26.6.13
The book I've been waiting for arrived today! John Kenn Mortensen's "Sticky Monsters" which contains almost all of his drawings of creatures which he describes as "a little window into a different world". Such a sweet little book, and although I was looking for more information on him as an artist I've accepted that the only way to do that is going to be personal contact since I can't find any more information on him anywhere. And so the research begins....
14.5.13
Third, Forth, Fifth...
Been enjoying the sketchbook making far too much... made 3 today, which all had 10 signatures instead of 7. This is one of the only things I've done for a while which hasn't stressed me out to infinity, so I have no intention of stopping anytime soon!
11.5.13
Second Sketchbook
Created another Sketchbook in the same style for my flatmate, I asked him to choose his paper for the inside and whatever pattern he wanted on the cover, and I used the coptic binding method to create this one too. Loved the choice of Beck's tube map (or graph, whatever floats your boat), and I used a green bind to match some of colours. Here is the result!
Same as the first book, this is how it began: with the holes in the cover and the signature waiting to be bound.
After some stress I got there once again! This one is much neater in terms of the binding, and the front cover is much tighter on the signatures.
The inside of the sketchbook inbetween the pages of a signature show how the binding works...
Inbetween the signatures themselves, the page open completely flat and even open at an obtuse angle, which makes these sketchbooks perfect for double page work, something I hadn't considered until I made them.
This is the inside of the book where the binding is shown in the middle of the signatures - it adds a lovely colour to the pages.
This binding stitch is beautiful, I love how there doesn't feel like any plaiting but the effect it gives is almost plait-like... ignoring the fluff-ups at the end where the cover was bound to the signatures! Practice certainly makes perfect.
Final sketchbook! I feel like if I was to do this again, I wouldn't need to consult the video because I think I've fully got the hang of it. Admittedly I usually forget what I'm doing at the end, when the front cover is being attached but this time I was merely checking I had it right.
For any DIY bookbinding projects I would highly recommend SeaLemonDIY - her YouTube channel is informative and makes even the most confusing things easy to understand - if I can do it, anyone certainly can! I think I'll be making more in the coming weeks, since it's so much fun to have the finished product.
Same as the first book, this is how it began: with the holes in the cover and the signature waiting to be bound.
After some stress I got there once again! This one is much neater in terms of the binding, and the front cover is much tighter on the signatures.
The inside of the sketchbook inbetween the pages of a signature show how the binding works...
Inbetween the signatures themselves, the page open completely flat and even open at an obtuse angle, which makes these sketchbooks perfect for double page work, something I hadn't considered until I made them.
This is the inside of the book where the binding is shown in the middle of the signatures - it adds a lovely colour to the pages.
This binding stitch is beautiful, I love how there doesn't feel like any plaiting but the effect it gives is almost plait-like... ignoring the fluff-ups at the end where the cover was bound to the signatures! Practice certainly makes perfect.
Final sketchbook! I feel like if I was to do this again, I wouldn't need to consult the video because I think I've fully got the hang of it. Admittedly I usually forget what I'm doing at the end, when the front cover is being attached but this time I was merely checking I had it right.
For any DIY bookbinding projects I would highly recommend SeaLemonDIY - her YouTube channel is informative and makes even the most confusing things easy to understand - if I can do it, anyone certainly can! I think I'll be making more in the coming weeks, since it's so much fun to have the finished product.
Sketchbook Making
I love Ruddocks, don't get me wrong. They have every single thing an artist could need and then some.. but I simply can't attach myself to their sketchbooks because they're so boring and uniform. Admittedly this is becoming a bit of a healthy addiction but I simply can't stop making sketchbooks! Created one for myself the other day, my first time using a coptic bind since my 'A Day in the News' project, and it went surprisingly well.
The cover was the simplest part to create (aside from making the signatures of paper inside...), using a piece of mountboard and a floral pattern for the cover itself, tightly glued and flattened with my laptop - anything heavy will do - to make sure it was an even covering.
Adding the inside cover cleaned up the slightly uneven edges on the inside, as well as complimenting the colours of the front... as well as being one of my favourite colours so I couldn't resist adding this in here.
The biggest dilemma was choosing which colour to bind the book, since all of these complimented the cover.. until I remembered I chose the purple for this because it matched the inside cover.
The holes for binding were created using an awl (more aptly called 'the pokey tool', in fact) and were about as even as I could get them...
Magic happened, some difficult binding happened, lots of painful finger jabbing with a needle happened, a couple of knots in the binding happened.... but I now have a lovely sketchbook which I am super proud of!
The cover was the simplest part to create (aside from making the signatures of paper inside...), using a piece of mountboard and a floral pattern for the cover itself, tightly glued and flattened with my laptop - anything heavy will do - to make sure it was an even covering.
Adding the inside cover cleaned up the slightly uneven edges on the inside, as well as complimenting the colours of the front... as well as being one of my favourite colours so I couldn't resist adding this in here.
The biggest dilemma was choosing which colour to bind the book, since all of these complimented the cover.. until I remembered I chose the purple for this because it matched the inside cover.
The holes for binding were created using an awl (more aptly called 'the pokey tool', in fact) and were about as even as I could get them...
Magic happened, some difficult binding happened, lots of painful finger jabbing with a needle happened, a couple of knots in the binding happened.... but I now have a lovely sketchbook which I am super proud of!
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