new books

It's been awhile, but here are some books I made recently:


Covers are chiyogami and nepalese papers and the inside covers are the matching coloured kozo; the ribbons matched as well, instead of the contrasting colours I wanted to use (so everything is very monotone-ish). The books are approximately 5" x 7".

I have more (I've been playing around with cover ideas), but I never get around to taking photos when there's enough light outside.

bookbinding II: day 1 - 3

(Sigh, Flickr is giving me all kinds of guff. I have no idea what I have done to my computer for it to hate me. Anyway...!)

Last week I was occupied by the Bookbinding II course. Six whole days! It was pretty tough. But you know how it is.

I discovered my new favourite piece of equipment: the plough. It's used to trim text blocks. I was uncharacteristically patient when using it and ended up with straight edges! (I think I cut, like, 1 page at a time, which is a bit ridiculous, but I didn't want to rip my book!)


Speaking of which... that book had a real text block. It's so nerve wracking to sew a real text block. If you make a mistake on one section you can't just swap it out, because IT'S A REAL BOOK. Well, I may or may not have made a few extra holes in it when I sewed the end bands on (real end bands! Exciting!!) Sigh.


Oh, we had an official bookbinding mascot the whole week: Paddy. She greeted us each morning (trying to sniff out food in our bags) when we arrived in the studio and was most interested in us during lunch time. Her eyes never left our food. Chocolate is not for dogs, Paddy! (Even if you look hilarious with your jaunty scarf.)

cbbag

I'm a member of cbbag now! (Well, since March, and it's a one year membership.)


I made these books during Bookbinding 1 in March (I might as well learn how to do everything again the right way):



And a couple of books I made a few days ago as gifts (case binding is great, but I'm still partial to exposed spines):

j'ai fini

(By the end of it I was almost je suis fini.)

I finally finished this skirt. I had to adjust the pattern so that it was one size smaller. I made the tab approximately the width of the waistband (just because). And I decided to go with the machine embroidery detail rather than a button (I was going to make a fabric covered button out of the lining fabric, but I love x's. Although, it was hard to line up those two rows of dense zig zag stitching...) I used an invisible zipper instead of a regular zipper (would've had to make it a concealed zipper and that's just too much work - not to mention bulky-ish.) Check out the middle pocket! I wasn't sure if I'd be able to handle all the under stitching and edge stitching and tailor's tape (since it's like two side seam pockets in one. And like a tube), but it worked. The pocket lining and tab details are my favourite parts.




Yeah!

the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

I can't believe it took me so long to finally read this book. It is fantastic! I need to read the whole trilogy (of five books).


I really like this line on page 177 for some reason.

(Also, it's funny that this book was lent to me by someone whose house is going to be "bulldozed" for highway construction. Nice!)

concerts

Remember when I used to take photos at concerts? Me either! It's been too long. A few of my feeble attempts earlier this month are below. (Mostly grainy, but what can you do.) I managed to, uh, get my camera in for the lc! concert, but that's only because I was wearing a winter coat. I don't know what I'll do when I don't have a coat! GC! promised a photo pass next time, but the kids aren't too reliable, so I'll have to think of a sneaky way to do it.

April 1st we went to see lc! at the Opera House.







The next day we went to see The Weakerthans. I didn't risk bringing my (confiscatable - is that a word?) camera to this show so I didn't get any passable photos. Boo. But it's John K being adorable, so all is right.



And look! Super cute pin we got at The John K The Weakerthans show. Yaz (and OT) would appreciate it.



The pin is on my coin purse because I can't be trusted to put pins on bags anymore. They all end up falling off :-(

paper furoshiki

My friend used a paper napkin as a furoshiki to wrap something up for me. Crazy!