Stoneburner Bookbinding & Preservation

A Bit of Progress

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! We spent the weekend in the city catching up on work around the house and in the yard. On Monday I planted my garden, spending a few minutes reflecting on my grandfather's garden and his service to our country. It's a small gesture, but with the loss of him last fall, it feels important to take a moment to think about his impact on my life. In the garden in particular, he nurtured my love for cherry tomatoes and I can remember how his sunroom would be filled with tomatoes and other veggies we could take home after going for a swim on a hot summer's day. With my son and the coming summer, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about my childhood and what traditions I want to continue for him. Cherry tomatoes fresh from the garden, still warm from the sun will definitely be a tradition in the Stoneburner house.

Aside from gardening, cleaning and playing with J, I slipped into the studio for a few minutes to work on the greeting card album in progress. I've prepped pretty much everything I need to finish it.

The only step that remains is gluing. I like to do all my gluing at once to speed things along and with several other projects to be glued, it will take a bit longer than I had time for this past weekend. Hopefully I'll carve out an hour or two this coming weekend to spend gluing up projects and planning new work.

In the interim, the secret project is done and was put into the mail today. I photographed it before I sent it, so once I hear from the recipient I'll post it here for you to see. Oh! I almost forgot to mention that this weekend brought my 100th sale in the shop! I posted this milestone to my Facebook page - did you see? I'm so happy with how far my business has come in the last year and am very excited to see where it will go in the next year!

Not friends with Stoneburner Bookbinding and Preservation? Head over to www.facebook.com/StoneburnerBooks and like my page for updates, photos and coupon codes.

Greeting Card Albums

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm working on a few baby-related projects in the studio. Today I'll talk about the first - greeting card albums.

Over the last few months we have received many greeting cards from family and friends congratulating us on J's birth. Typically when I receive a card I display it for a few days or weeks and then stash it away somewhere. Over the years I have amassed quite the collection of cards - small caches stored in drawers, boxes and bins with no organizational system whatsoever. At times I love this arrangement - it involves minimal work and it's always fun to run across a batch of birthday cards while searching for a notebook or photo album. However, at other times I hate this set up because it makes me feel terribly unorganized and provides no context for why I'm keeping these cards other than that I just don't want to throw them out.

When we started to receive cards for J's shower gifts, I began to think about how I could organize the cards in a way that retained their meaning/context, was sleek and easy to store and didn't involve tucking them away in a box. I was planning on making J a baby book, but I didn't want the bulk of the cards to overrun photos and mementos. That's when I began to think about treating each card as it's own signature in a sewn book. In early April I began prepping the cards - measuring height, punching holes and putting in order. I started sewing the cards together shortly thereafter with J in my Moby wrap - an interesting situation since he drastically limited the sewing movements I could make. I had sewn about half of the album by mid-April and then left it languishing on the studio table.

This weekend I finally had time to sit down and finish the sewing (with J napping in his crib). Here's how it looks so far:

I'm very happy with how it is turning out. The next steps involve adding support to the spine, creating covers and finally gluing the cards into the covers. Hopefully it won't take me another month for these steps!

Hooray for Naps!

J has been napping on a regular basis now for a few days and it has totally changed my life! Right now we're nearly three hours in to his afternoon nap. I can hear him starting to stir, but while he was asleep I was able to get dinner started, work on updating a few things in the shop and I even had enough time to almost finish the secret gift I mentioned in my last post! Plus laundry! And blogging!

Here's our well-rested little guy:

Love him!

Test Prints

This morning I got a bit of time to slip into the studio and do a little work. Below are the test prints from the hand-cut stamp I showed you earlier this week. Because the stamp doesn't have a uniform top surface, it prints only partial images. Since the final product will be multicolored, I decided to bring in another color to fill the gaps and tie the various colors together. I also had time to print the secret gift, but of course I can't show that yet!



If all turns out as I hope, I'll have both the gift and a new item for the shop within a few weeks.

Speaking of the shop, it's open again and I'm almost at my 100th sale! I can't wait to see what it will be!

The weather here in Boston is beautiful this weekend, so I'll be spending some of my time in the yard planting seedlings and pulling weeds. I hope it's pretty wherever you are this weekend and that you find some time today to enjoy the sunshine.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

I am so excited to re-open the shop tomorrow! I've taken a brief vacation from the studio and in the interim have come up with ideas for several new items. I still have so many baby projects to complete, but with J now three months old and taking more regular naps, I feel confident about the increased likelihood of getting into the studio on a regular basis.

Last week my best friend Sarah came to visit and gifted me the coolest hand-cut wooden stamp. She picked it up for me years ago and had kept forgetting to bring it when she visited. Now a serendipitous trip through Virginia brought me both Sarah and the gift! I immediately thought of stamping my own wrapping paper, but after some thought, have come up with another idea I'm even more excited about. Since it's a gift I won't talk about it further today, but I hope to have it made and delivered in the next few weeks, so I'll show it to you soon. In the interim, here's a shot of the stamp so you can see the neat floral design.

I can't wait to see how my project turns out!

Gift Sets for Mom

Looking for a handmade gift for Mom this year that doesn't involve macaroni and hot glue? Check out the writer's gift sets I have in the shop. Each set includes a journal and a set of six coordinating note cards. All sets are made with a floral-themed Japanese paper that is not only beautiful, but also very soft to touch, adding a luxurious element to both cards and journal.

Order by the end of the day on April 30th, as the shop will be on a brief vacation May 1-15th. All gift sets ship via Priority Mail, and will arrive in plenty of time for Mother's Day.

Spring Cleaning Sale!

This morning I spent some time cleaning up the shop and getting it ready for the coming season. Now you get to reap the benefits!

Through April 15th, all note cards are on sale! Click over to the Note Cards section of the shop to check out the deals on both individual cards and sets. While you're there, click into the Sale section to pick up holiday cards before they leave the shop on April 10th. Reduced shipping costs for orders of multiple items - stock up and save!

Hello There!

Hello again! I can't believe that it has been six weeks since I last posted. In the interim I've been busy getting to know a new little guy. Meet J.

He arrived healthy and happy two weeks earlier than we had expected. The delivery was such an interesting and powerful experience and I'm lucky to have had two fantastic support people with me - my husband, Scott, and our doula (and friend), Kelsie. The nurses were also fantastic and we all kept a pretty good humor throughout the process.

Since his birth, I've been pretty much focused solely on J's needs and my schedule is his schedule. Now that he's a bit older and I'm more used to being a mom, I'm beginning to find time throughout the day to devote to bookbinding and the shop. Earlier this week I opened the Etsy Shop again with many items ready to ship. I'm also taking a few custom orders for CD / DVD cases and will add more new items and custom order listings over the next few months.

There are a few baby-related projects that I'm excited to get going, namely J's baby book and a memento book of congratulatory cards we received. While these are personal projects, if they turn out how I hope, they may also serve as prototypes for new items for the shop. I hope to show you these projects as they develop over the next few weeks or months.

I am lookimg forward to this spring with great excitement. I get to spend my days with my son, learning who he is and teaching him about the world. I also have the time to devote to creative thinking and experimentation in regards to bookbinding. And finally, in the true sense of spring, I get to put things into the earth and watch them grow. I feel extremely lucky that I have the opportunity and support to take this time to nurture my family, business and surroundings. Stay tuned to see how things develop!

 

Shop Updates

I'm in the final stretch of pregnancy, which means a few upcoming changes for the shop.

Beginning February 1 I will no longer be taking custom orders. If you need custom CD/DVD cases for the next few months, please place your order by January 31.

Also beginning February 1, the shop will feature only a select number of journals, note cards and valentines. If you were planning on purchasing a Valentine's gift or other items in the upcoming weeks, I'd recommend placing your order by January 31.

Finally, I'll continue to ship items purchased from the shop until February 15 or until I go into labor, whichever comes first. The shop will then be on hiatus, likely through March, while I get into a routine with the new baby. Stay tuned to the blog and Facebook for updates over the next few months.

Handmade with Love - For your Love!

This past weekend I went into the studio to make a few custom orders of note cards, and ended up making a few valentines along the way!

Last year I found this beautiful Thai lace paper and have been saving it for something special. I see its pretty edges every time  I go into my flat file to pull a piece of paper or book cloth, and I've been thinking about it for a long time. Finally this weekend it hit me - Valentine's hearts! On kraft paper cards!

I love the contrast of delicate lace and durable kraft paper, as well as the fact that the lace isn't too lacy.

Each card in this series of five will be added to the shop over the next week or two. A few are already in the Valentine's Day section of the shop. I love that each card has a different feel - like this one below. I can't help but see a skull design in it. Can you see it?

And if you're looking for cards with a bit more of a vintage feel, check out the Vintage Buttons valentines, also available in the shop.

This year, why not send a handmade card? No glitter, hot glue or doilies required! And to further entice you, I'm offering free U.S. shipping on all cards! Save yourself a trip to the drug store and support small business! What's not to love?