Book of the Week: Ebenezer Scrooge Journal

I made a new journal!

Isn't it gorgeous? It's called the Ebenezer Scrooge Journal, based on the character from Dicken's The Christmas Carol. Although originally it was going to be an Icabod Crane journal (but with the nameplate, it sort of lost it's Icabod-ness). Read the description here.

Also my mom's suggested I make a Mr. Rogers inspired journal, and I think i'm going to make it from a knit cardigan. And now I have a sewing machine!  And speaking of Mr's, I want to make a Mr. Bean journal. And a Mr. Darcy journal. Oh, there are so many Mr's that I can make journals after.

School's back, though, so we'll see how much time I have. Only have four classes, but we'll see how it all goes.

Pricing War

I've been warring over myself about pricing for a good long while now, and I've decided that there needs to be some sort of standardization, so I've compiled a comprehensive list of "stuff that goes into making a book". And I've assigned a monetary value to each of these items. That way, I can price things realistically, and if people are like "why do you charge so much?" I can just refer them back to this list.

Micro Mini Journal for Reference

Stuff That Goes Into Making A Book:

Time:
$10 1-2 hours
$20 3-4 hours
$30 5-6 hours
$40 7+ hours
$3 Custom orders

Mini Journal for reference

Materials:
Bookblock:
$1 Micro Mini
$2 Mini, 100+
$3 Moleskine
$4 Regular size, up to 200
$5 Regular size, 200+
$6 Premium

Regular Sized Journal for reference

Base Materials (thread, glue, etc.):
$1 Mini
$2 Regular

Casebound Materials:
$1 Cover paper
$1 Board
$1 Mini bookcloth spine
$2 Regular bookcloth spine
$2 Mini full bookcloth cover

Quarter Leather for reference

$4 Regular full bookcloth cover
$1 Bookcloth corners
$1 Mini handsewn head/endbands
$2 Regular handsewn head/endbands
$6 Mini quarter leather (spine is leather)
$10 Regular quarter leather (spine is leather)
$1 Cardstock endpages
$1 Vintage paper endpages
$2 Specialty paper endpages
$1 Mini specialty paper endpages

Leather for Leather Journals:
$2 Micro mini (~1 1/2"x1 1/4")
$5 Mini (~3"x2 1/2")
$10 Medium (~4"x3" - ~5"x4")
$20-30 Large (larger than above)

Findings:
$2 small
$4 large
$4 lace
$1 thread/ribbon
$1 button (each)
$7 chain for book necklace


Your 25% Discount Coupon Code is PRICING.

Yum, Beeswax..

Look what I got! Now I can wax my own linen thread! Which I've done for my Mini Musical Key Signature Journal.

I went to Pygmalian's the other day, to window shop. And by window shop I mean to pet the kitties and drool all over the bookbinding supplies. I asked one of the owners if they carried bookbinding wax, by which I meant beeswax in dispenser that you can easily run thread through. He said they had regular beeswax, and just look at how cute this is! $1.35.

Have to go wax some thread now, ttfn!

Book of the Week: Custom Shakespeare Journal

 So I need to talk about this book, if only because it's taken me a month and a half to make. Oh My Bookbinding God.

I don't know if anyone's familiar with The Bookbinding Guy videos (more info here) but I checked them out at the library, and apart from having terribly loud and upsetting music, the instructions really are helpful and clear. They differ slightly from most of the instructions in books I've found, but actually seeing people do things like sewing headbands was AWESOME. (And yes I just yelled that.)

In the middle of June, I had a custom order for a Shakespeare inspired journal for a future English professor from his wife. (What would become this book). She was actually my first ever buyer, and she's the best customer I've had. We talked it over, and she gave me a lot of room to do whatever I wanted. My immediate thought: I WANT TO DO A QUARTER LEATHER! Hence the Bookbinding Guy's video.

Anyway, this was my first quarter leather, for all intents and purposes, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I sewed the bookblock on large cords, and the effect was pretty exaggerated. If you're wondering, I used antique leather, that was already weathered and worn, because Shakespeare should never look brand new. The marbled paper was from MyMarbledPapers on Etsy. This particular paper was based on Coriolanus.

I even sewed headbands! And then I sewed more headbands. It's addicting.

In fact, I don't know why more people don't sew them instead of gluing pre-made ones on. Honestly, sewing them is a lot more fun than holding them on for half and hour hoping they doesn't fall off after you let go.

Goodness, this book took so long to make, if only because I was trying really hard not to screw it up. I got feedback yesterday, and a really nice message from the buyer about how much her husband liked it. He said it was very "scholarly". And he's going to use it to take notes for his forthcoming book. Good luck to him!