What a fitting 'bon voyage'! Some good friends found this in Hanoi, Vietnam only last week, and brought it back for us as we head off (finally!). Our itinerary goes something like - Paris, Avignon, various places in Provence, Florence, Sienna, various places in Tuscany, Venice and Rome. This will be my last post until November when I hope to have something to show from my sketchbooks. All the best until then!
Quel 'voyage de fève 'convenable ! Quelques bons amis ont trouvé ceci à Hanoï, Vietnam seulement la semaine dernière, et l'ont rapporté pour nous comme nous nous dirigeons au loin (finalement !). Notre itinéraire va quelque chose comme - Paris, Avignon, divers endroits en Provence, Florence, Sienna, divers endroits en Toscane, à Venise et à Rome. Ce sera mon dernier poteau jusqu'à novembre où j'espère avoir quelque chose à montrer de mes sketchbooks. Tout le meilleur jusque-là !
Ché 'viaggio di bon 'adatto! Alcuni buoni amici hanno trovato questo a Hanoi, Vietnam soltanto ultima settimana e lo hanno riportato per noi come dirigiamo fuori (infine!). Il nostro itinerario va qualcosa come - Parigi, Avignon, vari posti in Provenza, Firenze, Sienna, vari posti a in Toscana, Venezia e Roma. Ciò sarà il mio ultimo alberino fino a novembre in cui spero di avere qualcosa da mostrare dai miei sketchbooks. Tutto il la cosa migliore fino ad allora!

Travelling further along the bookbinding tangent...

I thought that while I'm going off on a tangent here with all this bookbinding, I'd create a new set on my Flickr site for my 'Bookbinding Journal'. This journal was the second book I ever made and I record the techniques and materials for books I've made and work through ideas for books I intend to make. I don't actually do a lot of bookbinding usually, so the book is filling slowly.
In technical speak the book has one needle coptic binding with white linen thread, 7 signatures of a mix of cartridge and pastel papers, black spine-fatteners (to enable me to glue in lots of stuff without the cover springing open) and red handmade paper cover, with black rice paper on the inside.
You can view the whole set here.

Out there

I've been surprised and very pleased with the response to seeing my rebound Paris sketchbook. Tonight I've been notified that it is featured on http://www.whytraveltofrance.com/ (16th Sept). I was pleased to learn this, mainly because I found out about such an interesting website. I will be reading the posts there before I head off to France shortly. I also discovered 'Guide France'is mentioned on http://bibliophilebullpen.blogspot.com/ (13th Sept). I wasn't contacted by Bibliophilebullpen about their post and I must say I felt a little trepidation when I scrolled down and saw what kind of site it is (old book lovers*). I was afraid of a bashing there for my 'treatment' of old books, but was please to find they have the same idea as me about it - it's better to have a use (in my case, a loving use) for an old book than to see it go to the scrapheap.

This is the title page(s) from my rebound Rome sketchbook. The Path to Rome was the right size for my rebinding project, but not as exciting as Rome and It's Environs which had a plethora of fold-out maps (I love fold out anything, especially maps!) and plans of all the historic buidings and more more more. But unfortunately RAIE was verging on too small, but worse - it had a plastic cover that prevented the pages from opening flat and just wasn't suitable for rebinding. Also the 56 year old pages, thin to begin with, were very fragile. The solution was to add pages from both to my rebound sketchbook. Once again I used hot and cold-pressed watercolour papers and stonehenge drawing paper for the 5 signatures (groups of pages). I added a ribbon page marker, an elastic closer and a velum pocket inside the back cover.

*In reading over this post before pressing the 'publish' button I realised I should change that from "old book lovers" to "lovers of old books"! But I thought it was a nice little pun and I'd leave it as is.

Paris Map featured on Moleskinerie

I'm chuffed to say that my Paris map
has been featured on the wonderfully interesting http://www.moleskinerie.com/ I love this website and have seen some fantastic moleskines on there in the past, so I feel to be included is a great honour. Here's a quick link to the post on this blog that the photo on Moleskinerie comes from http://janallsopp.blogspot.com/2006/09/pages-from-guide-france.html or just scroll down a couple of posts and you'll see it.

And while I'm on the subject, I never posted a link to an article about this same sketchbook on http://www.notebookism.com/2006/08/index.html back on 17 August. Notebookism is a 'sister' (or brother!) site to Moleskinerie, only all notebooks are admired there. Unfortunately at this late stage you have to scroll down quite a way to see my 'Guide France' book in the making. You can also view the same article here on this blog at http://janallsopp.blogspot.com/2006/08/in-search-of-perfect-journal.html

So thanks to all those who showed an interest in my sketchbook making project. I have loved having interested people to share it with!

Happy Birthday Rob!

It's Rob's birthday today. I hope he is having a great one, in a cabin in some National Park somewhere near Mackay. Rob is my brother and we don't see each other often or even talk on the phone much.

But thinking of you these last couple of days, Rob!

I did this blind contour drawing from an old photo of the two of us. After Sunday morning at church, Mum and Dad would often decide to take a photo of us in our good clothes. Of course this meant facing into the blaring summer sun - for the best light! In this photo we are both squinting badly, trying to keep our eyes open in the glare, and our smiles have slipped from fixed to barely there in the time it took for Dad to actually be ready to click the shutter. This drawing does neither of us justice, but I do like blind contours of family from old photos. It's not the first time I've done them like this. I 'feel' more in them than I do in a sketch that doesn't capture a likeness (I think family are the hardest to capture in a drawing!).


So Happy Birthday Rob!

I love paper!

I do, I love paper in all it's forms. I've soooo enjoyed my rebinding experiences largly because I can combine a few different kinds of paper all into one convenient book.

But, Jade at Spectrescope might even love it more... or it looks that way. Jade is a young Australian artist whose work is very exciting. Check her out.

Pages from 'Guide France'

These are pages I've just done in my 'Guide France' rebound sketchbook (see previous posts about rebinding this book). In preparation for our week in Paris, I've drawn maps of the area we will be staying in and added details from walks through the area described in 'Paris Walks' by Sonia, Alison & Rebecca Landes.

The writing is miniscule! I normally have a big bold hand, but this time I didn't want to take up valuable sketching room in my book, so I somehow managed to write like this. I don't know if I'll really be able to read it easily again, but the act of drawing the maps and writing the information has cemented the general ideas in my brain (I hope!).

Have you seen Janey?

If you haven't already, or if you have before but not yet today, visit Janey's Journey and check out her unique drawings. If you love colour and admire the skill it takes to capture a moment in a simple line, an emotion in a swatch of tone, then you'll enjoy your visit. Click here or click the link I've added to my alphabetical list just over there.....

EDM Challenge 29 - Local Architecture

Sketching down at the marina. It was so windy that me and my book were buffeted constantly making detail impossible and fast sketching an absolute necessity. The noise was amazing, the tapping of cables agains masts, ropes creaking and a something that sounded like one of the giant masts must have been hollow and the wind howling across the opening was making that blowing-across-the-open-neck-of-a-bottle sound. (Yes, I have imagination; no I don't know much about boats.) And then the spray kept coming over the breakwall behind me... And then it was time to go home!












This is my local post office. I keep a private box there, post my letters, pick up parcels. It is one of the few buildings in
Coffs Harbour
of any great age. I think it is actually the only surviving brick building from pre 1950's. It is dominated by the high school and it's heavy 70's architecture. And it is opposite a nice pub which I think I will have to draw another day. Maybe when it is hot. I might need refreshment...

And now I find I've actually completed another EDM Challenge unbeknowns to me! Yey!

Out Shopping

MyLocalSketchbook8,9, originally uploaded by Jan and Roly.

My first dip into my 'new' sketchbook - the 'Function of Human Voluntary Muscles' book I rebound with watercolour paper. This is my practise book before my trip. Not a lot of architecture to sketch in Coffs Harbour - traditionally a town of expiry-date-type building. But I want to practise quick sketching of buildings in readiness for the heady-history-filled France etc...

My Local Sketchbook

MyLocalSketchbook76,77
Originally uploaded by Jan and Roly.

'The Function of Human Voluntary Muscles' by ND Royle, published by Angus & Roberston Sydney and London in 1938. I rebound the book including new pages of hot and cold-pressed Arches and Waterford watercolour papers and Stonehenge paper. I was able to re-use almost all of the original pages when rebinding, because of how it had been so badly bound when released. The spine had been way too big for the size of the text block. So even with many new sheets added when rebinding, the new textblock was the right size for the old spine. Unfortunately the old spine was in very poor condition because of this and needed reinforcing with a glued on muslin hinge before the new textblock was added. I also added a ribbon place marker and an elastic closer.

I chose this book because of the diagrams that look like 'how-to' move your arms etc. I will use the book for local sketching and probably alter some of the original pages.