I just got done stitching a couple of handmade books this afternoon and as I walked to the kitchen to make a pot of tea, I realized I was smiling. I like making books and not just as an entertaining way to pass the time but I feel good after I’ve finished one. Books have a lot of repeating elements. There is a rhythm and order to the way you cover a board with paper and the folding and punching of signatures. The stitching method has a pattern. There have been studies that are often quoted about the way your brain responds to repetative motions like knitting as a way of reducing stress and lighting up sections of your brain that are connected to making repeated motions with your hands. No one is ever going to study bookbinding the same way, but my guess is that its the same responses and neurons that are firing.

There’s a new art marketplace that hasn’t even launched yet, but I’m part of the first wave of artists to try it out. I was the same way with Etsy. It’s always been my philosophy as an artist with any new show or program or marketplace is that none of these new things are ever going to be successful unless people participate. So I signed up before they even launched. I might even join the Discord channel because that’s where all of the beta testers are hanging out.

The new place is called Fybe. and among many of their ways of distinguishing themselves as a new kind of marketplace, they are really putting an emphasis on handmade. Their mission is to make their marketplace truly handmade – every vendor and every product is juried by human moderators, AI generated content is not allowed, and it’s community and crowd-sourced for artists by artists. Their social media graphics aren’t polished templates, but look like the way I used to make computer graphics in the 90s (in a good way.)  It sounds pretty awesome; I like the vibe. I remember 20 years ago when Etsy was more like that. Shops at Fybe haven’t even launched to the public yet, so I don’t know how much I’ll like it or if this new idea will even work, but I am willing to be one of the guinea pigs.

What does all of that have to do with making books? I was thinking about what I might want to have in this new shop. I added a bunch of patterns already because those are really easy and it lets me get to know how the platform works. It’s a logistics nightmare to try and think about having the same inventory in two online venues, so I thought maybe I’d make a few things that were just for the new place.

So I carved a new stamp of a dragon (which you can see at the top of the post). A friend told me once that I should have books with dragons on them and I thought that was a good idea. I’ve loved dragons forever. I have a paper dragon garland that hangs in my studio. The book I’m listening to as I write this has a dragon in it. I love them almost as much as dogs.

Ironically, there’s a piece of dragon fabric sitting on the other end of my studio table. It’s been there for more than a week. I love it and it’s really fun, but I haven’t done anything with it. And I was thinking as I was stitching, I should make something from that fabric and then I immediately thought no I don’t want to get my sewing machine out and all of those bits and pieces. 

For literally decades, my art was designing fabric and sewing clothes. I still do that, but I’ve been doing it less and less. I started thinking today about why that is. Do I not like sewing anymore? Nope. That’s not it. It’s that I don’t like all of the “baggage” that comes with sewing.

Everything is expensive. Fabric is expensive, especially clothing fabrics. My sewing machine cost more than my laptop and my phone (and I use those a heck of a lot more). Making an “art” piece costs a LOT of money.

It’s hard to find. I wrote a blog post recently about buying fabric from India because I was so frustrated in trying to find some basic clothing fabrics. As much as I adore Spoonflower, there are only about 2-3 of their fabrics that I would consider wearable.

I have to order everything online. I can’t get matching thread or elastic anywhere locally beyond just the bare bones basics. And my skill level is a little beyond the “gathered elastic skirt” pattern. If I run into an issue and need a little twill tape to fix it, it will be 7-10 business days before I can solve that problem.

It’s a hassle. I have to wash and iron and figure out a pattern and cut something out and I can’t do any of that in my studio. I don’t have the space. And none of those are the fun steps. I have to get out all of my machines and sewing tools because they take up too much space to have them out every day. There’s a lot of prep that has to happen.

Sewing has gotten frustrating.

What’s not frustrating? The actual sewing with my own two hands. I hand stitched part of a holiday ornament today. I’m working on something for a class. It was fun. I wanted to do some more. I thought about starting another one in a different color. There was no machine involved. Just my hands. Then I packed up some kits for my Etsy shop. Same thing. No machines, just measuring out some materials and sorting everything into kits. Then I pulled out these books to bind.

I made the covers last night so they could sit overnight for the glue to dry. It turns out paper is easy. These are all made from scraps. There’s some marbled paper I made in a class and some recycled security envelopes. I stamped on some with hand-carved stamps. I used some pieces of wood veneer. I can get paper nearly anywhere and a lot of it costs me next to nothing. These are bound with waxed linen because it’s the thread I like the best and I do have to order that online, but I don’t have to have it. I’ve also bound books with embroidery thread and a chunk of beeswax from the farmers market.

There’s not a plugged in or expensive tool in the entire process. And that’s not just kind of cool. That’s the kind of project that makes me smile the whole time I’m working on it.