The Spring Break Challenge

My sister and I never have overlapping Spring Breaks, so she came to visit last week though I was still busy with school work (and that damn essay). And at the end of her stay, we decided to make a bet: I said I could have 50 books in my shop by the end of my Spring Break, and, of course, she said I couldn't.

At the beginning I had 26 books in my shop. So I posted ten. Then I sold two. And I posted six. And sold  another. So now I have 39, and it doesn't look very promising. It's Saturday and I have a shopping adventure planned later today. Which means I have two days, still, to post 11 books. Will I make it? I definitely feel the underdog.

Here are some of the journals I've posted for the challenge:

Book of the Week: Where the Wild Things Are, An Upcycled Journal

Ever read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak? Well, if you haven't, I suggest you run to the Library now, and get it. Or look at this small preview.

It's a lovely book about where imagination can take you, and I very luckily found a copy in the Friends of the Library Room. And of course, I made it into an upcycled coptic stitched journal for one lucky person to fill with their own imaginative tales or drawings. *It sold to a very special customer today, and I'm very happy it's found such a good home.*

The outside covers feature Max in his costume, just before he's fully transformed his room to Where the Wild Things Are, and the on the back are a few of the Wild Things he meets there. The signatures are covered with small cut-outs of the illustrated endpages, and sections of the same illustration cover the inside of the front and back. I LOVE this book.

Find the description here.

In other news, a.k.a. ranting:
Etsy's changed it's search default from recentness to relevancy--which is good for some, but VERY bad for me. It's good, for example, for someone selling "vintage alarm clocks" or "blue enamel teapots" or even "screen print t-shirts". But I don't make typical books, and often my customers are not looking specifically for, say, a journal inspired by Oliver Twist. This means that I have to title and tag my unique journals under more broad and general categories like "leather journal" or "upcycled journal" instead of giving them the air of whimsy they used to have. And it also means, that I'm much more hard to find.

I'm so sad about this, really. Not necessarily because it's meant I've had a significantly lowered number of views/favorites/purchases in my shop, but because so much of what I LOVED about Etsy was one's ability to browse and be SURPRISED by the unique and thoughtful things people create or find. I never would have thought to browse for some of the art pieces I've discovered: like this artist book of Shakespeare's 116th Sonnet, or these Bow Tie Fingerless Mittens by Vanessa Ewing. You have to STUMBLE UPON them.

Anyway, I've had to purchase search ads, which aren't exactly working well, and while I feel my tagging is accurate, It's irritating that because I make all unique books I'm rarely being seen. Stupid Etsy!
Stupid Grinch! Stupid Christmas!

Anyway, enough rant and onward to a good little tid-bit: I'm going to have my first give-away soon! Though I'm satisfied with my four brilliant followers, I'm feeling a bit ambitious. I want FIVE! You'll be hearing more about it next week so constant vigilance my friends! Constant vigilance!


 

My First Sales

Tomorrow I'm sending the first books I sold on my Etsy shop away to their new homes, so for now, I'm going to write them a little farewell.

This little burlap covered book is landscape oriented and filled with Strathmore sketching paper. The pages are hand torn and the endpages are upcycled brown paper. The feeling I was going for was completely natural, and transforming the mundane into art.

The next book is a bit different than any I'd made before. It's covered in weathered leather, and bound in the traditional Coptic Stitch, which bares the spine. The spine itself is hand-sewn with waxed thread. Inside there are white sketching pages and beautiful Florentine paper which I glued to the wrong side of the leather with archival bookbinder's glue. To finish it off, I attached an ornate nameplate on top to allow it's new owner to designate it's use.

The third journal I sold, is one of the best hard-back, casebound books I've made, which was themed in Jane Eyre. Jane is this quiet, staid, and very Victorian heroine, and I tried to capture her character in the muted, neutral colors incorporated throughout the journal. However, the cream filigree of the cover paper is still very feminine and beautiful. On the cover, I placed an artist's rendering of the final reunion between Jane and Mr. Rochester, salvaged from a reader's digest edition that was falling apart. 

I used traditional binding techniques to make this journal: by hand sewing the signatures of Wausau stationery with bookbinding thread, and using PVA (bookbinder's archival) glue. It's finished with white headbands and camel colored cardstock for the endpapers.

The fourth book I sold was my all-time favorite. For this mini leather journal, I was inspired by the scene from Disney's Pinocchio when he carries a belted stack of textbooks to school. I wondered what kind of journal Pinocchio would carry, and I decided on this smooth tan leather with black leather straps to incorporate the belted look. 

Each page is hand-torn Wausau Astroparche writing paper with an antique parchment finish, which are hand-sewn in the limp binding method with waxed thread. The end papers are hand-made turquoise paper with a bit of a sheen. 

Well, more to come later. I will surely miss all of these beauties, but I'm sure they're going to good homes!