11.25.2007

Glue on my Fingers


And thereby I managed to get glue on my camera as I took this photo. Yep indeed, those be book makin's on my worktable. I'm in the process of preparing 10 hand bound Rekoj sketch journals to sell at this weekend's Punk Rock Flea Market. (Saturday 10am-? at the Underground in Belltown)
I've had a long intermittent affair with bookbinding. It is a skill I learned almost 10 years ago and for many years after my bookbinding skills made them a staple of holiday gift making. Also I have the personal annual ritual of hand making my own sketch book, each year getting more and more elaborate.

These will be my first ever series of Rekoj journals for sale however and I'm pretty darn excited about them. Just the process of choosing the fabric, cutting the mat board, brushing on the glue and folding countless pages of paper has gotten me eagerly anticipating holding each and every one of these little journals when they're finished. What I really love about bookbinding is that to me, more than any other hobby or craft, it feels like I truly am bringing a creation into being. Something solid and substantial you can hold in your hands. Something that will continue to evolve once written in. Like taking on a life of it's own as it travels in a purse and is filled with drawings and notes over time.

A shirt or a bag or a pendant or a painting doesn't give me quite the same tactile sense.

Or maybe I just love blank books. All that unspoken possibility. Poetry waiting to happen.

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