Stitching it all together

I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to stitch all my gelli printed pages together into a little art journal. So, at the weekend, I finally sat down to make my first journal. So I took out my little box of bookbinding tools which I had bought in London last year, and started with the first step - folding all the sheets in half with the help of a bone folder.

The next step was to put the sheets together into signatures, and then punch holes through all of them using a hole-punching tool (I used my lovely awl with its smooth and shiny wood handle).

I decided to use this beautiful red waxed thread instead of the simple white one. I just hoped that it would be long enough, as it was already cut.

I started with my stitching following the instructions from an online course I had taken last year. But the instructions were for three holes, and as I had punched four holes into my sheets, this was just too confusing to start with. So I got out my three books on making books. One of them didn't have the coptic stitch I wanted, and with the other two, I just couldn't make head or tail of it. I really like the design of Esther K. Smith's How to Make Books, but I gave up on the instructions already after step 2. So I googled stitching techniques for a video tutorial I would understand. This one seemed quite useful, but it started with attaching the cover to the first signature, and as I didn't have a cover, I just couldn't figure out the technique without one. At the end, this instruction was the one that worked for me.

When I bought my bookbinding basic tools last year, I bought both ordinary straight needles and curved needles. I had started stitching my journal with a stright needle, as the curved ones looked a bit scary, but some time after the second or third signature, I began to realise the advantage of a curved needle. It made the looping bit much easier, but in general still felt very akward to use.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure if I did it the right way, but at the end, I had stitched all my signatures together, and although I hadn't tightened the thread evenly, it was all holding together and not looking too bad.

What I like about this stitch is that the journal lies flat, which makes working in it much easier, especially if you want to paint in it.

I decided to add a cover to my book, a wrap-around one, using the sheet of paper I had used to clean my roller on while doing the printing. I just improvised, and stitched it on somehow. It's not quite straight, and I'm not sure if I will keep it on.

So here's my finished little journal. I'm not quite sure yet what I'll be using it for. Not for painting, but maybe for noting down quotations and special memories and such. And I'll definitely be making more journals.

{Day 22} ~ Centrepiece

Prompt for Day 22 for Picture Winter: "Centrepiece"

The assignment was to picture what's at the centre of our table and to "picture it in a way that says something about  you and your beloved table".

What you always find on my table are my beloved black+blum Loop candle holders. I first saw them at the shop in the Desing Museum in London a few years ago and simply couldn't resist. I bought just the one simply because there wasn't room for more than one in my suitcase (that was when hand lugagge restrictions were still extremely strict). But I managed to mail order two more from an online shop soon after. So I've got three of them, two satin and and one chrome finish, holding 6 candles altogether and I love how you can combine and interlace them or use them individually.

Some time later I found the matching fruit bowl (at the moment filled with tasty oranges). The third thing you'll always find on my table, as everywhere else in my home, is a pile of books. Some photography books at the moment.

So what does this say about me? That beside all the old stuff I that I love so much, I also have a passion for (affordable) modern design. In fact, my secret dream career has always been that of a (furniture) designer, but I've never even considered pursuing that. And that I have to have books around me at all times, everywhere.

The black+blum objects are also quite fitting in another way, as the designers are an "Anglo-Swiss partnership". Well and here's me - an anglophile Swiss. So there you go. My life on my table :-).

Texture by Kim Klassen.

{Day 3} ~ All The Possibilities

Prompt for Day 3 for Picture Winter: All The Possibilities

My books are always close at hand and they are an endless well of possibilities. I couldn't live without them. Unfortunately, those gorgeous old volumes in the pictures don't belong to me, though, but to the library where I work.

Textures by Shadowhouse Creations (love that glass plate effect!)

{Day 1} ~ A Day for Rest

After having finished Picture the Holidays yesterday, the new year starts with a new challenge: Picture Winter.

Prompt for Day 1 was: A Day for Rest. I spent most of the day at the computer, learning the basics of how to use PSE and no it's time for a mug of hot white chocolate and putting up the feet :-)

Textures by Kim Klassen

{Day 2} ~ Reframe

Day two of Picture the Holidays and the prompt for today is "reframing", to find time in the hectic pre-Christmas time to enjoy it and calm down. I couldn't live without books and there's no day when I don't read but in winter, I especially love to get up really early on Sunday mornings, when the world around me is still asleep. I love that calming feeling of being the only person awake and having the world to myself. I love to spend the time reading one of my favourite books in those early wintry, snowy, calm mornings and drink a nice cup of tea.

It has also become a bit of a tradition for me to re-read a favourite book in the time before Christmas. This year, I'm re-reading Peter Hoeg's "Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow". For a winter and snow lover, the absolute perfect book! :-) I have three different copies of this book, all of which you can see in the picture. The one I'm reading at the moment is the one on top.

It's the last week of the Colour scrapbooking class and the colours are the neutrals, black and white and the shades in between. I think this and the snow outside has inspired me for the tones for this picture :-).

{Day 1} ~ Gratitude

Yesterday was the first day of Picture the Holidays, and the prompt was "Holding onto Gratitude". What am I grateful for? Lots of things, and 2010 so far has been an especially rotten year, giving even more cause to be grateful about different kinds of things. The idea for the picture for this day though came from the radio, to which I wake up every morning. This time of the year is also the time, when many companies announce their cutting and restructuring plans for the new year. On the news yesterday, yet another of these companies announced their planned job cuts, leaving a few hundred people with a letter of dismissal as a Christmas present and the prospect of facing redundancy in the year year. Some of them may find it especially hard to find a new job, as they never had a chance to get formal training and qualifications and have to put up with low paid jobs they don't enjoy.

I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to do all the trainings and qualifications I wanted to do, to chose where and what I wanted to study, to chose the profession and wanted to and which I love (I'm a librarian). I am grateful that I can fully enjoy the Christmas season  look forward to my Christmas break, knowing that I have a job to get back to in January after the holiday.

The portrait picture is the one I uploaded to the class gallery, the one below I wanted to upload on Flickr as well, but today, Flickr doesn't seem to want me to upload anything. I always get a failure notice and I don't even know why. So annoying. But I keep trying... :-)