Old-New

Posted on January 5, 2015 by sproutspress

Day 90/365

Today has been all about dusting off my old calligraphy stuff. It’s old in age, but new again to me! I’m starting pretty much from scratch, with some great titles from the library to inspire and guide me. I will admit that I actually dusted this stuff off during my OOAK prep as a way to find peace and calm amidst the chaos and stress. But it was short-lived and pretty much just the act of putting paper to pen. Now I’m focusing on my skills and the creative possibilities of hand lettering.

I’m hoping to use this as a springboard to more posts about growing skills to use your journals and sketchbooks. So, follow along and learn with me, I promise it’ll be fun!

Inspiring Things (these days)

Posted on January 3, 2015 by sproutspress

Day 88/365

After the conclusion of a large project, or the close of a busy holiday season I often find myself searching for what’s next. Obviously I’ve got all the ‘business’ things to keep the left side of my brain busy these days. But what about the next steps for the creativity that drives Sprouts Press, what will the next collection of journals be? What function will they serve or what questions will they answer, if any? Will they just be pretty objects that also happen to be books or something else?

I’ve found myself circling around a few topics and activities over the last couple of weeks that seem to be influencing these decisions. While I’m not going to share what they are, (yet, sorry!) I’d love to tell you how I reached them, with the hope that other kindred spirits are also on this type of quest and might find it useful.

So, this is what I do:

1. Go to the library. Take the library bag. Spend around 2/3 of the time in the non-fiction section and 1/3 in the fiction section. I like to choose books that are a combination of inspiring and instructional, and books on things that I’ve never tried before (ie. traditional Norwegian knitting!! So beautiful!). And while I probably won’t actually learn traditional Norwegian knitting, I will certainly enjoy the craftsmanship and detail of the pieces in the book.

Gather enough books to max out your library card. Seriously. (It doesn’t cost anything, unless you don’t return them on time. I *may* have done this once or twice). While it’s nice to know exactly what you want to look at, it’s so great to just wander the stacks and see what pops out, what titles catch your eye.

2. Drink tea in the sunshine. This one requires a bit more patience, for me anyways. To find a sunny window and really enjoy a cup of my favourite tea while not thinking about anything else, just the tea. I will be honest, it’s rare that I can do this for an entire cup of tea. Usually it’s just half the cup, then I get sidetracked/eager to look at my library books. I still enjoy the tea, but more in a gulping look-at-that-awesome-piece-of-artwork kind of way. In the summertime this is an outdoor/backyard/cafe patio activity!

3. Tidy up the workspace. I’ve said this before, but a tidy workspace really is so inviting when starting a new project. Everything is easily found and nothing needs to be moved out of the way to clear another corner of the desk. I suppose it’s the same idea with a journal; the blank page is uncluttered and prepped for your ideas and creativity.

On days when I do these things in the morning, I find the rest of the day just flies by with me working away and before I know it, it’s time to start dinner. I get completely lost in designing or creating or researching, and I love it! Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

January Second

Posted on January 2, 2015 by sproutspress

Day 87/365

It’s the last day of Sprouts Press’ boxing week sale!! Now’s the time to scoop that journal you’ve been eyeing and use it to start 2015 right! You have until midnight tonight.

In other news, I would normally share my new year’s resolutions now, being the first *real* day of the new year (the 1st is a holiday, but the 2nd is for real). But I cannot as they are all surprises, so you must wait! I’m done with the boring, mundane and expected resolutions. I figure they should just happen all the time anyways.

Hope everyone’s new year has started off on a stellar note!

Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 25, 2014 by sproutspress

Day 79/365

Greetings!

Happy Holidays, wishing everyone a great holiday season!

I’d like to thank everyone for their business, support and general awesomeness this year as I really pushed Sprouts Press to the next level. I love receiving your feedback so I can grow and learn and keep Sprouts Press flourishing! Keep it coming!!

I look forward to 2014, to designing and creating new items and journals (already have a few projects in the works!) and giving you more pen-to-paper options throughout the year!

Have a wonderful, happy and safe holiday!
Cheers,
Carolyn ~ Sprouts Press

Wordless Wednesday 24.12.14

Posted on December 24, 2014 by sproutspress

Day 78/365

Top 5 Things I Learned at the One of a Kind Show

Posted on December 9, 2014 by sproutspress

Day 63/365

Top 5 Things I Learned at the One of a Kind Show:

1. Wear comfortable shoes, no one really looks at your feet anyways. Worst case scenario: kinda-comfy shoes with inserts or orthotics.

2. Eat healthy, eat often. Lots of tasty, healthy snacks saved me from becoming Cranky Carolyn!! (and, yes I’ll admit it, the occasional handmade almond toffee, or organic chocolate covered nougat)

3. Stay hydrated. In a place as large as the Direct Energy Centre, it gets dry fast! Luckily they had a huge drinking water station with several bottle-filling taps to rehydrate throughout the day. And with so many awesome body care makers at the show, it was impossible to have dry cracked skin! (yay new organic spearmint-eucalyptus lip balm!)

4. Listen. I learned so much from both customers and other makers by listening to their stories, advice and thoughts. So much has developed from these insights: I’ve already got new projects mulling for the new year, new booth design ideas for next Christmas and I learned some painful yet necessary lessons about when to speak up and when to stay quiet.

5. Enjoy it! I worked so hard to get this far, to design items I felt my customers would appreciate and get excited about, and to hand craft each book carefully to the best of my abilities. So why not share this and let my enthusiasm shine through?! It was so affirming to watch people search my display looking for just the right journal, asking questions and holding the books. Even more so when they found the right book, clutching it and then deciding to give it a new home either as the perfect gift for someone else or for themselves.

Coming Soon!

Posted on November 6, 2014 by sproutspress

Day 30/365

The last couple of days have been a flurry of activity in the studio. Bookbinding kits galore!!

This year I’ve decided to make a variation of my usual kit and will be officially announcing them shortly. They are a limited edition, incredibly cute and fun!

The Travelling Artist

Posted on November 3, 2014 by sproutspress

Day 27/365

In the spirit of talking about some of my favourite projects, I couldn’t resist a post about these watercolour travel journals. Originally in two colours, only the pink is left. This book was designed to be a tough and rugged workhorse of a journal. I wanted to create a beautiful yet functional sketchbook to take along while travelling or hiking. I put in a pen holder on the spine and a braided linen tie-around closure. It’s sturdy and solid, and beautiful all at the same time.
The hot pink paper is handmade (not by me) with a lovely scattered seedpod-like pattern on the front, and solid, bright, hot pink on the back. I’ve had many discussions with papermakers about how this technique was achieved; maybe the hot pink paper was pulp painted, with rice as a resist? Maybe it was a lamination of sheet forming? I don’t know the answer, but it’s fantastic either way.

The second journal uses hand-decorated paper that I picked up a long time ago. I wish I could remember the artists name, I’d love to get more! It is a textured wallpaper, that has been painted and distressed and then flecks of gold applied. It has the effect of a dark, starry night.

Colour!

Posted on October 24, 2014 by sproutspress

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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 Book of Plenty

Posted on October 17, 2014 by sproutspress

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!