Saturday Night at the Market - 02/21/09

Greetings Saturday Night Shoppers!! I really do have fun doing these each week - I just never know what will turn up. Last week I decided to feature a different technique each week, and today's technique is bookbinding. Earlier this year while looking for a journal with unlined pages, I discovered that there are amazing people out there who actually bind real hardcover books just like the ones you buy. I had no idea this was even possible without fancy machines! I strolled on over to the Papercraft Market tonight to see what kind of books I could find.



I fell in love with the 2 beautiful cottage-y 'Mom's Bouquet' handbound journals I found in Lady Artisan's shop. She has one with a suede spine, and one with a golden leather spine.


These lovelies are filled with 64 pages of hand-torn, bright yellow Canson Mi Teintes paper, and the end papers have a pretty pink basketweave design. The pages are hand-sewn onto tapes, and then cased in with the cover. The attached bookmark that is made from floral crochet trim is the perfect finishing touch.

Another talented book-maker is mixed media artist, AJ's Designs. Found here are two stunning Asian-inspired handbound journals that are suitable for sketching or watercolors as well as writing.




The first journal is adorned with a collage of bamboo, gingko, a butterfly, and an Asian coin with skeleton leaves added for more dimension. Spine dangles of ribbon and beads can also be used as an attached bookmark.



The second journal features a collage of skeleton leaves, micro beads, tissue papers, skrim, embossing powders, miniture dominoes, gold leaf embellishing a pretty geisha with a parasol.

Browsing through another lovely shop, Short Fuse, taught me that there are many different techniques for binding a book. This shop (in addition to some really fabulous stained glass jewelry) has beautiful examples of coptic binding, flatback binding, and Japanese stab binding.


My favorite is the refreshing blue and green marbled blank journal that uses the coptic binding method. As described by Short Fuse: "This type of binding offers a more flexible spine, allowing the pages to lay completely flat when open (great for lefties!)" As a lefty myself, this sounds great!



I also love the little chocolate brown notebook that was bound with the Japanese stab binding stitch. This little gem would fit perfectly in my purse!

And if you'd like to know more about how binding works, here's a link on how to do a simple (so they say, I'm not so sure!) hardbound book, and here is a link explaining the Japanese method. For an inspiring look at more gorgeous handbound books check out Lark's 500 Handmade Books: Inspiring Interpretations of a Timeless Form



One more thing of course, the weekly 1000 Markets Search Engine Find. I've got the beginnings of spring fever already, so this week's search term was 'Tulip', and resulted in 64 great tulip-y things. My favorite was this great tulip fan lamp from Chauncey Design's shop full of glass goodies.



A close second was this stunning tulip photo from Eye Shutter to Think. What an eye for a great shot she has!