After the success of my first notebook with an eco-dyed cover I just had to make some more. Being me, I got rather carried away and used a whole pad of A3 watercolour paper to make eight A6 sized notebooks.
I feel like I'll be making more of these in future and can't believe it took me so long to get around to eco-dyeing paper and turning it into books!
I'm an old fashioned gal at heart. I like reading books and making things with my hands. I prefer walking to driving a car. And I'd much rather get mail in the letterbox than an email in my inbox.
I found all these packets of letter writing paper and matching envelopes in my desk drawer. I bought them years ago when the girls were into writing letters to their friends. There's something magical about opening the letter box and seeing a letter inside addressed to you. Especially if the envelope has been written by hand and isn't a bill!
My mum was chatting to one of my girls the other day and she said when she moved to Melbourne in the late 1960s there were two mail deliveries a day. Now we're lucky to get two mail deliveries a week. Oh, how times have changed. Luckily you can still send letters and buy gorgeous stamps to put on the envelopes. I went into the post office and asked to see their range. At the moment they have a beautiful bird emblems series of stamps with a bird for each state of Australia. I bought up big and got the three birds they had left. I loved the stamps so much I'm thinking of buying a first day cover for them.
Writing letters to friends on beautiful stationery feels like a way we can connect with each other right now even though we're all social distancing. I miss my beautiful friends but when I picture their faces as they open their mailboxes to see a letter from me, I feel all happy inside and like we're not so far apart after all.
This is the first book I made from Tangle Journey: Exploring the Far Reaches if Tangle Drawing, From Simple Strokes to Colour and Mixed Media by Beckah Krahula. She calls it a sketch folio. It has nifty little pockets in which you can store paper as well as a notebook sewn into the main compartment at the back. It's such an ingenious design.
Unfortunately I didn't have any Lotka paper and the biggest size I had was A3 watercolour so my sketch folios are super small. But they're also super cute. I had so much fun making them that I ended up making three! One each for myself and my two girls.
After making them I went to sleep dreaming up variations and wondering if I could make one big enough to hold the 9x9cm zen tangle drawings I wanted to create. The answer was yes! The width of one A3 sheet of paper was enough to make a sketch folio with two pockets at the front and two on the inside.
I can't wait to fill these little folios with drawings.
One of the wonderful things about being a craft hoarder and book collector is having a stash of materials to draw upon. I can't remember when I bought this drawing book but I'm so glad I did. Funnily enough I was actually looking for a different book on tangled drawing and having no idea I own two, started reading this one and then got really excited.
The book is divided into sections and, wait for it, each section starts with a tutorial on how to make a sketch book to store the drawings you are about too create. Oh, be still my beating heart. Books to bind so you can be organised? It's my idea of craft heaven.
There's something so calming about inking random pen lines onto a previously blank piece of paper and turning abstract doodles into symbols. I'm not sure if they're meaningful at all but they're fun to draw and pretty to look at. It's also very therapeutic to sit and draw with no final destination or idea in mind. Just follow the random lines and see where you end up.
The picture is of my first ever tangled drawing. As you can imagine there is quite an art and process to it. I noticed myself getting frustrated with my lack of ability and expertise – why is it so hard to be a beginner and just accept what your'e doing one you're an adult? When I finished the drawing I was unhappy with it because it wasn't as pretty as the ones in the book (of course it wasn't as pretty, they've been doing it for twenty years but my impatience wants to be perfect right away). Now that I've had time to do other things and come back to it, I love it and can't imagine it any other way. Often the difference between bad and good is just time to walk away and come back with fresh eyes.
I'm enjoying the process so much I've started doodling in my poetry journal. I like the way the drawings adorn my journals and break up all the lines of words marching across the page. It's wonderful to have lots of slow time in which to make art.
I am a huge bookworm. Ever since I was a kid I have been hungrily devouring books and exploring the new worlds contained within their pages. Heaven was sitting with a new novel by English author Noel Streatfield and a bag of lollies, happily reading and munching. I even spent time trying to make my own books as well as writing and illustrating. One early, unfinished masterpiece was called The Piffle Poffle.
Since then my love affair with the written word has continued and I have had a book of poetry published and done some book binding courses. You can get fancy with hand made books or you can keep it simple. I am going to show you how to make a simple book. If you want to learn more complicated techniques I would highly recommend doing a course. If a course isn't being run near you, check out these books for ideas and inspiration:
The Book Book by Sophie Benini Pietromarchi
How to Make Books by Esther K Smith
The lovely thing about making your own notebooks is being able to get creative with using different papers and methods to bind. Instead of using brads as I have done, you could try sewing with wool or hemp.
Handmade book
1 sheet coloured A4 cardboard or paper
10 sheets plain A4 paper
Ruler
Pencil
2 brads
Awl
Hammer
Chopping board
Pegs
Fold the coloured card and paper in half.
Open out the card and paper again. Lay the plain paper on top of the coloured card. It will be the cover of your finished book.
Peg around the sides of your bundle to hold paper in place.
Using a ruler and pencil, measure where you want to place your brads.
Lay paper on a chopping board and use the awl and hammer to make two holes.
Put brads in holes, remove pegs, fold bundle in half again and voila! You have your very own book.