Paypal store up and running!

I just want to let everyone know that ABA now has a Paypal store! What a lot of people don't know -- and I didn't know until recently -- is that you do not have to have a Paypal account to purchase something through a Paypal store. All you need is a credit card and Paypal will manage the transaction, so you don't have to worry about my credentials concerning internet security (none), because the professionals are handling it.

Six new books have also been added: Green Paisley, Black Leaves, Juliet Amethyst, Spring Meadow, and Ginkgo Chai. I tried to do a better job with the pictures. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed making them!

I will whip up a page with detailed shipping information ASAP. Possible being the key term. But for now, the informal version: I plan to use 9"x6" bubble mailers for single books and flat rate envelopes and boxes in the case of larger orders. I plan to put to use pretty much every resource available to me to keep the shipping costs as low as possible while using the most reliable service possible. In almost every case this adds up to USPS.

If you plan to order just one book, I highly recommend choosing Priority over Economy (Parcel Post) because there is literally a 25 cent difference, Priority typically takes less of a beating in transit, and Priority should arrive in 2-3 business days versus 2-9 for Parcel Post.

While I would love to offer to ship my books via Media Mail, which is the cheapest shipping out there, it would constitute federal mail fraud as they have no printed material -- I investigated, and discovered that books sent via Media Mail must have at least 8 pages of printed material. Since my books are blank, they don't qualify.

Also! Over Labor Day weekend I ordered a bunch of completely gorgeous Japanese papers, so expect to see some limited edition Chiyogami journals available on the site as soon as I find the time between graduate school and hunting for a "real" (part-time) job. All extraneous activities, like eating, sleeping, showering, and socializing, will be postponed until further notice. Just kidding.

There was also a hand marbled paper in that order.

To everyone who has expressed interest in my books, to everyone who has encouraged me so far, and to everyone who has taken the time to look at my blog & site, a serious, honest-to-goodness, bow-included THANK YOU.

Website up!

We have a website!

ABA's website, www.americanbookarts.com, is now up and ready for perusal. It also has a store with many pretty pictures. There's no way to buy anything through the website yet.

Building this website was a large undertaking because I decided that I was going to build it myself, and before I could do that I had to teach myself HTML, XHTML, and CSS. With the help of a good book on those three languages, I believe the end result was well worth the effort, and I hope you agree!

It's best viewed in Mozilla Firefox due to a funky display issue with IE which I am working on resolving. There are a lot of features and additions that I plan to add to the website in the future, including a Paypal store. The website is still in development and can be expected to change for the better. Enjoy!

**edit 9/8/08 All funky display issues are resolved, I think. *crosses fingers*

Port City Pottery & Fine Crafts

Port City Pottery & Fine Crafts is a fantastic juried artist's co-op in the Cotton Exchange, a series of historic buildings in downtown Wilmington, NC that house many specialty shops. As of August 1st, I am officially a member of this co-op.

Also, the Cotton Exchange offers its customers free parking, a genuine rarity in downtown Wilmington. If you are in the area, check it out!

The co-op's hours are 10-5:30, Monday-Saturday, and 12-4, Sunday.



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When to commission

Commission when you have a particular book in mind.

• Say you have found a paper that is just right, and you want a book made out using it.
• Or, say ABA had a book on display that was just right, but then it was sold to someone else.
• Let's say you want duplicates of a certain cover paper/thread combination.
• Perhaps you want to impress your friends or business affiliates by stuffing goody bags with our journals, and you need a large number of books by a certain date. Let's assume you're going all out and you want limited edition high quality Japanese papers or hand marbled papers for the covers.
• A different day, you want a product that is designed exactly to suit its new owner. Perhaps you want a memory book for your eldest living family member. You want to pick out the thread color and the cover paper. You want to see what I have available and choose for yourself. You might even want a different size book than the standard 5"x7".
• Then you decide to open a bed and breakfast, and you want a guest registrar in every room. Through ABA you could customize the exact size, thread, and cover paper for these registrars. You want custom calligraphy on the opening pages to give the name of the establishment and the room. ABA can do it for you.
• Or, you are an artist and you want a tougher paper than text weight, which holds up to writing but is not designed to withstand the strength of your drawing hand.

All of these possibilities, and more, are available if you commission a piece.

How does one place a commission? Easy. Email me with the details about what you want. Put "journal commission" in the subject line. I will get back to you with a quote or questions, and we will make further arrangements from there depending upon the order.

You may be wondering how much all of those ideas listed above would cost you. The price would depend upon your design specifications. If bought directly from me, limited editions usually run around $35/book, depending upon paper prices, and require a minimum order of 3 books. Single copies of books already sold, multiple copies of an in-stock design, or picking out your own design combination based on what we have in stock locks your price in at the standard $30/book. Pretty sweet deal, right?

What makes our books so special?

As a book artist, I made the decision to use only the best quality materials I could get my hands on for these books. Every single book has 160 pages of a superb acid-free text weight paper, top quality binder's board, archival-grade permanent adhesive, and tough 3-ply Irish linen thread. The decorative papers I use to cover the boards are also acid-free.

There are a lot of technical details about how to put a book together in a way that will make it more durable. In short, since most paper products are made up of fibers that line up in one direction (this is called the "grain"), how one handles folding and cutting the papers will affect the longevity of the book. The binder's board, cover paper, and text paper all have grain directions, and you want the grain on all of them to match.

Think of it this way: if you fold the text paper against the grain, it will break some of the fibers and decrease the life of that book. Also, if you adhere a decorative paper in the opposite grain direction of the binder's board, the two will be inclined to come apart.

Every time I craft a book, I make sure that the grain direction is consistent and determined by the way the book is supposed to fold, even if it means getting less use out of each material purchase.

Japanese Papers Coming Soon

American Book Arts has plans to offer limited edition coptic journals covered with specialty Japanese papers, both Chiyogami, also referred to as Yuzen, and Katazome-shi, also referred to as Wazome, which are exceptionally beautiful and durable papers particularly suited to bookbinding.

What's the difference between Chiyogami and Katazome-shi? Chiyogami is screenprinted on a base paper made of kozo and sulphite. Every color is a layer silkscreened onto the paper, and in most cases these papers have at four or five colors. Katazome-shi, based on traditional kimono printing, is stencilled onto a kozo base paper by hand, a time consuming process that produces intense colors and stunning patterns.

You can read up these gorgeous papers and browse them online at the Japanese Paper Place. If you find something you want that ABA does not have in stock, we take custom orders contingent upon paper availability. Just contact me at claire@americanbookarts.com with the paper number (located under the sample image, ex. "732C"), desired number of books, and your contact information. There is a minimum order of three books, $35 each, but you can mix and match papers to your heart's content--up to one kind of paper per book.

What is a coptic journal?

A coptic journal is a blank book bound by a coptic stitch, a binding technique that dates to the 2nd century AD. Traditionally, these books were made with wooden covers. ABA uses Davey Red Label Binder's Board, which sets the standard for fine binding, and covers it with durable decorative papers using conservation-grade adhesive. Then we take one long piece waxed thread and sew the book together. For more information concerning the history of coptic binding, visit this wiki.

The most unique feature of a coptic journal is that it can be opened completely flat without damaging the spine, which eliminates the need to fight with a book that wants to close when you need it to stay open. Ring-bound solutions will lie flat, but use tends to deform the rings so that such bindings become difficult to handle. Our journals, stitched with the finest waxed Irish linen thread, are flexible, durable, and will not deform over time.