My sketchbook

Sometimes people tell me they are afraid to use a handmade book. I tell them I make them to be used and that I think they only grow more interesting and beautiful with use.

This is a book I made for myself about six years ago.

The covers are made from an old book. They were already quite worn.

I inset a vintage photograph into the front cover. The owl is original to the old book covers.

:: sketches, left, illustration, right ::

I dyed the pages with black walnut dye and bound six the original illustrations into the new text block. Those are some cat sketches.

This is an autograph from Crispin Hellion Glover. He makes books too. I'm a fan.

A friend gave me this stamp of a fox, which I glued to the back cover.

There's no wrong way to use a handmade book. You can use it for your grocery lists or your diary, your notes for class or your drawings, and if you like, you can put it on a shelf and look at it when it pleases you. Anything you do is right.