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Reconnecting with the past

>> Monday, July 11, 2011


One of the best parts of starting my own business has been getting to meet so many new people, from talented artists at art shows to the inspirational bookbinders of BEST.  But I've also had the chance to reconnect with people I've know for years.  This journal was commissioned by one of my high school classmates, Kendra, as a birthday gift for her sister.  (While working on this project for Kendra, I also got to hear more about her own business, Connected Healing, specializing in holistic horse healthcare.) 


This book is a 6" x 9" leather journal, bound in yellow thread using the Italian long-stitch technique.  Usually when I make smaller leather journals, like this one, I use a thin leather strap which is attached to the cover by looping it through a series of holes in the leather.  However for this large journal, I felt that the book needed a thick strap to aesthetically balance the book.  

This lead me to try a new way of attaching the strap, resulting in the double X stitching pattern.  While certainly nothing groundbreaking, I loved the extra bit of visual interest that the simple pattern brings to the book.  I wonder how it would look to continue the stitching pattern along the entire length of the strap.  I may have to try that on a future book. 


The inside of the book features colorful bits of paper from a vintage world atlas.  I selected an assortment of maps from around the globe to wrap each section of pages.  And since all of the maps I used are printed on both sides, no matter how you flip through the book you can get a little geography lesson. 




11 comments:

Diana Maria July 12, 2011 at 9:41 PM  

Gorgeous!

Courtney Walsh July 14, 2011 at 4:36 PM  

I've always wanted to try making my own journal! This is just beautiful!

Katie July 19, 2011 at 9:42 AM  

Thank you both! Courtney, if you'd like to try making your own journal sometime, feel free to get in touch and I can point you to some online tutorials.

Tanya July 22, 2011 at 5:03 PM  

i would love to see a link to the online journals :) i think was an amazing job and would love to try something like this :)

Katie July 27, 2011 at 10:31 AM  

There are a bunch of great tutorials and kits here:
http://www.bookbindingteam.com/p/tutorials-kits.html

Something like the 3-hole Pamphlet would be a good place to start, just to get your feet wet in the world of bookbinding.

If there's anything in particular you're interested in, let me know and I'll try to help out!

Nancy August 10, 2011 at 11:06 PM  

This is very beautiful. Your work is amazing!

Katie August 11, 2011 at 9:47 AM  

Thank you so much, Nancy! I'm glad you've enjoyed my work. Thanks for visiting my blog!

Anonymous August 11, 2011 at 2:32 PM  

Love your site - and your work - Katie! Just gorgeous all the way around. I've written a short post about it that will appear on my blog tomorrow.

To our creativity!

Laura (and Marcie)

Katie August 12, 2011 at 10:26 AM  

Thanks so much, Laura! How nice of you!

Jellison August 2, 2013 at 11:59 AM  

As a new bookbinder I really appreciate your balance of aesthetics and function with the form connecting it all as a whole. The maps wrapped around each section remind me of Keith A. Smith's theory of bookbinding. I think you're doing really great work. Keep it up Katie.

Katie August 2, 2013 at 11:16 PM  

Soldier of Light - Thank you so much for your kind comment, and for taking the time to read my blog! I hope you found a few things here to inspire your future bookbinding endeavors. Have a wonderful and creative weekend!

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