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This is a wonderful segment on bookbinding from CBS Sunday Morning (US Television). Includes interviews with bookbinders Jamie Kamph, John Bidwell and Herb Weitz of Weitz Coleman.

I can’t imbed the video, so you’ll have to visit CBSNews direct to watch.

Enjoy!

French artist Lyndie Dourthe works with textiles, paper and wax to create unusual three-dimensional dioramas enclosed in glass. Her little terrarium creations are charming and full of life. I came across her work via Egg and she’s featured this month in Australia’s Vogue Living.

There is an otherworldly feeling to her work - Faeries, dark forests and Victorian age garden parties. What do you guys think? Could you see her work displayed on a modern style side table? I think with the re-emergence of the handmade esthetic that work such as this, which shows an artists hand and personal vision, coordinates nicely with today’s simple, modern lines. We need more art in our lives - personally, I mean, in my own home. There is so much beautiful work out in the world I wish I could visit everyone’s artist studio just for the inspiration.

Visit Lyndie’s website for more inspiring images.

Visit Lyndie Dourthe
Buy at Egg

It’s not too late to register to exhibit at the Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair, there are still a few tables still remaining.

In partnership with the Visual Arts Program of Montgomery College [Silver Spring, Maryland], Pyramid Atlantic is pleased to present the 10th Biennial Book Arts Fair & Conference. The event connects international artists and booksellers with collectors and scholars of the book arts through a dynamic book fair, stimulating conference lectures, exhibitions, panel discussions and events. Pyramid Atlantic, in its 27th year, serves as a contemporary visual arts center and gallery dedicated to the creation and appreciation of paper, prints, book arts and digital media.

Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair and Conference
November 8-9, 2008
Cafritz Foundation Art Center
Montgomery College
930 King St.
Silver Spring, MD 20910

Visit bookartsfair.org for registration information and conference and events details

Our Rag & Bone “Twelve Ways You Made A Difference” handbound book was just listed as a #1 best teacher’s gift. I’m not familiar with the Divine Caroline website, but it’s probably super popular and I’m just the last to know. Thanks to Jacinta O’Halloran the style editor for mentioning our books!

Some people have to keep up with the Joneses; I have to keep up with the Scandones. My neighbors––the Scandones––are the most wonderful neighbors you could ever want. They grow organic veggies in their back garden. They handmake their kids’ Halloween costumes. They give the most thoughtful gifts. I eat chemicals and buy plastic costumes, but I’ll take their thoughtful and up it to overthoughtful when gifting. My son has been filling in this Twelve Ways You Made a Difference book all year (okay, all week) for his teachers. Scandone cookies are good, but they won’t bring the teacher to tears!

Twelve Ways You Made A Difference

12 Online Shops for Unique Gifts
Rag & Bone is mentioned at Real Simple in a list of 12 unique online shops. Thanks Holly!

Who doesn’t love a little giving and receiving sometimes? There’s nothing like opening something special from a friend who took time to select something with your style in mind. And to give? This is also fun. If you happen to be there when the gift is opened, there is no doubt a lot of warm fuzzy feelings in the room when you see the joy on their face.

Visit Real Simple
Visit the Rag & Bone Boutique

Prior to the Stationery Show in May, we worked with fabric designer - and all around talented - Sandi Henderson. We discovered her designer fabrics through the Craftzine Blog and got in touch to find out where to purchase them. Sandi designs for Michael Miller Fabrics, and although we were too late this season to add them to our current collection, we made a bunch of books for Sandi to display at her fabric trade show - which took place the same time as the Stationery Show, so we weren’t able to attend.

The timing was good to turn her fabrics into bookcloth, we were already sending small yardage to our converter for our trade show, so we simply added her fabrics into the mix. Sandi even sewed all the pieces together into one long piece to make it easier to convert which saved money on the set-up charges. The books came out great and are fresh and springy. Thanks Sandi! Can’t wait to do it again.

Check out Sandi’s newest collections Farmer’s Market and Ginger Blossom collections.

Sandi took photos of her trade show, see them here

Visit Sandi Henderson
Visit Michael Miller Fabrics

My daughter and I spent the day together playing Mini Monster Golf (totally, rocking fun), flying her new butterfly kite (not enough wind yet…), loitering over diner coffee & vanilla milk and visiting Myopic Books in Providence Rhode Island where we saw this cool reading chair. Myopic owner Kristin and her husband Daniel are artists, Daniel works at the Brown art department.

Rhode Island artist David Karoff welded the chair and attached the paperbacks: they have holes drilled though their insides and are slipped onto a hidden rebar frame. All of the materials are recycled - even the books, which are cast-offs from the Rochambeau Library Book Sales. Who wants one of these chairs?

We do!

Visit Myopic Books

A hail storm passed through Rhode Island this afternoon flooding the streets around the bindery. Our daughter is at outdoor camp, but we called and everyone is sheltered - we’ll all have stories to tell over dinner tonight. Here are a few photos from outside the Rag & Bone Bindery windows. We can’t remember weather like this since we moved to Rhode Island twelve years ago. This was a big one! Jason

Back in February we participated in a baby shower contest on the Pinks & Blues Blog. They gave away our Baby’s First Book, a Paper Page Album and a Pocket Brag Book {together with TONS of other expecting-mom goodies from other vendors} to both Angela Kinsey, who plays Angela Martin in NBC’s “The Office”, and to one lucky Pinks & Blues blog reader.

Today we received a thank you card from Angela herself! How totally sweet and unexpected and, like, awesome - Angela sent us a card! It’s posted proudly in our break room. Thanks Angela, you’re the best. And congratulations mom & little baby Isabel Ruby Lieberstein!

Read More at Rag & Bone
Visit Pinks & Blues
Angela has a blog

Sarah Mizer, who used to live here in Providence, composes elegant text-based works in glass, using light and shadow to re-envision words, lines, and columns of text. Her pieces with wax covered books discard their written, literary functions to treat them as objects, while sculpturally retaining their bookness.

“Belly” is the title of the piece with the books stacked upon four legs:

“Belly” is a self portrait made a couple years ago in my first year of grad school. It is similar to my posture (sadly enough) when I am tired, which I was.  It is also torso height to me.

Sarah works with found books, glass, pins, shadows, books, wax and cellophane. Check out her website to see more. She is currently working as an artist as well as editor for the Daily Constitutional, an artist run, submission based magazine. [Release party for Issue 6 August 16th at Printed Matter, NYC]

Visit Sarah Mizer online

For all of you who can’t wait until July 11th, here’s a little paper craft love - the new Apple 3G iPhone: just cut, fold, glue and envy.

Visit Big Chief
Direct Download Link [PDF]

DQ Books are virtual, flash-based “books” which are only published online. Each issue is a collaboration between several designers and artists. As online artwork, they’re a mash-up of illustration, photography, narrative and soundscapes - think Thom Yorke meets Man Ray. The narratives are pretty loose, and it appears that the medium dictates the content.

I like the satisfying “swish” when you turn the pages, and the ability to turn the book 90 degrees on its side on a few spreads. The background sounds compliment the images and make you slow down a bit to appreciate the overall effect.

There are currently four “issues”, not all are safe for work.

Visit DQ Books online

Alexey Titarenko’s time-lapse photos appear to reveal a hidden world beneath the facade of our own, yet they are simply Russian commuters entering buildings and railway stations.

See more at www.alexeytitarenko.com

The SFG Blank Book Project is a traveling sketchbook which is scheduled to travel from its home base in Washington DC to 50 illustrators around the world. Once the book arrives at each destination, participating illustrators have 7 days to complete a sketch and send the book on to the next illustrator. The book will reach its final destination approximately mid-December, 2008.

It will travel for approximately one year, from January to December 2008. The theme for this inaugural book is, “Where I Live.” Project creators Jeff Andrews and Steph Doyle hope to launch a second book project at the begining of the new year

SketchTravel

This reminds me of a similar project called “Sketch Travel“. which also consisted of a sketchbook in a box with instructions for illustrators to send the book along a predetermined route. Quite a few of the forty scheduled artists and illustrators have contributed and the book is currently in New York City.

Look At Book

Another project with a traveling journal was “Look At Book” which completed in 2004. The project consisted of only four artists: two in Brooklyn, two in Belfast. Every Wednesday one participant would receive the book and would have until the following Monday to send it back out, giving each artist five days to complete a spread in response to the one that preceded it.

1,000 Journals

There is also the 1,000 Journals project: “One thousand journals are traveling from hand to hand throughout the world. Those who find them will add their stories and drawings, and then pass the journal along in an ongoing collaborative art form. This is an experiment, and you are part of it.” Many of the 1,000 have found their way - through scans and photographs - back to the 1,000 journals website. There is also a documentary, see the trailer on YouTube.

But anyway, back to the SFG Blank Book Project. I’m having a little trouble using the interactive map, however it seems that as of June 6, 2008 the book is in Tampa, Florida, 22 participants down, 28 to go! I hope there is a published book in their future.

Does anyone else know of similar projects? Drop me a line and I’ll post it here.

Visit SFG Blank Book Project

Saw this on the designboom blog. Buch Mit Amphitheatralischer Einrichtung [Book With Amphitheatrical Furnishings] was on display at Art Basel 2008. This 2001 work by German artist Hubertus Gojowczyk is a large book that is cut to resemble the arced seating of an amphitheatre.

Gojowczyk is a an artist who often uses books as his main material.

Via deisgnboom

Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away.
Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air.
You better watch out,
There may be dogs about.

Or sheep on the phone.

Visit cualquiera.com.ar
Via Craft

This is a Fotomo: a three-dimensional paper craft created from photo prints of real-world scenes, cut and assembled into 3D collages. Fotomo are the work of Kimio Itozaki.

Clever idea, this would make a really cool one-of-a-kind card, or a gift for a house warming or store opening. There are more examples on the Olympus website. This is the only one you can download and create yourself. There are more photos and examples of Itozaki’s work on his website: http://www.itozaki.com/index.html

Visit Itozaki online
Visit Olympus.co.jp
Via papercraftparadise

We’ve known Eco Jot’s brother & sister team Mark and Carolyn Gavin for years. We first met as neighbors at one of the Stationery Shows. We still try to make time for dinner at Zen Pallet when we meet at the shows. Mark and Carolyn run a wonderful business making journals in Canada. Their company was formerly known as “Mirage Paper Co”, but with the success of their new ecologically conscious journals they have changed the name to “ECO JOT”.

Not only do they make great journals with recycled papers but Carolyn Gavin is a wonderful designer who creates all of the cover options for the Eco Jot line. Carolyn has a blog and was recently featured on Print & Pattern.

Check out their charming website. You can find their journals just about everywhere through the “where to buy” section on their website.

Visit Eco Jot

Storewide Sale: Save 20% on all purchases at the Rag & Bone Boutique. Sale ends tonight! Simply enter the following discount code at checkout:

junesale

Visit the Rag & Bone Boutique