Day 18/365
In preparation for the One of a Kind Christmas show here in Toronto, I’ve been testing different techniques for cover decoration. One of my first experiments was a series of painted covers.
It’s a pared-down, simplified and more minimal variation of my painted and printed matchbook style journals. 
I really enjoy the process of hand decorating a large sheet and then cutting it into covers. Each book ends up being unique and one of a kind.
Day 16/365
Just a friendly reminder: my Coptic Binding Workshop is this sunday at Arts Market! It’ll be loads of fun, with light refreshment, merriment and a great way to learn a new skill (or brush up on old an old skill). Also, it’s just in time to start on making holiday gifts, if that’s your sort of thing.
Find out more here.
If you can’t make this one, don’t fret, there are a few more dates on the Workshops tab of my site, and there are a few more in the works for november and december. I’ll announce them shortly.
Day 13/365
Meet the mini cigar book! It’s a small book, just the right size for email addresses (this is the size I use at arts and crafts fairs to collect names), favourite quotes, tweets, horizon sketches, you get the idea.
It’s also a pretty great way to use up the ends of cigar boxes after I make the larger cousins of this book, found here. I find that often some of my favourite projects happen spontaneously and unexpectedly, after a main project is finished. I’ll be looking at the off-cuts and rejected bits of the larger project and realize the potential of the leftovers.
Day 12/365
A glimpse of the tidiest corner of the studio mid-prep for the busy holiday season that is, gasp, just around the corner!!
I’ve already sewn these text blocks, next I’ll make the covers and then case them in. There’s a nice surprise of page materials and the covers are full bookcloth (made by me!), I’m pretty excited for these journals!
Day 11/365
Next weekend is the Coptic Bookbinding Class I’ll be teaching at the Arts Market on College! This is a great hands-on class that teaches how to make a really nice hard cover journal. Participants will leave with a finished journal, made from scratch!
I personally love the coptic binding for its immediacy as a non-adhesive binding (we will be pasting covers though, but the binding itself is non-adhesive). Once the basic stitch is learned there are many variation possibilities, making this a very versatile binding technique.
It’s a great way to get started on personalized holiday gifts, too.
It runs on Sunday, October 26 11:30am – 2:30pm. Go here to learn more and see how to register, or check out my workshops page for other upcoming dates.
Day 10/365
No, this isn’t really all of my journals. It’s just the most organized-looking photo of some of my favourites and currently in-use journals. What I want to talk about today are some of the uses of my journals, maybe they’ll inspire you too!
Some of these are books that I’ve handbound, and others are books I’ve collected over the years, from other hand binders. There are several from Italy (Florence, Venice and Rome), and many from other binders here in Toronto and across Canada. I feel I should come clean and admit that I don’t use all of them. A few are in the queue to replace books with only a few blank pages left.
While I have journals for: ideas, to-do lists, sketches, favourite quotes, dreams, ramblings and other categorized observations, I usually have one daily journal. This is the one that goes everywhere with me, fits in my purse, is rugged and tough yet beautiful enough that I sometimes use it as ‘advertising my craft’ when out on the town. It’s also the test-run of my new indigo journals and is pictured above.
It’s pretty liberating to have this book as a catch-all for everything, no stress about perfect penmanship, clean sketches or having the best ideas. I use it for everything: to-do lists, measurements of projects, contact information, ideas, sketches. It’s a lovely snippet of this time in my life. Looking back on my other, older, daily books, it’s interesting to see what my focus was at the time, what my inpirations and dreams were all about.
If you have a book that you really love and want to use but just aren’t sure, this is where I suggest to start; a book of plenty. I’d love to hear how it goes!
Day 9/365
I’ve been working on hand dying papers with indigo over the last few weeks, both in my own studio and at Paperhouse Studio here in Toronto. 
After a bit of trial and error I’ve been able to turn the papers into things like this lovely journal aptly titled: ‘Indigo Journal No.1’. I think it’s my favourite book in my shop right now. It’s a handy sized journal, it’s thick with pages so I won’t use it up that quickly and I love the white-indigo blue-brown colour scheme. Also, the texture of the washi paper covers is delightful!
There are more projects in the works for these papers, so keep your eyes peeled!
Day 8/365
Day 5/365
This is my studio on a less-busy sunday, a happy little corner of creativity. Just some regular ol’ bookbinding going on, some tea-drinking and what not. A nice sunday indeed!
Day 4/365
This is one of my most favourite projects to date. It’s something I thought about for a long time before making it, mulling over it’s possibilities and the best way to craft it that accurately captured what I had in mind.
It’s a lovely Florentine cover watercolour journal, complete with leather implements holder. I love that the leather wrap around is a layered, pieced-together band, reminiscent of a quilt. You can even see the button holes from the reclaimed leather’s previous life as a garment.
This was a unique, one of a kind project and it sold a long time ago, but I think of it often.
Sprouts Press 