Episodes
Sunday Dec 28, 2008
Episode 20: Just in the Nick of Time
Sunday Dec 28, 2008
Sunday Dec 28, 2008
Just in the nick of time. Today, December 28, 2008, I managed to finish a 2009 calendar/diary. It has blue Japanese paper as a cover, with light blue paper as endpapers. Coptic binding with black waxed thread and white pages. This was supposed to have been finished as a Christmas present but all sorts of delays ensued, not the least of which was me spending four hours handwriting the dates only to discover while writing November that I skipped a day back in March or April. Usually I don't mind skipping days but when they are in a permanent document that will be used over and over again as the year progresses, well, I felt I had to do something. So I started over and my, wasn't that fun. Here, if you turn your computer sideways (here's hoping you have a laptop), you can see the handy (pun alert!) size: fits well into a jacket pocket or the pocket on some briefcases. Also, in a purse, if you carry one. What did I learn from this escapade? Well, first, start your yearly diaries and calendars early. Well before December 24th, I'd say - just as a rule of thumb anyway. In fact, I just finished the weekly calendar for a calendar for 2010. Thinking ahead, I am. Also, be very, very careful of dates and days. For some reason these are important in calendary/diaries. I don't know why. I like the hand-written monthly calendar but I didn't like the hand-written weekly calendar, so I xeroxed a page and used that. Not the best solution but workable. Overall, I'd say this rates 3.5 stars out of five.
Monday Sep 29, 2008
Episode 15: Ought Nine Is Closing In On Us
Monday Sep 29, 2008
Monday Sep 29, 2008
Ought nine is just around the corner. (2009 for you youngsters under the age of about 90.) While I should have started my calendar making several months ago - and actually, I did start several months ago - last June as a matter of fact, but I didn't finish the preliminaries. Prliminaries: getting a 2009 calendar, making a rough draft of the year's diary/calendar, folding the paper. I did the first one. This week, as part of my 14 in 14 fiasco, I did the second two parts. Last night I finished three 2009 calendar/diaries, one each in purple, white, and green. The green one was okay but not exceptional. It has a green cover made of a recycled folder, green waxed thread and is A5 size, slightly bigger than these two. This purple one is my favorite. It has 84 pages in three signatures (8, 8, 5), B6 size, purple waxed thread, and yellow end papers. It's small enough on the outside but the calendar is big enough on the inside to be useful. The cover is Japanese washi so it it has a nice feel to it and fun to hold. The purple washi covers book board and I didn't do such a good job of the corners but it is still ... charming. What did I learn from this book: I need to practice folding over the corners of the cover. This is, obviously, white with a yellow accent. The shadow is from the sun, it is not on the book itself, although it looks nice. This calendar is made of recycled material - the cover is from a box which had the accent already cut into it. The calendar has black waxed thread, 84 pages in three signatures, yellow Japanese washi endpapers, and is B5 sized. And the calendar itself is hand-drawn using a black calligraphy pen and eyeballing the size of the days and weeks. Not all days are the same size. In fact, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, being on the right page, are bigger than Monday through Thursday, being on the left page. This is for those of us who are busier on the weekends than the weekdays - or who at least have more to write down in our diaries from the weekends than the weekdays. All-in-all, not a bad night's work (following several weeks of delay.)Thanks for reading and listening.
Monday Sep 01, 2008
One Rough Customer
Monday Sep 01, 2008
Monday Sep 01, 2008
Tactile. Touchy-touchy. Very light.
These are a few words that describe this book. As you can see, the cover threads are bare; you can see through them to the rough yellow paper I used as endpapers. I bought the red cover paper a long time ago and have been trying to figure out what to do with it ever since. Then I bought the paper recently that has become the pages. And here you can see the stems and leaves stuck in the pages themselves. The phrase "stems and leaves" might remind some of our older readers of the sixties when the exact phrase was "stems and seeds" but the idea is similar. To continue, this paper is rough, has the stems and leaves in it and is one folio. One page folded over once. There are seven of these pages so the whole book is 28 pages. Here is a closer look at how the pages are more torn than cut nicely. The look and feel of this book just screams out for someone to touch it. Now I need a poet and a calligrapher to add some content. Or maybe an artist with a calligrapher's pen that will draw some worthy portraits or pictures. Or some phone numbers and turn it into an address book. Noooooo!