Cherry Blossoms Journal

Ahh, cherry blossoms, a beautiful and unmistakable sign of spring... When I was in college, I used to walk through my campus, which was home to some 60 Japanese cherry trees donated by our sister city in Japan, and enjoy the cherry trees blossoming like pink popcorn, until they reached their full bloom and started blowing off in the breeze... Is it any wonder that Japanese culture reveres the cherry blossom and its aesthetic quality so much?

I thought a nice way to celebrate spring would be to make a cherry blossom themed journal. It took me a while to find good cover paper for it, and I ended up finding it at Michael's of all places. But while the cover paper is beautiful, I think it still needed something else... So I used some pearlescent white paper for inner covers, white crinkle paper for end leaves, and navy blue cloth for the spine.

 

I really like how this book turned out. If I had a use for yet another journal I would likely keep it for myself... But just like there's no hoarding spring, we shouldn't hoard the things that we create either. What is the point of making something beautiful, whether it be art or music or crafts, if not for all to enjoy?

 

This book is for sale!  Check it out on my Etsy shop :)

Penguin Sketchbook

I haven't made many books lately, I know. Life has been very uncooperative the last couple of months. I have made a couple of books, but due to errors they weren't going to be very sellable, or something I wanted to show off. But finally it's coming back together and I've had time to make a book or two.

This sketchbook cover is made from a poster from a puzzle box, given to me by my girlfriend. The paper unfortunately has crease marks from where it was folded, but other than that it's a great cover. I love penguins.

I learned a lot about my new book construction technique by doing this book. The process of gluing the covers together with bookcloth, gluing the codex in, then gluing on the inner covers and end leaves takes a lot more precision than I realized at first, and indeed I glued it all in wrong the first time, resulting in the codex spine folding where I didn't want it to fold and my having to disassemble and re-glue it.

The end result though, after two tries, is very nice. I quite like the double bookcloth cover, kind of reminiscent of a double matte for a painting. It's sewn together nicely, and quite sturdy.

This book is for sale! Buy it on Etsy today! :)