Making Books

We are in Minneapolis, visiting our son and daughter-in-law. We drove most of the way up on Thursday and finished the drive on Friday. On Saturday, I took a class from Roz Stendahl at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, where I made a beautiful journal with a round back spine binding. I learned a lot, and Roz is an excellent teacher. Plus I love my new little journal. I will post a picture of it soon, I promise, but probably not until we return home (which will be Thursday). Wednesday evening, I'm taking Coptic Binding: Focus on Stitching from Sue Bjerke, also at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.

The most amazing coincidence - after Roz took roll, first names only, "John" came over to me and said "You're Cheryl Gebhart, aren't you?". I said yes, but clearly didn't recognize him. He is John Payne, from my Love This Journal class and yahoo group. Neither of us knew that the other was coming to the class. It was so fun to meet in person, after knowing each other online for almost 2 years now. I also met his wife, who joined him for lunch, and is a quilter.

Textured Surfaces

click on picture to see it larger

This isn't finished yet, but I wanted to post my progress so far, because I've just been introduced to the coolest new product. Well, it isn't actually new, it's just new to me, but still . . .

It's Modeling Paste (or Molding Paste, depending on what brand you buy). It is for adding texture to surfaces. I put gesso onto chipboard. When it was dry, I added modeling paste. While it was wet, I put cheesecloth into the upper right corner and combed through the lower left corner. After it dried, I stenciled into the center with more modeling paste. Then when that dried, I tried to paint the whole thing. I used Golden's Fluid Acrylics mixed with Glazing Liquid, and I had trouble getting it into the cracks and crevices.

I'm taking (another) online class; this one is Textured Surfaces. I've had my first lesson so far, where we've learned to create LOTS of texture. The second lesson will be about coloring the texture we created in lesson one. But being the impatient person that I am, I tried adding color to this already. It's not bad (I actually really like the color combination) - I just want to get all of the white modeling paste colored. So I guess I'll have to be patient (as difficult as that is for me) and wait for lesson two.

This is going to be a cover for a journal that I'll bind with my Bind-it-all. I've already punched the inside pages.

Paper Collaboration

I just read about a fun paper collaboration on Marci Glenn's blog, Simply Artistic Pleasures. People send 50 - 70 papers to Sweet Jessie, she binds them into journals, and sends them back to you, all for $8.00. Sounds like a fun way to get a new journal full of interesting papers.

Journal for a Friend

I thought I had already posted these, but in looking for them, I couldn't find them, so I guess I never did post them.

When I took Sue Bleiweiss's journal making class, I started on a journal for an artist friend. He had told me that he had never used watercolor paper, and he pretty much just used whatever paper he could find. So I decided I wanted to make him a journal with nice papers in it. I ended up doing 3 signatures, each signature a different paper. I used a paper called Sheer Heaven for all 3 covers.



This signature has watercolor paper in it. I used color wash sprays for the color on the Sheer Heaven.



This signature has pastel paper in it. I used pan pastels for the color on the Sheer Heaven.



And this signature has drawing paper in it. I used bleeding art tissue for the color on the Sheer Heaven.



I don't think I took a picture of the cover, but it was very similar to the one I made my son; it just had a different button on the closure flap.

Completed Journal

I finished the journal I was making for my son. The cover is made from a brown paper bag - can you believe that? Looks remarkably like leather. Basically, you paint it with brown paint, then crumple it up and smooth it out again, and rub rubber stamping ink over it, and this is how it turns out. I'm really pleased with the results. I modified the pattern somewhat, and here is the front cover:



This is inside the front cover - it is lined with black wool felt, and the tag reads "Joy is not in things; it is in us."



Three of the inside pages:







Close up of the spine:



Close up of my closure (one of my modifications to the pattern):



My son is a writer, so I filled the journal with lined pages. I'm making another one similar to this one for an artist friend, and that one will be filled with various kinds of art papers.

Leather Look Journal

I've been working on a couple of journals the past few days. Unfortunately, I don't have anything finished yet, so no pictures to share. But my latest journals will be gifts. These use brown paper bags and paint to make a surface that looks very much like leather. It's really amazing. Anyway, I'm really having fun with the journal making class. I hope to have some pictures to share in a day or two.

In other news, my son and daughter-in-law have finished the hiking that they were doing. They spent a month on the trail, starting from West Virginia, then going into Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and ending in New York. It's really hard to imagine hiking as far and for as long as they did. I'm glad they had a good time, but I'll be really glad to see them in another week or two.

Third Journal

I finished another journal yesterday, and this one is my favorite so far. I have always loved oriental art, and I have quite a lot of oriental paper and fabric and rubber stamps and stuff, so I am going to use this journal to do oriental artwork.

Here is the cover - I appliquéd the square with the geisha face onto the background fabric. I used a set of ornamental chopsticks that I have had for a long time - thanks Michele!



This is inside the front cover - left side is the cover, so it is fabric. Right side is a piece of Japanese paper:



This is fabric - leftover from a wall hanging:



This is the back of the page above - I fused two pieces of fabric together to make this page:



Another fabric page:



And back of the above page:



Inside (white) pages are cardstock, so it should be heavy enough to stamp or paint on without bleed-through. I'm looking forward to filling this up.

My Second Journal

This journal is the second one from Sue Bleiweiss's Journal Making class. It uses binder rings, so the pages are removable, and I tied ribbons and fabric strips to the rings.



There are pockets on the inside. The ones in the front hold my pens, pencil, eraser, and water brush.



The pockets in the back hold my scissors, white gel pen, bone folder, and 6" ruler.



I'm using 90 lb. watercolor paper for the insides, which I cut 6"X9". All in all, I'm quite happy with how it turned out. Oh, and this journal is for me.

Journal Making Class

In addition to Sue Bleiweiss's Mixed Media class (which ends this week - we had our last lesson on Monday), I've signed up for two more of her classes. The first one is Journal Making, and it started this Monday. I finished my first journal for the class today. The second class is Journaling Techniques, and it starts next Monday. I'm going to be busy! But I love her classes!! She is a great teacher.

So here is the front cover of the journal I made this week:



Here are the signatures (groups of pages). The one farthest to the left is already sewn in to the cover in this picture. The dark blue on the left is a fabric pocket.



Here is the inside front cover:



And this is inside the last (decorative) page of the last signature:



I made this for my daughter-in-law. Since she is an artist, I used drawing paper for the signatures. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and I think she will like it too. I want to make a journal for my son, too, but with lined pages. I haven't decided yet which style of journal I'll make for him.