Colour!

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I draw a lot of inspiration from colour, real time and in photos.  This post is dedicated to a small slice of my life where colour was my everything.  It couldn’t be helped, I was surrounded by it.  I’m talking about my time overseas, in Italy.

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I used to be a painter, colour was one of the most important parts of that process for me. Now that I’m a bookbinder I find different ways of using colour: fancy paper, reclaimed materials, cover adornments, etc.  And when I use my own journals: pens.  Oh how I love a good spectrum of pens.  I have multiple sets of rainbow-hued markers, ballpoint pens, prismacolour, copic, sharpies, staedtler fineliners.  It’s like Christmas every time I use them, so I use them a lot!  (When I had a day job, I was the person who took one of every colour of highlighter and pen from the supply room in an attempt to brighten up an otherwise dreary cubicle).  These photos are kind of like my pen sets; inspirational, bright, they put a smile on my face and make my colour-loving self sing.

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I don’t remember where all these photos were taken, I think some in Venice and some in Tuscany.  You can tell by the colour palettes of the buildings.  How amazing is that?  To know where you are by the colours of the walls lining the streets.  I do remember that green shutters were the common denominator no matter where I went.

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The richness of these last two places in Florence are so intense.  A different feel from the top two bright and sunny Venice towns.  The monochromatic-like palette is a lovely collection of ochre, amber, oranges and browns.

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Have you ever thought about the colours you use when journalling?  Sometimes I like to put a background wash of a light/pale colour (using the broad-tipped, sheer marker sets) on the page before writing with a matching colour on top (with a fineliner, of course).  And yes, I enjoy using more than one kind of pen/marker in a single journal entry, you should try it!  I’d love to hear about it if you do.  What are your favourite colours to journal with?

A Workshop!

Day 16/365

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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.

Hand Dyed Paper: Part 2

Day 14/365

Last week I wrote about testing indigo-dying techniques, where I used watercolour paints and washi paper.  Today, I’m going to talk about my experience using real indigo dye on both washi paper and handmade flax/abaca and hemp/abaca papers (from the folks over at Paperhouse Studio here in Toronto)
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If you’ve ever tried your hand at the popular Shibori technique, which is used for dying fabric with indigo, you’ll be familiar with the science side of this process.  Once indigo dye (which comes from a plant leaf) is mixed and heating up in a vat, the trick is not to stir it or otherwise let oxygen into the vat.   When the paper is dipped into the dye, it comes out green at first (as seen in the above photo), and then changes to that awesome indigo blue once the dye has oxidized (as seen in the photo below).

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That’s the main idea anyways, I won’t pretend to know it all!  But there is something exciting about combining science and art.  I cannot put my finger on it, but it made the process quite enjoyable and ultimately gave me a real appreciation for the finished product.photo 5

To see what I did with some of these papers, take a look at this journal.  And stay tuned as I’m still working on projects with the bulk of the papers I dyed.

The Mini Cigar Book

Day 13/365

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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.

The Studio on a Sunday

Day 12/365

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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!

Coptic Binding

Day 11/365

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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.

The Indigo Journal

Day 9/365

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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.  DSC_0704

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!

The Studio on a Sunday

Day 5/365

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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!