Book 254 - "Peter and the Moon Trip" - Recycled Children's Book as Journal

Another kids' book. This one is just too cool--"Peter and the Moon Trip." The illustrations take me back to "See Dick Run."  They are so good I had to include a few of them in the finished book.

If you been following this blog, you know the drill on this by now. I cut the book block out of the pre-loved and slightly tatty book I slit the spine down the center and trim/even. I covered the cut edge on the covers iwth some light blue Washi tape, then punched the holes/sewing stations.

The signatures are made up of 35 sheets of Neenah 24 lb Classic Laid paper in light cream. The sheets were folded into seven sigs, then the sewing stations were punched on sigs and covers. The spine edges of the signatures were then wrapped with Washi tape--which also held on the appropriate illustration.


I decided to go back to the single-needle coptic binding on this. I think it's a bit faster and there's no getting a handful of needles mixed up. The binding is stitched with natural linen thread.

Book 213 - A Pamphlet Stitch Journal/Blank Book/Guest Book with Olive Branch

I'm excited right now because this pretty pamphlet stitch journal  made with hand-made paper and Mexican amate paper cover is the first book I've made at my brand new workbench! Solid oak, just the right height, 4 drawers, a shelf for large paper. I love it! I've had it for a while, but it's been in a very large box waiting for me to make room for it. Today I did and tonight Allen and I put it together.

I felt so good standing there being able to simply reach for any tool I needed and it was right there, available! No digging in boxes looking for it. What a concept!

OK, enough about the workbench. The book is nice too. This is almost an exact replica of a book a friend used as a guest book/good wishes book for a party she threw for me several years ago. Everyone wrote lovely thoughts in it and I still have it. This book is a very simple structure. The lusciousness of it is all about the paper. The pages are a thick, wonderful hand-made paper with leaf inclusions. It's hard to photograph the texture, but it is really yummy. The cover is a piece of wonderfully swirly Mexican amate bark paper I brought back from San Miguel. The binding is a simple pamphlet stitch with the addition of wrapping the stitching around a small branch from our olive tree at the spine. I used deep red embroidery cotton, left a longish tail at the top and threaded on a pale red bone bead as an accent.

This would make such a pretty guest book on a hall table for all your visitors to sign.

Day 197 - A Chinese Notebook with Japanese Ledger Binding

Today I've got Chinese and Japanese a bit mixed up. This long, narrow notebook is a Japanese ledger binding done with variegated ribbon. But the paper is Chinese. I bought this in Portland, Oregon's China town a few years ago and it's been sititng around waiting to become something pretty ever since. I saw it today while clearing out a box and had to finally use it.

I glued the two pieces of Chinese paper to gold-colored pearlescent card stock for extra body. I cut tan text paper to size, punched wholes in the entire stack and bound it at the top. I threaded the ribbon through some multi-colored glass beads before tying it off.

This type of binding was commonly used in Japan to keep ledgers. It's designed to hang on a hook on the wall. I can see hanging this somewhere you want to have handy access to a jotter--a place to jot down to-do lists, birthdays to remember, scribble ideas. It would add a nice touch of color to a wall.

It reminds me a bit of something I saw a lot when I lived in Holland years ago. Birthdays are really important to the Dutch. They buy a birthday calendar that is long and narrow like this and hangs on a hook. It has one page for each month with just a line for each day where you can write the name of anyone having a birthday on that date. Very often, they hang them in the bathroom, right inside the door. Well, after all, it's someplace you are going to be every day and if it's right in your face, you'll likely look at it and not forget Tante Henrika's birthday.