarrys instead of me. One of the many reasons I have one of the best jobs in the world is that I get to work from home a few hours a day while my puppy grows up and gets used to being alone for long periods of time. So please bear with me while I get used to having two accounts on my home tweetdeck, I promise to be better about it now that I'm over the flu :)



Back to the studio, the last few months has found me working on an order of 50 wedding dvd folio's for Rich & Alyssa of Nickle City Studio & a smaller order of 10 for Leah of Leah Lariccia Photography. The photo on this post shows the folio's I made for Leah. They are an elegant black silk case with a translucent white paper that has a silver flower and vine pattern on them. I love these folio's to me they feel like a timeless idea of what a wedding was to me when I was a little girl.

I promise to get back on a more regular schedule and to have pictures of Rich & Alyssa's folio's in the next post!

Folders

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! I had a great day with my toes in the sand :)

As I had said in my last post I got a new teflon folder from Dennis Rudd, it is the boxmakers tool that he sells. I really enjoyed the one box I made and am hoping that having the new folder will motivate me to make some more.This is a picture of all the folders in my possession as of now; the three cream colored tools facing the white tools are my actual bone folders and the white ones are my teflon folders.
The bone folders I purchased at various craft & hobby stores in Eugene & Portland. I had just these three until about 2 months ago and love each for different purposes. The one in the middle is my favorite for scoring, it has a very fine sharp edge on the front of it. I used it to make all the little boxes for my wedding and took a chunk of out it. I can't remember where I found it and thus far have been unable to replace it.
The teflon folders I am still honestly getting used to! They don't feel anything like a real bone folder, they are much slicker and take some wrangling for me to hold on to. The closer of the two tools I purchased from Talas and was the first in my collection. I've come to love it for smoothing out the covers on the folio's after I've cut the slots for the ribbon. The advantage of a teflon over a bone folder is that it doesn't leave shiny marks on your paper or book cloth like a bone folder will.
While I'm still getting used to the teflon I think it time it will become my preferred tool because it really doesn't leave a mark at all. I have plans to purchase a mircospatula from Dennis Rudd to add to my collection very soon.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, it's that time of year again :)I always love logging on to Etsy and seeing that at the top!
Actually it's not yet my Birthday here in Oregon, t-minus one hour- however it is in Etsy Standard Time (NY) so I'll take it :)

I opened one of my birthday presents early this year because it got here and I knew what it was, it's a new teflon folder from Dennis Rudd, which I meant to take pictures to share with you today but by the time the hubster and I got the photography box built it was time to go to MECCA for the Object Afterlife Challenge reception. I arrived there to fantastic news that my piece had sold at the Eugene Celebration! Which is excellent pre-birthday news, I hope I get to meet the new owner at the Bring opening.

Tomorrow includes breakfast plans, a trip to the coast for some Agate hunting and puppy shenanigans. This will be her first trip to the coast so I expect a sandy happy puppy, lots of plenty towels will be packed :)
After we get home we'll be meeting up with friends for dinner and a few cocktails.

I promise to check back in later this week with lots of pictures for you! I just sent the first round of folio's to Nickel City Studio and I can't wait to share them with you. After a long day in the studio another 8 folio's are in the press as we speak, however it's currently raining so I think they'll have to stay until Monday just to be safe.

Celebration!

The Eugene Celebration is this weekend and while I don't think I'll make it this weekend (we have a vet visit Saturday) I will be there in spirit! I have a book in the first annual MECCA Object Afterlife Challenge which will be on display at the old MECCA location for the Celebration this weekend, after that it will be at the spiffy new MECCA location and then in October it moves to Bring! The opening of the show will be at Bring on October 10th if anyone local wants to stop by and chat with me.


This book was really a challenge for me, I don't often thing of my self as an artist and almost never put content in a book. The materials also really threw me for a loop for a long time, I received a large plastic burlap like bag, some plastic packaging, and a bunch of the tear off ends of tractor feed paper. I ended up using all but the tractor feed pieces, I wanted to use them to decorate the covers with but it made the book way to busy so I went with a wonder scrap of green Bugra paper and earth tones for the confetti.


The inside pages are the bag cut up and then I glued scraps of torn paper on to the pages in hopes that someone will use the book for an altered art journal. I'll be honest that while I'm intrigued by the idea I just don't have the time right now to start. Hopefully in a year when Penny grows up a bit, right now she's very demanding of all most all of mom's free time :)

Thanks for sticking around!

I would like to start by saying thank you for all the well wish about my poor thumb! I'm finally almost all the way healed, I have a nice new pink patch of skin that is about the size of a dime on my thumb and is still super sensitive!
I would also like to say thank you for sticking around! I haven't been a very active poster over the course of this summer but it's been a really busy summer!
We moved, I had my first book binding accident, I got called in for jury duty & assigned to a jury, I've started working for a second awesome local company, I've got some really awesome folio orders on the line, and I'm now training a dog on top of it all.

Let's start with the dog first, she's an adorable Red Heeler Jack Russell mix and her name is Penny.
She is about the cutest thing ever and we couldn't say no when we were asked to bring her into our life. We don't know why but we are her 4th family and are happy to give her a place to call home.

I'm having a great time working with 3 photographers right now designing folio's for them, the first and largest order is for Nickel City Studio. We chose a green color that isn't as bright green as their logo for the cloth and a fun white cloth for the spine that almost a wood grain pattern to it. The paper I found to coordinate with it couldn't have been a better match and so far I'm totally in love with it. It's a handmade hand silk screened Indian paper with what's called a basket weave pattern on it. I have a little teaser shot here to show you;

The picture isn't the greatest and I've realized that since moving I need to break down and build a light box. Our house has great windows that let in lots of light, just not in the right places or angles for photography. As much as I hated our old skinny kitchen I do miss the great lighting it had for photography. Also while that stack of paper looks big, it was bigger! I got about 30 of the pockets folded when I realized I should take a picture of the huge stack of paper.

Hopefully in the coming weeks I'll be a lot better about posting on a regular basis again. Once I figure out some lighting in the house I promise to have a tutorial up on how to make Kumihimo cord so stick around for that!

Hey look, it's a book!

I'm feeling rather accomplished this evening, as I've managed to complete a book up to my standards without using my left thumb! As I'm left handed this started out as quite a challenge but after the first signature or two I was almost sewing at normal speed.
I really like this sketchbook-It's 8.5"x10.5" which I think is the largest leather book I've made to date. Secondly I love the buttons! They came from the customer & are vintage WW2 buttons, they come down the page in a wave with the natural curve fo the edge of the hide. It looks fantastic and sadly I don't have a good picture of it. I lost the fantastic lighting in my old kitchen & had I haven't gotten a light box built yet...

Thanks for all the well wishes about my poor thumb! I'm a slow healer but so far I'm only about a day behind schedule on the after care sheet they gave me so hopefully I'll be able to get my stitches out next week and get started on the tutorial I keep promising!

In other news this weekend I'll be at Sushi! Sake! Sumo! in PDX serving Coconut Bliss. I'm really excited about going, because well I don't like cancer! It's a really run fundraiser for the American Cancer Society and hopefully I'll have time to slip into a sumo suit!

Also going on this weekend is the Bookbinding Team's summer BBQ!

Summer is winding down in some places and a distant hope in others, but members of the Etsy Bookbinding Street Team are ready to celebrate the hottest season by hosting a Virtual BBQ Scavenger Hunt. Next weekend starting Saturday, August 1, through Monday, August 3, browse participating shops and locate hidden photos of items associated with the venerable tradition of the summer backyard barbecue. Not sure what that means? No worries! We'll provide a list of items so you'll know exactly what you're looking for. Find them all and enter to win a $30 gift certificate good at any participating shop. AND win bonus chances to win with each item purchased from participating shops during the hunt!

Stop by the BEST Blog Friday, July 31, for a list of participating shops and complete details. Just follow the smoke!