Finish work takes forever

I should have finished A Tango Diary weeks ago, but I always forget: The real work of bookbinding seems to come at the back end. It's not like, say, painting a room, where prepwork accounts for the bulk of the task. Oh no. Once you've printed, collated, and sewn the signature, then bound the thing, you have to put on the covers (careful now), knock up nice rounded-but-square corners (all four of them) and paste in endpapers (I made this extra-worky by putting in pockets; tell me, what books have pockets these days?).

All that takes about 35 more minutes per copy if I'm plugging along. It starts to seem like bookbinding's all about covering your tracks. Rough edges are trimmed and tucked away. Marked-up bookboard gets covered up completely and quickly like Mormon underwear. There are parts of the book the reader never sees. With A Tango Diary, it cracks me up that the pockets are lined, and I wonder if anyone will notice that flash of buff-colored Japanese paper as they slide in a business card.

But wait, we're still not done. I then stamp the colophon with my Chinese chop, and number the edition. Somewhere in here I should start the marketing, too. Speaking of, here's the suite of promo pix.

Crafty Wonderland here we come

Out of 400 entrants, I'm one of 200 vendors picked to show my stuff at the so-called Super Colossal Crafty Wonderland holiday sale happening Sunday, Dec. 13, at the Oregon Convention Center. Yippee! I'm sharing a table with the fabulous jewelry designer Angela Muldoon; we met at the Blackbird sale last year.

Along with another Beaumont Artspace show coming up in December at TaborSpace, and a few other deadlines looming, I've got plenty of irons in the fire. I'm also only about a third of the way through A Tango Diary. The marketing blitz for that should begin first part of November.

Lately it seems like the bindery's humming with activity. We are entering the third month of the roof-repair project, but best of all (so far) are the new shelves by our rockin' cabinet man.

They're already useful.

Just in time for TangoFest

The Tango Diary's been bound for at least a month now, but now it has covers and can be released to the world! I hope to get it to the festival this weekend, then launch an online marketing blitz.

What's cooler than an iPhone? The box it comes in

My husband bought an iPhone, and I got the box. Covered in Japanese chiyogami, it becomes an exquisite place to store stuff.



Will I get in trouble with Apple for putting my seal on the bottom?

Let's put some well wishes in it

Congratulations to the soon-to-be newlyweds!

Our cousin and her fiancé are getting married next month, and here's the party album I made. I hadn't seen this chiyogami pattern before, but it totally suits the couple and the style of the event — a fun and casual afternoon and evening in the park.


Here's some double deckle-action detail (bookbinder's tongue-twister)

Bindery kicks into action

My awesome assistant arrived from Walla Walla, and we got to work on the latest edition, 50 copies of A Tango Diary. I letterpressed the title page a few weeks ago (recognize the Sexo Puro font?), so we jumped right in collating little bundles of paper tucked inside thick endpapers that will form pockets on the inside of both covers.






Arini did all the sewing, and then came the boards and spines.






Here's the yummy Moroccan leather I'm using for five of them.

I can't go to Brazil, but my books are

Tonight my prototype for a book plus CD/DVDs heads off to Brazil with Bob, where he's planning to spend time with Suely Mesquita and document her Sexo Puro songwriting movement. I'm jealous as hell, but thrilled I got to play a part in the project.

Here are details of the "musibook" format I came up with.





I came across 72 pt. Legend font in the type drawers at OCAC, and this project made a perfect reason to use it.



BTW, Suely's music totally inspires. I can't stop listening, in particular to "Zona E Progresso" from her Microswing. Listen to the "radio" stream long enough on her site and you'll eventually hear it, and a lot more.

Now don't you wish you were in Brazil, too?