The White Journals

Work is moving along on my white journals project. Four are now completed, all taken from Keith Smith's non-adhesive bindings book 2. The single section sewings did not charm me, so I skipped that part and went directly to 2 section bindings.  So far, I have completed the Parallel Bars, the Diagonals and Bars, the Standing Z's or Lying N's, and the Lattice selections. Now that there are four of them to stack up, they are becoming more interesting as a collection.

It's not easy for me to work in white. I love the way that all white things look, but when I start working on a white project invariably a little color sneaks in there somewhere, and then a little more, and before I know it, the color is all over and the white concept is no more. This time I am making a conscious effort to keep it white, even though I did switch to color thread so you could see the sewing more easily. Okay, so I've used four different color threads on the four volumes. Now you see why this story always ends the same way.

Two of the four bindings have had different hole punching templates for each of its two signatures, with one spine template. I have found that it is easiest to create the page templates after the spine template has been made, making sure I transfer only the markings for that particular section to each template. 

For my materials, I've learned that museum conservation board, even the lightest weight,  is too thick to fold simply by scoring with a stylus. I'm getting a much sharper, even fold by using my x-acto knife with a very light touch to create the score line, being careful not to cut through the entire board, just the top layer. 

Stay tuned for more additions to the growing library!