Deckle Edge Bindery

The bonefolder 2012 R.I.P

2012-01-13T16:00:00.000-08:00

It was with mixed feelings that Peter Verheyen informed me that while a recent article I had written on my work was included in the latest "bonefolder" online magazine, it would actually be the last issue.
There are some 14 issues, covering many aspects of bookbinding, and with many how-to demos from notable book artists like Tim Ely.
I am downloading each issue and will be rebinding them for inclusion in the PDB reference library.
Who knows what will come next to take it's place.

The last issue includes an article written by yours truly "A Bookbinder's Gamble", chronicling the last 6 years of "The Box Challenge", aswell as some other great articles.

get it here

Leather Journals with tea-stained pages

2012-01-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2012, and here's to another year full of books and book-related things everywhere!!

I have another batch of leather journals made with tea-stained pages. Each has a snug tab closure, and are bound onto thongs that create the gorgeous spine bands.

Available on Etsy, burgundy and honey are listed now - the other colours are also available, I just need more photographs of them - and it's too cold outside today!

basic techniques for printing on goatskin

2011-12-27T17:38:00.000-08:00

This post first appeared on the DBOA blog earlier this year, I am reposting it for the members of this blog.

Out of necessity in 2008-09, I worked hard on transforming the regular goatskin onlays I was using to decorate my boxes. I had already been working on the boxes for 3 years, and after completing a lot of regular tooled onlays, I needed to start using new techniques in order to keep the work fresh, and keep both myself and the client interested. I had done some stamped onlays, but limited the use of these for children's books, and other volumes that had distinct jacket designs. As in the set of C.S. Lewis, and boxes like the signed first edition of Camus' La Peste. However, I tend to avoid the use of plates where possible, for although they do save time and make the design process easier, they can give a box a generic machine made look. I had done lacunose on a box a few times, but that can be time consuming, and certainly not efficient when working on an edition. I needed a more inventive, artistic method to transfer an image onto goatskin, or to find new ways to work or transform the onlays.

It was with this in mind that I began printing on goatskin, by first carving images into blocks of wood. I took some fair goat, dyed it, inked up the blocks, and pressed them onto the pre-pared skins. The first question was, "should I pare the skins first or after printing?". The next issue to overcome was the exact method of pressing in the studio, without the use of either a table-top adana, or any other hand-cranked letterpress machine, which I would later employ to great effect.

I experimented at first with hand techniques similar to those used in Japanese wood-block printing, but found it difficult to get enough pressure. Lastly, resorting to the use of a nipping press. You can get good results using a nipping press, but it requires a deft touch. The problem with using a nipping press is that all the pressure is exerted on all points of the block at the same time, which can lead to bad bleeding. Using a cylinder is much more preferable for this reason, although even with a cylinder press its possible to bleed an image with either too much ink, or too much pressure. If you are going to try this yourself, care must be taken not to smudge away the image while pasting onto the surface. The method of pressing, and the fact that the onlay is already pared to 0.10 microns, means that the image tends to be more delicate.

I used this method quite well in Cormac Mcarthy's "Child Of God, and Budd Schulberg's"Waterfront", and some others, however having had some success with rudimentary printing on goat, decided it warranted using more complex methods.

In the next development, I made regular polymer plates (Box-Car Press), for use on a hand-cranked Vandercook cylinder press. By"regular", I mean a plate that has a positive and negative printable area. Images from distinctive jacket designs were relayed to the plate maker. With the help of friend and print artist Mindy Beloff (Intima Press)we set them up on her Vandercook. I brought both pared fair goat, and un-pared goat, and it became clear right away that we were going to get much better results more easily with the unpared goat. I need not have been concerned about the paring, as with enough skill and enough sharp blades, onlays could be comfortably pared down to .10 - 0.12 microns on the scharfix without stretching and distorting the images...mind you, it doesnt hurt to have a few spares!!!

The next step was to see if the half-tone polymer plates I had used in the reproduction of some famous civil war photography for the endpapers of a binding of Walt Whitman's "Wrenching Times", which I was working on in 2009, would print well enough on goatskin. They did, heres a tip - ink up the plate 5-6 times before rolling over the with the goat. The results were very impressive, and a long way from the rudimentary wood block printed onlays. The half-tone plate works using a seires of small dots allowing for a variety of tones in the image, much the way older printing technologies have worked. What about running the skins throught the scharfix. No problem!, again no stretch, but always advisable to have spares. It is still possible to rub the ink off by over pasting the onlays, and if the onlay is too thin, so caution must always be heeded, but the onlays were much more stable than the wood block printed onlays of before.

This technique provided me with opportunity to transform the images, whether by dyeing, distorting, tooling. Its a good way to add an element to a design without too much hand tooling, but using photography printed by half-tone on goatskin can get old very quickly, if its over used , or not used in combination with other techniques, or it is not essential to the overall atmosphere of the design. In the case of the binding of "Wrencing Times", the images used not only are some of the first ever photographs to be taken in history, and some of the most expressive and famous images of the civil war era, they go well with gaylord's wood engravings inside the book. The images though, have not been used without some element of transformation, ie , they have been deliberated distorted by colouring over them, in the hope of giving them more subtlety, and have been surrounded by broken surfaces of gold leaf, to give an atmosphere of a faded, empty, and perhaps forgotten glory.

The Latest method for printing on goatskin I have used (october 2011), is quick, easy, and very effective.

Photo-transfer, or off-set printing on animal skins for bookbinding is nothing new, but the methods I have used before in combination with acetone were in no way as effective as this last method. You do not need plates, a vandercook or proofing press, inks, or any other solvents. It is a very basic method, rudimentary, and possibly not the most tidy, or elegant method out there.....but it does work, and work well. Take an image, remembering to reverse it before printing on a high quality printer, or make a xerox copy - colour or black+white. Cover the image to be transfered with a layer of liquitex matte medium and press. If you are carfeull enough you should be able to remove the paper after drying using water and a piece of cotton. If you are too aggressive you can break the polymer bond, leaving craters, so take your time and do it in stages. This method is good for inlays or for parts of the cover that do not require movement...such as the joints and turn-ins.....as the surface will break, and so too the image....The images used for a box made for Woody Guthrie's own copy of "American Folksong", are over 12"x9" large, and the transfer is of a very good quality black and white, managing to capture all tones light to dark.

This last technique has great potential for making endpapers, doublures, or for use in covers as part of more complex collage work.

My experiments with printing on goatskin, and transforming goatskin in general will continue, and I'm sure there are many more techniques out there I could put to good use.

2012 - the year of the dragon

2011-12-26T12:53:00.000-08:00

celebrating the coming year of the dragon with a new web site

check it out

all the best for 2012
g

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T16:00:00.000-08:00

Usually I make a Christmas-themed book each year - you can see a few from previous years: 2010 and 2009 and 2008 and 2007. I had great aspirations for another book this year, but somehow, I didn't have enough time. The only festive books I made were these little Christmas pamphlet notebooks.

Nonetheless, Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it, and Happy Holidays to everyone who celebrates anything at any time of year!

Journals with Steampunk Attitude

2011-12-16T09:09:00.000-08:00

I did some new Steampunk-inspired journals using vintage and decorative elements embedded in the covers. They were for a recent sale where the theme was Gothic, Medieval, Fantasy and Steampunk handcrafted work. My favorites:

And they all had some vintage train tickets on the inside, and paper with aged edges:

Only one of this style is still available - which can now be purchased through my Etsy shop.

2012 Weekly Planners in so many colours

2011-12-09T07:38:00.000-08:00

My 2012 Weekly Planners are ready to go, in several different colours of leather. Or if your favorite colour isn't shown, just ask, I might be able to do a custom planner for you! Available on Etsy.

Also, if you have purchased a planner from me in the past and you are interested in having just the calendar replaced - contact me, I can do that too (pertelote@ns.sympatico.ca).

Leather Journals for Witherstone Gallery

2011-11-19T18:32:00.000-08:00

A few blank journals made recently, now available at Witherstone Gallery in Lunenburg. All are full leather bindings, with raised images on the front covers.

It's That Time of Year

2011-11-17T06:47:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year, for buying and selling handmade goods at local craft markets. It started last weekend when I spent a couple days in Truro at the NSAC Festive Craft Market. It was a great weekend, in spite of the flooding!

If you missed me at that one, I have a few other events coming up:

Halifax Crafters Yultide Cheer Winter Market, December 3 & 4
Olympic Centre, Hunter Street, Halifax

Have Yourself a Gothic Little Christmas
December 3 & 4
Maritime Hall at The Forum, Windsor Street, Halifax

A Dickens of a Show, sponsored by Witherstone Gallery
December 10 & 11
St Johns Parrish Hall, Cumberland St, Lunenburg

Please stop by to say 'Hi' if you find yourself at any of these events.

New Poppytalk Handmade!

2011-11-09T06:51:00.000-08:00

The new Poppytalk Handmade pre-holiday market just launched earlier this week. My virtual table is all set up. Check it out, and all it's handmade goodness. It is time, after all, to be checking off some items from your holiday shopping list!

decklededgebindery

2011-11-07T08:23:00.001-08:00

welcome fellow friends from all around the world.

Mini Book Photo Tutorial

2011-11-06T06:30:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I'm new to the blog, my name is Ruth Bleakley and I have been bookbinding since 2002 (has it been that long already?). I love brightly colored designs and work with Japanese paper to make a lot of yuzen and/or chiyogami journals - you may have also seen my illustrated miniature books on Etsy. I also make nautical wedding invitations and stationery under the name Concertina Press.

But enough about me - here's a tutorial I made about miniature accordion books that I thought you might enjoy, republished from my bookbinding blog.

I figure that many of you, since this is a bookbinding blog, will be able to follow along, but if you'd like written directions, you can visit my original minibook tutorial post.

Some notes: the boards I used were scraps from the back of a notepad - I tested them with my PH pen to see if they were neutral, and then went ahead. the paper is 8.5x11 (regular US letter size) cut into strips in the short direction, I believe they are 1.5"x8.5", grain short (so the accordion folds more easily) but it's been a while. The glue I used is PVA.

Ruth is also on Pinterest, Twitter and Flickr.

Fall Swap: MakingMyRent

2011-11-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

This mini coptic-stitched journal goes along with my fairytale themed series and features scenes from "Cinderella" on eachoutside cover. On the inside, are black Graham Owen's handmade black paperendpages and 180 pages of Strathmore sketching paper. I used waxed brown linento sew it up and the final journal measures approximately 3 1/8 inches tall, 21/2 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. --Amber of MakingMyRent

MakingMyRent's handmade journals always made with love are in her shop here.

Fall Swap: roundtheworldin80pgs

2011-11-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

This address book is covered in a red paper withgold coins on it, from Nepal. It is a one of a kind book, as are all my books.It was bound using a traditional French stitch, and headbands were added to eachend of the spine. There is enough room for 260 entries in this book, with spacefor name, address, phone number, email address with a clear division betweeneach entry. --Beth of roundtheworldin80pages

Beth's one of a kind items with papers from around the globe can be found in her shop here: roundtheworldin80pages.

flickr friday - ORANGE

2011-11-04T18:00:00.000-07:00

Autumn is in full swing here. The leaves turned bright red and yellow and orange and now most of those leaves are on the ground and the trees are looking rather bare. It is the fabulous orange colours of Fall, though, that inspire today's Flickr Friday post. You can follow the link to see all the photos that I have on Flickr tagged with ORANGE, but here is a sample, randomly selected using the Flickr badge tool:www.flickr.com

Fall Swap: CamilleRiner

2011-11-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

I am happy to share one of my newest books with Cindy entitled, "Sky of Blue; Sea of Green." The image in this book is of a person joyfully swimming with a large school of silver fish. I wanted to communicate awe, peace and the idea of belonging to something larger than yourself. The relief print was carved and hand printed on my press, scanned and then digitally collaged with images of the sea. The poem reads: "We meet without words, in the deep green memories of the sea. Between the waves we rise in currents of silver reflections. We are at peace, a fallen tear returned home, pressed under the bright blue forgiveness of the sky." This nested accordion book has a blue and green cross dyed book cloth cover and a digital print collage slipcase and measures 4" high and approximately 9" wide when opened. I used metallic threads through the accordion folds to suggest the flicker and glint of a moving school of fish. Each book is signed. --Camille Riner

Camille's handmade books and notecards are in her shop here.

Fall Swap: UsefulBooks

2011-11-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

I sent Lisa one of my soft-cover books made from painted layers of kraft paper and Tyvek. The cover is embellished with a crow cut from a star chart out of an old book and a scrap of marbled paper left from a larger project. The crow has a little key charm dangling from his beak. He's clearly up to no good.

The front cover wraps around the the text block so it won't get ruffled if you throw it in your bag. The pages are heavily stained with strong tea so that each one provides a slightly unique surface for writing or art. It's all stitched together with a criss-cross long stitch which provides a little interest on the spine. The closure is make from an African trade bead and waxed Irish linen thread. --Cindy of UsefulBooks

Cindy's eco-friendly and cruelty-free handmade books and journals can be found in her shop here.

Fall Swap: BlueRoofDesigns

2011-11-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

Title: Slinky

Description: The spark that gotme going with this book was that I wanted to make something that was both smalland large. I decided to try a book with small covers and lots of pages.

The covers measure2.125" x 2.25". The book is 4" thick, has 61 signatures, and atotal of 488 pages - this set the record for the most signatures I'veever bound into a book. It took about 3.5 hours to sew it. The two papers usedfor the pages are manufactured by one of my favorite vendors, the French PaperCompany - Glo-Tone Shocking Green and Pop-Tone Black Licorice.

When choosing a coverpaper, I was immediately drawn to a textured black and lime green python print- I love its vibrancy. The pattern on the paper inspired the binding, avariation of the double needle Coptic stitch.

When you hold one ofthe covers in each hand, the pages move back and forth, much like a Slinky -this inspired the name. It seemed appropriate for both its movement and itssnakelike appearance. --Elissa of BlueRoofDesigns

BlueRoofDesign's handmade journals, photo albums and guestbooks can be seen here.

Fall Swap: MRsCHADT

2011-11-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

My swap book is titled"Grateful." This little journal is the perfect size to carry around and keep note of allthose things we're grateful for. When times seem bleak, this journal is a bestfriend with cherished thoughts and memories waiting to chase the ungratefulbleak thoughts of a bad day away.

It's my first attempt at a paperback coptic stitch journal. I wanted to keep itsimple, so I stamped the cover design and added a tab. The inside pages stickout 1/4" beyond the cover, I made it that way on purpose, because everyonce in a while we find ourselves a little short and need reminding that nothingis truly ever perfect. We just need to be grateful for who we are. :) --Suzy of MRsCHADT

MRsCHADT's albums, guestbooks, journals and more can be purchased in her shop.

Fall Swap: Veterok

2011-11-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

This was my first time participating in the book swap.Since it's October, I decided to make a classic hardcover sketchbook with a bitof seasonal creepy twist. The book is sized 15.5 x 11 cm (approximatelypostcard size), with pages of cream coloured Canson Mi-Teintes drawing paper.The headbands are sewn with black and ivory white buttonhole silk on a leathercore. For the cover, I used two vintage portraits that I was gifted with acouple of years ago. The portraits are glued and then sewn on the bookclothwhich I have dyed in shades of rusty orange and turned upside down to revealthe crumpled texture of the backing paper. I couldn't resist doing someadditional smudging with ink.

This design is much like the ones that I sell in my Etsyshop, and I hope PrairiePeasant will find it useful, either as a sketchbook oras a journal for daily activities and observations. --Elina of Veterok

Veterok's handbound books and journals from one artist to others are in her shop here.

Fall Swap: CinderLisaDesign

2011-11-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

This journal is oneof my softcover, fabric journals. The cover is made of felt and covered withtwo fabrics pieced together: a fine cotton batik in a blue, floral print withshades of pink, green and purple, and a bright yellow cotton with a layeredprint of leaves and tree branches. The inside is lined in a soft green Modaprint. I like to think of this as a "night and day" journal.

This journal is long-stitched and with the stitches puckered, and features acrocheted wraparound closure with an oblong button secured by a loop. The pagesare a recycled cardstock and there are 48 sheets. -- Lisa of CinderLisaDesigns

CinderLisaDesigns' shop full of paper and string and magical things can be found here.

Fall Swap: PrairiePeasant

2011-11-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

I was inspiredby the beautiful colours of fall for this book swap. My book is a fabricsoftcover book made from cotton quilting fabric interfaced forstiffness. The inside is filled with lovely handmade paper with grasstrimmings in it, made by a local Winnipeg paper company called BotanicalPaperworks. This book is bound with cotton embroidery floss in a longstitchbinding and fastened with a wooden button. -- Laura of PrairiePeasant

Laura's ecofriendly journals, cards and envelopes are in her shop.

Fall Swap Preview

2011-11-01T07:06:00.000-07:00

Treasury Time

2011-10-30T18:16:00.000-07:00

'Books for the Dark Night Ahead!' by PrairiePeasant

Boo-tiful books from the Bookbinding Etsy Street Team!

Accordion Folder XX... nauli $79.00	Jack the Halloweeni... PurplebeanBind... $18.00	Remembering. Book n... anticovalore $35.00	Halloween Set of Th... CinderLisaDesi... $10.00
Custom Steampunk Jo... LadyArtisan $225.00	Black Embossed Leat... boundbyhand $29.00	Blizzard Book with ... marcadeartspre... $32.00	Space Invaders Geek... DarkfireWorks $13.00
Vampire Fangs - Bla... buechertiger $37.64	Dates to Remember B... KandiceInWonde... $50.00	Skulls Journal OliveArt $35.00	Crimean harvest - m... veterok $28.00
Hand Bound Journal ... Baghy $42.00	Halloween Spiders M... LizzieMade $10.00	Handmade Journal Re... ElisCooke $49.00	Coptic Bound Journa... cathydurso $26.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

The Box Challenge - Woody Guthrie

2011-10-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

It seems appropriate timing given the current climate, that the last two of my designs dealt with Huey Long, the populist politician, and now Woody Guthrie, who once said famously when accused of being a red..."I dont know about any reds, but I been in the red all my life..."

Politics aside, it is becoming clear the last few years that the most valuable tool in the bindery, apart from the scharfix, has been the large lightbox, found on the street some years ago, close to our first shop in Chelsea. An unbelievable find thanks to PDB CEO Denise Dovey.

I use it to trace patterns and images to make stencils for airbrushing, patterns for tooling and onlaying, to prepare designs using printed goatskins, tracing designs onto templates, and also now, in the production of off-set printed goatskin, and photo-transfer.

Now photo-transfer is nothing new, I first did some at LCP a decade ago, using acetone - but I never got results like this. The latest discovery in printing on goatskin, is quick, easy, and effective...and you dont need to use any plates, you dont need a vandercook, or any toxic chemicals. Its not a new technique, but it works well for goatskin, and has unlimited possibilities when it comes to constructing a cover design based on collage and used with other techniques.

The photo on the front board is from the LOC digital archive, and a famous picture taken possibly by Dorothea Lange(not sure), blown up, cropped, and manipulated in photoshop - sharpening contrast and exposure will ensure a good print. The photo on the back is taken from the opening shot of Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" which I found fitting to use considering Woody's song about Tom Joad, included in the book "American Folksong", the box for which houses Guthrie's own copy.(that's tom in the distance)When I think of American Folk in that era, I see baptists, hobos, blue jeans, riding the rails, windmills, dirt crossroads, and yes, clearly telegraph poles.

If I had been making this design for myself, I would have completed the design with rows of stormtrooper police, and sprayed anarchist signs all over it, giving it a topical and menacing look, a nod to Guthrie's own politics - "This machine kills fascists"....but its not, and I think using the pictures evokes Guthrie's era, and a sense of american folk, with a much more subtle flavour.

The box was finished with tooled outlines of images of Guthrie, which i decided to keep to the side, so as not to distract from the image. I also decided to just leave it there. It is lettered down the spine as it is a rather large and narrow box.

Printing in Kentville

2011-10-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned, the bookbinding workshop was part of the annual Wayzgoose at Gaspereau Press. They are primarily concerned with printing, of course, and following the workshop there was an open house at their shop. They had several presses functioning and were allowing visitors to print keepsake posters and such.

Wood engraver, George Walker was visiting and helping visitors print a poster using this incredible 1830s Planten press. First of all, we had the poster's text printed on a Vandercook in another room. Then we brought the poster to George and he helped us print Marshall's picture in the middle - from one of George's wood block carvings.

George Walker operating the press
And my finished poster, here on the right, with the wood carving printed in the middle. George Walker is a fabulous wood engraver. There were many of his works on display and he also did an illustrated talk in the evening about printmaking.

They were also helping visitors to make little notebooks with our names on them. First we cast our name in lead. This is done on a Ludlow Type Caster - very old and very big, but very effective machine! I was at the Wayzgoose last year too and they cast my son's name and printed it on little cards. Great idea this year to take it a step farther.

So as you can see, we used that lead cast (a slug, is it called a slug?) on a Parlor Press to print the notebook cover and then it was stitched into a quick pamphlet.

The offset printer was also running, printing off posters for people. They were also making paper during this event. They have a small Hollander beater and they were beating denim jeans to make the pulp and pulling sheets of gorgeous blue paper. At first the entire facility doesn't seem very big, but they had a lot of things happening on Saturday afternoon! Many of their books were on display, including those with George Walker's gorgeous wood engravings. They also had their annual offcut paper sale... so, of course, I stocked up.

Bookbinding workshop in Kentville

2011-10-23T05:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Gaspereau Press held their 12th annual Wayzgoose in Kentville, Nova Scotia. As part of the event, they were offering a bookbinding workshop with Ruth Legge, a local conservator and bookbinder who I'd heard of but never met. I was looking forward to meeting her and taking part in the class. So I left home early and drove to Kentville for a 9am start.

It was a 10-person workshop, just the right size. Ruth provided a kit for each person, with pre-cut materials. This is a great time-saver, of course, when someone else does all that fiddly work in advance! We each made a blank book, with a basic case binding structure. Mine has six signatures sewn with a French link stitch and kettle stitch, sewn without supports. And, although I've done a tonne of case bindings over the years, I still learned many things from Ruth.

My finished book
First of all, I don't think I'd ever made a case binding with a paper spine before. She also showed me a new way of turning in corners, very simple and effective. The way she planned the placement of the cover boards and spine liner onto the spine covering, also different and very effective. She quickly mentioned her method of making wheat paste - which included an extra step that I'm going to try next time. I also learned about a Quebec paper marbler, Lucie Lapierre, whose marbled papers we were using on our books. There were a number of other little tidbits that I picked up as well; all great information. It was perfect way to spend the morning!

Everyone's books in the press

Unfinished Project #3

2011-10-18T18:53:00.000-07:00

This unfinished project turned into 14 books. Several months ago I started to make these. I prepared all the pages and then got busy with orders and other projects and all those prepared pages were moved onto the shelf of unfinished projects. But here they are, finally.

Fourteen small hardcover journals with mixed papers for the pages. Each book is colour coordinated, so the purple book has a mixture of papers that includes lots of purple, and the blue book has a mixture of papers that includes lots of blue, etc. You get the idea. And I decided to use Japanese Chiyogami on all the covers. Most of the spines are book cloth, but a few are actually leather. Hardcover pamphlet structure; I love making these.

It will take a while to photograph each book individually for Etsy, but I did get a couple of them added to my shop today.

The Giveaway Winner!

2011-10-16T06:43:00.000-07:00

Thank you, everyone, who left a comment for the Thanksgiving Giveaway. There were 110 comments! I can't tell where everyone is from, but just from the comments that included their location, I can see that I had comments from 9 different countries! Including Canada, USA, Denmark, India, Spain, Greece, UK, Belgium, and Netherlands - and there were probably people from other countries who didn't identify their location. I'm so glad that this little bit of Canadian Thanksgiving could be shared with so many people from all over the world.

Even more remarkable... the randomly selected winner (commment #9) lives right here in Nova Scotia, the same Canadian province as me. How unlikely is that?!

To select the winner, I used a random number generator at random.org.

So, congratulations to Nancy! Your new monthly planner will be en route tomorrow morning.

Unfinished Project #2

2011-10-12T19:07:00.000-07:00

Several months ago, I stained a LOT of paper with tea. I had enough to make ten journals. So I sewed all the textblocks and then rounded and backed all of them. I started on the covers and finished seven then ran out of the leather I was using for the covers. So the three extra textblocks were put on the shelf of unfinished projects to be dealt with later.

Now they are finished! Not the same as the first seven since my cover material changed, but these turned out nice, nonetheless.

As usual, available on Etsy.
Another unfinished project is finished!
I've already started working on the next one.

Unfinished Project #1

2011-10-10T07:56:00.000-07:00

I have shelves full of unfinished projects! Sound familiar? With a bit of extra time this weekend, I decided to finish some of them.

About a year ago, I made several books for someone who needed them to be a particular size and style. They all had plain covers made from Saint-Armand paper - here's a stack of the blue ones from that project:

There were also some done in red, navy, brown, and green.

While I was making these books, I made three covers that were the wrong size. Remember, measure twice, cut once! It's good advice. If I'd been more careful, I wouldn't have had three covers that didn't fit the contents. But - I did. I laid the extra covers on the shelf with the intention of using them for something... later. Later finally happened. It was awkward getting started, since normally I made the textblock first and then make a cover to fit it. This time, I was working from the other direction - the covers were ready and I had to make a textblock to fit into them.

The extra covers have been transformed into three blank notebooks, and the plain covers have been spiced up with some of my hand-marbled shipping tags and labels. The covers are made with turn-ins so they are quite strong. The binding on these notebooks is the "longstitch through a slotted cover" sewing.

Available on Etsy, of course.
One unfinished project finished... many more to go.

Happy Thanksgiving - Giveaway!

2011-10-08T11:10:00.000-07:00

It's Thanksgiving in Canada this weekend! So Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canucks. We get to eat turkey and pie and have an extra day off from work and school. Woohoo! AND - I'm adding another bit of fun by giving away this "Acadmic Planner"!

This is the last of the Academic planners that I made this year. It is a monthly format calendar, so there is a two-page spread for each month. It is set up for the current academic year - so it started in July 2011 and ends next August 2012. It also has lots of blank pages for notes, and a pocket at the back, a ribbon bookmark, and standard reference pages as found in most such calendars. It is handbound using a longstitch binding and the cover is a really nice brown cowhide leather.

I will have a draw to pick a winner for this amazing prize! If you would like to get your name into the draw for a chance to win - you must leave me a comment here and either: tell me what you think is the best thing in My Etsy Shop right now! OR tell me something fun about your Thanksgiving celebrations (this is not just for those celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving - this giveaway is open to everyone, everywhere).

Leave your comments before the end of day Thursday, October 13th. I'll draw the winner on Friday, October 14th.

Boston GBW Standards

2011-10-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

Denise and I are in Boston this weekend, with the rest of the bookbinding community. Boston is hosting the Annual, Standards Seminar for the Guild of Bookworkers. Various seminars, bindery tours, and all our favorite bookbinding vendors in one city. Registration is closed, but the vendor room is open to the public....see you at the

Boston Park Plaza hotel
50 Park Plaza,
Arlington st.

We shall be making a first visit to bBromer's Booksellers around the corner too

Craft Show Confidential Index

2011-10-07T10:32:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I wrote my first Craft Show Confidential post back in December 2010!

For those of you who may have recently joined us, I thought that it might be helpful to create an index of all of the posts to date.

Display Props

Book Stands

Book Display Units

Follow-up

Containers

Follow-up

Booth Set Up

Pipe and Drape Booths

DIY Fire Retardant Spray

Floor Coverings

Signage

Follow-up

Large Format Photography

Articles on Craft Show Booth Design

Merchandising

Hang Tags

Arranging Work

Miscellaneous

Handling of Work

Closing the Sale

Insurance

Craft Show Confidential: Floor Tiles - part 2

2011-09-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

On my last blog post, Katie of linenlaidfelt made the following comment:

You might also want to look into FLOR carpet squares. They come in lots of awesome colors and patterns. Here's the website: http://www.flor.com/

For those of you who don't know about FLOR, they make a nifty product. All of their modular carpet squares measure 19.7" x 19.7". The tiles come in a variety of colors, textures, and patterns - you can arrange them in an infinite number of combinations.

I thought that FLOR tiles were only useful for permanent applications, but after Katie's comment, I decided to do some further research.

I had a very helpful chat with Deidra, a FLOR representative. I asked her if FLOR was appropriate for trade show applications. She said the following:

Yes, since they are modular they are easy to pick up pack and move to the next location, great for trade shows.

She then added:

FLOR is engineered with structural integrity to "hug" the floor. Plus, the easy-to-use, non-toxic FLORdots that come with every order are designed to stick to the underside of each tile and not to the floor beneath. Using FLORdots secures the tiles to one another so there's no curling, gapping or slippage. Your design will stay put until you decide to change or replace it.

The next logical question was whether or not the FLORdots were reusable and here's what Deidra said:

No the FLORdots will need to be replaced when you remove them from each FLOR square.

So, FLOR can be used for trade shows if you purchase additional FLORdots. The cost is $4.99 for a set of 12.

The cost per tile on the FLOR website starts at $6.49 (when on sale) and can go up to $69.99 each. I was happy to discover that FLOR has an online outlet shop. Prices are much lower there, starting at $3.49 each.

For a 10' x 10' booth, you'd need 36 tiles - this would give you a rug that measures 1.8" shy of the full 10' length (118.2"). If you purchased tiles that cost $7.99 each, you'd pay about $288.00 for the entire rug. That's around what I paid for my area rug from Pottery Barn. The advantage over the area rug is that you can customize it further to coordinate with the rest of your booth.

I imagine that there's some way to do a FLOR hack, meaning that you can use the tiles but with something other than the disposable FLORdots. Perhaps using industrial strength Velcro?

If you're using FLOR tiles for your booth, I'd love to hear about it! Share your experiences with the B.E.S.T. team by sending me an Email and I'll include them in a follow-up post. Be sure to include your name and a link to your Etsy shop.

Many thanks to FLOR for granting permission for the use of their product photos in this post.

flickr friday - Nursery Rhymes

2011-09-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

Related to my last post - I have been tagging all the books that were made from that same old book of nursery rhymes. You can follow the link, NURSERY RHYMES, to see them all, or, here are a few of them, randomly selected using the Flickr badge tool:www.flickr.com

Nursery Rhyme Books

2011-09-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

I picked up an old book of nursery rhymes at a thrift store, a while ago, and the book was falling apart. It was quite a large hardcover book, but the hinges were broken and some of the pages were falling out. I got it because it was full of great pictures. I used several pages out of this book previously, but it is a big book! So I made more last week.

So these are my newest recycled and repurposed notebooks, and each is entirely one-of-a-kind. The cover pictures, obviously, are repurposed from the old story book. The papers used for the pages in these notebooks, are off-cuts from other projects that I have saved. That's why they are all different, odd sizes and shapes. I was also able to salvage all the book board from my scrap box. They are all bound using a chain stitch sewing.

A few of these are now available on Etsy.

A quick method for surface gilding

2011-09-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

for the bookbinders out there written up one method I have been usuing since 2010 for surface gilding leather......you will find it on the new DBOA blog

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The box challenge - more surface gilding

2011-09-23T14:43:00.000-07:00

more adventures in surface gilding...I will be posting a how 2 soon...stay tuned

Craft Show Confidential: Floor Tiles

2011-09-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Last week I gave you a general overview of the importance of flooring. Today I'm going to talk about one option - interlocking floor tiles.

Camelback Displays offers many options for floor tiles. The most basic being their foam rubber tiles:

As you can see, the tiles are assembled like a puzzle and it's quite easy to put together by yourself. The tiles are very comfortable to stand on and come in lots of colors. They're also eco-friendly - not only do they contain 20% recycled material, but they are also 100% recyclable.

Each tile is 2 ft. x 2 ft. in size - since they're modular, you can configure them in an infinite number of configurations. They're lightweight and easy to transport. They're waterproof and easy to clean, making them perfect for outdoor shows. Best of all, you can use them on your studio floor while you work, making them easy to store.

One variation on the foam rubber tile is the tile with the appearance of wood:

These tiles share many of the same qualities as the rubber ones. You can choose from a variety of wood finishes, such as dark oak, light oak, red oak, cherry, and walnut. These tiles offer the warmth of wood with the comfort of foam rubber - it's a great combination. An added benefit is that they add a more sophisticated look to your booth.

The last option I'll talk about is the carpet tile:

Once again, these tiles share many of the same qualities as the rubber ones, the most important being that they are have anti-fatigue benefits. They come in a number of colors, mostly neutrals. Not only do the carpet tiles add a cozy touch to your booth, but they also add texture. Of the three types of tiles, the carpet tiles are the most expensive.

Even if you can't afford a floor to cover your entire booth, you should at least invest in some anti-fatigue mats for where you stand. Take care of yourself!

Some last thoughts:

If you plan to purchase floor tiles for your booth, order them all at the same time. Dye lots can vary and you don't want to end up with something inconsistent.
Be creative! You don't have to stick with only one color - you can create a pattern with two or more colors, such as a checkerboard or stripes.

If you've used any of these types of flooring, I'd love to hear about it! Share your experiences with the B.E.S.T. team by sending me an Email and I'll include them in a follow-up post. Be sure to include your name and a link to your Etsy shop.

Many thanks to Camelback Displays for granting permission for the use of their product photos in this post.

Inkwell Modern Handmade Boutique & Letterpress Studio

2011-09-23T07:34:00.000-07:00

Celebrating its four month-iversary this week, Inkwell Modern Handmade Boutique & Letterpress Studio is one of Halifax's best new shops, no doubt. If you are in the Halifax area, the shop is downtown on Market Street, go there! And definitely stop by on Sunday (Sept 25), while the traveling "Moveable Type" truck is visiting, how cool is that? More details on Inkwell's blog.

Inkwell's proprietress, Andrea, has done a fantastic job making her shop look great and it's full of awesome things. She is set up to do letterpress work with a press that she has restored. You can see photos of the restoration process on her blog.

In addition to the letterpress stuff, the shop is full of lots of other really amazing products - browse the blog and the Facebook photos to get an idea of the awesomeness.

She has kindly allowed me to be part of the awesomeness, carrying some of my books too. Just dropped off a new batch of books: the Recycled Mail journals that I mentioned last week, as well as some of my Margarita Journals, a few hand-printed "Underwater" lino-cut notebooks, and books made with my hand-marbled paper.

There is a great article about Andrea and her shop if you are interested in reading about her journey creating the wonderful space that is now Inkwell - visit Oh My Handbmade to read more.

Featured Seller - Prairie Peasant

2011-09-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

Our new featured seller is Winnipeg-based Laura from PrairiePeasant and PrairieThreads. Laura is the creator of upcycled handbound journals and fabric goods.

There have always been two creative passions in Laura's life.
From her early beginnings of finger-painting and hand sewing doll clothes, Laura was torn between creating with paper or fabric right from the beginning. Primarily self-taught, she has developed her artistic skills through local classes including marbling, bookbinding, fabric dying and quilting, and through small guilds devoted to bookbinding, calligraphy and quilting. Laura is employed part-time as an Occupational Therapist at a local hospital where she must think creatively to help her clients maximize their ability to function independently outside of the hospital.

Laura has been on etsy for over three years.
Laura first discovered Etsy through a craft magazine and soon became hooked. After a few months, she opened her PrairiePeasant shop (3 years ago) where she sells handbound books, envelopes and cards. A year and a half later she opened her PrairieThreads shop, where she sells hand sewn and hand knit items. Etsy has proven to be an ideal venue for her, allowing her to invest as much time and effort as she has available, while balancing work and family time.

Creativity is a family affair.
Laura is fortunate to be married to a very creative man, and to have two artistically inclined daughters. She loves nurturing her daughters’ creativity, making jewelry with them, teaching them to sew and even bind books. Her family is very supportive of her endeavors, and she knows she has a good product when her daughters beg for it not to be listed, but to be used at home instead.

Re-Purposing materials
Both of Laura’s shops, PrairieThreads and PrairiePeasant, have a focus on using re-purposed materials to make something new and useful. Her Rebound Journals are made from once-loved-but-now-discarded old books and her coiled matts use vintage clothing and fabrics in a new way. When she is not in her studio, she can often be found searching for new materials at thrift shops and garage sales--or maybe relaxing with a book or digging something up in her flower gardens.

A bonus for our readers
From now until October 1st, Laura is offering 15% off all items in both her shops, with the coupon code CANADA2011. Click the photos above to be taken to her shops.

Craft Show Confidential: Flooring

2011-09-16T07:23:00.000-07:00

Flooring is just as important as any other part of your booth. When I talk about flooring, I'm referring to all floor coverings - carpet, area rugs, hard floors, etc.

There are two main reasons why flooring is essential for your booth:

Aesthetics
Comfort

Let's start with aesthetics. You work so hard at perfecting the visual image projected by your booth. You strive to create an environment that matches your brand and adds value to your work. In general, your booth will look unfinished if you don't use flooring.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then here's the majority of my blog post:

This is the carpet that haunts the room where I do a craft show every fall. To say that it's ugly doesn't begin to describe it. It's like a casino carpet on drugs.

Now here's a picture of my booth:

You can just barely see the hotel carpet peeking out from under my area rug. Now try to imagine if I didn't bring my own rug - can you see how it would not only detract from the design of my booth but it would also draw attention away from my work?

When you take control of all visual aspects of your booth, you can shape the perception that people have of your work. A complete, well-designed display conveys an aura of "I pay attention to detail and my work is worth it."

And if you think that flooring is only for indoor shows, think again. In his article From the Floor Up, artist consultant Bruce Baker offers interesting insight into another reason why flooring is essential:

At an outdoor show, if you are trying to sell art and there is grass under your feet, you are basically having a yard sale no matter how you dress it up. Grass also gets worn out with a lot of foot traffic and, if it rains, there is the mud factor. People won’t hang around your booth if they are slopping through the mud.

Next, I'll talk about comfort. You're not the only one on your feet during a show. Walking a craft show as a customer, you can cover a lot of territory. When the floor of your booth becomes a comfortable landing place, people will stay there.

Bruce Baker seems to agree:

When we get tired, walking is easier than standing in one spot. As a result, many customers move on to the next booth not because they’re bored, but because their legs are telling their brain to “keep moving.” And that is exactly what they do—they move on before you have a chance to sell to them.

So how do you handle this? One option is to use flooring that is inherently comfortable, such as foam rubber mats. I'll talk about these more in my next post. Another option is to put padding underneath another covering, such as an area rug.

However you choose to handle it, not only will your customers benefit, but so will you. While I use an area rug in the main part of my booth, I have thick anti-fatigue mats behind the table where I stand. I have found that my legs are much less tired at the end of the day when I stand on the mats.

In a nutshell, a booth without flooring is basically naked. It's like getting dressed up to go out, but choosing not to wear pants.

Don't go out without pants.

flickr friday - WHITE

2011-09-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

A surprising number of items in my Flickr photostream tagged with "white", over sixty. Follow this WHITE link to see them all. Or, here are a few of them, randomly selected using the Flickr badge tool:www.flickr.com

Summer Book Swap: MakingMyRent

2011-09-15T16:49:00.000-07:00

This minicoptic-stitched book was inspired by the 20th anniversary of the fall of theSoviet Union. It's covered in burgundy bookcloth, a darker version of theSoviet's signature color, and features two vintage stamps from 1991 circulatedin the U.S.S.R. The stamps show two scenes from Russian tradition. Inside aretwo sections of a vintage Russian/English dictionary and 100pages of Wausau stationery paper. It measures approximately 3 x 2 1/2inches. -- Amber of MakingMyRent

MakingMyRent has books for sale in her shop here: www.makingmyrent.etsy.com.

Summer Book Swap: UsefulBooks

2011-09-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

Every so often, the paper level reaches critical mass in my studio, and I need to devote some serious time to making scrap books. Not books for scrapbooking, but books made from scraps of larger projects. This little cutie is one such book. The covers were cut out as windows from a large travel journal, and the endpapers are pieces of my marbled paper that went well with an illustration from an old Golden encyclopedia that I used to cover the book board. The mixed paper for the text block was also left from larger books made over the summer. The closure is an African trade bead and waxed Irish linen thread. I hope Surfbunny enjoys using it! -- Cindy of UsefulBooks

Find Cindy's books in her shop here: www.usefulbooks.etsy.com.

Summer Book Swap: SurfBunny

2011-09-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

My swap book wascreated from all handmade paper. The cover is a mulberry with skeletalleaf inclusions from Thailand, the pages are lemongrass fibers from ourgarden. The lemongrass was beat in our Critter hollander for about 4hours and then pulled western style. The form of the book is a JapaneseDaifuku cho (Great Fortune notebook) which was used by merchants as an accountbook. The tassels were usually much longer and worn woven into themerchants belt thereby aiding theft security. -- Duane of Surfbunny

Visit Surfbunny's shop at www.surfbunny.etsy.com to see their books and handmade paper items for sale.

Summer Book Swap: Notuboc (Yatsu)

2011-09-13T06:52:00.000-07:00

A tiny book made in the No-Longer-A-Secret Belgian style, this bright thing features more lemonade stands than you can shake a quarter at. the binding is done in similarly bright cotton pearle, and the covers are chipboard and scrapbook paper. -- Meredith of Notuboc

Meredith (aka Yatsu) has handcrafted blank books for sale in her shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/yatsu

A quick follow-up

2011-09-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

Last week I showed you what was on the work bench... the junk mail, remember? Voila, very cool journals. The covers are, obviously, covered with junk mail and other previously-used envelopes. The pages are mostly blank paper (recycled paper, of course), with a few previously used business envelopes mixed in to keep it internesting. Each one also has an unused reply enveloped in the middle of the last section - those envelopes that come inside other envelopes so that we can easily mail our donations, or subscriptions, or whatever. So inside these books, those envelopes function as a handy little pocket to store secret things!

Main decorative element: security pattern from inside the envelopes...

This one is a total sweepstakes, someone with your initials is definitely a winner! Do not disregard...

And classic brown paper packages...

Summer Book Swap: Camille Riner

2011-09-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

I thought that Meredeth would enjoy a book filled with the sights and sounds of summer. This book called "Forest Queen" was created after I installed my first bee hive and celebrates the restful quiet and the buzz of the summer season.

I used a book form I learned from Alisa Golden called a tetra tetra flexion. The pages of the book are viewed by "flipping" the book "inside out" from the center fold to reveal four panels.

There are two poems in this book, the first is about bees and reads, "Forest Queen-Your driving force feeds our dreams.-Making, Creating.-A working hive.-The honey flows." The second poem is about enjoying the lush wonderfulness of summer and reads, "Footsteps soft beneath your feet.-Birdsong splashes on your face.-Roots flow like skirts from the waists of trees.-An umbrella of leaves opens above your head.-Linger for a while in this refreshing shade."

"Forest Queen" features one of my digitally collaged relief prints and comes in a matching case and measures 2x6" closed. -- from Camille Riner

You can see this and Camille's other creations in her Etsy shop: www.camilleriner.etsy.com

Craft Show Confidential: Articles on Craft Show Booth Design

2011-09-09T08:22:00.000-07:00

When I write blog posts, I tend to do a lot of online research first. In the process, I've found many interesting articles about craft show booth design.

Rather than tackle a new post this week, I decided to share several of the articles below. I hope you find them useful!

And for visual inspiration:

Flickr:

Google Images:

You could win...

2011-09-07T17:42:00.000-07:00

Etsian, blogger, and mommy extraordinaire known online as rikrak is having a little (kinda big) giveaway on her blog right now to celebrate her birthday. I bring this to your attention, since included in that giveaway is one of my handbound leather journals. Lots of other terrific prizes too. It's easy to get your name in the mix - all is explained over at the rikrakstudio: rikrakstudio.blogspot.com.

On the work bench today

2011-09-05T17:23:00.000-07:00

Speaking of recycling...

It's not just a pile of junk mail. Well, it IS a pile of junk mail; but, it will be transformed... stay tuned.

Craft Show Confidential: Insurance

2011-09-02T21:35:00.000-07:00

Ever since Hurricane Irene devastated the east coast of the United States, I've often thought about the importance of insurance.

Now you may be wondering what this has to do with craft shows.

Well, for one thing, you may find that some craft shows require that you have liability insurance in order to exhibit. Sometimes show promoters will include liability coverage for vendors and the cost is included in your booth fee. If you have to carry your own liability coverage, you might be asked to send proof to the promoter, so be prepared to make copies of your policy.

No one wants to be held responsible if something goes horribly, horribly wrong, so be sure to confirm who is responsible for liability coverage as soon as you sign up for the show.

Then there's the question of having insurance to cover you when in transit to/from and while exhibiting at a craft show. This is known as "inland marine" insurance, so named because it's for when you're not at your usual business location.

What does it cover? Individual policies vary, but coverage could include any of the following: supplies, equipment, booth structure, materials, and/or other business property. It would cover any of these things in-transit and at the location of the craft show.

For example, I heard a story where someone's entire inventory was destroyed at a craft show when another vendor's booth fell on top of theirs. Inland marine insurance would cover those losses. The fact is that things happen - protect yourself and your business.

The Craft Emergency Relief Fund (a.k.a. CERF+ and my former employer), is a wonderful resource for learning more about how to better protect your business against from unforeseen emergencies. In a nutshell (from their website):

CERF+ is a national artists’ service organization whose mission is to safeguard and sustain the careers of craft artists and provide emergency resources that benefit all artists.

Even though CERF+ is based in the United States, they provide information that is helpful to all artists - their website is definitely worth a visit. Their companion website, www.studioprotector.org, offers additional tips on how to determine which insurance policy is best for you.

Craig Nutt, CERF+'s Director of Programs (and all-around cool guy), offered me the following advice on investigating insurance policies:

Look for what's covered, then look for what's excluded.
Read the policy thoroughly.
Ask a lot of questions.

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about business insurance in other countries. I'd love to hear from those of you in non-U.S. locations. I'm also interested in hearing folks' experiences with business insurance.

Send me an Email and I'll include it in a follow-up post. Be sure to include your name and a link to your Etsy shop.

Additional Resources:

flickr friday - RECYCLED

2011-09-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

Another tag that I have used a lot on Flickr is RECYCLED. I've made books from a wide variety of recycled/repurposed materials, and it looks like there are over 120 photos tagged as such. Follow the RECYCLED link to see them all. Or, here are a few of them, randomly selected using the Flickr badge tool:www.flickr.com

Gramma's Things

2011-08-31T14:10:00.000-07:00

While going through my late Grandmother's things, my mother found a lot of handiwork that Gramma had done, or partially done. After hearing about 23 Sandy Gallery's recent Uncommon Threads call, I used one of Gramma's unfinished crocheted pieces to make this book (although it isn't part of the exhibit, it was that call for entries that prompted me to it).

The 'pages' of my book are made of book board, covered with the pages of one of her old Crochet & Tatting pattern books. I added a little narrative to the pages about my grandmother's things.

As you can see from these next two photos, the book structure allows it to open like a standard codex, or as an accordion.

It can be opened both ways because it is constructed like the old Jacob's Ladder toys. I even made a little video here to show the fun part, how it can be an endless ladder even though it consists of only six panels, er, pages.

The Box Challenge - latest

2011-08-30T15:41:00.000-07:00

.

...long time between reports....what can I tell you.....I been busy ......more later...

clockwork orange, and garcia marquez....
back pared, and tooled onlays, stencilling, and surface gilding...

Featured Seller: Minouette

2011-08-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

Our newest featured seller is Minouette.

There's a science to Minouette's art!
I'm a printmaker and a scientist. I joke that I'm a marine geophysicist by day and a printmaker by night. My professional training is all in physics. As a marine geophysicist I use physics and build giant machines to image what's below the ocean floor. I find I really need balance and to also use the right side of my brain,
so art making is very important to me. This might seem a funny combination, but it turns out that printmaking is particularly popular amongst scientists who make art, and science seems popular amongst printmakers.

Most of what I create uses the technique of relief printing. This involves carving an image in reverse, say on linoleum or wood, applying ink and burnishing it onto paper or fabric. Some printmakers use a press. I work from my home so I've adapted techniques from traditional Japanese 'moku hanga' woodblock printing. I employ a baren (a flat disk wrapped in abamboo leaf) to print fine art prints and textiles. When I print on fabric I make pillows and stuffed animals and the like. I first learned printmaking as a child when I had the chance to take courses at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Science often meets art in Minouette's pieces.
So, now that you know my day job, I think you can see my left-brained interest in science comes out in my art. I have a whole series of portraits of scientists because I love the history of science.

Most of my prints depict some sort of natural history - from microorganisms, to mushrooms; to the moon, to the classification of clouds.There's physics visible in the Cloud Chamber print; and paleontology in my dinosaurs, and ocean science in the abundant sea life.

And travel is an influence, too.
I love travel! It's one of the great perks of my 'day job' as a scientist. Obviously, I'm inspired by getting to spend time at sea. You wouldn't believe the sort of sea creatures (including jellyfish, octopi, crustaceans, and even microorganisms like giant bacteria mats) you get to see when using a ROV (remotely operated submersiblevehicle) to position equipment on the seafloor. Many marine animals appear in my art. I think also the way one's fate is intimately tied to the weather, inspired the cloud classification prints. The moon reflecting on the water is obviously something inspired by travelling on a boat. I've had the great good fortune of spending weeks off both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Canada and the US (still working on getting to that Arctic coast) as well as in the South Pacific off Chile.

I also had the opportunity to spend a month in Tokyo, where I used my spare time to see as much art as possible. I am definitely influenced by traditional Japanese printmaking techniques. I think I also learned
the importance of business cards in Japan. ;)

On getting started on Etsy.
I create almost compulsively, and used to do a lot of swapping of handmade goods on Craftster.org. I first found out about Etsy when it was starting up through Craftster. I didn't join right away; I wasn't sure the idea could really work. Eventually (by late 2007), I thought I was creating so much I may as well give it a try - especially since I make prints and have the benefit of having multiples (so I can always keep a copy for my own collection). Also, many of my close friends are in the arts and make art. I wanted to inspire them to try
to sell their art. In the process, I found I could readily sell my own art.

Minouette loves the international aspect of selling her art.
I love having a creative outlet. It's really gratifying to see that people would like to own my art and know that it's spread around the world.

On handling adversity, Minouette offers these words:
Friends! Seriously - it really is all about networking and making connections. When I was younger I would have thought the idea of a role model was rather corny, but in my professional life, as a woman in a highly male-dominated field, I've found that it is really important to have someone to relate to who has done what you want to achieve. When I first started selling on Etsy I was really pleased to find the TCET so there was a smaller group I could connect to, who had something (Canadianess... if that's a word?) in common. In my personal life, whenever I face any adversity, I always call my friends. You can't discount the help you can get from having people to communicate with, to seek advice from, to offer another point of view or ideas to conquer a stumbling block or setback. You need people you can rely upon for solidarity and support.

To see all of Minouette's fantastic prints, visit her etsy shop, Minouette.

Minouette is also pleased to offer free shipping, for the next two weeks, to any buyer who includes "TCET Profile" in the messages to seller at checkout.

Marbling Larger Papers

2011-08-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

Until recently, I was only marbling small sheets of paper, about 9x12. People often asked if I could do larger sheets but my equipment prevented me from going bigger. Last time I was marbling, though, I found a container that I could use to try some larger sheets. I ruined several sheets immediately - switching from laying down a 9x12 piece of paper, to a 16x24 piece of paper, was not an instant transition! Suddenly it felt like I'd never done it before and I had to learn the technique all over again. After some practice, though, I did successfully produce several large sheets. I've started to add some of them to my Etsy shop - in two different sizes, 16x24 and 12x18.

These images are scans of the larger sheets - the scans show only a 9x12 area, though, since that's the size of my scanner bed.

Craft Show Confidential: DIY Fire Retardant Spray

2011-08-26T08:04:00.000-07:00

In the past couple of posts, I talked about the importance of using fire retardant fabric for your booth - in general, vendors should have booths that comply with local fire regulations.

If you have a pipe and drape booth set up, you have three options:

Buy drapes that are either inherently fire retardant or have been treated.
Purchase fire retardant fabric and make your own drapes.
Purchase the fabric of your choice and treat them with fire retardant.

Today I'm going to focus on #3. You can purchase commercial fire retardant spray, but it's pretty expensive ($15.95 a quart!). A less expensive option is to make the spray yourself.

Time for giving credit where it's due - I discovered the recipe in an article by Virginia Franco, How to Make Fire Retardant Spray. The recipe is simple and uses natural ingredients, so you can feel good using it.

Here's what you need:

Protective gloves
Spray bottle
Funnel
7 oz. of Borax: This is a non-toxic laundry booster you can find in your grocery store. A 76 oz. box costs around $3.00.
3 oz. of boric acid: This chemical is a weak acid that can also be used as an antiseptic, insecticide, or acne treatment. A pound will cost you around $4.25.
2 quarts hot water

Here's what you do:

Put on your gloves - safety first!
Using the funnel, pour the Borax, boric acid, and water into the spray bottle.
Shake to combine.
Test the solution by spraying a small piece of your fabric, let it dry, and then touch it with a lit match.
Spray the fabric more as needed until the fabric passes the lit match test.

Alternatively, you can dip your fabric into the solution if you put it in a tub or bucket.

If you've made fire retardant spray before, I'd love to hear about it! Share your experience with the B.E.S.T. team by sending me an Email and I'll include it in a follow-up post. Be sure to include your name and a link to your Etsy shop.

flickr friday - RED

2011-08-26T06:44:00.000-07:00

Another Friday, and about 85 pictures tagged with RED. Apparently it's a popular colour in my work! I do like red, actually, and this selection includes many shades of red - since, sometimes burgundy is red...etc. Follow the RED link to see them all. Or, here are a few of them, randomly selected using the Flickr badge tool:www.flickr.com

Secret Belgian Binding -> Criss Cross Binding

2011-08-24T17:04:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned a couple months ago, it is now known that the 'Secret Belgian binding' was invented by Anne Goy in the 1980s. It is not an obscure historical binding as many people thought. I had a little note directly from Anne after I posted here, and she says that she wants this binding to be called "Criss Cross binding" -- rather than the secret Belgian Binding. It's going to be hard to convince people to change their name for this structure, I think, but I wanted to share that information so that we can at least make an effort to call it by its proper name!

flickr friday - YELLOW

2011-08-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

I like using the tags on Flickr. It's a great way to categorize and it's a very librarian-type-thing to do. There are about 57 photos in my Flickr photo pool right now, that I have tagged with YELLOW. Follow the YELLOW link to see them all. Or, here are a few of them, randomly selected using the Flickr badge tool:www.flickr.com

Craft Show Confidential: Pipe and Drape - part 3

2011-08-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

This week I'm going to talk about pipe and drape accessories.

Going back to last week's discussion about being in compliance with local fire codes, I found out that you can get iron-on labels for your drapes that identify them as being flame retardant. If you have these, you won't have to worry about losing paperwork.

If you have a sign for your booth, you can hang it using metal hooks:

The large part of the hook fits over the horizontal pipes at the top of your booth. The small part of the hook is for attaching your sign or banner (it slips into the holes). If you don't want your sign at the top of your booth, you can use fishing line or chains to lower it.

If you want to have table coverings that match your booth walls, you can get table skirts made out of the same fabric as your drapes. There are a few different styles:

Box pleats

Mini accordion pleats

Shirred

And if you love to stay organized, you can purchase carry bags for the different components of your booth. Nothing like having a skinny 8 ft. long carry bag!

If you have anything to add to the pipe and drape discussion, I’d love to hear about it! Share your experiences with the B.E.S.T. team by sending me an Email and I'll include them in a follow-up post. Be sure to include your name and a link to your Etsy shop.

Many thanks to Exclusively Expo for granting permission for the use of their product photos in this post.

Craft Show Confidential: Pipe and Drape - part 2

2011-08-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

My last post focused on the pipes of "pipe and drape" booths. This post will focus on drapes.

Something you may not know about craft shows is that vendors should have booths that comply with local fire regulations. Any fabric used for drapes should be either flame-proofed or fire-resistant. You can either use drapes that are inherently fire retardant or buy fabric and treat it yourself.

Not all show promoters will tell you what's necessary for their particular show and requirements can vary from venue to venue. I've heard stories where fire marshals have come to shows, lit a match, and touched it to a drape to see if it had been treated. Urban myth or not, it's best to play it safe.

Most drapes that you buy from a pipe and drape vendor will already be fire retardant. If you want to make your own drapes, a safe bet is to purchase your cloth from a theatrical supply company, such as Rose Brand. They supply fabrics that are used for stage draperies, so you can find a large variety.

I bought fabric from Rose Brand to use for my booth table coverings. Upon request, a Flame Retardant Certificate will be issued to you for your records (I have one). I've heard that if you show documentation of your fabric's flame retardance, you can avoid a fire marshal's match test. Thankfully, I've never had to pull it out.

The standard drape that you'll find at most trade shows is made from Banjo cloth (I'm not sure where the name came from - they're not made from recycled banjos). These drapes are the most economical and come in a range of colors.

Banjo drapes have an open weave and are inherently flame retardant, which means that the flame resistant treatment will not wash out (they are machine washable).

Premier drapes are another standard type of drape. They're a more opaque fabric than Banjo and have a smoother texture.

Although they aren't inherently flame retardant, they have been treated with a flame retardant product. I own a set of Premier drapes and I can feel the treatment on the surface of the cloth. They also smell a little funky.

There are other kinds of drapes, including ones made of polyester and vinyl. You can even have drapes custom-printed with your logo or other imagery. You're only limited by your imagination! Well, your budget too. ;)

You'll have to decide how many drapes you want to use for your booth. In my booth, each 10 ft. length of horizontal pipe holds three 60 in. wide drapery panels. As you can see, it creates a gathered effect.

You can pull your drapes tighter for a cleaner, more contemporary look. The drapes have pockets at both the top and the bottom - you can thread your pipe through the top pocket and add weights to the bottom pocket to pull it taut.

Next week I'll talk about pipe and drape accessories. If you have anything to add to the pipe and drape discussion, I’d love to hear about it! Share your experiences with the B.E.S.T. team by sending me an Email and I'll include them in a follow-up post. Be sure to include your name and a link to your Etsy shop.

Many thanks to Exclusively Expo for granting permission for the use of their product photos in this post.

Guest Blogger Fran Kovac, on 6th Century Coptic Binding

2011-08-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

Fran Kovac is a bookbinder in Columbus, Ohio, and teaches basic bookbinding techniques at the Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. She is ridiculously camera-shy, but has allowed me to to use a picture of her fingers sewing a link-stitch endband, very much like the endband for the Coptic structure she describes here.

I first encountered Fran's work, way back in 2006, when we were both participating in a book swap through Volcano Arts. I think she ended up with the first book that I sent. Later I acquired a couple of her marvelous books through the swap. In 2008, I attended PBI for the first time and was chatting with her when suddenly I realized it was the same person, Fran Kovac! She's been at PBI every time that I've been there - and now she's kindly agreed to write about one of her 2011 PBI classes for my blog. Thanks so much, Fran!

While Rhonda was slaving away in John Townsend's Extreme Bookbinding (see her post, below), I was spending the week with a Late 6th Century Coptic structure taught by conservator and book historian Julia Miller. This is an exquisite structure that is a recreation of an extant manuscript known as "Chester Beatty Ms. 815" but also called "Codex C." The original has a parchment textblock sewn with a link stitch at three sewing stations, on papyrus boards. The book is leather covered with an inked design, with a wide wrapping band held with a bone clasp and an attached bookmark.

We began by making our papyrus boards. Pasteboard is simply a board made by laminating sheets of paper or papyrus together. Julia pointed out that there is evidence that boards were often made with fragments, scraps, inscribed sheets and bits of leather and vellum, pressed together, and in fact, we made samples with scraps left over from class. Codex C had papyrus boards, though, so for our books, we laminated papyrus until we had boards approximately 5 mm (~3/16") thick.

We used paper for our textblock, alas, parchment being rather expensive. I added one parchment end sheet to my model for the most verisimilitude I could afford. We folded and marked our textblocks for sewing. This link stitch is recessed in the original, so we carefully cut notches in our textblock to accept the thread. The sewing is rather different than that which is usually taught today: three stations, single needle, with the thread doubled inside each signature. A note about "Coptic" sewing: historically, not all link sewn books are Coptic in origin. We commonly use the terms interchangeably, but unless what's being talked about is an actual Coptic binding, such as Codex C, we should probably use the term "unsupported link stitch."

After sewing, we added link stitch end bands in colored thread, and lined the spine with linen. We made and decorated our bookmarks, wrapping band and bone clasp. The original clasp is vaguely fish shaped, with a single hole for the strap, and is undecorated except for some scratches. We used cold tooling and ink to decorate the bookmark and ink designs on the wrapping band.

We had lovely goatskin to work with to form the case with the papyrus boards. Goat, sheep, and other hides such as camel are believed to have been used in history. This is, essentially, a very early (the earliest?) case binding; the boards are not sewn to the textblock. The boards and leather were laid out pretty much as we would do today when making a case, although with extra wide turn-ins.

Inside front board showing the wrapping band attachment

The end sheets are pasted down to hold the textblock in place. Prior to putting in the textblock, however, holes are punched through the front board to accept the wrapping band and bookmark, and the tricky work of drawing the inked design began. The model of Codex C which was made shortly after its discovery served as our model for the design; it incorporated a Maltese cross, which seemed the wrong time period to me, so I incorporated a Coptic cross in its place.

My thanks to the extraordinary Julia Miller for another wonderful historic bookbinding class, and to Rhonda for the chance to talk about it!

A few more pictures on Flickr

Featured Seller - Chicki

2011-08-10T15:31:00.000-07:00

Our next Featured Seller is Chicki of Chicki. and ChickiBeads. Chicki hails from nearSaskatoon, Saskatchewan. Her shops offer up beautifully crafted handmade jewelry and the supplies to make your own.

Chicki is a master of finding ways to fit her love of crafting into her busy family life:

"I am a proud stay-at-home mom. I love my children and am very grateful that I get to be at home with them. I have always loved creating, crafting and making an artsy mess! This is what I do when I have free time, which is usually when I can squeeze in a minute here or there. I have been known to work at night when the kids are in bed sound asleep. I also have a very supportive husband who is a great help!!"

Chicki's love for working with polymer clay has lead to the start of her jewelry line and had brought her some fame too:

"Several years ago, I dove into the exciting world of polymer clay and have not looked back. I absolutely love working with clay and the versatility clay has. It can mimic many things, makes great jewelry, and is so lightweight!

I started with polymer clay and bead making and started to accumulate a lot of inventory. I sold a few pieces locally and I had compliments on many of my pieces and thought I would start selling online and found Etsy. It looked like a great place with a lot of wonderful handmade goodies and I thought my stuff would fit in. The rest is history!

I have recently had my work published in Polymer Café Magazine in the August 2010 Reader’s Gallery."

Recently she's started to move beyond clay into new and exciting jewelry creations:

"My newest interests are of wirework and chainmaille. I have recently started working with wire and metals and find it very enjoyable as well! I love to create free-form pendants of sterling and copper as well as funky and fun earrings!" [Blogger's note: I have a pair of Chicki's copper hoop earrings that I love]

Chicki shares the ups and downs of have a small home-based business:

"I love the flexibility it brings. I can work how much or when I want. But the unpredictability of sales and even views can sometimes be frustrating and hard. But being able to do what I love and stay home with my kids is a reward in itself."

She has many different influences when it comes to creating:

"I love nature and the outdoors. Some pieces are influenced by that. I personally love earthy type creations. I also enjoy colour, which influences my work as well. I love to look at all the talented works others have created as well which sometimes fuels my creative fire.

I love music and always have. My ipod has almost 1000 songs on it and when it is time to create I take it with me down to my small studio. I put it on random and just let the music play. I like all types of music from pop, rock, hip hop and even a bit of country. Quite an eclectic mix actually. I just go with the flow and see where it all takes me. Sometimes great things are created, others not so much. These pieces are set aside and reworked later."

Thanks for sharing Chicki!

You can see and purchase Chicki's fabulous pieces at:

chicki.etsy.com

chickibeads.etsy.com

And you can visit her blog at: www.chickismusings.blogspot.com

Mini Books for your ears

2011-08-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

Had some fun recently working on these tiny little books...

When Marbling Washes Away

2011-08-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

When marbling, after a sheet of paper has been laid on the floating paint and lifted from the tank, it has to be rinsed with water to remove the excess size. Sometimes the paint on a sheet of newly marbled paper just washes down the drain. This happens when the paper isn't suitable for marbling. During my last marbling session, I tried some different paper and it became a good example of what happens when the pattern just washes off. Once I realized what was happening, I got the camera a made a little video to show you. Much effort, washed away in 20 seconds.

It's disheartening when this happens! Well, I won't try marbling on this paper again.

Craft Show Confidential: Pipe and Drape - part 1

2011-08-05T19:31:00.000-07:00

Since folks seem interested in a general discussion of craft show issues, I'm going to dive right in with booths.

Booth requirements vary wildly from show to show. This can make it hard to decide what type of booth to invest in - and it is an investment. Having a craft show booth is a lot like having a house - it's never done. [insert groan here]

I bought my booth from Exclusively Expo in 2005 and have added to it over the years - shelves here, lights there - you learn what works and adapt accordingly. The company has been good to me and I recommend them highly.

The structure of my booth is what's known as a pipe and drape system. It's pretty much what it sounds like - the "bones" of the booth are made of aluminum pipes and they thread through fabric drapes, which then become soft walls.

The advantage of this system is that it's cheap compared to others. It's quick to set up and break down, and it can be set up by one person in a pinch. In this post, I'll be focusing on the pipes.

Here's a breakdown of the different components:

Bases

Steel base plate

Bases are put at the corners of your booth and are made of steel - they are heavy! The peg at the center of each base is what anchors the upright pipes - the pipes slide right over the pegs. For ease of transport, the pegs can be unscrewed from the bases and transported separately.

The slot in the base helps accommodate the pipes of your neighbors - you can just slide your base right over theirs. You can cover up most of the base with flooring or carpet.

Uprights

The exhibit booth standard height is 8 feet. There are two types of upright pipes to choose from - fixed (a.k.a. standard) and adjustable height pipes. Both of these pipes are made from anodized aluminum.

Fixed height uprights

Fixed height pipes are one set height and are cheaper than adjustable pipes. Sizes vary from 3' - 12' feet tall.

Adjustable height uprights

Adjustable height pipes are infinitely variable, within the minimum and maximum pipe size. For example, if you purchased a 6' to 10' adjustable pipe, then you could fit your booth in a site with 7' tall ceilings. If you know that you'll be doing shows with unusual spaces (believe me, it happens), then it might be a worthwhile investment to purchase the adjustable pipes.

Horizontals (a.k.a. telescopic drape supports)

Adjustable drape rods

Adjustable width pipes are infinitely variable, just like the uprights. Very often, a 10' x 10' booth isn't exactly that size. Your booth neighbors might set up before you and perhaps you lose an inch or two. The adjustable drape rods help you deal with that issue - and I have encountered this issue at most of the shows I've done. In addition, transporting pipes in a vehicle is much easier when they're adjustable.

The hooks on the end of the drape pipes are inserted into slots in the uprights - in a nutshell, they link together like Tinkertoys.

Some craft shows include pipe and drape in your booth fee. If you want to try out the setup before you buy it, you can often rent a set from a convention center or event rental shop.

I compared the cost for my booth in 2005 to today's cost - the price has varied little in six years - it still comes in under $500 for the whole shebang - this includes the pipes, drapes, and bases.

Next week I'll talk about drapes. If you have anything to add to the pipe and drape discussion, I’d love to hear about it! Share your experiences with the B.E.S.T. team by sending me an Email and I'll include them in a follow-up post. Be sure to include your name and a link to your Etsy shop.

Many thanks to Exclusively Expo for granting permission for the use of their product photos in this post.

Guest Blogger Charles Wisseman, on Moku Hanga and Martin Vinaver

2011-08-03T07:12:00.000-07:00

Charles Wisseman is a retired pathologist who now does mixed media art with a current emphasis on book arts and papermaking. Charles lives in Champaign, Illinois and has a website where he shares some of his work: www.charleswisseman.com.

Charlie has been at PBI every time that I have been there and I think he's been there many times more. This year at Ox Bow, he took Martin Vinaver's class on Moku Hanga, a Japanese woodblock printing technique. He kindly agreed to share his class experience here on my blog.

Martin Vinaver was an unusual presence at PBI this year ( May in Oxbow in Saugatuck, Michigan). He is a Mexican from Vera Cruz who fell in love with Japanese woodblock printing, which led him to learn Japanese and spend several years in Japan learning this art form from remaining masters. This is a difficult and labor-intensive process which is in decline. The samples of older prints from Japan show an almost superhuman degree of fine detail and carefully drawn lines.

On returning to Mexico, he set about working with some other Mexicans and foreign artists to try to "Mexicanize" the process, because some of the Japanese materials were very expensive or unobtainable in Mexico. He gave a talk on his art center progress so far, with U-tube clips showing the making of paper from old towels discarded by local tourist hotels, lithograph stones from local quarries, locally cast metal parts for presses, local colored earths for pigments, carbon black from the local bakery, fat for lithography crayons from local sheep, etc. The website for his organization is www.laceibagrafica.org.

In the class we did not try to reach the level of the old masters. Each person tried to carve and print an original 4.5" x 6.5" block of shina plywood to learn the traditional methods of carving (including registration points), mixing pigments and printing on Japanese paper using a traditional baren. Martin brought carving sets of traditional style made locally in Mexico using steel from older quality European files. These were for sale after the class, and I liked the tools enough to buy a set. He brought powdered earthen pigments from Mexico, demonstrated traditional baren-making (which we all tried).

We were all feeling pretty good about our designs and carving, until Martin came in on the third day and said that we needed to carve our negative spaces deeper to avoid stray ink transfer. In the cold studio space this was not welcome news, but the final results were worth it. I carved a turtle design using two blocks.

Moku Hanka Woodblock Print by Charles Wisseman

Carving to have color areas contact without gaps or overlaps was harder than I expected, but we were all pleased with the results. The main challenge is to think in terms of color areas rather than lines. I have no graphic training, but found the final result pleasing.

Martin's other contribution was tai chi instruction in the open before breakfast every day. I liked his style better than other forms I have tried, but probably can't find a teacher here. What a great way to start the day, though.

Martin Vinaver leading tai chi at Ox Bow

More photos on Flickr

Smells Like Canada, Eh? New Handmade Perfume Spray by Mythical Matters!

2011-07-31T16:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.mythicalmatters.com/Canada_Spray.html

Craft Show Confidential: Handling of Work

2011-07-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

Image by TheSeafarer

Most artists share the worry of how to deal with people touching their work. With regards to this issue, there are concerns that are particular to the book artist.

If your book has content, you want to allow people the opportunity to touch, see, and read it. It makes sense that someone would want to do that in order to make an informed decision before making a purchase. As I mentioned in this post, artist consultant Bruce Baker advises that people are 4x more likely to purchase work that they have held in their hands.

So you want to allow handling, but you don’t want your work to get damaged. This is of even greater concern for those who make limited editions or one-of-a-kind pieces. Their work isn’t as replaceable as production work.

Many craft shows have food vendors, which increases the possibility for damage. The oils from one’s hands are also a danger. Delicate papers are easily worn and/or torn.

You may think that the answer is requiring that your customers wear gloves. Unfortunately, your customers can’t have the full experience of your work if they have a barrier between them and your work.

In addition, cotton gloves can abrade the surface of paper. I learned this during a visit to the Special Collections department at the University of Vermont. For this reason, the library decided to discontinue their use of gloves.

In Helen Cole’s 2004 paper, TO [G]LOVE AND TO HOLD: Artists' Books in Australian Libraries, the concern is captured perfectly:

Strategies which are used to preserve the works, such as the use of gloves for holding and handling the books, and the use of protective interleaving to stop inks migrating from page to page, can put up barriers between the reader and the experience of the book as the artist intended. Books by their very nature are more than just visual. They are three dimensional objects with height, depth and length, the materials from which they are made have thickness, weight (or lack of it), texture and smell. We would like to facilitate an experience of the book for all the senses, as close as possible to what the artist intended.

So what do you do?

Ask a dozen artists this question and you’ll probably get a dozen different answers.

When I attended a workshop with Julie Chen a few years ago, I learned how she dealt with editions. She said that she kept three pieces from every edition she made. One she kept for herself, one she used for marketing purposes, and the last she gave to her mother “just in case” (a.k.a. Julie’s insurance policy).

Whatever you do, make sure customers are clear on whether or not your work handled. If you prefer to hold one-of-a-kind books when folks want a closer look, use signage to inform people on your policy. A sign saying “Please touch!” can go a long way both in putting customers at ease and in eliminating the inevitable, repetitive questions.

Personally, I have decided to allow people to touch my work. One of the reasons I love making books so much is that I appreciate the interaction it inspires. I know there are risks involved. If I see that there’s an issue of dirty hands, I offer the customer a wet wipe (I keep a canister behind the counter). If someone asks to see one of my one-of-a-kind pieces, I usually offer to hold it for them while I talk about it.

What is your policy on letting people touch your work? I’d love to hear about it! Share your experiences with the B.E.S.T. team by sending me an Email and I'll include them in a follow-up post next week. Be sure to include your name and a link to your Etsy shop.

Many thanks to Hilke for suggesting this week’s topic.

SELL OUT! Tips for hand-selling stuff, tip 9

2011-07-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

This series includes weekly tips on hand-selling homemade work without losing your soul or compromising your integrity. See the original introductory post here, tip #2 here, tip #3 here, tip #4 here, tip #5 here, tip #6 here, tip #7 here and tip #8 here.

Tip #9: Believe in your product.

When you believe in your product, it is easier and more delightful to sell. In fact, if you want to be a sales-person and maintain your integrity, it’s essential to believe in your product. If you love something, and you are willing to share that love with others, they will be more likely to love that something too. It is easier to come up with selling points and pitches for why someone might want to buy something if you think it’s a good thing to buy.

This may all seem obvious, but all too often, reluctant artist-turned-salespeople-at-craft-shows are WAY too self-deprecating. They act as if someone is doing them a favor by buying their work; they act as though they should probably just be checking themselves into a funny farm somewhere for daring to try to sell their work. How ridiculous that their little creations could be worth anything.

But I truly believe that the world is a better place for crafty goodness and art being in it. Do you? It’s not always a cake-walk to be an artist, especially if you venture into making it a career of any sort, but those who do venture towards professionalism generally bring better crafty goodness and art into the world because they practice their craft regularly. I solidly believe that. So thank goodness to all out there who do so! Thank you! The world is a better place because people bother to try to do what you do.

So, all that being said, when you switch into sales-person mode, don’t apologize for bringing heart to the world. Stand up tall and honor that what you do is valuable, even if imperfect at times.

"No woman should be shamefaced in attempting through her work to give back to the world a portion of it's lost heart." -- Louise Bogan, American Poet

Believe in your work. It will be easier for others to find the door into your work, the door towards that heart, if you do.

The best sales transactions are win-win. You are getting paid to make something lovely that you are adding to the world, and your buyers are getting to take something lovely away with them into the world. Perhaps you are meeting a need of theirs. For example, maybe a buyer is an avid journaler and she wants to ditch the boring journals, be bold, and add some color to her journaling life. She wants a journal that she can play in, she can scribble in, but it won’t matter, the book will still be pretty and playful, even with ugly scribbles and cross-outs because the pages are colorful and delightful to page through, no matter the color of ink on them. Or maybe the buyer has a dear friend that just got pregnant and has been looking for a pregnancy journal that sets a bright mood. Voila! In either example above, I have met a buyer’s need and she has met mine. Get it? Win-win.

One area where sales people sometimes get a bad rap is that there’s an impression that a sales person is talking you into something you wouldn’t otherwise do. Yes. That’s not so good. But at it’s best, sales is actually doing no such thing. A good sales person is a facilitator of sorts. They are helping gift-givers to find gifts, lovely-seekers to find lovely, and treasure-seekers to find treasure. I would even go so far as to say that at a sales person’s very best she is bringing a little more heart into the world. That is – if she believes what she is selling has heart.

In my personal examples a minute ago, I mentioned the journaler who wanted a playful space to journal in. Most likely she hadn't thought about the effect of writing on colorful pages. But once I introduce the notion to her, mention why others have liked it. She may think, YES! That's it! I want to be a part of that. Does that make sense? I filled a need she had (finding a new journal) but I filled a further need that she maybe hadn't put to words (for her journaling life to be richer) by introducing the parts of my journals I believe most in and talking to her about them. We've also gone a long way towards a nice relationship towards buyer and seller. Talking about things that make us both happy. Win-win.

I don’t feel bad when I talk to a customer for a long time and they buy four books from me. I feel happy that we found each other. I know that sounds extremely cheesy. But think about it. If you are a crafty sort, you’ve likely gone to a craft show because you like crafty things. You want to find treasure. When you find crafty treasure, that’s good right? As an artist, selling your wares at a craft show, you are most-likely selling to an extremely hospitable crowd. If you have product worth believing in, you have what your buyers are looking for. It is your job to help them find it.

Think about times you, personally, have gone to a craft show and bought something you deem as real treasure. Maybe you even met the artist and felt inspired afterward. Isn’t whatever you bought, most likely something that goes beyond materialism a bit? I’m sure people buying at craft shows still have buyer’s remorse, but somehow I’d suspect that they have it way less frequently than they have it after shopping at a strip-mall. People are thrilled when they find treasure at a craft show. Handmade stuff has heart to it. Especially when a buyer can meet the artist, learn the story, and root out that much more heart to something already lovely.

So I’d argue that it’s likely that customers are exceedingly inspired and happy when they find a booth that they buy stuff in. They have found product with heart, and that brings more heart into their lives, and that’s a beautiful thing.

If you believe in your work, you can honestly sell it. Because you believe when someone takes it home, it adds to their lives in a positive way.

So, make product you believe in. Don’t waste your time with something that doesn’t capture your own heart or imagination, because it won’t capture that of your buyers either. Even if your product isn’t perfect, or could be better, or be improved, if there is something about it you believe in, I guarantee that it will be easier to take the leap towards talking about in such a way that allows others to see the beauty in it too, to believe in it too. And buy it.

--------

Moving on...

This is my last post in this series. If you've enjoyed the series, there are a few places I'm happy to direct you for more information.

As I mentioned in the first post, I highly recommend checking out products or workshops by Bruce Baker, a jeweler who has been mentioned on this blog before who conducts workshops and sells audio “workshops” of sorts on all sorts of craft-sales related advice. I bought a cassette tape about “being a dynamic craft-seller” from a decade ago. I listened to that tape several times in the car on my way to some of my earliest craft shows, and even though it’s been nearly a decade since I listened to that tape, I know that if there is a Bruce Baker school of thought on sales, I’d be in it. Many echoes of what I remember learning from him can be found in what I’ve written in this series; I’d like people to know that and look up Bruce’s products if they found SELL OUT helpful.

Another place I can direct you to is the Art Fair Sourcebook. There are many guides to finding and choosing shows that are a match for your work, and although it's been a few years since I was making the rounds in any craft show circuits (I took an extended break when I had my son and moved abroad), I remember the Sourcebook as being the most helpful guide of it's kind. It's not the cheapest guide, but it's well worth the money spent.

Also, after I finished this series on my own blog, I realized that I probably had a bit more, here or there to offer on this front, if not time to keep the posts coming so regularly. Since the series finished I’ve posted one bonus tip you can check out at this link if interested (on the dreaded and oft-repeated phrase, “no problem”) and another is scheduled to go up on my own blog on Thursday the 4^th(that one will be regarding sales pitches).

Thanks BEST for hosting this series, I hope everyone has enjoyed it and I wish you all many happy craft shows to come.

Craft Show Confidential: Where to next?

2011-07-26T08:28:00.000-07:00

I've been struggling with developing new blog posts about craft shows from a book artist's perspective. I'm wondering if I've reached the end of the series.

I'm more than happy to talk about craft shows in general, like where to get lights, a tent/booth, shelves, etc. - these posts wouldn't really focus on anything bookish.

I'm also taking over the BEST member interviews, so eventually I'll be phasing out the craft show posts (handling both is too much for me). I want to make sure that I've tackled everything you'd like to see before I conclude the series.

I'd love feedback on what folks are interested in. Tell me what to do!

Green

2011-07-26T05:45:00.000-07:00

Each year there is an exhibit of artists' books at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California. This year's exhibit, "Artist's Books 2011," is happening now, continuing until August 26th. Included in this exhibit is a little green book that I made. It is a small book, an edition of 7, bound using a dowel-spine structure with all materials being recycled, reclaimed, repurposed, etc. The content is also green.

This little book recognizes the achievement of Canada's Green Party, successfully electing Elizabeth May, the first Green member of parliament, earlier this year. The pocket on the inside of the front cover includes a business card (from my local Green Party candidate, Thomas Trappenberg) that lists the principles of the Green Party. The remaining content recognizes the Green Party's acheivements and also questions why green principles are not already part of other political agendas.

Using leather for patchwork

2011-07-23T17:11:00.000-07:00

It starts as a pile of leather pieces. I sort it and match it and plan out the pattern. Then I sew them together to make covers for journals. Finished covers...

Finished journals...

SELL OUT! Tips for hand-selling stuff, tip 8

2011-07-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Tip #8: Positive sells; search within for the bright side and focus on it.

Let’s face a truth. There are times when being an artist is challenging in a harsh way. I don’t want to suggest that all artists are prone towards a melodramatic stereotype of being brooding, depressed or angst ridden. Hardly. All I mean to acknowledge is that sometimes the going gets tough when you are an artist. And unless you’ve barely tried to sell your wares, you probably already know that one of the riskiest places for the going to get tough is in the sales department.

Actually, if you haven’t tried to sell your wares it could very well be because you are afraid of that aspect of sales: the tough part. What if I don’t sell enough? What if I spend lots of time and money investing in this and no one buys my work? What if, what if, what if. And to be honest, your what-ifs aren’t even figments of your imagination.

I truthfully will tell you that the going will most likely get rough at some point after you enter into the world of selling your work. There. You can stop asking what if. You know the truth now. At some point something will suck. It’s not all going to be roses all the time. You can stop worrying about it now and go forth seeking out the roses. I promise they are there too. If you learn how to sell your work properly, you will almost certainly find them if you look. But you won’t find them if you are too caught up fretting with where they aren’t.

I guess my point here (at the risk of moving toward Pollyanna territory) is don’t dwell on the suck. You’ve heard the term “think positively.” Well, thinking positively is a necessity if you want to be a good sales person. Hear me out to the end here – I mean this in a really concrete dollars-and-cents sort of way.

One of the biggest drags on sales at a craft show is an artist who has a negative attitude. Someone who is pessimistic, whining, blaming the organizers of a show, cursing herself for not researching the market better, worrying and fretting with breaking even or paying bills (which can be painfully real worries!), fussing about the fact that she misjudged how much product to bring, obsessing about the opportunity cost of doing a show that sucks, or fretting or fussing about whatever demons are at hand is a sales person who has knotted eye-brows, a distracted demeanor, and a grouchy face.

No one wants to talk to a sales person like that. No one wants to buy art that’s polluted with dour air. We want our art, our crafty goodness, and our handmade lovelies to be just that: lovely, inspiring, and full of goodness. And someone who is focusing on the negative is pulling a dark blanket of dourness over all of his or her work, at best only during that show, and at worst, even while they create their work.

There is hardly a single tip I could offer you that is more valuable than the simple piece of advice at the heart of this post: search your heart, your situation, your work, your potential, your past, your dreams and anywhere else you can search to find the positive, especially when the going gets tough. I mean this in general, but I also mean this for those times when something tries to drag you down at a craft show. It is part of your job as a sales person to stay “on.” Staying on means you have to let go of the negative in a heartbeat. You owe your work an aura of lovely. You owe the muse within an aura of lovely. You are only hurting yourself if you turn to the dark side of your attitude while you are selling at a show. Like I said before, I mean it in real dollars and cents. There is no better way to make a bad show worse than by turning into a sourpuss. And by contrast, there’s no better way to make a bad show kinda okay (even financially) than by tossing aside your angst and looking for a silver lining for your cloud.

Say I go to an outdoor show and there’s bad weather (literal clouds). Rain rain rain. No one is there. My product is at risk for getting wet so I’m at risk for getting nervous. I’ve done the show before and had expected to do well because I had in the past, but the rain is going to certainly put a dent in sales. Crap. What do I do?

I buck up and deal:

Sadness, you’ll have to come back later, I’m in sales-person mode. I’m focusing on the moment, and in the moment my priority is to keep a good attitude so I can do the best job that I can with the situation at hand. Maybe I’ll focus on keeping a good attitude for the people who did come out in the rain (even if crowds are thinner than they would be otherwise), those people are probably the hardcore craft lovers if they showed up in the rain, so if I stay positive, maybe I’ll make their beloved show better too. I’ll beat out the grumps around me and offer my booth as a sanctuary. Keep a happy face. Maybe I’ll say something encouraging to the artist who looks down and out next to me (unless they want to commiserate, then I’m outta there – no one is dragging me down). Maybe I’ll mentally focus on how much fun it was to make the work around me. Wow, that piece is one of my favorites; I should rearrange to make it stand out more in my booth. I should put the yellow and orange pieces out front to contrast with the grey sky. I’m lucky, so lucky, to be here at all. To have the time and energy to do this work. To have a muse within who works with me to create such fun crafty goodness. I will let go of the rainy day and worry about all the worries later (if I must), but for now, I’m a sales-person. In this moment I am a sales person and it is my job to find the silver lining and to keep being a good sales person.

I bother with the inner monologue stuff here because I can’t tell you how many shows I’ve been at where, when circumstances made selling less than ideal -- too few shoppers, bad weather, change in venue that led to fewer repeat shoppers, etc, etc, etc – I bucked up and dealt and reaped reward because of it. There is nothing more satisfying than selling a bunch of your own crafty goodness when the going was tough around you.

It’s easy at a killer show. It’s harder at a not-so-killer show. But isn’t it satisfying to do a good job in the face of long odds? To do you’re best with a hand of cards that’s less than ideal? Celebrate those successes. A show where you made half of what you expected can be a success in that it might have been a show where you made a tenth of what you expected if you turned toward the dark side. You worked hard for what you sold. Celebrate it.

So, to sum up, don’t drag yourself down when circumstances are somehow less than ideal at a show. Search for the positive, focus on it, and make the very best you can with the cards at hand.

Designer Bookbinders of America

2011-07-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

..has a new website
a slideshow will be added for each of the members in 2 weeks...
demos on the blog page too..although most of you guys have seen mine!
stay tuned for more serious boxes coming your way!!

DBOA

Witherstone Gallery, Lunenburg, NS

2011-07-18T05:21:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, a new gallery opened in Lunenburg, NS, called Witherstone Gallery. Artist, Shawn Orne, conceived and established this gallery to showcase local artisans. Shawn has created a beautiful space in the heart of Lunenburg's unofficial art district, on Lincoln Street. This little part of Lunenburg has several galleries and art studios clustered together so it's a great spot to visit if you are in the area.

There is an amazing group of artists showcased at Witherstone. Alongside local artists such as Shelagh Duffett, Daina D. Scarola, Marina Smith, Sarah Morton, Sharon Hodgson, Mike and Sherry Goede, Julia Williamson, Shawn Orne, and more, I am thrilled to have my work on display here (part of the display shown here on the right). The next photo (below) shows another angle in the gallery where you can see the work of some of the artists mentioned previously.

Recently there was a Street Festival and Artwalk in Lunenburg so I was there with my work, set up on the sidewalk outside Witherstone Gallery. I was making books and had some work on display. Set up beside me was another one of Witherstone's artists, Anouk. She is here (photo below, in the pink) with several of her amazing paintings displayed on the sidewalk near the gallery. Anouk's work is amazing, you can see more on her blog at anoukwolse.blogspot.com.

Guest Blogger Lexi Janezic, Letterpress

2011-07-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

Lexi Janezic is a mixed media artist (drawing, painting, collage) and prospective book artist living in Kansas City, Missouri. We met this year at Paper and Book Intensive, where Lexi was attending as one of the Nell Meldahl scholarship winners. You can visit Lexi's blog at thegreywoman.tumblr.com.

As part of my continuing efforts to tell everyone about all the PBI classes, even the ones that I didn't take, Lexi agreed to tell us about the Letterpress class that she did with Jean Buescher Bartlett.

I started PBI 2011 having no knowledge of what to expect from this pleasantly unique event. The idea of having workshops strictly devoted to the art book and paper was as foreign to me as astrophysics. For the past year I have lived in a world where I felt I needed to be either an artist or a conservator, it was strange to think that I would be able to meet people that defined what it is to straddle the line between these two very different paths so seamlessly. It was a tremendous relief from my conscience as a creative individual, who had initially felt that it was impossible to find a happy medium between the two worlds.

From talking amongst my fellow PBIers, it became clear that Jean Buescher Bartlett (Blood Root Press), is well respected in the PBI community, and upon telling people I was taking letterpress with Jean, was overwhelmed with the consensus of people who wished to take letterpress printing with Jean at some point in their lives.

I have wanted to take a letterpress class since I first saw and felt the texture of impressed text on paper. This was a subconscious desire initially (seeing as I was a lass of 8 or so), but upon further investigation it was knowledge that became apparent as time went on, and intended to attain it at some point in my life. PBI was the perfect opportunity to become familiar with a medium I wanted to covet as much as my own.

From day one, we were setting type and printing, and of course, mulling over how to translate our own creative ideas and energies into the book form. To get the ball rolling, Jean had us write down nouns, adjectives and adverbs, place them in a hat, and create sentences based on the words chosen. The sentences produced from these found words were beautifully articulate, most having the intellectual ambiguity most poets can only hope for. Shortly after the completion of our sentences, the text was assembled into one poem, typeset, and placed in a galley in the press with appropriately arranged furniture. Following the typesetting, the printing process was introduced along with all the experimentation involved with newsprint packing, paper proofing, and finally, fine quality printing (+/- a few fingers). A typically long and tedious process cut down to its bare essentials.

The book shown here was designed and created by Jean Buescher Bartlett; the type was set by the students in this letterpress class. Photos by Ah-Ram Park.

Jean supplied us with a plethora of information on letterpress process, simple book structures, text, concept, and how these things can be made to manifest themselves together as one.

Photo by Ah-Ram Park.

In between people using the press, Jean introduced us to the book structures, all of which were simple and easy enough to interpret with something made with pages printed from letterpress. These books were primarily held together with PVA, which allowed for a wider margin of error for the expected inconsistencies in printing.

Of the vast range of information I was introduced to in this class, what was of particular interest to me was Jean’s creative process, specifically on the things that inspire, inform, and translate themselves to create her work. This presentation was filled with book layouts, hand drawn notes and fairy tales of yore. What was most striking to me about this presentation was the range in the types of work shown, most being small detailed hand-drawn illustrations and found media.

This class was a pleasure to take. Jean is a down-to-earth and patient person, and knowledgeable to boot about all things press related. Not only did Jean provide me with enough epiphanies about life and art to last me for quite some time, it provided a perfectly balanced technical and creative outlet tailored to our own artistic needs and wants.

A few more photos on Flickr

Featured Seller - String Me Along

2011-07-15T06:16:00.000-07:00

Our newest Featured Seller is Carol of String Me Along from Halifax, NS.

Jewellery design was a serendipitous accident.
Carol says:
I have a very scattered background. I graduated from university with an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Anthropology. Truly, not the most useful degree. It led to a variety of yawn-worthy office jobs, that did their part in helping me break free of the student loan debt. Once those were done, I took a look at life a little more thoughtfully, realized that the jobs I had been working made me truly miserable, and were just not worth it in the grand scheme of things.
So, I decided to return to a job that I loved while I was in University, which was at a local bookstore. I am now a manager there, and my days are much happier.
At the same time I also returned to jewellery making on a more permanent basis. My foray into jewellery making also began in university. It started with a quest for a necklace that I saw in a movie that I loved. I could not find a version available for sale anywhere, so one day as I passed a bead store, I spied some beads that looked like those on the necklace. I went in, bought a package, asked for some quick instructions and - BAM - I was hooked. I made several versions of that necklace for myself, and then started making them for friends. Finally, I booked a table at an annual December craft market near my university. I needed to broaden my scope a bit for the market so learned how to make some earrings, and bracelets, and the rest is history.

Of getting started on etsy:
When I left the office world behind, I decided that being creative and crafty was what I most loved. I decided to make it a permanent addition to my life and founded String Me Along jewellery as a result.
I learned about etsy from a crafter at a Toronto craft show. I set up shop here in January 2007. I loved the idea of having a global audience. In 2008, we moved from Toronto to Atlantic Canada which meant access to fewer craft show opportunities. At that point, I needed a way to get my work out there, and it has therefore become a much more important venue for me.

Carol's favorite thing about crafting

Basically, I just love creating. Some days when I feel blue or frazzled or bored with life, just sitting down in my studio and pulling out vials of beads, and clipping bits of wire has a truly uplifting effect. It also means that I can on occasion spend gobs of money on beautiful beads and supplies, and just call them a tax write-off when my husband raises an eyebrow at me. LOL

What influences her creative process?
I love to both travel and read. I get great inspiration from travelling. From the cobbled streets of Paris to the secluded beaches of Atlantic Canada, there is usually something that is visually stimulating.
Reading is also great for breaking me out of a rut. A quick tour through some Austen classics and I am filled with wonderfully romantic images that find their way into my pieces.

And a special offer for you.
I am happy to offer a 20% discount on all items in my shop. Simply use coupon code TCET20 at checkout.

SELL OUT! Tips for hand-selling stuff, tip 7

2011-07-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Tip #7: Don’t cross your arms or make similar closed-body gestures while selling your work. Also, look out for closed body gestures in your customers – such gestures send a signal worth listening to.

Open gestures suggest a touch of vulnerability – just enough so that you show you can be trusted. Closed gestures suggest you are feeling intimidated or that you don’t want to talk. They say “go away!” If you are crossing your arms or folded all over yourself in the back of your booth, you are telling your customers to go away. If you are consciously keeping your arms open, perhaps even showing your open hand when you show people your work, you are sending signals that you have nothing to hide. Try it. You may find it’s a bit difficult to let go and leave your arms open. It feels vulnerable. Vulnerability is a necessary part of being a sales person. You have to open yourself up to rejection. It’s important to become comfortable with this vulnerability, to remain confident while still vulnerable. So practice the open gestures. They will help you stay honest and help your customers trust you and know you are open to talking with them.

Similarly, if a customer is making a closed gesture (crossing their arms), try something to put them more at ease – hand them an item you are especially proud of or a photo of your process (uncrossing their arms). Or make a comment that has nothing to do with your booth that might make them smile. Or just step back, and give them space. Sometimes people cross their arms because they don’t know what else to do. Or they don’t know the person they’re talking to and so they are a touch out-of-ease. This is not a time to launch into hard sales. If someone had their arms open but then crosses their arms after they’ve been talking to you for a bit, it may be a subconscious thing they’re doing because you’ve crossed a line. Back off then. Stop talking about your work. Or try putting the situation at ease by asking them a question and listening to the answer. Pay attention to that signal – it’s just as valid of a way to listen to your customer as it would be to hear their stories.

Another gesture to avoid is the gesture of hiding ones hands. Hiding your hands subconsciously sends a signal that you have something to hide or you aren’t willing to open up with your customers just as much as arm crossing does. It's my opinion that over-eager sales people often put their hands behind their backs the most – I think it’s because they are trying desperately to open up to their customers (so they open up their shoulders) but they are still overly nervous and don’t know how to be open, so they can’t help but subconsciously still hide part of themselves (their hands behind their backs or in their pockets). Relaxing can help all of this. And practicing open gestures can actually help one to relax. Just as deep breathing does in yoga.

The point here is to pay attention to your body and the subtle signals you are sending. Try to align those signals with the ideas behind tips 1-6 (stay confident and available but not overly eager) and you’ll put yourself and your customers more physically at ease.

Fables and Fairy Tales by Prairie Peasant!

2011-07-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

Guest Blogger Elizabeth Sanford, Tunnel Books

2011-07-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Sanford is a watercolor artist who was seduced several years ago by the book arts. She is fond of flexicubes and teaches at Watkins College of Art, Design & Film in Nashville, TN.

Elizabeth's website is currently being remodeled but be sure to look for the revised version of elizabethsanford.com this Fall. Elizabeth has kindly agreed to tell us about the tunnel book class that she took at PBI this year. Thank you, Elizabeth.

I love Andrea Dezso's work (www.andreadezso.com), so when I saw that she was teaching a tunnel book class at PBI, I had to sign up! We learned 3 tunnel structures: the Jennifer, the Stephanie and the Luminitza.

My favorite was the first one, the Jennifer, so I spent most of the workshop on that one. It's a structure that Andrea invented that involves sewing the panels to the accordion sides so that they almost float. If you look carefully, you should be able to spot the silhouette of a bird (a yellow-billed cuckoo) in the front panel; there's another hiding in the branches on the second panel.

I started cutting these panels with an x-acto knife but switched to a scalpel in the middle of this model, and it was so much easier! I got mine from the PBI store run by Nancy Morains (here's her website: www.colophonbookarts.com/binding.html). I'm also interested in trying the kind of Olfa knife with carbon steel blades that Andrea uses.

The other 2 approaches are based on commercially printed books. The Stephanie is adapted from Winnie-the-Pooh's Pop-up Theatre Book (1993). The panels are attached with tabs at the top and bottom, and it folds flat. Here's my model in the open position:

The Luminitza is a 4 layer pattern based on a German book published in 1878. Here's Andrea's diagram, which reveals some of her humor:

I'm currently working on a more complicated version of the first model. Here are the 5 panels:

I'm planning to have more space between the panels this time so it will be easier to find the creatures that are hiding in the woods.

A few more photos on Flickr

Craft Show Confidential: Large Format Photography

2011-07-08T17:38:00.000-07:00

When designing your display for craft shows, you might not think about what to do with your walls. You’re probably already using the back of your booth to hang a sign with your name and/or your business name on it.

Something you may not consider is hanging large photos of your work. In Larry Berman's article A Conversation with Bruce Baker, nationally-known expert and speaker on booth design Bruce had the following to say:

Large format photography displayed on the walls of your booth does more to pull people in than just about any method you can use to attract customers attention.

When people pass by your booth, they might not be able to focus on your work because of the scale or maybe because there are people blocking your tables. If you hang large photos of your work on your walls, you are more likely to catch someone’s gaze and subsequently pull them into your booth.

Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy, supports Bruce’s thoughts by saying this:

Windows are the new billboard.

The walls of your booth are essentially your store windows – use them to your advantage. Don’t make your images too complex – they should be eye-catching and memorable. Get your message across quickly.

So what might you do with your photos? An obvious choice is a close-up of one of your pieces or maybe a grouping.

Something else to consider is to set the scene for how your work might be used. Not everyone understands that a photo album can be used for more than just special occasions or that a journal can be used in ways other than as a diary.

More from Bruce Baker:

It’s about who you will become when you wear the product or how it will make you feel if you own this object. Never underestimate the lack of imagination on the part of your customers, they need these images to show them how something will look on the body or displayed in a kitchen.

Look at the photo on the back left side of my booth:

I set up one of my journals on a table with a pen and a cup of coffee. I wanted people to think that by owning one of my journals, they could have a moment to themselves to reflect on their daily lives. I wanted to show how they could own a journal and that it wasn’t just a gift item – it fit into their lives. I used the photo to create a story and to invite customers to be part of it.

Here are some more ideas to get you thinking:

Show one of your open guest books on a table, surrounded by gifts.
Position your travel journal next to an airline ticket or a stack of suitcases.
Open up a photo album and put party pictures into it, along with a copy of the party invitation.
Focus on a page of one of your journals with “Gratitude Journal” written across the top and show the start of a list.

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to other needs. Needs that need to be addressed first include physiological and safety needs. The third level includes social needs - people crave connection with others and this includes family, friends, and romantic relationships.

Everyone already has lots of material possessions and at a basic level, your work is just going to add to the pile. People treasure experiences and memories created with their loved ones much more than things. If you can tap into the need for companionship through your photos, you can improve your odds of making a sale.

Take a look at the photo on the back right side of my booth. I created a scene where a mother and daughter were sharing a moment by looking through one of my photo albums. My goal was to help customers make an association between family and my work – if you own one of my photo albums, you’ll have the opportunity to spend time with family and share stories with them.

Stage your photos so that they appeal to your target customer. More from Bruce Baker:

Any photo is better than no photo but the image should focus on lifestyle and image. These photos should speak to your target demographic. When they do they get pulled into your space.

Using large format photography is like staging a house for sale – if people can’t imagine themselves in your home, then they probably won’t buy it. Use photos to help transport customers into a space where they exist with your work.

Some possibilities:

Show an image of a mother and child putting vacation photos into an album.
A picture of a parent and child reading a journal together, with a title on the front to indicate the journal contents - perhaps Our Family or Our Summer Vacation.
A grandparent and child cooking a meal while referring to a handmade book with the title Family Recipes.

Do you use large photos in your booth? How do you use them? Do you have any additional photo concepts to share? Send me an Email with photos and I'll include them in a follow-up post next week. Be sure to include your name and a link to your Etsy shop.

Resources:

Hemp and Glass for Earth Mamas!

2011-07-08T06:21:00.000-07:00

Coloured Hemp Macrame Bracelet by TawnyBee!

2011-07-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

The facebook group established by myself and some others last month, to promote the work of designer bookbinders working within north central, and south america, has grown to a modest but firm 300 followers. A website will be launched sometime next week, and our non-profit status is pending..
The work on display is really great, from toronto, to buenos aires..

Get behind us and support your pan-american bookbinder

For your 'Blackout Emergency Preparedness Kits!'

2011-07-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

My Analog Blog! by MyHandBoundBooks

SELL OUT! Tips for hand-selling stuff, tip 6

2011-07-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Tip #6: Stand up! Or if you must sit, get a stool that’s high off the ground. Or else at least sit up straight and act interested. There are exceptions to the rule of standing, but the general idea – stay available and on the same level your customers are on, physically (without being intimidating), is what you want to keep in mind.

Not everyone will tell you to stay standing in your booth. Some will even suggest you are intimidating if you do so. I have to respectfully disagree. If you do not have the foggiest notion on how to engage with people, standing is a bad idea. If all you do is hover in the background with your hands behind your back, eagerly awaiting your next customer, standing is a bad idea. Of course you don’t want to come off as too eager or intimidating.

But too many artists take this as a welcome invitation to sit and disengage, hide in a corner. I find that if I stay standing as much as possible, but don’t hover, I’m at my most available when natural conversation with customers takes place. I think it’s best to stay active, dust or rearrange or sort things behind my small “desk,” so that when conversation starts, I can easily part with what I’m doing, but I’m not dragging myself out of some dormant and checked-out position to engage with people. If you sit during an entire show, when the inevitable happens and you need to stand to help a customer, it comes across as way more confrontational and intimidating than a gentle setting down of the product you were rearranging. The act of moving from sitting to standing is like making a big announcement: “Okay, now we’re serious, you’ve disrupted me enough to make me stand, you better buy something!” It’s subconsciously an intimidating gesture to someone who is leisurely shopping and doesn’t want to be pressured into buying anything but still wants artists available to chat with them about their work.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t stand during entire shows, but I try to stand a lot. And when I am sitting when a customer comes in my booth, I’m sitting and doing something active, but that lets me still be available (see tip 5). I also try to subtly stand up to start to rearrange or dust or whatever, rather than stand to engage. Does that make sense? If I find that I’m sitting when it would be better to stand, I stand and start rearranging or doing something booth-related before I engage in sales. Then when I do engage in sales, I’m not doubling the interaction so that it seems confrontational rather than engaging.

Some artists who have limited abilities buy tall stools. This is a great idea. You can stay active while sitting, but when you go to stand it’s not quite the production that it is if you are sitting low and raising to full height. You are already at full height, so it’s just a small move to stand. If you do have the ability to stand though, don’t use the tall stool as an excuse to sit and disengage. Stay lively and active, as much as possible while sitting. Don’t resort to reading or staring off into space, arms folded.

I did two of the biggest craft shows I’ve participated in while I was pregnant, and while I stood a lot, it obviously wasn’t practical for my health for me to stand the entire time. So I kept the basic ideas in mind, sitting up straight, not hovering, but staying available. I sewed more covers during those shows. I found that it was actually more effort to stay interesting-looking and not bored while sitting, but it was possible.

There are a few definite exceptions to the standing rule. One is if your booth space is extremely limited (like only one table or something like that). Standing in such a small space I think is too intimidating. I tend to sit in extremely small spaces and find other ways to stay active. I also think that if your product is fine art or really large and you have a limited amount of product in your booth (large paintings for example, or giant metal sculptures or something), if you stand the whole time you are just going to look too eager. There’s not enough for you to do naturally to make standing a good idea. Buy a tall stool in that case and brainstorm ways to make yourself busy but still available. For book artists, this usually shouldn’t be a problem.

Standing or staying up tall (like on a tall stool) is preferable because you are at eye level with your customers. You can engage them more naturally and you signal that you are available and lively. You can engage people while sitting low, but I think it’s far easier to be effective if you stand, which is why I recommend doing so as often as possible during a craft show, particularly if the show is busy. But don’t take my advice point blank and word-for-word. Apply it to your own situation and see how it works.

Origami animals

2011-07-03T07:08:00.000-07:00

I just worked through a brief origami addiction. Made some fish...

Some crabs...

And some frogs...

Maybe I can get back to the books now!