a day of poking things

So I'm back at CraftMNL after a few weeks to attend another workshop, this time for their bookbind workshop with Nikki (from Junk Studio Crafts).

Yesterday morning, I went right after work to go stab stuff.

We worked on the 2nd floor this time. I remember going in the room and after the hellos, Nikki told me that I can start making signatures. I was like "whaaaaatt? I have to sign something....?" Good thing somebody was already there so I just kept sneaking glances at what she's doing and copied her. Haha! So signatures are these:


Five pieces of paper folded in half = 1 signature.

We made about 11 signatures for 2 coptic bound notebooks. We made 3 notebooks but the first one we did, we used padding glue. I'm probably going to use that one for lists. Oh if you're wondering about the ice picks, we used to poke holes in the signatures' spines. It's a wonder I finished this workshop without hurting my clumsy self. Look at all these pointy stuff!

So next we started doing the notebooks that has string bindings. We did 2 kinds of coptic binding: the exposed binding and the hidden one. Aaaaaand this is where I got all spaced out. It's like math with me. First time you teach me what to do with needles and strings, I just go vacant. Haha! I did tell Nikki that I needed a little help as my sewing skills are almost nonexistent. But she was really patient with me and after an eternity I finally got it!





This looks like something you use in an operating room.


Ta-daaaaaah!! It was really easy once I finally figured out what I'm supposed to be doing (instead of just zoning out). So yay!

While waiting, I took a bunch of photos of the studio (i want to live heeere...)






















These are my hand-bound journals. This took us 4 hours to make and to see the stuff you made look this good... I'm sure glad I headed down here after work because this had been a stress reliever for me.


My favorite one was Ted Bundy shouting "Caramba!" Both are from a Life magazine from 1981(!!!)

Here's all of us. I was the oldest person in the room. :))


CraftMNL has a bunch of workshops planned in the coming months so if you want to be updates, Like their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/CraftMNL). Also, check out Nikki's stuff in Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/junkstudio).