For three months, I studied art, bound books, and wrote poetry.  It wasn’t until at least half way through my three month stay that I discovered two of my two very best friends.  All three of us fell in love with Italy.  The place, the people, and the food all found their way into our hearts.  By the end of the trip, we were binding books together, making paper, and hoping by some miracle to never leave.  In truth, in our hearts, we never did leave.  Our dreams of opening our own bookbinderies stayed in our thoughts, constantly creeping in every time we walked into a paper store or had a cup of cappuccino.

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Now, two years later, we still itch to go back to the place that helped us dream and believe that the impossible could be possible.  I opened To Boldly Fold in September of last year, and now I want to share something that is very near and dear to my heart.

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Little Spoon Bindery.

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My best friends, Miss Bobbi Pinkston and Miss Casey Berry are two exceptionally talented individuals.  One with a love of literature and another with a knack for art history, they traveled to Italy not knowing what to expect.  When the left, they were expert bookbinders, and never looked back.

Their wit and excitement culminate into this amazing energy that could keep even the most exhausted fingers binding books for hours.

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Living in three different time zones, we manage to video chat on a constant basis.  I miss them daily, but am so proud to see how far they’ve come.

…And don’t worry, we plan to return to Italy very soon, but more on that later!

*All images property of Little Spoon Bindery.

Handmade means many things and means different things to each person.

One of the things I struggle most with the handmade community is quality.  I’ve had a lot of people say to me that they don’t like handmade goods.  They find that they fall apart or don’t function well.  Just like with manufactured goods, you have to be a discerning buyer.  The world of handmade goods has a huge spectrum of quality levels as well.

Handmade only has one regulation, which is that it is created by a person and not a machine.  That regulation can be interpreted in many ways.  Some handmade goods are produced by hand from start to finish.  Some handmade goods are simply a collection of mass produced goods that have been assembled by hand.

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For me, handmade is synonymous with well made.  I believe that if you are taking the time to make something with your hands, you should be making it well.  It’s not about making it faster or cheaper.  It’s about quality.  If I didn’t believe that what I was making was of the highest quality, I wouldn’t be making it.

It’s also not just about a product.  Handmade also means that there’s a direct connection to the creator.  It’s amazing to be able to go to a craft show and talk to the person that made what you’ve just purchased or chat with them to discuss different options.  There are few other situations between buyers and sellers in which this is possible.  It’s exciting and makes that object have so much more importance.

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Whatever  your definition of handmade may be, I hope that if nothing else, it makes you think about where your objects are coming from.  What journey did they take before they got to you?

Now, I throw the question to you: What does handmade mean to you?

I’ve been working on this collection for a long while,

and it’s so nice to finally have finished it.

I love bookplates,

and thought that they would be a nice addition to my sketchbooks.

I wanted something that would personalize the book for each artist.

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Nancy Muller is an extremely talented illustrator,

and I was thrilled when she agreed to illustrate some bookplates for me.

I wanted something earthy, and LOVE her animal illustrations.

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The collection is comprised of 25 books,

and there are 5 books available

for each type of illustrated bookplate.

There are birds, a fox, a buck, a bat, and owls.

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Here are a couple of the finished ones:

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Check out www.NancyMuller.com for more of her amazing illustrations!

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I only had one color of thread.

White.

Easy, simple, and a necessity.

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As time went on,

I started to experiment

with various different binding styles.

I found exposed bindings

to be my favorite.

So, I found myself  in need

of various colors of thread.

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One grew to three.

Three grew to ten.

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Now, my collection has grown

to 33 different colors.

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Oh my.

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With less than 2 days left

on my completed my kickstarter project,

I cannot be more thankful

for everyone’s support

and enthusiasm.

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Thank you to everyone that donated

and spread the word.

I went into this with no idea what would come of it.

Through this project I’ve made new friends,

reconnected with old ones,

and have had a great experience.

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Thank you!

I’m so excited

for where my business is going!

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that I’ve been working on

for my kickstarter backers!

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I’m loving this new leather!

It’s SO soft.

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It’s double the size of my full-sized books

and has 100 pages.

Wahoo!

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Here are some images:

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She really liked the look of this one,

So I made her a larger one

with the same color thread, button, and end papers.

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TGIF!

and working on a custom order.

I think it’s an adorable idea.

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She loved one of my books, but wanted to add envelopes to it.

The idea was to have friends and family write notes and stick them in the book.

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Here are a few images of the finished piece!

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Happy Thursday!

a new sketchbook for Mark

since he only has a few empty pages left

in the last sketchbook that I made him.

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It’s always fun picking out paper and book cloth

for these types of projects,

and it makes for a nice change of pace.

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Here are some images of the finished book.

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The endpapers are a gorgeous yellow patterned paper

that I recently ordered

from Smock.

They do some beautiful work.

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Today I am the featured artist on Handmade News,

a blog about handmade art and the artists that create them.

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Please go here and vote for my article!

If I get over 23 votes, I get on the front page!

Just click on the green thumbs up right above the comments section.

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Thanks!