McLean Book Arts Website

If you like unusual hand crafted notebooks, go and have a look at the website at

McLean Book Arts

talk soon

Love & hugs

Angela

xxx

Monogram Notebook

I've just finished my first A6 notebook. It's the commissioned monogram notebook I mentioned. It feels a really nice size to put in a pocket. It has 9 signatures with different shades of blue crimped paper. It was really nice to do. I'll be doing a lots more A7 size notebooks in future.

The next set of books I'm going to do will be wrap around casebound books in A5 size. They will have a seasonal design and there will only be 4 books in total. The winter notebook design will also be used as the design for my business xmas card.

I have a new series of book in mind to make after the seasonal ones. They will have celt designs and be in various sizes and colours, these will be fun. I'll post photos when they are done.

Talk soon

Love & hugs

Angela xxx

Notebooks

The last few days have been quite productive. I finished an A6 coptic bound notebook. It has a blue needle felted cover with a tree on the front. The spine is sewn in brown embroidery thread to match the stitching around the cover. It also has a coloured spine, the signatures have been wrapped in different shades of blue, with a dark blue in the middle, moving on to lighter shade next to the cover boards. The spine wrap is cut with a decorative trim on the inside. This is the first one with the coloured spine I've done, I can definitely see me using it again.

The commission I was doing was finished. It's a traditional binding. I'll write a description  and a photo on the blog once it has gone to it's new home.

Talk soon
Love & hugs
Angela xxx

New Improved Website Launched

The new and much improved website created for me by Marco Argentina is now up and running. The problems with my website for the past few days has now been fixed (thank you Mr Hosting Company). While it was down, I thought it would be a great time to upload the new version, so that when the site appeared again, it would be all sparkling new.

I've been making some books and started the Spirals' abstract series. It's Coptic bound and in the lower prices range which starts at £14.00 for the A7 size (this one is an A6).

I have a commission ongoing. I've done the book block and I'll start cutting the boards and covering paper this week. I'm looking forward to seeing it completed, should look great.

Go a few things on this week, including 2 courses (one is online which is great), a Sci-fi book group and I'll go and see the Mary, Queen of Scots exhibition at the museum either this week or next, I'll see how things pan out.

Heading off to Marseille soon with Ricardo. Really can't wait. Lovely weather, beautiful sights and wonderful food and wine and some Ricard of course. Planning to buy some Savon de Marseille, lavender oil and some herbes des Provence.

Talk soon
Love & hugs
Angela xxx

New Website Launching Soon

My new website will be launching soon with many thanks to Marco Argentina. The current site was a quick pop-up done in one night, just to get me to the business launch date. Marco has taken the things I like about the site & blog and made a new template for me. It's brilliant. Websites must be able to evolve as the business grows, so this is version 2. A tutor recently said that eventually you don't even know the version number. As I'm quite a restless person, it won't be too long until I reach this point.

Went to Pitman Training today to sign up for a business social media course, I'm getting it on an ILA account, which is great. Didn't realise there was an exam at the end of it. I can do the course online at home, it will take 6 hours I think and I have a month to do it. Sounds good.

BTW. I've sold some books, so I'm a happy puppy.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx

My 2014 Diary

I'm just about to start printing my new Filofax diary (yes, I have an A5 snake print and a blue personal size). The A5 Filofax, I use for my business organisation (I hate tearing pages out of a bound notebook and I rearrange my section quite a bit) and I'm needing to get at least January and February inserted into it. I create my own diaries from scratch. I make a double spread version with a week on the left hand side and an organisation page with To Do's, calls, meeting, etc, on the right. Similar printouts can be found easily online, but I prefer to create my own org page, I only want the stuff I would use and find it messy to score through/tippex headings for the anal me (only with paper, I think) to cope with. I'm not going to make diaries this year for sale, unless they are requested, just so I can work on building up my stock.

Off to use up some printer ink.

Talk soon

Love & hugs Angela xxx

New Notebook

I've got a new book in the works, a bit different from all the needle-felted notebooks I've been making. It's A6 size with hand marbled paper binding, with Costa Rican cigar paper signatures. It's going to be a one off ever. The paper hasn't been available for at least 10 years and I'm using all I have in the notebook. It will be available soon in my Etsy shop. I'm going to be doing a few more traditionally bound notebooks in the near future, I have a few sheets of hand marbled paper that I bought from a maker in the States.

I'll be putting a couple more needle-felted notebooks in the shop next week. I took the photos today, so just need to write the blurb. 

Talk soon 
Angela 
xxx

The Launch

The Launch day is nearly here, the 6th September, but everything is practically ready. The brochures are in the midst of being printed, letters of introduction, postcards, flyers and posters are done. I'll be uploading the new website and new products on my Etsy shop on the day. It is our wedding anniversary the next day, so hubby and I will be having a double celebration that weekend.

Things will change as I get going, but that happens, especially when new ideas are escaping from my sub-conscious every night. It can be annoying when I've forgotten what i dreamt about the night before, but I have a pen and paper by the bed, so I catch a few of them. A lot of the ideas are just not viable, but some of them are and they are going to be incorporated into the mix at some point.
I'm working on a new range of notebooks at the moment, I thought I'd get those going quite quickly as they are a less expensive option. The current range costs from £20 - £50, but the new ones will be from £16.00 to £19.00. They will be the same quality and the same materials, but will just have fewer pages.

In the autumn, I going to be working on a product for toddlers, not saying what it is yet, but you'll be the first to know when it launches. It will be very interesting to see how it evolves. It was an idea that my Mentor came up with after seeing my work for the first time. It will be a lot of fun letting my inner child out for a while.

The blogs posts have been devoid of photos, but that will change on Friday, promise.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

New Toy

Ordered a new toy today, it's probably only something that would excite me though. A heavy duty guillotine. It cuts through 400 sheet of paper and it's something I really need for McLean Book Arts. My book blocks will now be perfect. I've been cutting the paper with a knife up til now, still looked good though. It should arrive next week, so I'll save cutting any more paper until then.

It's only a couple of weeks until I launch, so I'm going to be very busy getting things ready. I have about 5 x 1 day courses to attend after that, and I also have a training course with Pitman Training, so really, September is going to be hectic.

The Etsy Edinburgh Crafters Team are going to have a few things going on as well. The Captain is Vicky and her Etsy page is Science Coming To Town . Vicki makes gorgeous xmas cards and decorations and her sets of chromosome ornaments are totally fab. Check out her site before they are all snapped up.

Love & hugs
Angela xxx

McLean Book Arts Postcard

Today I completely ruined 2 casebound books I was making, bah. I really should not do things when I'm not well. I'll learn the lesson eventually. Started on another 2, but coptic bound this time, looking good.

I created a postcard to send out with orders. The front is my avatar with the web address below. The back is kind of like my business card with a thank you message on it. The message can be changed to suit the purpose. I've done an example for my Mentor to see next week.

I'm hoping to get this light cube tomorrow so that I can start on my brochure photos.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

Tuesday

I've not been awfully well, so I've avoided being creative and stuck with the manual task of sewing book blocks. It's something that a lot of binders hate, but I really like it. I find it to be quite therapeutic and it gives me something to do while watching TV or when I'm feeling restless. They need to be done at some point in the process, so I've now got a stock of them to keep me going. I've found paper that I really like, so I'm going to be doing all my future book blocks with it and I'll also use it for flyers and brochures. It will be good to use for brochures as it will let the person reading it actually see and feel the quality of the paper. I think that I might be starting to feel a wee bit better, because my ideas machine is ticking over again. It's quite hard to switch off, once it gets into gear. It's just a good job I can make notebooks. I love my laptop and I love my smart phone, but sometimes writing down an idea on paper seems to bring it to life a bit more that a gadget would.

I'll be having a meeting with my Mentor in a week's time, really looking forward to it and she's so supportive. I'll get going with a couple of ideas I had earlier and get a couple of draft items a bit more firmed up and printed off to take with me. I thought I'd take her to one of my favourite places in Leith, something different from Costa. I don't like their coffee coolers, but prefer a frappuccino from Starbucks, though their skinny cappuccino is fine. Talking of coffee, the best in Leith has to be from The Shore, it's fantastic.

It's 02:27 in Edinburgh and I should be in Z-land, but I couldn't sleep. I forgot to take my painkillers at the right time. I think I'll head to bed now though, I feel a yawn coming on.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx

Last couple of days

I tried to do one of my secret bindings yesterday, but I know when to give up. I wasn't feeling too well (not a good time for me to try to be creative) and I was trying to make an A6 version (probably too small). It wasn't a complete waste of time though. It kept me occupied while watching Inspector Montalbano on DVD and I know now, not to try this design in such a small format. The next one will be larger.

On Saturday, met the girls from the Etsy Edinburgh Crafters Team for an outing at Hobbycraft. It was a lovely day. I picked Vickie and Marta up from outside the museum on Chamber Street and we headed off to The Fort. We thought we might meet a couple of members at Hobbycraft, unfortunately not. We must have been in there for an hour. I bought an A5 storage box, some ribbon for book markers and some greyboard (I really wish they'd stock 3mm though, I going to start going to Greyfriar's Art Shop for it, I think). Afterwards we went to Starbuck's for coffee. The girls bought me a coffee frappuccino, which was so nice of them (thank you xx). The next Etsy Edinburgh Crafters meeting is on the 22nd July. It's a great community. We don't do the try to sell to each other things, we try to help each other with ideas and information for the shops, etc.

Are you are a crafter in Edinburgh and have an Etsy shop or thinking about opening an Etsy shop?

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx
 

New journal on Etsy

A new journal was listed in my Etsy shop this evening. It is a hand bound A4 journal with 130gsm cream paper. It is covered with black bonded leather on the spine and beautiful handmade Japanese paper with a floral design on a red background (which a friend brought back for me from Japan). It would have been listed at a price of £37.00, but has been discounted to £20.00. The reason for the discounted price is a glue problem on the last pages of the book (see photo on my Etsy page). 

On to the next book....

Talk soon 
Angela xxx

Business Cards

Got my new business cards yesterday. I love them, they are gorgeous. Next, I'm going to think about flyers. etc.

I spoke with my Mentor, she's just brilliant, so supportive. I'm really lucky to have her. Looking forward to our next meeting, hopefully I'll have a lot more work to show her. She was delighted with her ledger, just as well, it had her initials on it.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

Bookbinding Course

On Saturday morning, I got the train to Partick to attend another bookbinding course at Downie Allison Downie. It was a great day, made 2 heavy A4 ledger type books. It was an experience working with the larger notebooks, A5 is the biggest I've dealt with. The day went so fast, that we were all pretty surprised when someone told us it was 4:30. we thought it was only about 2:30. John is a pretty patient guy, which is probably just as well. He gets bombarded with questions at every class.

I've now got a drill stand to do Japanese Stab Bindings, yay. John was kind enough to let me have a couple of drill bits (I didn't have any the right size). The next thing I have to buy is a pedestal for under my desk for storage and then a guillotine, I think. This all may change on pay day in a few weeks.

On Saturday, I'm looking forward to having a shopping day at Hobbycraft with the Etsy Crafters Team. I'm looking for some 3mm greyboard, they usually only have 2.5mm. There is an empty space on the rack for 3mm, so I'm going to ask them about it this time. After that we are going for a nice relaxing coffee to talk about what we bought and what we are going to do with it. They are a lovely bunch of people. The next outing will be to the Scrapstore in Musselburgh, though the opening hours may prohibit some people from going.

Today I'm meeting my amazing Mentor for a coffee. I'll take along the stuff I've made since our last meeting and she'll get a little surprise too.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx

Notebook Covers

Last night I finished doing two notebook covers. It's something relaxing I can do while watching television, well, an Inspector Montalbano DVD actually. One of the covers is for an A5 coptic binding, the other is for an A6 case binding. The paper has been cut and folded. The smaller book has the bookblock ready to go. I'll get onto that today.

On Monday, I'm doing a pamphlet workshop at the Etsy meeting. I'll show the guys how to make a  basic pamphlet and then explain to them the various things that can be done while making them (I'm not taking glue with me, so I'll just be explaining). Should be fun. Then they can make their own booklets for advertising their crafts, etc.

Anyway, got a couple of books to bind.

Talk soon

love & hugs
Angela
xxx

Pieces of Leather

I've decided that I've had enough of using my fingers as pin cushions while needlefelting, so I've purchased some leather offcuts on eBay and I'm going to make myself some fingerstalls. While needlefelting, you can't always keep the project on the felting brush or foam (stopped using foam, I hate getting bits of it felted into my project). Sometimes the needle goes straight through and pierces flesh, then you have to dump the wool as it's stained with blood. My bag of offcuts was a bargain, about £7 for 600g. I've noticed that there aren't many people selling fingerstalls for needlefelters, so I might make some for sale. Some pieces are actually big enough to make A6 size notebook covers, if I wanted to get into that, I'll see (stop it, mustn't go off on tangents, must focus on business plan, focus.....).

Last night I cut enough materials for 2 more books and folded the paper, now just to decide on the features. These will be more coptic bound notebooks, after those, I'll do some case bound. The notebooks have been A5 size, maybe once I've done a few A5 case bound notebooks, I'll do some A6 sizes for variety.

I've got photos to take for my shop on Etsy, so once they are up, I'll put them on here too.

talk soon

love & hugs
Angela
xxx

Red Sky at Night

Started a new book on Friday afternoon called Red Sky at Night. It's a country landscape with a couple of sheep. It was really fun to do and I finished binding it in the evening.

I've decided to put the McLean Book Arts signature honey bee emblem on the back of every notebook I make, either felted or embroidered, I'll see how I feel at the time.

Spotted an A3 guillotine on eBay, could really do with one of those for my paper. It would be much more cost effective to buy bigger sizes and cut it down myself. I would also like a bench press drill and a book press. I'll get them all eventually, but first, I need to get my studio sorted out. It will no doubt take a few days as I get tired easily. It will be great when it is done though. Oh yeah, I also need a table/desk & chair. Actually, I need to buy some combed unspun wool or I won't be able to make books.

Talk soon

love & hugs
Angela
xxx

New Book Finished

I got the first book of the new venture finished today. It's called "Honey Bee". It has been completed with Coptic stitch binding and is ready for it's close up. I have decided to wait until I get a few more books done before I take some photos though and wait until I get good natural light coming in.

I started on the second book "Bubbles" a couple of days ago. The bubbles are finished, paper is folded, just need to get the cover done now. I've learned a great deal doing the first book, it has been an interesting experience.

I'm going to start adding photos to the posts soon, some to older posts too, to brighten them up and make them a bit more interesting. I'm really quite tired, so it won't be today, but I'll schedule something in for next week. I was supposed to be doing some voluntary work today, but the lady that I befriend cancelled, so I'm glad I can get a rest. I met my friend last night, had a wonderful time catching up.

talk soon

love & hugs
Angela
xxx

P.S.

Unfortunately, Bubbles isn't working out as planned. Oh well, onto the next idea.

Courses

I've just booked another bookbinding course with a bindery in Partick called Downie Allison Downie (aka DAD) for July. I'm really looking forward to it. A Saturday at the bindery is really relaxed and there is no pressure. I left with 4 lovely books and I was delighted. These guys are highly recommended. I've planned to do at least 4 of the courses this year. I love the machines they have, I could play there all day.

I also need to get a more advanced needle felting course. I've found one on Etsy that looks great. Making the little mice will let me practice the techniques I need to make my own creations. I'll buy it next month.


This is a case bound book, again, done at the course. It has been personalised with my initials. Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx