First!

This post is somewhat of an update on my previous post.  I finally sat down and bound my little favorites art journal.  I used waxed linen thread and worked from this tutorial:  Tortagialla's Coptic tutorial.  Nice tutorial, very clear, good pictures.  I realized on my 9th of 12 gatherings, though, that I was doing my kettle stitches in the wrong direction.  So I switched for the rest and they looked a bit better.  I did have trouble with thread tension, but hey, it's not like I'm selling it or giving it to anybody else.  It's mine.  It's not consistent and it's not pretty, but it's done, and it's mine.

Not terrible for a first attempt working only from a website and not a real live teacher.  I think next time I try a coptic binding I'm going to use un-waxed thread.  The wax kind of made the thread stick to itself and everything else, which aggravated my thread tension issues.  Opening it between each gathering and wiggling it a little helped settle out the stitches along the spine, so I'm hoping that with some use, the thread will settle out more evenly.  We shall see!

Less Than Three

Before I get to the real post, I have to take a line or two to honor a hero of mine.  Davy Jones passed away today, and I owe a lot of my self-confidence to him.  Rest in peace, Davy.  You meant a lot to me.

Michelle's penultimate GPP Street Team Crusade was to showcase what we love.  I realized that I couldn't decide what to showcase, and that this would be a great opportunity to finally start a whole art journal to showcase the things I love and the things that inspire me.  My favorite things.  But, this being me, I couldn't just buy a journal or sketchbook, I had to make one.  So, with some buffered paper, book board, and my new paper cutter, I cut and folded myself a nice little text block and covers.  I plan to do a Coptic binding (my first ever, from online tutorials) so that it lays flat when it's open, so I had to cover the boards before I bind it.  So rather than just cover them, I went ahead and decorated them too.

Front cover

I haven't sewn it together yet, but when I get the chance I'm going to go ahead and take a stab at this Coptic binding thing.  Since it's just for me, I don't really have to worry about it being perfect...

Then it took me a while, but I finally decided what the first love I would showcase in my new journal would be.  Sepia tones.  They're my go-to palette, my neutrals that go with everything, my antique paper look.  And Tim Holtz's Distress Inks come in all the right shades.  Now, not having much art mojo for the last couple of months, I'm a little off my game.  But last night I managed to pull this together.  Not perfect, but it's something. 

I did the coloring on parts of the flourish with one of the new Distress Ink Pens.  Wow.  Love the pop that it provides.  Will definitely be accumulating more of those for more tone-on-tone details.  I do love me some tone-on-tone. 

Not sure what the next set of pages will be, probably an homage to the color RED.  Another favorite color.  But there will be sure to be some books, some bands, some movies, and more colors making appearances in the book of loves.  I intend for this to be an ongoing project, maybe even revisiting pages now and then, keeping everything a work in progress.  We'll see.  Stay tuned.

I Do

Mr. Pocket and I are happy to announce that as of Saturday, 7 May 2011, we are officially married.  Looking forward to many many years this way :)

So, it's been pretty busy around here in the Pocket, what with getting married and all.  And that's without having done much DIY.  You would think, being the crafty soul that I am, I would've DIYed a ton of stuff for my wedding.  But no, cooler heads prevailed and I avoided that stress.  All I did myself was, as you saw in the last post, the guest book.  I did it with lots of help from my friends in the conservation lab at work, at lunchtime and after hours.  Couldn't have done it without them.  And now I have finished pics to show you, and time in which to post them...

I got the text block from A.Fain Books on Etsy.  Such a godsend, as I do not have a board cutter or a large paper cutter.  Though I did end up cutting new boards at work, on the recommendation of my friends in the lab.  The decorative papers for the covers and end papers, as well as the book cloth for the spine, came from Paper Source.

I love this green lokta paper.

The end bands were an ordeal.  I guess I should say that figuring out the end bands was an ordeal.  I couldn't remember how to do them from last year when I bound my first book (and until now, my only book).  So between asking my friend Vicki for her notes and scouring the internet, it took me a while to find the way I had done single-color end bands before.  Once I had it figured out, though, it was a breeze.  Used silk thread from Mom, sewn over the same tape that the text block is sewn onto.

Overall, I learned one very important lesson from making the guestbook for our wedding.  I love it and I need to do more bookbinding.

Be My Guest

Brief post this week.  Been hella busy with the last minute wedding stuff.  One of those things is legitimately crafty:  I'm binding our guestbook.  Slowly.  This is all I have done so far:

It's sewn and rounded.  I still have to sew endbands, back it, and actually attach the boards.  Oh, and cover it. So it's pretty.  I can do that in 18 days, right?

Back to School

Well, my two month break is over, but I've been keeping busy with the craftiness. And I've already got an entry for Michelle's latest Crusade! A couple of things for it, actually.

Took a class with Tim Holtz this summer... Oh. My. GAWD. He's a total rockstar. I had so much fun! The class was on bookbinding and creating covers with embossed metal and of course Tim's own findings. In one afternoon, we learned a simple bookbinding stitch, metal embossing, the use of alcohol inks, and what the faun to do with all his little findings and details. This is what I took home, along with a head full of ideas:





Since coming home, I've been doing a lot more stamping and paper art. Don't have much to show yet, but I'll give you a glimpse soon... :)

I've finished Ishbel, too, finally. I had to put it down for a little while sometimes, but I got it done!



Extreme closeup!


And I've had the chance to start the much-awaited Raven Shawl!


That's just the first three colors, accomplished while I watched the Ravens vs. Jets pre-season game. Oooooh I'm so excited for football season!

And, it being Monday, it seems like a good time to show off my most recently spun yarn. Yep, I've been getting back to spinning! This is what I've done with Mountain Colors targhee in Copper Mountain:


Spun on my Traveller, chain-plied for a good stripe effect.



I've decided that targhee goes on my list of favorite fibers to spin. It might actually spin easier than merino. Definitely a good fiber to learn :)

So, more on the learning front, I'm finally taking a rare books librarianship class. It promises to be super hard, but I'm really looking forward to what I'm going to be learning this semester. It's going to cut down on my crafting time, that's for sure, but given certain financial restrictions I'll have to make a lot more Christmas presents this year, so I'll definitely be finding or making time to get some crafting in. Nevertheless, crafting must needs take a backseat to academia sometimes. We'll see how the trip goes...