Bookbinding at Home: Part 2

So here we are again – still at home and pleased to share our next installment of our Bookbinding at Home series! We hope you have found some small things to enjoy in this time of truly slooooowing down. For me it is always the small things that brighten my days, like watching Toots and Yedda – our goose landmates – and transforming a pile of field stone into an elegant yet makeshift garden path!

As for the tutorials, we are learning a lot (we hope you are too) and are so grateful for everyone who is joining us!

Project No. 2: Stitching Signatures for a Coverless Sketchbook

Here is what you will need:

1. Needle – bookbinding needles have roundy tips and big eyes, but most needles will work!
2. Thread – any thread will do. If it is super thin, double it up.
3. Pencil – grab your favourite pencil to plot your stitching holes.
4. Paper – this is for the inside. Do you like lined paper, sketch paper, the back of used paper, graph paper? Gather your favourites, mix ’em up or stick to one!
5. Thumbtack – or something sharp to poke holes through paper and cardstock.
6. Scissors – for snipping your thread.
7. Fabric – this will serve as your linens that will hold the book together. Happy treasure hunting!
8. Glue – to glue your fabric to the front and back covers of your book. Elmers works!

We get most of our bookbinding tools and materials from Talas, including needles, thread, linen tape and other materials we haven’t explained yet. The waxed thread that I am using is a 3 ply waxed Irish Linen thread.

We love Strathmore drawing paper for our journals and find that and other supplies through Artist & Craftsman. Both the latter and Talas are small companies who have shut down their physical locations but are currently taking online orders and shipping!

As for covers, vintage textiles, needle boxes and vintage tools – you can find all kinds of unexpected magic at home as well as on Etsy and eBay. We at Peg and Awl absolutely encourage creativity in materials and tools, and finding vintage stuff is a nice way to reclaim some of the excess of items that already exist on our planet. This is also a way to make your project and your desk specifically yours!

Bookbinding Glossary

Sheet: The unfolded paper pages that you start your project with
Folio: A folded sheet
Signature: Gathering of folios
Leaf: One half of a folded sheet
Page: Each side of each leaf

Please share your little books with us with hashtag #quarantinebookbindingclub – we’d love to see what you are making, and share the results!

The Next Step…

Continue on with our next bookbinding project: covering a coverless book! We will only be covering a book, so bring your coverless book from this project to the next installment.

And While You’re at Home…

If you are housebound or feeling antsy, there are oodles of projects online and on Instagram. I’ve found inspiration from The Good Ship Illustration’s drawing guide The Sketchbooker’s Friend. The first tip is pretty great:

NO PHONES. Don’t take a photo, then draw from it. Don’t finish your drawing at your desk later. It is NOT ALLOWED and we are very strict!

 

Until next time, join our Newsletter to learn about new products, offers and giveaways, and receive a coupon code for 10% off your first order!

Bookbinding at Home

The state of the world – and the pause it is giving – has me thinking about and enjoying the small things in life – like wild violets, meringue cookies, and the scritchy-scratchy sound a pen makes. It has also brought me back to the early days of making books, and the small things that made them so special.

As a result, we have put together a long overdue tutorial on bookmaking. I have prepared a list of things you will need to make your first notebook. This is a very simple start—you can use materials that you have at home and anyone, any age can join in! So, let’s make books!

Project No. 1: Single Signature Notebook

Postcard by @deborah.j.stein	Card by Egg Press and tea box from Yogi Tea

Here is what you will need:

1. Needle — bookbinding needles have roundy tips and big eyes, but most needles will work!
2. Thread — any thread will do. If it is super thin, double it up.
3. Pencil — grab your favourite pencil to plot your stitching holes.
4. Paper — this is for the inside. Do you like lined paper, sketch paper, the back of used paper, graph paper? Gather your favourites, mix em up or stick to one!
5. Cover – raid your recycling bins and cupboards for tea boxes or snacks whose boxes you adore. Use this time to clean up your drawers find postcards and note cards saved. All of these things make wonderful covers for little book!
6. Thumbtack – or something sharp to poke holes through paper and cardstock.
7. Scissors for trimming your cover.

If you have everything on this list at home, great! If you don’t and wish to order online – PLEASE consider buying from small businesses and Etsy sellers who REALLY need everyone’s support.

Visit our blog for the how-to process video! Please share your little books with us with hashtag #quarantinebookbindingclub – we’d love to see what you are making, and share the results!

Coming Soon…

Stay tuned for our next bookbinding project: a coverless journal like our Anselm Bookbinding Kit! You do not need the kit to join, but if you’d like to get started with one (it includes a bookbinding needle!), find them on our shop.

If you are housebound or feeling directionless, there are oodles of projects online and on Instagram including the #quarantineartclub hosted by @CarsonEllis, a live book club for kids by @MacBarnett, and, coming up – one of my personal favorites, the #100dayproject!

Due to COVID-19 we have closed our shop to the public for the near future, but our online shop remains open, and we are shipping orders on Tuesdays and Fridays! We will be shipping and disinfecting and are around to answer any questions that you may have.

Though we are all affected by this situation in many different ways, let us make the best of a tough time by learning something new, or catching up on something old. Whether you’re making more food at home, cleaning the darkest corners around the house, or maybe even checking some long delayed home and gardening projects off of your list, we hope that you are able to use this curious time to enjoy the small things as well!

I am getting many inquiries about my Iris Painter’s Palette and the paints that are in it. I shall get to that, but first I have a little story to tell.

I remember getting my first list of vocabulary words in elementary school. That week the words seemed to show up everywhere: in conversation, in books I read, wherever I went. I walked into the classroom, gobsmacked, and shared the news with my teacher. Each week brought new lists and new coincidences. Decades later, my life is still filled with this magic. The synchronous deluge doesn’t just happen with words – it happens with so many things, including our falling into the world of geology and paint. 

One cold winter, Peg and Awl was set up at the Chelsea Holiday Market in New York City for a week. After so long in our makeshift shop, I was set free to stretch my legs in the cold, wet, snowy streets of Manhattan. I typed ‘art store’ into Maps and found Kremer Pigments. When I opened the door, it felt like I had traveled back in time. As I stared at the bags of pigments, the connection between them and the paints I so loved hit me like a thunderbolt. I muttered some incomprehensible thing to the shelves and shelves of coloured dust. The pigments that made the paint came from the earth under my feet: malachite, azurite, epidote, garnet. I had fallen into a world of pure magic!

Fast forward to so-called ‘adulthood,’ and like the vocabulary words that were everywhere, the Family Kent were suddenly, literally, swimming in natural history relics that could be transformed into paint! In a river in Vermont, we found rocks embedded with garnet. In Pennsylvania we met a retired science teacher who bought a cabin precisely because of its location atop ochre mines (he gave us red and yellow ochre in a variety of forms). We sifted through the sand at Calvert Cliffs (whilst swimming in the Chesapeake Bay) and found shark teeth, biominerals, and ancient coral. Gobsmacked, over and over again. 

At Peg and Awl, we have bags of treasures to crush and mix and play. 

I feel our jumping into this world is not complete without that story, because understanding where these colours come from was what brought this epic journey into the realm of magic.

There are invisible things all over, and it’s not until we’re able to focus (through direction or discovery) on what has been heretofore concealed, can we see the words and the materials we use every day.

So now, the colours in my palette:

• Magnetite 
• Noir Mineral*
• Azurite
• Celadonite
• Malachite
• Epidote
• Iron Oxide Red
• Burnt Iron Oxide
• Ombre Nature*
• Cote de Azur Violet
• Ocre Havane*
• Ocre Jaune*

*these are from France, from 40+ years ago, via Belgium. This entire paint adventure includes in insane number of rabbit holes, just look at this: Ochre Quarry in France, via Atlas Obscura.

If you are up for the challenge of making your own paints, you need some tools to begin. If you wish to circumnavigate the making, I will provide a list below with some glorious paint makers! Like most “that looks easy enough!” processes it is rather complex and expensive to begin. But if you are up for the challenge, it is oh so fun! 

 

Tools

I started with the following tools: 

1. a muller
2. palette knives
3. tempered glass palette
4. mortar and pestle (I have loads from flea markets)
5. dropper
6. kremer’s premade medium
7. palette (our Iris!)
8. pigments
9. glass jars (I bought some from Kremer and also use saved spice jars!)

Paintmakers

• Kremer, obviously, in NYC and Germany.
• Case for Making – CFM paints are creamy and delicious and their website is full of beautiful accessories from other makers whose goods they stock. Alexis and crew also introduce the world to artists and workshops and just so. much. magic.
• Greenleaf & Blueberry – G+B paints are unbelievably prepared. If you try to make paints, you will see the challenge in putting paint into a palette neatly, and without cracks. These guys are the masters at this! Their paint, too, is glorious. And Jess’s newsletters are of the few that I read from beginning to end. 
• Beam Paints – Anong is the daughter of paint makers and artists in Canada. Her stories, process and ingenuity are ever-so inspiring. Anong makes countless sustainable palettes and presentations for her paints. She shared with me the ancient Egyptian Paint Palette that inspired our Iris!
• Early Futures (pigment shop) – I found Heidi via instagram and following her journeys is another epic adventure, and her pigments and the stories that accompany them are a complete treasure to transform!

Other Resources

• The Kremer Pigmente Recipe Book – beautifully photographed and so informative!
• Illustoria Magazine – I love this magazine and this month is the Color Issue!

We are very psyched to announce our only batch of tintype journals for the year! I’ve collected more historic tins for what has become an annual event at Peg and Awl.

This past weekend, the Peg and Awl team traveled back in time with @gilesclement and his partner Kendra, witnessing and partaking in many tintype and ambrotype sessions at the Peg and Awl workshop (read our blog post about that here). When I pour over each portrait from the 1800s, choosing the right one for each journal, giving them new names, I wonder about the day, the preparation, who the photographer was. I wish I had a time machine to hear their conversations, to witness their awkwardness and unexpected giggles, that nearly always ended with a grim countenance.

Browse our newest Tintype collection here, and sign up for our newsletter to be notified of the launch time! Go ahead, find your favourite, and fill the pages within with your stories and let us wonder what another 150 years will bring.

Read more about our Tintype Journals here.

This past weekend, the Peg and Awl team traveled back in time with @gilesclement and his partner Kendra, witnessing and partaking in many tintype and ambrotype sessions at the Peg and Awl workshop. The smell of collodion was intoxicating, as Giles expertly poured it onto the plates and gently tilted each one until fully coated, finally tipping one corner into the well-used bottle to collect the excess. The tiny makeshift darkroom housing developer was like a time machine. In the age of digital photography, we snap-snap-snap, hoping 1 in million will be good enough for a quick digital edit and a push to Instagram. For me, seeing Giles set up each portrait with care and shoot at the precise right moment, yanked me back into my olden days, where I had 12 shots per roll of film and a week to wait for the results. Patience, time, care, seem nearly lost to me now, but I suppose our new way is just a different path to the same point. We don’t have to head into a studio, wash behind our ears, and make sure our Sunday best is spotless. We get to snap-snap-snapping in the midst of the action, dirt and all.

Here is to the old and the new, and how lucky we are to be at the crossroads.

Vanessa Langton made a wonderful video unboxing and filling up our Sendak Mini Artist Roll! Visit her YouTube channel Pen Gangsta and follow her on Instagram @vanessa_langton

A few weeks ago, when I felt a little stuck in my everyday drawing practice, I began making paintings of my favorite things. As the little paintings accumulated, they began to feel like a gift guide – the perfect way to share some of the things I use daily. Here goes:

1. Local Food! Since moving, we’ve found growers’ markets surrounding us. Fresh, delicious local food has changed my world (and ultimately leads to MUCH smaller grocery bills for us). I cannot get enough delicious mushrooms, fresh ginger, and turmeric! My family loves Brandywine Bread Company, and I will actually cry when the markets close for winter.	2. Piles of Books! I can never have too many unread books around, though sometimes I question the excess. Find a local bookstore if you can and stock up! I am working through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, and despite all of its weirdness, I am loving it! (It has been on my unread shelf for years) If you have any of your favorites to share, please do in the comments section!

3. Art Supplies Where to begin?! It is always a delight to find antique pens and pencils at flea markets. Stocking up on art supplies is as fun and dangerous as stocking up on books. I love Blackwing pencils. Case for Making, Greenleaf & Blueberry, and Beam Paints have all opened up my world with the magic of handmade watercolors.	4. Hydro Flask I can never get enough water and I cannot believe it is still legal to put so much stinking water into plastic bottles. The math is simple, the convenience is clear. And Hydro Flasks are great! (But not the sippy version – they leak!)

5. Saltverk Licorice Salt I love licorice in nearly any form so finding this salt was like finding magic dust for my every day!	6. Staub Kettle I adore this beauty of a kettle. We’ve had it for years. It is simple, looks great in our kitchen, and I look forward to using it every day.

7. Fiorentini + Baker Boots I had to include these. I don’t think a week goes by without someone asking about my boots. Here they are in miniature! Or, one pair anyway. I love these so!	8. Uncle Harry’s Breath Freshener More fairy dust! I am so happy to have found this breath freshener and digestive! Yum! (I love their tooth powder too!) The packaging is simple and recyclable and they make everything in America.

9. Tiger Balm …has been in my pockets or bag since I was a kid. I’ve always been prone to headaches, and this balm has always helped to lessen them. I was once back stage at a Sonic Youth show and Kim Gordon complained of a headache – I gave her a try. She loved it so I promptly handed over my tin!	10. Moss and Mineral Bee Hotel We built our garden this year at the 5 acre wood and cannot wait to put our Bee Hotel from Moss and Mineral in it next spring, and look forward to seeing all of the pollinators who will call it home. Handmade from all reclaimed materials.

 

We've been so psyched to be welcoming guests to the Peg and Awl House in our beloved city of Philadelphia since The House’s launch in July. In addition to receiving travelers, we’ve also been hosting small businesses that have used the space for photographing and filming their stories. It is so lovely to see new visions in our old home!

We were thrilled when Rikumo reached out to us to shoot their Holiday Gift Guide in our home – we LOVE their shop! 

Have a look at their beautiful photographs and the shop here!

 

NEW Sketchbooks and Paint Palette!

In the wise words of Annie Dillard, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” At Peg and Awl, we are working to facilitate the making of art everyday and anywhere with objects that make packing and transport easy, whilst looking quite handsome. Meet Iris and Orra!

The Iris Painter’s Palette

The Iris Painter’s Palette is inspired by the wooden palettes used by the ancient Egyptians. Constructed from sustainable maple and vegetable-tanned leather, the palette is a simple way to transport your favourite paints, whether you mix your own pigments or squeeze them from a tube.

The Orra Sketchbook

Life’s astonishments and the impressions they conjure leave me awash in scribbles and sketches. Our Orra Sketchbooks are thin handbound books that are ideal companions for small projects and daily excursions. They are named for Orra White Hitchcock, a 19th century botanical, geologic, and zoological artist, an illustrator to whom no detail was too small to be recorded in her art. Made from high quality Strathmore drawing paper, Legion cover stock, and handstitched with linen, these versatile sketchbooks can take on a variety of media including pen and ink, watercolour, and graphite. Available in three sizes.

Landscape	Portrait	Large Portrait

Both the Iris Painter’s Palette and the Orra Sketchbook (Landscape and Portrait sizes) are designed to fit into our Classic and Mini Sendak Artist Rolls!