On my recent vacation, I made trips to two great places near Raleigh, N.C. The first was to a store I have used online for years, PaperMojo. They have an astounding array of decorative papers of all types and weights and have just opened a small brick & mortar shop in Wake Forest. There’s nothing like being able to see and feel a paper before buying. Textures and weight is so important in bookbinding. I have a number of sheets I have purchased online in the past that I will probably never use simply because they are too light or too heavy or just don’t feel right.
I didn’t buy much, just one sheet with leaf inclusions to use in the books I was working on and two sheets that will work very well for the soft cover style. I don’t think I would have bought the latter online. Here they are:
The other stop was at the Scrap Exchange, a reuse center in Durham, NC. It’s a non-profit that collects unwanted materials from businesses and individuals and sells or re-purposes them. They have an incredibly eclectic range of items from electronics to wallpaper sample books to office supplies. I bought some odds and ends and it made me start thinking about making books from all sorts of goodies. Here is my collection:
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- The stash
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- Small plastic samples of ???
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- Vinyl Wallcovering samples
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- Wood flooring samples
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- Vinyl floor samples
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- Broken piece of marble
I have no clear idea of what I’ll do with any of these. The plastic samples made me think of my Jacob’s Ladders. Both the vinyl floor & wall samples might become book covers as well as the wood. The marble I’ll be using for paring leather. If any of these work out, I’ll be looking into finding a local source. Stayed tuned to see what happens!
In other news, I started planting the gardens – just potatoes for now, but the good stuff will come soon.
I’m giving a three-day marbling workshop next week so that will hold back the planting. As soon as it’s over I plan to dive into it!.