Moving

December seems to be the time for me to make changes and new resolutions. It was December two years ago that I opened my second Etsy shop. Why wait until January when I can get a head start a month earlier, eh? ;)

The art journaling I've periodically featured on my blog has moved to Wordpress, come along! I've named my new blog "My Creative Muse" and will focus primarily on art journaling and the creative process.

Bookbinding topics can be found on my Emerson Bindery blog.

I'll keep the Studio B/UberArt blog around but I just feel like I need a fresh start. I've been rather directionless and without a clear theme here, yammering about whatever comes to mind. The Christmas posts I do here have been very popular but as much as I love Christmas, that isn't my passion--I want my posts to come from my heart. I hope y'all will transition with me and enjoy my new theme!

xxxooo
Beth

A Happy Mistake

I'm putting a positive spin on the fact that I screwed up one of my books! At least it was one I was making for myself and not a customer's order.

I'm not sure how this happened, but the punching holes were off on one of my templates. I didn't discover this until I got ready to sew the book and the holes didn't line up.

I was able to fudge the center holes but the two outermost holes were significantly off and had to be re-punched, leaving me with an extra set of holes.

I sewed the book anyhow, trying to ignore the extra holes but when I was all finished they were screaming at me for attention. I decided to run a thread through them to make it look like I meant to do that! It adds a unique look to the book and you'd never know I screwed up except for the fact that I just told you!

So In Love

I am totally in love with this new book! I just had to show it to you even though it's still in the works.

Several weeks ago I was unpacking a new paper shipment and these two papers happened to fall together on my work table. I had one of those "Ah-HA!" moments and made a mental note to myself to pair those papers together for a book cover.

What do you think I should call it? I was thinking of something like Chocolate Mint. Yum yum!
Any other thoughts? :)

New Designs- Name Plates and Monograms

Okay, so these really aren't new, exactly. I've been doing name plates and monograms for a few years now, but this is the first time I've listed them as an a la carte item!

This monogram I did almost two years ago now. I'll be doing some new samples in the next day or two. Provided my nice natural lighting cooperates with me (it's cloudy right now) I should have new pictures of my monograms to show you.

Note 12/1/10: Here they are, ready and listed on Etsy!

A Sneak Peak at Some New Books

Just pulled these out of the book press this morning. I finally found some excellent navy, blue, and turquoise papers! And a new yellow, which is a difficult color to find also. Yay!

Guess what I'll be doing all week? (Besides getting the house ready for holiday guests!)

A Quick Hello!

Just popping in to let you know I haven't forgotten you! Things have been so busy in my shop I barely have time to do anything but make books. I feel like the sleepwalking guy in those old Dunkin Donuts commercials..."Time to make the donuts"...only for me it's books!

Serenity now, serenity now...any Seinfeld fans out there?! (This picture is truly vintage, taken by my grandfather back in the 1960's. I think it is somewhere in Canada.)

In the midst of all this busyness my printer decided to act up. After much troubleshooting and calling in the hubby, we decided the problem was an internal part which cannot be replaced. And of course, it's just 2 weeks after the 1 year warranty expired!! So I had to get a new printer, and this time I got the extended warranty!

Signing off for now, over and out! ...Time to make the books...

My Poor Thumb

I have been making books for sale for over two years (for myself, much longer) and this is my first major injury. Up until now I have prided myself on being so careful.

Mr. Bump by Roger Hargreaves 

One of my favorite stories from childhood, most likely because I can relate to him!

I work with a lot of sharp tools--rotary cutter, utility knife, guillotine style paper trimmer, needles and awls--and aside from the time I stabbed myself in the hand with the awl, I have been limited to paper cuts. Until now.

I was cutting some book board (for no one in particular, just stocking up, lest any of my customers feel guilty!) and one piece in particular was giving me trouble. I tried cutting from a different angle and WHOOPS, got my thumb. Thank God for fingernails or I would have cut the entire tip off!

It feels a bit tingly and is getting in my way something terrible. I can't tie ribbons, I'm having trouble punching holes in my text blocks, and sewing books is quite a challenge. Every night I'm so fed up with the bandages I unwrap it just to get some relief (and air to the wound). And wouldn't you know my shop has been busier since the injury than it's ever been! I like to be busy but prefer the full use of my digits!

An Experiment With Posies

If you've been reading my blog for a few weeks now, you might remember a post I did about a month ago on these crocheted posies. I sold out of my first batch and have since added some more in my shop.

I want to show you what I did with the main posy in the above picture...

Ta-dah! What do you think?

I'll be offering this mini book for purchase in my shop. I just love working with these little petite books! They're so much fun.

I was thinking about why I enjoy creating the little books so much better than the large books. The only thing I can figure is that with the large books I feel like I have to be more formal--now who made up that rule, I'd like to know? :). However, with these little books, my goal is to use the scrap papers I have laying around and play with fun embellishments like the posies, so I feel less restricted and able to experiment. Maybe I'll get brave enough to try something fun on a larger book!

Imagining Spring Is Here

Heavy With Dew by OliviaGirdPhoto

Along with most of the rest of the US, I am so tired of this cold weather! It has been a very rough winter, especially for those of us who aren't used to such cold temperatures. As I write this, I've got a cherry pit heating pad on my back (because I ate ice cream for dessert and now have the shivers).

So, I'm going to pretend spring is here since that is the latest topic for the Etsy Bloggers' Blog Carnival. Melissa of MadeByMelissa is hosting this round and asks what items are in my shop to celebrate spring. I have all sorts of spring guest book designs, since spring is the start of the wedding season.

I thought I'd go with a yellow theme, to coordinate with the daffodil picture. Here is my Mums In Canary Guest Book.

I have one more yellow book in my shop but it's more of a summer theme...but here is one still in the works from my Petite Series--to be listed soon!

Ahhh...I feel warmer already! I hope these bright, cheery yellows warmed you up also!

Where Are They Now?

I thought it would be fun to do a little posting every now and then to showcase the travels my books have made. This book, Honey Indigo, made its first stop in Australia and is now on a European tour! It will showcase memoirs, snapshots, and ticket stubs from the trip. *I'm a bit jealous of this book*  Oh well, I'm proud to have something I made traveling around the world, even if I'm not going myself!

New Beginnings

I have a momentous announcement to make...After much thought I have decided to open a new shop.

...introducing Emerson Bindery!

My new shop has actually been open for a month now, but I've kept it quiet except for a few friends. I wanted to wait until after Christmas to make my grand annoucement.

I will be transitioning all my books into Emerson Bindery but plan to keep UberArt open for other projects.

Why you might ask, after over 200 sales and the numerous front page features, would you decide to start all over again?!

One of my front page features from June 3, 2009. My book is the first item at the top left.

When I first opened UberArt in November 2007, I chose the name because it would encompass anything I wanted to do. I had no idea what exactly that was though! I tried books, jewelry, note cards, and polymer clay flower pots (!!!) before I stumbled upon the guest book market. In December 2008 the guest books hijacked my store and things took off!

I have thoroughly enjoyed making books and will continue doing so, but I also want to explore other art forms. I didn't feel it was appropriate for me to lump them altogether in one shop, so I considered opening a new shop. But then, what to call it??

UberArt seemed to fit the bill for the new items but wasn't very descriptive of my current line of guest books. Instead of opening the new shop for the art, I decided to move the books instead. Thus, Emerson Bindery was born!

I will let you know when I introduce new items in my UberArt shop. I have big plans there!!

A Day In The Studio

I thought it would be fun to walk you step by step through one of my more unusual custom orders. A customer was browsing through my work and was inspired to request a guest book with a decorative polymer clay tile ornament on the cover.

1. I start my tile with a lump of polymer clay, conditioned and ready to run through the pasta machine to get it to a uniform thickness.

2. Here I've gotten the clay rolled out to the thickness I desired and impressed a design into it with a rubber stamp. I have my mica powders out and I have been filling color into the patterns on the tile.

**Very important to note when working with mica powder--less is more! I've learned that lesson the hard way, overloading my brush with powder and making the most garish mess.

3. Cooking in my dedicated polymer clay toaster over. This is an older Black & Decker that has a short in it and randomly cuts itself on when no one's looking. Scary, eh? That's why it's been relegated to polymer clay and isn't used routinely in the kitchen without supervision!

4. Cooling the tile under weight to keep it flat. My Pyrex baking dishes were the nearest thing I could find in a pinch. I put them slightly off center because they're stamped with some wording on the bottom and I was concerned the words might impress upon the tile.

5. The finished tile attached to the front cover of the book.

Your Assignment...

...should you accept it...

1) Go vote for my French Lace Journal in the Etsy Back To School Poll! You must either sign into Etsy or register to vote if you don't have an Etsy account.

French Lace Journal

2) Vote for your favorite Red, White, and Blue themed summer project on the ACE team blog. Of course, it would be nice if you voted for my journal, but at least vote for your favorite item! And you don't have to sign in to do this one!
Steamer Trunk Travel Journal

Thanks!

**this message will self destruct in 5 days**

Backstage Guest Book!

The Fray Summer Tour Guest Book by UberArt

I've got some very exciting news to share! I was commissioned to do a backstage guest book for Grammy-award winning rock band The Fray for their summer tour. So if you get the privilege of going backstage, look for my guest book!

I did window cut outs on the front and back covers,
and embellished the front cover with metal brads.

The back cover with the band members in another cut out window.

I have to give credit to my husband for helping me in the brainstorming phase. I had some ideas sketched out and he was my sounding board, helping me to tweak them.

Here is my sketchbook with all my notes from my brainstorming session.

You've heard the old saying, measure twice and cut once? Well, I think I measured 40 times to be sure my one shot at cutting was going to be right. It was quite a challenge to get the photo for the window centered and glued down before the window was permanently placed in position. Everything had to line up exactly right. Arrgh! The stress!!

At each stage of the process, I was sure I was going to screw something up. Fortunately all my planning and measuring paid off. I got it right on the first shot! Whew!

Here are the finished covers, ready for my stitching holes to be punched, which was another heart-pounding moment! What if I punch the holes in the wrong place? What if my punch acts up and messes up the covers?

I go through this nerve wracking self-talk with every custom order I do, but this one was just a slightly bigger deal than usual. It was such a relief when it was all finished!

Secret Belgian Binding

Between custom orders, latest project has been to learn a new binding technique. Someone on my Etsy Bookbinding team (BEST) mentioned Secret Belgian Binding and it peaked my interest. I'd never heard of it before--maybe because it was so secret! Ha ha!

This is my first book using the new technique I learned from Annette's tutorial on Secret Belgian Binding. It's an interesting pattern of weaving thread to attach the front and back covers to the spine.

It was challenging because I misread the instructions, so I had to improvise when I got to the stitching. The "1/2" and "3/4" showed up as a blank box in my browser, which I just ignored for some bizarre reason. After things weren't lining up as they should I realized my mistake.

The inside isn't as pretty and clean as Coptic stitch, but it's still pretty cool looking. Very unusual and handmade looking! No one would mistake this for a store-bought book!

If I can find the time to perfect my technique, maybe you'll see some of these books in my Etsy shop. In the meantime, practice, practice, practice!

Just Listed on Etsy - Book Press

Several months ago I blogged about a most excellent birthday present, handmade by my husband--a book press! How in the world I got along without one prior to that I do not know. I shuffled stacks of heavy books around in my studio as a makeshift book press.

He was so pleased with his accomplishment, and the fact that it has been useful and I love it, that he made another one to list on Etsy. Truthfully, he made it a while ago but I have been hogging it...no, uh, testing it...yeah, that's it...testing it. Just to be sure it works. And it does.

It is now officially listed for sale, all you bookbinders who are tired of stacking heavy books, here's your chance!

Newest Listings

I have been so busy these last few weeks and I am exhausted! On top of that we traveled this weekend, which is exhausting in itself. There is always so much catching up to do, not only around the house with laundry and unpacking, but there are emails to answer, orders to ship, and miscellaneous business to follow up on.

Here is what I've been working on in my studio in between custom orders.

Porcelain and Pearl Guest Book

I wanted to make an elegant yet simple book. The monochromatic whites are classic wedding, but this can also be used for a baby memory book.

Summer Sweet Pea Guest Book

A really fun print I've been dying to use as a cover for one of my books! This feels so summery to me and I can hardly wait for warm weather to move in to STAY! It's nice to have a 70-80 degree day here and there, but when it's almost painful to experience 55 degrees the next day!

Silver and Sage Lotus Guest Book

And a preview of one to be listed soon. This uses the same pattern as the Porcelain and Pearl Book but with a grayish-green background with printed silver lotus blossoms.

I've got one custom order I'm working on right now that is kicking my butt. I'm taking a break from it to blog a bit. It seems like one problem after another, totally unrelated to the customer. First I had trouble finding just the right paper, then my usual vendor was on backorder so I ordered from a new vendor. The order came today and I was very disappointed. The color of the paper was not what I expected. What one vendor calls "Olive Green" is totally different than another vendor's perception of that color. The paper was more like "Olive Brown" instead!
I had trouble with the violet papers I ordered as well. I ordered a range of purples to be sure I got the right shade for my customer. I've never had trouble with color on my monitor vs. reality, so apparently the problem is on the vendor's end. Needless to say, I was not pleased with the violet papers that arrived either. I think one will work, but it's not the perfect match I wanted.

All that to say, lesson learned--order swatches first if you have the luxury of time on your side!

Introducing A New Guest Book Design

Since my wedding guest books have been so well received on Etsy, I decided to introduce another style. This one is vertically oriented (portrait), with a paper sash across the middle with a satin tie. It sold within 24 hours and I immediately got to work making another!

Moonlight Damask Guest Book

The black ribbon can be swapped out for another color from my ribbon collection. So far I've been fortunate to have all the colors that have been requested! **keeps fingers crossed**

I'm trying to build up my stash but it is amazingly difficult to find double faced satin and nicer fabric ribbon in my area. I've done some research on online vendors, but most of them want me to purchase no less than 25 yards of each color! That means I'd have to sell 25 books with a single color ribbon to justify that purchase; that's just not practical at this point!

Although I'm calling them guest books, these journals have many other uses. They can be used as a memory book, scrapbook, or photo album. The spine extenders sewn into the book allow for expansion, so you can add photos and mementos within the pages without the cover splaying open. Or you can use it as a journal for your thoughts and ideas, sketches, or product designs.

I'm really enjoying making these guest books and am always thinking of new variations on my designs. Maybe soon I'll have another style of guest book or journal to post about. **hint hint**!!

Busy busy!

Wow, have I been swamped this past week with custom orders! My poor blog suffered as a result. I was ashamed to see the last entry was on Valentine's day! Custom orders are a lot of fun and I enjoy the challenge the projects present. Most of the books I have made this week are wedding guest books.

A guest book for a Tiffany blue themed wedding

My most challenging project so far was doing a journal with tracing paper for the text block. When I started to stitch it together I found the spine wanted to collapse on me, so I had to add some sketch paper to the folios to make them more structurally sound.

The tracing paper journal, using handmade Lokta paper for the covers

This was a fun project and a very pleasant customer to work with! I really like it when my customers give me artistic license to come up with something creative within their guidelines of specific colors or sizes. This photo album was a variation on my Winter Damask Guest Book, done in portrait instead of landscape layout.

A guest book for a black and fuchsia themed wedding.

I've got one more custom order I'm working on this week and then I can focus on listing some new journals I've got waiting in the wings! Unless of course I get more custom requests, which is fine, bring 'em on!

Accomplishments

Yet another day is almost gone and I feel like I've accomplished very little. Each night I go to bed with high aspirations of what I'm going to do the next day. "Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the sewing pile. I'm going to hem my jeans. I'm going to do some baking, make a new journal, retake some photos of items in my shop..." and so on. Here is a partial view of my sewing pile. Some of it is simple stuff like sewing buttons or fixing a seam. It's just a matter of setting aside a few hours of my time to finish it. But honestly, I'd rather be sewing the bindings of journals!

And at the end of the day, what do I have to show for myself? The same list of things that I went to bed with the night before. Why is that? What do I do all day??

Well, I answer questions all day from my 3 year old such as, "Mommy, where is North America?" and "Is there a monster in my closet hiding my books?" He will not be satisfied with a simple answer. All the answers must be given in great detail with full eye contact. If I try to mutter something while working I get, "MOMMA! Look at me!"

I also spend a lot of my time rescuing the dog from the toddler. He doesn't understand the dog isn't a peer and can't play cars because:
l) he has no interest in toys that don't squeak,
2) Hotwheels are not edible, and
3) he has no thumbs.

The fact that the dog cannot speak our language doesn't seem to bother my toddler in the least. He still yaks the dog's head off, telling him the ABC's, asking him questions, and narrating what Clifford is doing on tv.
I was able to accomplish a few things today. There are four finished Japanese paper journals in the book press. Tomorrow I hope to photograph them and list one. The blue paper next to the press is part of a new Sand and Sky Seaglass journal. I'm making one like my avatar, only with blue paper inside instead of tan. I hope to get the pages cut tonight and maybe start on binding the book.

I work best at night after the little guy has gone to bed. Or I should rephrase that...after he has gone to SLEEP. Just because he's in bed doesn't mean the questions stop. The other night he called me in there because he thought the Pooh bear on his nightlight was a monster. I surmised from this event that Scooby Doo is still too scary for him; we watched some old Scooby cartoons that day and he talked about the Willawaw for days afterward. "They are big walking owls, but they really men inside. Like when I wear my Halloween costume. They try to get Scooby Doo but he runs fast."
I also made some Parmesan-Pepper Bread. I wasn't too sure about the pepper part, so I only put a little in and it turned out great. I'd like to pretend that I made that mug, but I'm not that good a potter. My friend Rae is the expert potter. Maybe one day I will be able to make a mug that isn't an inch thick and lopsided. Until then I will buy them from Rae!

So that is a summary of my typical day. Tomorrow I will tackle that sewing pile, hem my jeans, finish a journal...here we go again!