Comments on: Moleskine Modification

By: xavior

xavior — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:10:05 +0000

Hi don’t know if you’re still binding books using moleskins, but I did find these while reading http://www.sketchcrawl.com/blog/?page_id=4

http://www.dickblick.com/zz103/65/
http://www.dickblick.com/zz108/14/

They seem to use the same paper and for the price if you are using a moleskin planner it may be worth the few extra bucks for the saved time.

I decided on just making an insert for my leather sketch cover using Martha’s tutorial.

http://www.dickblick.com/zz100/61a/ is pretty cheap takes 2 sheets so total cost is pretty low.

btw thx for posting all your findings so far ive built a custom sketch book and now use a kuretake brush pen constantly.

cheers

By: Lee-Roy

Lee-Roy — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:17:15 +0000

Thanks Stephen! If I can do that, then it’s all the more worthwhile.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 03:57:10 +0000

This looks great - it really inspires an interest in book and paper crafts.

By: Lee-Roy

Lee-Roy — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 19:03:58 +0000

Thanks, livebird. Good point. I’m pretty sure the grain is running parallel with the spine. Martha’s recommendations take this into account to help with folding. I definitely think the curve is from leaving the paper rolled up for too long. Plus, I accidentally used 22×30″ 300gsm paper instead of 22×30″ 200gsm — see my post here: http://blog.artandstory.com/2007/09/07/notes-on-materials-moleskine-mod — and I think this made the curve more stubborn. A lighter weight paper would have been more flexible.

Thanks for your comment!

By: livebird

livebird — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 06:30:27 +0000

Hi there, could the curve in the page be because the paper grain runs across the book, rather than parallel with the spine? If so, try that next time - it will help a great deal.

By: Lee-Roy

Lee-Roy — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:03:32 +0000

Thanks, Steve. I’m sure you could do this. I did it in about half a day or afternoon to early evening. What took the longest was acquiring all the supplies beforehand.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:54:27 +0000

Nice work! I wish I had the patience for this kind of project.

By: Lee-Roy

Lee-Roy — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:45:18 +0000

mARTa — Well, you’re giving me a little too much credit. I never said anything about binding the used loose pages into the book, so that was YOUR idea! haha! You get the credit! HOWEVER, I did actually have the thought to do that very thing at one time, but when it came time to bind the book, I forgot about it entirely. Thanks for the reminder. Now I wish I had. Oh well, maybe they’ll fit in the back pocket.

By: mARTa

mARTa — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:03:02 +0000

I too have followed Martha’s directions for reloading a sketchbook with great results. I haven’t tried the moleskine daily planner yet but I like your idea of using the precut watercolor pages and then binding them. I am traveling to Europe for a month in October and might just take the paper and bind when I get home….I also loved all your photos! I think I will post a photo of the last book I bound as well.

By: Lee-Roy

Lee-Roy — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 02:58:37 +0000

Thank you, Martha! I’m glad you enjoyed looking at the photos. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and inspiring me to do this project. It is fun! Even though I took two semesters of “Books” when I was in college, I took LOTS of notes on bookbinding, but I didn’t do very much of it and/or never quite got the hang of it. I mostly focused on experimental books and letterpress printing broadsides and postcards. SO… it is really nice to get back into it and take it to the next step.

By: martha

martha — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:09:05 +0000

Bravo Lee-Roy!

Your book looks just great. Thank you for taking the photos and sharing them; it is really captivating for me to see others doing that project that I know so well. Isn’t it fun to make books?

By: Lee-Roy

Lee-Roy — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 05:07:05 +0000

Yup! Turned out just fine. I’ll post some results on Monday. Thanks for checking back!

By: Maile

Maile — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:29:51 +0000

How’d it work out for the Sketchcrawl? Do we get to see?

By: Lee-Roy

Lee-Roy — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:29:23 +0000

Thanks, Maile! It’s my first. It’s totally functional, but I’ll probably do better next time. First thing, I won’t leave my watercolor paper rolled up for two weeks. I’m trying all kinds of things to get the curve out. Second, I could’ve folded the pages a little crisper. This would cut down on the thickness of the bookblock. Thirdly, the signatures are sewn pretty well, but they could’ve been sewn to one-another a lot more tightly. All-in-all, though, it’s a successful first run at it.

I’d encourage you not to be shy and just go for it. Martha’s instructions are very good.

By: Maile

Maile — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:12:54 +0000

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing your pictures and pointing back to Martha’s tutorial.

Yes, would certainly like to have a Moleskine with good paper in it… Now I just have to work up the patience to do the mod.