Blank books just in time for the holidays!

We've switched gears a little bit in the studio recently -- slowed down on production of the two editions of stitching speechless and started binding more blank books for the holidays. Earlier this week I dropped off a batch to go on sale at Vespertine in Carrboro.

They come in different sizes, binding styles, and a variety of materials for a variety of purposes. Many in this batch are made with a multi-media paper that's ideal for artists working in a range of media -- from pencil to pen-and-ink to watercolor. The sketchbooks also include fold-out pages, so the artist can have different sizes and shapes of page to work on.

The covers on the sketchbook below feature one of my favorite recent paper discoveries -- a gorgeous screenprinted Japanese yuzen paper that we found at the Paper Source store in Charlotte.


Margarite has been helping out as an apprentice in the studio. On Sunday she took a quick break from tearing and folding paper to take some action photos instead. Here she caught me with my thinking face on while sewing a Coptic-bound sketchbook.


Now that's a look of total concentration.

Hope you'll stop by Vespertine to take a look at these new books, not to mention all their other beautifully crafted offerings. Happy holidays!

New blank books for sale!

I'm very excited to say that Vespertine in Carrboro is now carrying my handmade blank books.

Margarite & I fell in love with the Vespertine location in Pittsboro when we were first considering moving there. We were exploring the downtown area and found this narrow little storefront selling local handmade jewelry, soaps, screenprinted t-shirts, prints, knitted goods, etc. Quirky stuff in exactly our style. I won't say that it was the reason we decided Pittsboro was the place for us, but combined with delicious lunch and beers at The City Tap... well, PBO started to look pretty darn good.

In the meantime a second Vespertine location has opened in Carrboro, and that's where you'll find my books. It's a small selection so far, but I'll be adding more all the time. There are a few small coptic-bound journals like the ones shown above, some Japanese stab-bound ones, and one weirdo that I invented myself that I just call the "star journal":



When the materials and the inspiration come together just right for a special book, I like to honor that by giving it a name. This one is called 'Rodanthe Pier dawn patrol':



The color of the book cloth and the wave pattern on the endsheets take me back to summer morning surf sessions in the Outer Banks when the rising sun turns pitching waves translucent green, and the dark blue ocean is corduroyed to the horizon...



In any case, stop by Vespertine in Carrboro to check the books out for yourself. Even if it's not one of my books, I guarantee you'll find SOMEthing there you'll like!