collaboration with Larkspur Studio London
A while ago I was approached by the lovely Eva of Larkspur Studio London asking if I'd like to try out some of the vintage silk fabric she sells in her Etsy shop. And of course I said yes - they're all real beauties! She sent me a very generous stack of samples and here's what I've made with them so far:
A nice stack of sewn boards binding notebooks! These measure 9,6×14×1,4cm / 3.8″x5.5″x0.6″ and they all have 96 pages of 90gsm drawing paper with a slightly rough surface suitable for all dry media. The fabrics I used for the covers and spines are mostly tsumugi silk, which is slightly nubby and fairly matte silk fabric. Super elegant!
And because the patterns of these vintage silks are so gorgeous, I'm not going to even try and pick my favourites to share. So here's the whole lot (and other stuff at the very end!):
Flexible soft covers! I'm still infatuated with this bookbinding structure. It's perfect for everyday use and still has that something little extra special design-wise that sets the book apart from the mass-produced stuff. And it doesn't hurt that it's a fun book structure to make!
You can now find these books in the Paperiaarre shop. If you'd like to see what beautiful Larkspur Studio London has to offer, do pay Eva a visit here! The fabric I used works really well on the book covers, but do note that you either need to back the fabric with paper (google tutorials on making your own book cloth) or be very skilled at glueing if you want to avoid the glue seeping through, but that's just how it goes with any lightweight fabric!
On another note, maybe you've noticed it's been very quiet here after Christmas. Lately it's been a bit of a struggle to balance between writing and bookbinding, but I'm sure you'll be seeing me here much more frequently with new bookbinding posts as days get longer and I get out of the slump also known as book deadline meets Finnish winter.
I know you guys love tutorials, it's just that currently they're a bit too time consuming to fit into my schedule. There will be more tutorials later on, but if you have some other type of content you'd like to see more of, let me know! This blog isn't just a place where I share my latest work with a link to my shop (although the books are pretty, and who doesn't enjoy looking at pretty books), but a place where I like to share all sorts of things relating to bookbinding, mixed media art and paper art in general! So, now's your time to let me know what you'd like to see more of...
Next Thursday I'll be back with a small stack of Coptic bound journals. They're still in pieces, but not for long!