My blog has moved

Dear people, due to continuous trouble with Blogger's outdated interface and annoying bugs, I have decided to move my online presence here:

VETEROKFORBOOKS.TUMBLR.COM

This is a great change that opens ups many possibilities I didn't have before. I have decided to transfer some of my older posts to the new blog but I don't yet know what I'll end up doing with them - or this blog - in the future. So please change all your bookmarks and links if you have any. You will be able to follow me via RSS feed as usual, and if you have an account in Tumblr it will be very easy to get updated.

Juhannuslaituri, Tampere

Happy Midsummer's Eve, ladies and gentlemen! This evening my pop-up shop will serve you at the Tampere railway station in the Juhannuslaituri event. Go and check it out, my works can be found at the Ofelia Market table. I will also attend the Ofelia Market itself, which will be held at the YO-Talo in August, so keep that in mind for more selection.



See the event page on Facebook: Tampereen Juhannuslaituri

Book pendant giveaway!

Because it's my birthday today, I'm going to do one of those ever-so popular giveaways. This means that I'm going to randomly select a person who gets a free miniature book necklace from me - it's a navy blue one, bound in luxurious goatskin and finished with a foil gilt "falling stars" motif. The rules are very simple too: All you have to do is follow my blog and then leave a little comment in this entry about what you think about my blog or my work. You don't have to be a poet, but it's always nice to know what people think so all comments that are a bit more deep than "nice stuff" are much appreciated.



The winner will be selected on 30th of June. I will announce the winner in a separate blog post but when leaving your comment please make sure that I can also personally contact you one way or another; E-mail address is preferred!

Classic travel journal with a stenciled cover

Curiously enough, I myself have been travelling so much lately that I haven't had time to post these pictures of a travel journal I once made for a customer. I have developed a slightly intimidating backlog of various unimportant things that I - for some reason - need to post somewhere before I can write about any of my recent shenanigans. On the other hand I haven't done much recently, bookbinding-wise. I have been to Derwent pencil museum and climbed a couple of fells and mountains, quite accidentally celebrated the Diamond Jubilee and bought some second-hand books too. That can wait, now.



This book was bound in beige Morocco goatskin with handsewn black headbands and a dyed top edge which is protected by Renaissance wax. The cover itself was finished with a funny technique I devised when everything else was out of question: The map design you see on the cover was originally supposed to be a raised design or an onlay of sorts, but for time, health (not referring to my mental health) and other reasons I ended up stenciling it instead. So the book was already covered with leather and almost finished when I wrapped the stencil of a world map around it. Oh yes.



I was going to use leather dyes but decided against them after doing some hideous test pieces. I've always thought there's something fundamentally wrong in painting leather with acrylic colours but in this case they seemed like a great solution, mostly because I needed something durable that is thick enough and doesn't bleed everywhere. I haven't quite decided what exactly is the off-putting aspect of acrylic colours in bookbinding, for I'm sure they can be used for myriads of great things and I have always used acrylics in my mixed media pieces and flat art. Anyway, the design made with primary red acrylic ended up looking sort of funky and retro in a vintage travel agency sort of way, with nice and clean edges. In some odd way all the colours match too.



Here is the finished front cover. The rest of the design wraps around the book and extends approximately to the first half of the back cover. It truly turned out much nicer than expected, acrylics and all. Is it completely distasteful to like such a thing! Also, pardon the pictures, I was really quite ill the day I finished the book. Let me know what you think.