Coptic Headband Class

Well, life has been busy as my partner and I prepare to leave St. Louis and start our new life out east. Today, we disposed of two old desks, shredded old documents, and purged more things that won't make the journey with us. Despite these preparations, I am trying to squeeze in as much bookbinding as possible and have continued to fill my Etsy shop. I am wondering how quickly I will be able to being the creative process again once we get settled.

Last weekend, I took a class on sewing Coptic Headbands. It was great fun! I will miss my bookbinding teacher, Joanne. For anyone interested in bookbinding near St. Louis, I highly recommend you getting in touch with her. She is an excellent mentor and has been quite an inspiration. I have learned so much and am always motivated to learn as much as possible when in her creative studio space. Before working with her in 2006, I tried to make a couple of books, but didn't even know about grain direction or proper glues. It is fun to look back at those books now. Her instruction has been monumental for me; the knowledge I have gained about bookbinding has forever changed my life - it is like a rewiring of the brain.

Once I got the hang of this sewing technique, it was quite rewarding and didn't seem too difficult. Starting the process was the most challenging. It is very neat to see the finished product; I love the idea of using contrasting colors to really make the headband "pop." After the class, I replicated what I learned on another book I had recently sewn and was happy with the end result, even though the measurements were a bit off. The next one will be even better! I look forward to incorporating this technique on more structures soon. The details of this sewing are in the book, Headbands How to Work Them by Jane Greenfield and Jenny Hille. But, taking a class and learning from a professional is so much better (at least for me). It gives me the confidence that I am learning correctly.

Custom Orders for Teachers

Much of the last several weeks have been spent working on custom bookbinding projects. These three are for teachers who make a difference every day! As this school year winds down, don't forget about those special teachers in your life.

1) A teacher that I work with is expecting her second child soon. Her teaching partner asked me to create a photo album to present as a gift from the class. The children created advice to the baby and these illustrations were sewn into the book. When I photographed the book, I realized that I put the covers on the wrong sides; hence, the pictures were upside down! I felt ill - what a terrible mistake! My mentor shared that being able to fix mistakes is a key element to bookbinding (as well as many other areas of life). Realizing that I had a few days to redo it if I needed to, I cut the stitching on the spine and resewed the book, aligning the pages correctly. My obsessiveness took over and I had to complete it that evening - it couldn't wait until the next day. At first, I was concerned that I would need to flip all of the pages and worried that the holes might not match. And, what if my thread tension is different and the pages don't fit correctly. Then, I realized that I would only need to change three of the sections; a little planning and trimming fixed my problem perfectly. In fact, the book might have felt more tight and secure upon this second sewing.

2) I had a student teacher this semester; she was excellent by the way! She taught a writing project that required students to create a polymer clay character as part of their planning process. I used the left over clay and a rolling pin to create two polymer clay covers for a special book. Our students illustrated book sections advising as to what makes a good teacher. I sewed these as well as several blank sections into the book. This was my first clay covered book. I wonder how it will hold up over time. Hopefully, it will be a special memory of her time in our classroom.

3) My nephew is a second grader in Michigan. His mom asked me to make an end of the year gift for his teacher. So, I created this green hinged box structure and included the hand painted paper that is integrated into much of my work. Several handmade cards are included. These cards are what inspired me to launch art as an "obsessive hobby" in 2004. A hand cut black panel is attached to water-color paper. Several layers of coordinating colored paper frame the design. Envelopes were created by folding an outdated atlas - a great way to outdated paper from recycling. Once the teacher uses the cards, the box will serve as a special container for many years.

Painted Paper

I love painted paper! Somehow, it brings me back to childhood - playing with watercolor paints or crayons - even the time in elementary school when we put crayons in our glue to make the white adhesive change colors. I love the array of commercial and handmade decorative papers that is used in bookbinding and handmade box projects. But, it is also fun to experiment and create my own. There is just something about getting messy, playing with colors, and accepting the final product.

It is great to spend a couple of hours with liquid acrylic paint, black ink, Arches text weight paper, water, and other supplies. I love spreading out and going crazy (being careful not to get paint on the dining room table or the floor). Each sheet comes out unique and completely one of a kind! When trimmed into smaller pieces, the art looks very different. I can't just paint one sheet. I keep going - mixing the paints ever so slightly as I go along and spreading out the wet paper all over the living room floor until it dries. Yesterday, I painted 9 pieces of paper. When there is enough acrylic paint left, it is fun to paint book fabric. Like the paper, this painted fabric looks very different when attached to the cover of a book.

I have made a few journals in which the entire book block is comprised of these painted pages (one of these books will be posted to Etsy soon). At other times, I cut the paper and use it to embellish the book. Sometimes the painted paper is used to surround the spine of each section on a Coptic bound book and at other times, it is used for the cover of the book. Regardless, I find a great deal of satisfaction knowing that the paper used is partially designed by me, but mostly by the water and paint nearby. It seems to take on a life of its own.

Amherst and Lupe

It has been a while since life has allowed me to move forward on bookbinding projects. My partner is a scientist and has been on the job hunt this past fall. He just accepted a faculty position at Amherst College and we will be moving there this summer. We have known that a move would be coming and are both very glad to know where we are headed. The details during this initial decision making process have kept both of us quite busy! I truly look forward to getting to know more about the art community in and around Amherst. Now, it is my turn to explore job opportunities as an elementary teacher. Now that this major move is in place and we have announced it to those close to us, we can get back into some sort of routine once again. For me, this means carving out some time to create handmade books. Although, I also realize that I don't have much more time for bookbinding in St. Louis.

This afternoon, I finished one more upcycled book; this time, using a 1934 copy of the book, Lupe Goes to School by Esther Brann. It has an orange cover with black lettering. A little girl is walking across the cover. One of my favorite features of the book appears on the back cover. The fabric from the spine has been carefully detached and reapplied on the back cover. I love the fact that this old book has been given new life. It will make a perfect journal for just the special someone!


I have some other pieces of spine fabric that I have removed from other antique books. I might incorporate those into another upcoming handmade journal. This project also includes scanned portraits from a 1929 yearbook. Currently, the book is sewn and sitting in my "to do" pile. I look forward to the final product (hopefully, I can finish it this weekend or early next week).

Featured in Bookbinding Blog

I feel honored to have been featured on the bookbindingteam blog today. Please check out the interview here. There are some great bookbinding resources and interviews with other book artists as well.

Sewing a New Book

I spent some time this evening sewing a Coptic bound book. I cut the cover off of the 1940 book, The Trees by Conrad Richter. A heavy blue book cloth covers this book and it is still in relatively good condition considering it is 70 years old. When sewing a Coptic book, I like to cover the sections with paper in order to give it a decorative embellishment as well as to provide a small amount of room for growth in case the person who uses it chooses to add photos or other ephemera. The unsewn book has been sitting around for a while waiting for me to tend to it. (I teach second grade full time and has taken up the bulk of my week).

I love the feeling of pulling out my various colors of waxed linen thread, looking at them - trying to decide which ones would be just right for the project at hand. Tonight, I settled on olive green, blue, and red. While these vary from the braided thread used as a closure, I think the colors compliment the cover nicely. Sometimes, the thread pulls or gets tangled, causing frustration on my part. Not so this evening. This upcycled journal came together perfectly.

I think back to the first time I sewed a Coptic stitch book by following the directions presented in Keith Smith's book, Exposed Spine Sewings. I used cardboard and copy machine paper since I knew it was for practice. It didn't turn out too bad, but it wasn't something worth keeping. Putting it in my "give-away" pile at school made a little second grader very happy though! I have come a long way since then. I feel rather confident about this particular stitch and would like to branch out and try something new. I played around with the Celtic Weave a week or so ago. It didn't turn out right. With practice though, this too will likely become second nature one day.