... Homemade Journal ... 2016

[carlos.q]

The FPN uploads have limits that are easily exceeded for the kind of postings I do.

Even tho I am aware of pic size limits.

(My pics are always very small in bytesize)

I believe you are referring to the older "attachment" feature that has a 2mb total limit. The newer "upload" tab has a 2mb per picture limit but you can upload as many pictures as you want. If your pictures are "very small in bytesize" you should have no problems.

[TMLee]

I believe you are referring to the older "attachment" feature that has a 2mb total limit. The newer "upload" tab has a 2mb per picture limit but you can upload as many pictures as you want. If your pictures are "very small in bytesize" you should have no problems.

oh that's great !

 

if it's per pic , it's great !

 

all my pics - i remember to downsize them

they are always in kB, never crossing into mB per pic.

 

now i have to find a solution

 

find another free hosting site

or

keep uploading from a storage bank of my own?

[carlos.q]

oh that's great !

if it's per pic , it's great !

all my pics - i remember to downsize them

they are always in kB, never crossing into mB per pic.

now i have to find a solution

find another free hosting site

or

keep uploading from a storage bank of my own?

If you use another "free" site you risk what happened with PB to happen again.

Some have suggested hosting your pictures on your own server. I find this a bit extreme.

Using the "upload" tab, while not perfect, will guarantee your pictures will appear in your posts as long as FPN exists. That's OK by me...

[TMLee]

JOURNAL 147Q "Jet Black Bookcloth"

 

 

 

 

Orange accents

Orange ribbon

Orange flyleaves

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colophon

 

 

Writing paper is

NATURALIS Vanilla White , 120g, Smooth

7 Signatures, 4 Folios each , total 112 writing pages

 

A classic design.

Simple but not boring.

 

 

Edited August 4, 2017 by TMLee

[TMLee]

how do i delete jpg files on the "upload" clipboard?

 

Edited August 5, 2017 by TMLee

[TMLee]

This is JOURNAL 185A GEMATEX - Orange made to order.

 

Front

 

Coral bookbands

 

 

 

Full Spread

 

With the green accents

 

 

The Owner wanted green accents which worked well with orange

 

 

 

 

Matching dark green threads

 

Colophon

 

 

81st TR journal,

26th A5 TR journal

Writing paper is TOMOE RIVER paper, 52g, Cream

7 Signatures, 10 Folios each, total 280 writing pages

 

 

The emboss/deboss along the spine

 

 

 

This is a very bright orange - more towards Vermillion.

I wished I had other shades of orange like the Rust kind of orange.

(Hollanders has very nice shades of bookcloth

If you like a journal in a nicer orange, I wouldnt mind crafting a journal for you in that shade, in exchange for a few pieces of that bookcloth for myself too )

 

 

 

 

 

[TMLee]

This is JOURNAL 204J FPDay 2015 - BUCKRAM - GREY sold to be gifted away.

 

I failed to craft a journal commemorating FPDay 2016 .

My bad ...

 

This one's done in Library BUCKRAM, Grey in colour

 

 

 

Band deployed

Black elastic bands by PRYM, Germany

 

 

Full spread

 

 

This schema used Mango as accents

It kind of perks things up a little

Mango threads with Mango ribbon pagemarker

 

Mango flyleaves

 

 

The blurb about Fountain Pen Day started by our FPNer here itself 'earthdawn' , since 2012

 

 

 

 

Colophon

 

Writing paper is

NATURALIS Vanilla White, 135g ,Smooth

7 Signatures, 4 Folios each

Total 112 writing pages

 

 

 

 

 

The design for FPDay 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TMLee]

I have these nice postcards bought when I tripped in Japan some time back ...

 

This series is by MC Escher

 

 

 

Escher titled this work of his "Tower of Babel" .

 

 

I am wondering how to make a journal cover that carries this postcard but undisturbed by the stitching.

The artwork on the postcards go right to the edges.

 

Here I am studying placing a border next to the postcard ...

Here the stitches can lie on this border space , without interfering the postcard.

 

 

I also wanted the postcard to stand out , as on a raised card ..

The edges of the card would then become very noticeable,

so I bought black boards.

Here I glued the postcards onto this black matboard.

 

 

The postcards mounted on the black boards and cut out ...

 

 

 

The black edges of the card on the board

 

 

 

Next, is the larger board that will carry this postcard-on-board .

I decided to wrap 2 greyboards with black paper

 

 

and then mount the postcards-on-board onto them ...

 

 

edges

 

 

 

 

 

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to seal the edges?

 

Coat it with some paint or lacquer or whatever to prevent the board edges from opening up ?

Edited August 7, 2017 by TMLee

[TMLee]

Finally completed ...

 

JOURNAL 247 MC Escher - "Tower of Babel "

 

This journal is designed to fit the size of the postcards on the covers.

 

There's a lot of cut wastage of the paper due to the odd size.

 

This journal is postcard length tall, and wider .

 

148mm Tall x 130mm wide. Pretty squarish .

 

Front

 

 

 

 

Rear

 

 

 

Full spread ...

 

 

I chose black flyleaves to match the B&W artwork

 

 

 

 

I used good quality white thread,waxed. many strands, approx 0.8mm wide.

 

 

The tail of the bookblock.

Here you see the signatures are not exactly the same size shoulder to shoulder due to cutting by hand.

 

 

 

So to counter this problem, the head of the bookblock is lined up carefully , shoulder to shoulder...

This is achieved by making a piercing template, so that each signature gets pierced exactly the same position even though they are not exactly of the same height.

 

 

Here you see the head , showing the signatures all aligned , shoulder to shoulder.

The tail, is jagged, but only if you pay particular attention to it.

When shelved, your eye is drawn to the head, not the tail.

So it will look 'right' on your bookshelf.

 

 

One of my favourite FPs , the OMAS MoMA in silver trim.

 

 

Black flyleaves and pocket ...

 

 

Inktestpage

 

Colophon

DIAMINE Ancient Copper written with KAWECO Sport Classic transparent ice CI <F> by 'fpnibs'

NOODLERS Black waterproof written with ROSETTA North Star CI <M> by 'pb2'

 

 

Writing paper is

NATURALIS , Vanilla White , 135g, smooth

7 Signatures, 4 Folios each

Total 112 writing pages

(this is heavy paper but smooth. Ink friendly, no bleedthru, no feathering, no showthru. Can even take dryish watercolour washes)

 

 

The postcards carry the picture of the artworks by MC Escher.

The original artwork is 62.1cm x 38.6cm.

This one is titled "Tower of Babel"

 

 

This is a well-made one. The bookblock comprises heavier paper , making the signatures firm and maintaining its shape well. This contributes to the overall dimensional stability of the journal.

The threads are good quality thread (many strands) from Italy . Because Its dense , you see the exposed threads keeping its form very consistent.

 

This journal does not have rounded corners becos I wanted to maintain the postcard form.

This journal is also deskbound becos of the sharp corners and probably would suffer from abrasions and such from carrying it around.

For this reason, it does not have any elastic band as well.

 

I like Escher's work

 

 

 

 

 

Up for sale if you are interested.

Just PM me.

Edited October 2, 2017 by TMLee

[TMLee]

The Escher Journal 247 is SOLD.

[TMLee]

Bought a leather skiver, even though not entirely sure I am gonna really use it.

 

Its heavy, large, well-built.

Black anodised. Beautiful.

Exudes quality.

 

 

underneath

 

 

The business end ...

 

Any tips on how to use it the correct way?

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

Wish me luck

[mhguda]

Good luck. Keep your fingers clear off the business end.

How and for what does one use a tool like that?

[TMLee]

Good luck. Keep your fingers clear off the business end.

How and for what does one use a tool like that?

 

 

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2_gDpm732Vg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[mhguda]

interesting - there's something like that for cheese but the aim is to use the skived off part...

[TMLee]

interesting - there's something like that for cheese but the aim is to use the skived off part...

 

 

hahah ... yes

 

and there's a version for skiving off dead skin (like on cracked heelskins ) eek !!!

[TMLee]

Working on this next order.

 

The brief called for something feminine ...

and a theme about 'joy' ...

 

And the customer graciously (I think) allowed me much free hand in decisions

something I appreciate very much ...

 

After running thru a bewildering range of papers in the shop , I settled on this becos it's from the natural world.... (not manufactured)

and these are particularly wildflowers ..

its printed double-sided

the polka dot pink is the backside.

 

 

I had decided early on, that I want to do a spine accent ...

so ...

here , you see the paper installed onto my coverboards ...

 

 

 

This is the spine accent that is standard in my offerings.

So if you have my journals all shelved side by side, they will all line up perfectly, since the sewing stations are all in the exact same position.

This is an eight sewing-station binding, which I find is necessary for TOMOE RIVER paper (which was also requested in the brief)

The threads are seated in the recessed areas providing some shelter against abrasions that come from normal use.

The scrapbooking paper bearing the wildflower motif are cut in this manner to minimize wastage.

Scrapbooking papers come in 12inch squares.

My journals A5 size are also 151mm (6 inches) wide - requiring 7inches to wrap around one cover.

This solution above requires only 6inches which then means that one sheet of scrapbooking paper is sufficient - leaving behind very little or zero wastage.

The huge bonus is that it becomes an aesthetic feature as illustrated later in the finished product.

 

 

 

The next challenging part is selecting and matching the accent colours

First attempt ...

quite a lot of possibilities and permutations ...

all are workable, but there's always one that has to meet all the factors / considerations ...

The threads below are also all workable with the several hues present in the wildflower motif

 

 

 

I didn't feel completely convinced of the options above so I went and hunted for more options just to convince myself ...

2nd attempt (with some more hues)

 

 

I enlisted the opinions of the ladies in my house, and after quite a bit of discussion (long story why the rest were rejected) , came to this shortlist ...

A greyish purple on the spine to let the cheery wildflowers stand out.

The tilted papers in the background are the options for the flyleaves

Dark purple threads.

All these hues are present on the wildflowers, so there's some blending visually.

 

 

 

I finalized the decision on this combo

somehow I notice that the camera always has problems rendering purples accurately.

The cutting mat green is accurate in colour.

The purple threads are accurate in colour.

The spine accent is not so bright a purple - its a greyish dark purple. Its chroma is not so bright.

The flyleaves (tilted) are actually more pinkish and fresh looking, not like this where it looks bluish and more like lavender.

 

 

 

 

Went ahead to install the spine accent.

I think this is the first or very few times where I used paper for the spine accent.

This opens up a lot of future possibilities.

The paper has to be cut exactly otherwise the zig-zag edge wont ever fit. (suffered failure in this dept before)

There are 2 valleys and 3 crests on that zig-zag edge, which means that if its positioned too much left or right, the gap where it meets the wildflower paper will never be consistent in size - either too small or too big.

So here , its positioned and checked carefully before gluing ...

High quality masking tape is necessary, to avoid damaging both papers.

(BTW, scrapbooking paper surfaces are very delicate and unforgiving , unlike Japanese washi papers, looks delicate but very workable and robust)

 

 

The tape is mounted at the 3 crests where its the only place where it can hinge ...

 

 

 

 

 

The gluing part is hairy ...

Paper warps under wetness (from the glue)

so the gluing operation has to done quickly yet not too wet where the paper starts to distort from warpage.

Then , the glue on the crevices need to be a little wetter so that theres glue there to adhere the paper and make the deboss/ emboss look crisp.

Applying glue on that zig-zag edge is the challenging part for me.

This is where the choice of paper becomes important. Its gotta be thickish enough so it wont warp like crazy when wet with glue. Yet not too thick that it cant form the emboss/deboss underneath.

A teflon bonefolder (more costly) is indispensable. You cant execute this without damaging the papers with a natural bonefolder.

More so becos the paper I am using has texture.

I cant rub down the entire spine paper cos all the texture will disappear.

I have to run the teflon bonefolder carefully along the deboss/emboss.

 

 

This is the pointed 'V' that now comes into full effect

 

 

 

The paper is textured

which means that where the bonefolder has made its mark, the texture is gone.

You can hardly see it here becos the mark is along the outlines of the emboss/deboss.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the other cover ..

 

 

 

 

 

Looks promising ...

 

 

 

 

 

[DWR]

Wow...that looks fantastic! Love the colors and theme!

Blessings...

D

[my63]

Hi TMLee with regard to your new skiving tool the surface you skive on is as important as the tool It needs to be hard and smooth I use a granite block, Thick glass is good as is marble.

The trick is to use a sharp blade and not to try to take too much off in one pass. I usually start in the middle and work outwards I find it harder to start at an end.

I find a skiving knife much easier especially if it is thin leather.

[TMLee]

Wow...that looks fantastic! Love the colors and theme!

Blessings...

D

Thanks 🙂 Edited October 14, 2017 by TMLee

[TMLee]

Hi TMLee with regard to your new skiving tool the surface you skive on is as important as the tool It needs to be hard and smooth I use a granite block, Thick glass is good as is marble.The trick is to use a sharp blade and not to try to take too much off in one pass. I usually start in the middle and work outwards I find it harder to start at an end.I find a skiving knife much easier especially if it is thin leather.

Yes, hard surface.

I do it on glass .

Thanks for the reminder 😊

 

I think I will vary the tools used at different areas.

This skiver is the pull type .

The others are the push type.

Both have their unique advantages.

 

For both, I think I will skive at an angle - 45deg sort of ...

 

I havent figure out how those skivers - that look like knives , how they are used ? 🤔