Well this is all rather exciting!

 Let me see...

Still working on the 'Mega-Book' commission as I had to wait for board to arrive. The sheer scale of this still scares me, although I haven't admitted that in such bald terms to the client! It is fun to have so much space to play with though...maybe I will up-scale in future...maybe...unlikely!

However, this morning I opened my e-mail to TWO orders from etsy! Unprecedented! I am now officicially all sold out of rainbow 'Be Happy' books... so I will just have to go and make some more, hooray! (I love making these wee books, they make me smile the whole time because they are so bright and cheery. Honestly, who could be grumpy when they are sewing a rainbow together?!) Orders are now both packaged ready for their trip to the post office in the morning (One of them is going to the States! Wow! And yes, these things still require dancing around the living room. WAY too exciting not to!)

I also finished off the double custom order for two A8 Rainbow 'Be Happy' books this evening. I was contacted by a lovely lady who said that she would like one of my books...but she was a strict vegetarian so could she have the cover made of something else? Now as you know I love challenges so I said yes and suggested paper covers, made of layers to make them nice and strong. Sounds great doesn't it?

I forgot that glue (or paste) and I have an agreement of only minor skirmishes, no full on usage...hmm... (I stitch wherever possible when it comes to books) We had a minor falling out and accidentally created a lovely collage piece but then we sat down and talked things over... Eventually I had two really cute wee covers.

The request was that the books were quite different so I made one with all rainbow pages and one with plain pages with rainbow ones interspersed. One cover was soft handmade purple paper (with a stunning white handmade paper lining that was loaded with silver flecks of mica to pick up the silver thread binding) and the other was a bright blue handmade with a shiny finish (turquoise handmade paper lining with gold stars on it that I brought back from Nepal). You get the idea, they are the same yet very individual.


I was really worried half way through this project (when the glue was winning the debate) but I love the way they have both turned out. Similar yet completely different. I will be making more of this size of rainbow book very soon! Although I will need to check how long the glue will agree to keep the peace... :)

Does anyone else have a love/hate relationship with something that most people consider completely essential? Just me? Why does that not surprise me?! ;)

Let It Snow!

Finally my snow dances have paid off! There is snow in Scotland! Not at my front door quite yet, but I will be heading up north to visit it at the weekend. Snowman and snow-angels here I come! :)

To celebrate I finally got brave enough to use the lovely pendant that I bought from the lovely Miss Erin of Tresoi Trovati. I just have to wear it to celebrate the arrival of the snow tomorrow (and help cheer me up that I have to go to work instead of bind books all day!). I hope she likes what I have created, and forgives me for it being a last minute inspitation thing and not quite finished yet.
(Hence the reason it doesn't have a clasp quite yet...I'm working on that! The options I had just didn't seem quite right so I will re-visit that a little later, but I can't wait to wear him so it will be ribbon tied tomorrow if I don't get inspired tonight...good thing I not a professional at this jewellery business, no image to up-keep :))

This cute wee chap is a bit bigger than most pendants I wear so I have been mulling over how best to frame him for a while. Then today, in the midst of a flurry of fun and inspired bookbinding I pulled our this glorious deep red ribbon...ooh...now I have a plan... Layers of ribbons to capture the colour pallete, plaited to give substance and colour matched beads spaced to create interest. That makes it sound much more planned than it was but I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Lots of bookmaking has been going on today, I will share that soon. Let me just say that working on rainbow books is the happiest work ever, smiles are guaranteed! :)

The Challenge of Colour was a Challenge Indeed!

Phew! This was a HUGE challenge for me, mainly because this is really my firat attempt at making an actual piece of jewellery! (I'm not sure if I actually specified that to the lovely Miss Erin, because I was a wee bit worried that I wouldn't be able to play!) Therefore you have to please forgive me some technnical fumblings and less than professional finishings as I figured out how to do most of this as I went along (making jump rings for the first time people, was my learning curve steep or what?!) However I am pleased as punch with the outcome, my first necklace!

The second major challenge in all this was the fact that my pallette came with PINK in it. Now, this may not seem like a big thing to anyone out there but I am the original anti-pink girl. So much so that I once raised hundreds of pounds for Scottish Mountain Rescue by wearing pink for an entire day, my friends have SO many photos!) I thought I was stepping out of my comfort zone with green (I normally hide in purples and reds) but pink...hmm...

This is the pallette that the lovely Miss Erin picked for me...gorgeous isn't it?

See the lovely original pallette post on Miss Jessica Colaluca's Design Seeds blog here.

I did as Miss Erin said and printed it out...and contemplated it...and stared at it some more...then I think I ran away and hid because it was scary pink AND green! However, I am not such a wuss as that makes me sound so I armed myself with some 'orange-juice' and started brainstorming. Naturally, as a bookbinder, that gorgeous rose suggested layers of petals made of paper and my thoughts turned to books... What about a focal that was a book, made of layers of all the colours from the pallette, layered up like the rose? Now there's an idea, hmm... To work!

(please excuse the photos, I have just finished and taken photos and as it is 1am here there is no natural light to take adventage of! If I miraculously manage to surface early enough to prepare for my 9am meeting with the boss's boss and have coffee, I will try and get some better shots. Not sure that these show it but the centre layer is a glowing burnished gold with a partial layer of green handmade tissue paper with actual grass in it on top. I am using my pallette, all of it!)

I love the result (although I feel that I could have made a much better clasp, the ribbons are too over-powering although they do look fun on) and I hope you do too. I think I may have to turn my hand to this wonderful jewellery-making business again in the near future (all I can say now is that I need new tools, the pliers I have are up-cycled from some other use and are actually slightly rusty! Please don't faint in horror!) :)

Please check out all the other wonderful people taking part in this brilliant challenge, I can't wait to see what they have all created. I bet I will have half a notepad full of ideas when I have been through all these...

go look and be inspired!

Last, but very definitely not least, thank you so much to Miss Erin of TesoriTrovati for hosting this challenge and encouraging us to dip at least a toe in some unfamilliar waters. She never fails to inspire me with some tiny (or large) gem in her blog.

1 Norma Turvey ~ Teal ~ Color Crave

2 Jeannie Dukic ~ Green ~ Mineral Tones

3 Mary McGraw ~ Teal ~ Embellished Hues

4 Jo Tinley ~ Red ~ Decadent Tones

5 Rebecca Anderson ~ Pink ~ Tulip Tones

6 Kristi Jaro ~ Red ~ Temple Entrance

7 Stephani Gorman ~ Green ~ Dew Tones

8 Melissa Meman ~ Green ~ Fruit Star

9 Kathleen Lange Klik ~ Teal ~ Silk Hues

10 Cynthia Riggs ~ Red ~ Autumn Comfort

11 Heidi Post ~ Teal ~ Flora Bright

12 Cece Cormier ~ Teal ~ Merino Teal

13 Amy Freeland ~ Gray ~ Cultured Tones

14 Alice Peterson ~ Blue ~ Island Play

15 Rose Noble ~ Gray ~ Autumn Stacked

16 Kristina Johansson ~ Yellow ~ Sunny Flower

17 Kirsi Luostarinen ~ Teal ~ Dragon Hues

18 Tari Kahrs ~ Orange ~ Citrus Tones

19 Mallory Hoffman ~ Purple ~ Petaled Dark

20 Molly Alexander ~ Brown ~ Peppered Tones

21 Regina Santerre ~ Red ~ Frosted Berry

22 Emanda Johnson ~ Teal ~ Color Purl

23 Amy Severino ~ Orange ~ Winged Tones

24 Bobbie Rafferty ~ Teal ~ Lime Hues

25 Tanya Goodwin ~ Gray ~ Pecked Tones

26 Lisa Lodge ~ Blue ~ Nocturnal Tones

27 Hope Smitherman ~ Blue ~ Bloom Tones

28 Linda Landig ~ Green ~ Cacti Dark

29 Ambra Gostoli ~ Teal ~ Perched Autumn

30 Lori Bowring-Michaud ~ Blue ~ Sharpened Blue

31 Pippa Chandler ~ Teal ~ Hungarian Hues

32 Keirsten Giles ~ Purple ~ Mineral Brights

33 Jennifer Justman ~ Blue ~ Autumn Rays

34 Sandy Richardson ~ Purple ~ Moroccan Brights

35 CJ Bauschka ~ Teal ~ Teal Air

36 Shaiha Williams ~ Teal ~ Sushi Hues

37 Kay Thomerson ~ Purple ~ Autumn Spectrum

38 Sally Russick ~ Purple ~ Golden Gate Tones

39 Cilla Watkins ~ Purple ~ Autumn Infused

40 Shirley Moore ~ Purple ~ Frozen Heather

41 Jenni Connolly ~ Gray ~ Paw Tones

42 Tamara Soper ~ Green ~ Field Tones

43 Sharyl McMillian-Nelson ~ Blue ~ Nested Blues

44 Jen Velasquez ~ Pink ~ Sweetened Tints

45 Maria Grimes ~ Red ~ Bright Bloom

46 Elisabeth Auld ~ Gray ~ Petaled Tints

47 Susan Kennedy ~ Pink ~ Zinnia Tones

48 Shannon Chomanczuk ~ Gray ~ Autumn Leaf

49 Holly Westfall ~ Yellow ~ Sprinkled Tones

50 Patty Gasparino ~ Red ~ Color Carton

51 Angela Little ~ Pink ~ Singapore Brights

52 Lizzie Zawinski ~ Green ~ Budding Hues

53 Kristen Stevens ~ Pink ~ Scooped Tones

54 Dawn Doucette ~ Brown ~ Jarred Tones

Books galore! First Etsy Sale!

OMG! I have almost stopped leaping around the living room celebrating...almost! How exciting! Some complete stranger wants to buy one of my books! This wee cutie (pictured abover) is one of my favourites, so they have got good taste! 

I have also got a new commission for a HUGE A3 book. I find this a bit terrifying as I normally work on a fairly tiny scale, but challenges are the way to grow aren't they?

Oh life is so exciting! I also have to share a wee planning book I made for a friend's engagement gift, super cute wee heart bead (from Venice in Italy!) but bright orange. She would have hated anything conventional!

 
Right, I had better get going and start packing up an order and checking that I have the materials for 'The Mega Book' as I have taken to calling it.
(Yes, I am still dancing around the living room! :))

The Turquoise Challenge of the Wedding Photo Book

A friend of mine got married a wee while ago now and I promised her a wee book as a congratulations. However she said that she would really like one that she could put some of her photos in...hmm...I haven't made any photo albums before thought I... Well, what would the world be without a challenge?! I have to admit that I have been extremely tardy in creating this, mainly because it was a constant learning curve and I kept making mock-ups and rejecting them! I think I have at least four that I dismissed as not good enough (don't worry I will find some other use for them).


Her bridal colour theme was this gorgeous deep turquoise and she used lots of soft ribbons and tissue paper in her favours so that was my starting point. I didn't want to create a hard-back book because I had decided that a small soft-back would be much more personal and tactile. I also wanted to use a couple of light crepe-style papers to give the top of the book 'ruffles' to remind the bride of her wedding dress (I think it was at this point that I started to think that this was almost taking as much planning as the actual wedding!). Because of this I had to layer several different types of paper to get enough stiffness in the covers to hold the weight of the inner pages and seperators (to give space for the photos). This came out really nicely though and I was happy with the final result.

The real challenge was the internal pages, both stitching them up with the seperators, and them stitching them onto the cover. Because each sheet was attached individually to the concertina seperator, it meant that they couldn't be bundled in signatures so each sheet meant a seperate line of stitching on the spine of the book. Phew, that was a LOT of work! However it did look really lovely when done (not sure I will choose to repeat it in a hurry though!).

I think my favourite bit is the spine feature though. I decided to make a feature of the ends of the threads from the stitched seperators so I knotted a seed bead onto each one and threaded them all through two slots in the cover so that they created a waterfall effect at the head of the spine.
Overall I am really pleased with how this came out, although I wish I had managed to complete it earlier! (Also I wish I had been able to take photos in natural light as the colour values are slightly off here, you get the idea though!) Definitely worth the challenge!

First Double Commission!

So nervous, I got my first double commission a few weeks ago (it actually took me a little while to realise that they were serious about wanting the books and not just 'being nice'!) and tomorrow is the day that I hand my creations over for approval!

 Right now, getting paid for it doesn't seem as important as the fact that they like them! I guess that it's always harder when you know the people that you are selling to, as you will have to face them again even if they don't like the result. My mantra right now is 'I have faith in my product. I have faith in my product...'

 I have taken special care with the packaging and included a wee extra just for the couple who placed the commission (the two books are for presents they tell me) and that has helped to keep me a wee bit calmer. I am imagining this being shipped off like an etsy order (the as-yet mythical etsy order as I have still to win over a potential buyer and get my first sale!) and have packaged it as I think I would like to receive it.

I hope this is all going to work out fine. Is everyone this nervous with their first commission? Do you get any less nervous the more you do, or is it the same 'performance anxiety' every time?
Right, ok...breathe...'I have faith in my product...'

Star Books and Festive Spirit

Well I'm feeling really quite festive today. I have done some Christmas shopping, have rosy cheeks from the nip in the air and I have been making star book decorations for my etsy shop. How could I not feel festive after a week like that?!

 I really love star books (also known as carousel book did you know?), the wonderful structure and the fact that you can build them up to be so complex.

They can be made with just thread and paper, although many people do use glue for ease, and they look like a team of architects would have to have spent hours designing all the angles and folds to go together just so.





Useful for so many things, lovely special messages, scenes from stories or festive decorations like the collection I have just made.
Check out some of these star books in my etsy shop here. More will be coming soon too! (Hmm, think I need to work on my photos...what a great excuse to get them all out to look at again!)

What would you use yours for?