Inside
I use a lot of notebooks and have opinions about what I like, opinions that boil down to squared paper that will take fountain pen without the ink bleeding through to the other side. I use various notebooks in varying sizes – A4, A5 and B5 mainly but my pocket notebooks are A6, more or less, and after an initial flirtation with the ubiquitous Moleskine I now use cheap ones made in China that are at least as good as Moleskines and considerably cheaper.
For some time I’ve toyed with the notion of making notebooks for myself, forming and stitching the paper signatures and case binding them. The photos are of my first effort, made over the last couple of days using materials I had in the shed, although I bought needles and linen thread. The finished article is a bit rough but I’m pleased with how it turned out. More to the point, now that I’ve made one I know that I can make more and make them better, with various papers in various sizes and with various covers. The one in the photos is covered in what looks like leather but is in fact a wallpaper sample that I’ll rub with beeswax tomorrow when the glue is dry.
outside
There is something pleasingly analogue about it, something homespun, even if all the constituent materials were made elsewhere.
Next up will likely be several A5 notebooks in various covers: I have a piece of thin leather that will do the job and I plan to experiment with making my own book cloth, as well as finding creative uses for other wallpaper samples.
There is a point to this besides the inherent pleasure in making the notebooks. I had my second hormone implant today and have a CT scan tomorrow preparatory to radiotherapy in a couple of weeks. I’ve mentioned before that one of the effects of the hormones is low-level fatigue and energy loss. This impacts in various ways but one of them is that I’m not always sufficiently with it to do anything that requires focus and creative imagination like writing fiction. This fatigue will become more pronounced as the radiotherapy progresses. Making notebooks is a handy way to keep myself active and occupied without having to think too hard about anything more than making the signatures, kettle stitching them together, making the cover and putting it all together.
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