May recap plus a sneak peek at what’s coming in June…👀

Have you started your challenge book yet?

We’re over half way through May! How did that happen?

It’s been a lovely May so far in Northumberland, with a mini heatwave, which has meant I have spent a lot of time out in the garden and at the beach 🏖️

If you’re new around here, I live and run my business in the market town of Hexham. It was voted happiest place to live and is full of cobbled streets, forests and parks and many indie businesses like me. It’s the perfect place to raise my daughter and stay creative (while also earning a living). I feel so lucky!

May is our challenge month and inspired by the season, I set a nature journal challenge to try. Take a look below:

FULL DISCLOSURE: I haven’t started my book because the shop and my business has been so busy. Please don’t judge me! I did however find a half finished journal I started last summer so I’m going to delve into that and have something to share with you next week. If you haven’t had the chance to dive into this challenge, you can come back to it anytime.

Want to know what I’ve been up to and how I run my creative business? Let’s get into it…

Hanji

I run a shop in the centre of Hexham. I open Thursday-Saturdays to the public and here’s where I pack kits, film tutorials and make origami maps. The maps are made to order, you just choose the location. After a bit of a slow start to the year, it’s now picking up the pace and has been quite busy for map orders. I also bought myself a new plan chest as I was getting swamped with how much paper I had in the shop in rolls or portfolios. It was time to invest in a proper set of drawers to hold it all in. Isn’t it dreamy?

In case you’re wondering I paid £450 for this beauty. It’s expensive yes, but you have to invest in your business and yourself. I have absolutely no regrets.

Making Books

As a bookbinder, you would think I would be making books all the time? That’s not actually the case, but this month I decided to try out some new books which would use up a lot of my map offcuts. I made a batch of 4 books to test out a new spine idea…

All have sold now so that really worked out great! They are Coptic bound, with a Bradel spine and have 120 pages with coloured end papers and are £15 each. I want to keep the cost affordable so that I have a range of price points in the shop. The origami maps range from £45-£600 so wanted something that was under this price point for people to buy too.

My plan is to create a run of map offcut books for sale in the shop. Each book has an original map so is the only edition of that location. A true one of a kind!

I actually wasn’t sure if they would sell as I’ve brought in other bookbinders work and they haven’t sold so well. It’s also a really long, laborious process making a book. It’s a 3 day process as there is a lot of pressing. The only way I can make a profit is by doing larger runs (like a production line). I’d love to know if you think the price is okay? Should I charge more?

Tutorials

Inspired by our lovely little bookbinding club here on Substack, I had a lot of enquiries from students to release a Flag Book tutorial on my website too. This month I discovered that not everyone has the time to join the monthly club and preferred the online self paced tutorials I’ve been running. So why not share it there too?

Instead of sharing the ones from the bookbinding club, I decided to film a whole new one which folds out from an A5 card. Great for giving at birthdays.

So for the Flag book tutorial on the website, I decided to work out how to piece together a single image using the expanding accordion structure. I used a collage, but you can try it with a photo or drawing too.

If you’d like to make this new version, take a look here. There’s also 25% off all courses and kits in the online shop throughout May. Just use the code Treat25 at checkout.

I launched a full Introduction to Accordion Books on the website. It has 7 tutorials all using the accordion book. Including two of the ones from the Bookbinding Club. If you found the accordion book as amazing as I do, you’re going to want to try some of the other projects. Take a look here.

Workshops

This week I delivered a beginners bookbinding workshop at my local arts centre. Participants made a single section sewn hardcover book. It uses the pamphlet stitch that has exposed binding through the spine. I brought along some maps (because, let’s face it, I have hundreds!) but little did I know three people all attended from the same place so there was a bit of a tussle for the map of Whitley bay! Whoops 😅

I don’t have an online tutorial version of this book, but I do have a multi-section version called the Nature Journal tutorial. What’s great about this book structure is that you can refill the pages by undoing the sewing and putting new pages in. Genius! Take a look at the tutorial and kit here.

I was also asked to deliver a workshop in Cambridge in the summer. It’s funding dependent, and I’ll let you know if it goes ahead. I’d love to know if there are any Cambridge readers here? If so, I’d love to know some places to visit while I’m there? Especially book shops and cafes. Let me know in the comments.

Take a Peep at what’s coming in June

It’s so close to the end of the month, I thought you might like to know what I’ve got planned in June?

We are making Bobbin Books! Inspired by traditional scrolls, we’ll delve into the history of scrolls and have a go at making our own using recycled materials. I’ll also be sharing a tutorial on Sashiko sewing. I love love love sewing paper and have already done a couple of Sashiko books projects, but I’m really keen to take this idea into a scroll book. Are you excited?

If you haven’t yet subscribed to paid and would like to join us next month making scroll books and have access to the full archive of tutorials, there’s still time to join us.

Let’s make books!

Yvette