New Show & Tell Video

Here's a Show & Tell of a hanging hot dog book made from a piece of paper with a brush drawing on it. You can use paper with any kind of mark making with any media.

Here's the link to the video on youtube.

Here's how to make the basic hot book.

And here's how to add a hanger. 

Feel free to share this information. The more bookmaking in the world there is, the better place it will be!

I've posted a new The Joy of Making Books video on youtube: how to make a hot dog book that hangs. Here is the embedded video:

And here is the link.

Have fun!

New Video-Accordion Book with Covers and a Tie

Here's how to add covers and a tie to your recycled accordion book. I think these make great little gifts. When I was teaching in schools, they were a Mother's Day favorite.

Here's the LINK in case the embed doesn't work for you.

New Video-Adding Covers to Accordion Book

Last week's video was how to make a simple four page accordion. Here's how to add covers made from cereal or cracker boxes, or similar materials.

Here's a link to the video:
https://youtu.be/YdTmJLArAIU

Simple 4 Page Accordion Video

Here's a video on making a four page accordion out of one sheet of recycled paper. It's super simple and works fine without a cover.

And here's a link to the video on youtube.

Do-si-Do Hot Dog Book Video

Put two hot dog books together and make a book that has two covers and opens from either side.

View the video on youtube here.

wishes Stick Book

Yesterday I posted the how-to video for making a stick book. Here's one I made using a toothpick with the sharp ends trimmed off, ribbon, and Lipton tea envelopes. You can see a Show and Tell video here.

Stick Book Videos

Two new videos on The Joy of Making Books today. Above is STICK BOOK: the basic construction. Also posted today: Wishes Stick Book Show and Tell. Thanks to all who responded to my query about how the video comes through if you subscribe by email to the blog. Some people see the video; some don't. I will continue to embed the videos in the blog post and also post links below. Thanks for watching!

Watch STICK BOOK: the basic construction

Watch Wishes Stick Book Show and Tell

New Video-Show & Tell

Some of the videos I'm sharing at The Joy of Making Books are short little show and tells that are intended to provide inspiration for your bookmaking. This one uses a paper towel to make a hot dog book with a quote from Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki. I was introduced to the book by Jaki Svaren at the Calligraphy Conference in Philadelphia in 1982 and it has been important to me ever since.

Here's a link to the video.

Also: if you are an email subscriber, I'd appreciate it if you could let me know if the embedded video comes through for you. I have added the link in case it doesn't.

Fan Book on youtube

Here are two new videos in The Joy of Making Books series on youtube. I've embedded them in the post and also added the links to the youtube pages. 

FAN BOOK: the basic construction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5Bh5T1Zncc

FAN BOOK-made with garden plant tags

https://youtu.be/R-yY3GG6yEE

New Videos on Youtube

I was so immersed in the process for so many days—first filming (more than once) and then editing in imovie (pretty straightforward once I got going especially since I spent the time during the filming process to get full takes I could use) that having them up on youtube seems anticlimactic. But it is a big deal. I'm pleased to share them with you. The above video is the channel trailer that greets new visitors. You can find three videos on hot dog books: the basic construction, attached books to make a longer one and adding a bookmark, and using different size papers here. I hope to post a few more videos next week. I'll be letting you know about new ones here on the blog but you can also subscribe to my youtube channel to be notified when they go up.

Studio Sunday-Video Update

What a difference a week makes. Above is a still taken from the one of the videos I filmed yesterday. I like the way I look—relaxed and comfortable. In last week's video efforts, I realize it was about both how I looked and how I felt. First of all, while bright lighting does wonderful things for artwork, it doesn't do much for the human face. I look so much better with natural light. But the biggest problem was that I didn't feel like the authentic me. I had spent so much time the week before thinking about all the aspects of the presentation that I lost sight of my goal—to share what I have learned over the years and love doing. I don't know that it would have been that noticeable to others but to me there was an element of salesmanship going on. I was trying to sell the viewer on the value of watching the videos and that's just not my style. I believe in the value of what I am doing. If the videos get it across, great. If not, my telling you how to feel won't make a difference.

The sequence of the week was:
I did some filming with my iphone. It used a Joby tripod for smartphone on a box and two books. I used the camera front-facing (like you would take a selfie) so I could see what I was doing. They came out well. I was excited.

I talked to my son. Told him how good I thought they turned out and how easy it was to work with the phone in selfie mode.

He said, "You don't want to do that. The front-facing camera is way lower quality than the normal view." I was not pleased.

I decided to do some research online. It turns out that one of the big differences between an iphone 6 (what I had) and the newer one, 6s, is the quality of the front facing camera (from 1.5 to 5 megapixels).

I was eligible for an upgrade and now have a new iphone 6s. It just didn't make sense to start this project with lower level technology.

Yesterday I spent three hours with my new phone and filmed a youtube channel trailer and what I need for three short videos. They're imported into my computer and renamed so I can tell which is which.

Now it's onto editing with imovie. When they're done, I need to do some organizing to my youtube channel and then I'll post them. I hope that will be in a week or two. We're on our way!

Studio Sunday-Patience and Strength

Here are two words that I will need as I move forward with my video series. My daughter and I spent a long day yesterday filming a couple of segments. She then spent time that night editing the videos in imovie. I felt so ungrateful this morning when I watched the first video and burst into tears. I had no issue with the content. I just did not like the way I looked. Who is this person?

I had done a quick video by myself with my iphone earlier in the week and I so preferred it. The fact that it was not as clear and sharp helped a lot. And I realized that as encouraging as she was while she filmed me, I was not as relaxed as I had been when I was alone.

I am going to back and redo them. I'm going to try them without lights and see if I can soften the look without losing the clarity. I know I have a lot of good material worth sharing and that I can't let my vanity get in the way. I'll keep you posted.

Studio Sunday-Quote Book

When I make samples, I try to make most of them without calligraphy so that viewers won't think they need to do calligraphy to make the books. Sounds obvious, but when I first started teaching bookmaking many years ago, discouragement was often voiced. "But I don't know how to do calligraphy. My books will never be as nice as yours."

The above book is an eight page accordion made from one sheet of recycled copy paper with writing on one side only. I folded it in half like a hamburger with the writing on the inside, then opened it and glued the two layers together so it would stay together when I cut the arched shapes on the top. I used sharpies for the lettering and drawing.

I made the book to go in a photo to promote my upcoming video series. It was my daughter Kendra's suggestion that I have a photo chock full of books to use for promotion and introduction. The arrangement is getting there. I plan to tinker with it a little bit more and then photograph it on Monday with a good camera and lights.

Book Arts Tuesday-An End and a Beginning

Spirit Book #86: Hallowed Beginning

This is the last Book Arts Tuesday post on the blog and it seems appropriate to announce it with an image of one of my newest Spirit Books called Hallowed Beginning. It is named for the birch bark cradle which was gathered on the first day of spring. The birch represents beginnings as do the quiet sunrises of circles and rays on the pages.

The end of Book Arts Tuesday represents the beginning of new things, the biggest of which is a series of youtube videos called The Joy of Making Books which will offer instructions and ideas for making simple handmade books. The videos will be short and sweet and have close up views, unlike the Making Books with Children videos I previously made. I hope to have the first ones up sometime this summer. The ending part of that is that I have stopped teaching workshops in order to focus on the sharing online. I will be posting soon about how I came to making the changes in my work and schedule as part of my 65th Year series.