more books...

Look what I found whilst nosing through some of my old toys at my parents house this weekend...


In amongst a box of home made dolls house furniture made of perfume boxes, tiny knitted blankets, draws made of match boxes (a classic), little rag dolls with dresses and biscuits made from modelling clay. No dolls ever lived in the house I made from a big cardboard box, but they did have a library...


I think these were the first books I ever made, and it seems I liked tiny books from the start...


This one's a diary, dated '95, which would make me 11 or 12. I suppose that's how I occupied myself in the days before the internet :)


I think it's funny, that if someone asked me at that age what I wanted to do in my life, I probably wouldn't have had an answer, might've said actress or some other not thought out cliche, an answer to be polite (because the future really didn't concern me that much, it doesn't seem real does it?!) And I've always felt a little aimless, like I've ended up where I am through chance.

But looking back at things like this, it seems like perhaps I did know all along, it was just too close, couldn't see the wood for the trees...

Has anyone else ever felt like that?

on learning

Since I started selling books on Etsy about a month ago, I've noticed something.


I've noticed that my standards of what's acceptable to make have suddenly risen. Perhaps its because photos can hide little faults and imperfections, and I worry so much that my books won't look as good in the flesh. Because if someone picks up a book at a book fair or in a shop or gallery, they're seeing and holding the exact thing they're going to get, and if they don't like it, if it doesn't match what they think it should be, then they put it back down and walk away. Basically, I know my work must be ok because it wouldn't get bought if it wasn't (if you see what I mean). No worries.


But online it's a bit different. For my books to sell I suppose the buyer must like what they see in the photos and price and description, but until they receive it, there's still that expectation there, will you be pleased with it when you're holding in your hands? And although the chances are high (I try to make my descriptions and pictures as accurate as possible!) there's still that worry in the back of my mind.

But this worry has had an unexpected effect...


When I'm making mock ups and experiments, it doesn't matter if a little smudge gets on the cover, or one of the pages has a mark, but now these things are quite suddenly so important to me. Small small details that before I would let pass, ignore or just didn't see are now glaring me in the face. Shouting 'you can't send that to someone', a millimeter difference stands out a mile.

And I feel like I am beginning to understand what it takes to achieve the quality I've been aspiring to in my work (Kaija, Fletcher Durant, these) Not that I feel I'm anywhere near it though, in fact I'm feeling really frustrated with myself, with how I can't seem to get things just right, just how I want them; with how everything seems to take twice as long all of a sudden. So many books that previously I would've been pleased with have ended up in the not-good-enough pile.


But I know it's a good thing :)

This brown paper book is a recent experiment, playing around with paper instead of buckram for cover material. Testing its strength. My first attempt at this hard back binding after a few months of not trying it were pretty disastrous, glue blobs galore and a far too big gap at the spine. It's amazing how much you forget when you stop doing something isn't it. This is my second attempt, and luckily it's much improved, because soon a whole new batch of students will be coming in for inductions, and I want to make sure I know how to do it right!

wednesday

Well, we made it safely back from camping, only slightly midge bitten and tired... No star gazing went on as (we should've guessed) it was pretty cloudy all evening. But the views from the top of the hill were amazing...


Matt's cousin is an ecologist, so he pointed out and named all the different hover flies, wasps, moths, butterflies, dragonflies, birds, and wild flowers we saw, it was an entertaining day (oh, and I forgot my camera) So photos courtesy of Matt...


During my extra day off work I even managed a bit of book binding...


Now, when I finally stopped procrastinating and opened my shop, I really didn't want to go on about it all the time on here. I want this blog to continue to be a place to document my work, my thoughts, my ramblings (and complaints!) and definitely not a list of shop updates. So I think I may limit that to once a month or so. Hopefully that will stop me worrying about annoying everyone with endless self promotion, but also give me a bit of a deadline, to make enough stuff, enough stuff that's good enough anyway, to show you :) Does that sound ok?


So, these books are in the shop now!

field trip

I'm off camping this weekend, to the observatory in Kielder forest...

image courtesy of Kielder Observatory

Fingers crossed for clear skys!

I keep watching property development programs and home building programs and making myself depressed. I know I've got nothing to be depressed about, in fact I have much to be thankful for... I suppose it's just easy to focus on the bad things isn't it.

Anyway. More bread making adventures...


Rosmary and olive oil focaccia (supposedly) from this book. It's a total contrast to the no-knead recipe, lots of slapping the dough about to get air into it, and to be honest I'm not sure if I did it right as by the end my entire hands were covered in sticky dough, but at least I had fun!


After lots of prodding and leaving to rise...


Yum!

I've been doing a bit of folding today...


And a bit of printing too!

erm.

I don't know what I'm going to write about today. Perhaps it's that end of the holidays slump. Back to reality.

I get this feeling, when I've had loads to plan and organise, and it creates a kind of boundary in the calendar in my head. I haven't thought past the days I've been looking forward to, and I find myself feeling a bit lost. Like I'm sure there's something I should be doing, or thinking about, but I don't know what it is.

Today is my last day off. And it's raining, but I think I'm going to have to force myself to go out and do something, because if I sit in all day feeling sorry for myself... well, that will be a waste of a day won't it...

This morning I made some bread.


I've been trying out different recipes and flours and rising locations but so far nothing has really matched the idea I have in my head of what homemade bread should be. My last attempt looked so promising when it came out of the oven; lovey brown crust, burst open in the middle, hollow sounding when I gave it a tap, smelt yummy... but it tasted like I hadn't bothered to cook it at all. Like dough. Well, back to the drawing board!


This bread is the no-knead recipe I've read such good reviews of, and it looks pretty realistic! The dough stuck to the tea towel I left it on to rise, but apart from that it tastes pretty good, like a kind of chewy ciabatta..


A bit of garlic butter is in order I think... yum!

back

Well, I made it safely back from Amsterdam...


...and despite a weather forecast of rain, rain, rain, it ended up being really bright sunny all week...


...so, lots of time spent sitting and watching the world go by; looking up at the wonky buildings, green trees, cobbled streets. Lots of sight seeing, lots of jumping out of the way of trams and fast moving take-no-prisoners cyclists and lots of walking...


The sunlight on the canals that run throughout the city mesmerised me. So many shades of green and grey, fast moving sparkly light...


We stayed on a house boat, which was great; much less choppy than I expected, just a gentle swaying when another boat sailed past... and our neighbours...


A bird making a nest from rubbish; bits of plastic, drinking straws, cable ties, sweet wrappers... I'm not sure if it's resourceful on the bird's part or a sad reflection on us... (It's nothing compared to this though) The little bird seemed happy enough, weaving and adjusting the bits...



These little coots were everywhere, buffeted about by the waves from the larger boats. I took this picture from a pedalo we hired, and the bird was dealing with the waves much better than we were!


Well. Back to work next week.

After 2 weeks of lie-ins, getting up in the morning is not something I'm looking forward to!

secret belgium dinosaurs...

This morning I finished making the prints I was talking about a few days ago in to a dino book for my friends wedding present...


Above is the front and back, and here is what it looks like opened up...


Ahhh, dinosaurs in love :)


I'm getting to like this style of binding (the secret belgium style), even though each time I've sewn it I've done it a different way... This time I used a combination of methods involving sewing the cover around the pages but not attaching it, then sewing in the pages loosely, looping around every spine thread and then tightening them up at the end. The book feels fairly sturdy, it just took ages :)


Anyway, I'm going to be away for a week or so now as I've got two weddings in various parts of the country and a trip to Amsterdam to keep me occupied... So, have a good week, hope the sun shines where you are :)

more prints

Some more mono prints today... to be used to cover a book for my work collegue. He's getting married on Wednesday, here, it looks beautiful and I can't wait! He likes dinosaurs, specificlly pterosaurs, so that's what he's getting :)

I wanted to make the prints look like fossils, and straight forward mono printing didn't look quite right...


So I inked up a plastic plate with white ink and a roller, then place newsprint over that and drew my image. I then ran the remaining ink and plate through the press with the brown paper to get a kind of reverse image, and I think it works better...


I would've liked to have done a few more prints, becauase it's hard to get the thickness of the ink correct (correct for what I want anyway) and then the pressure of the drawing, the drawing tool and the pressure of the press all make a difference on the finnished print, but I couldn't because I ran out of paper. Oh well! These will have to do!


I'll show you when the book is done :)