My first step in my work towards my Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project was to brainstorm my story design.  I’m trying something new: weaving at least 3 different story strands together using a wordless picture book format. “Brainstorming” means that over several days I doodled on a few pieces of paper, doing thumbnail drawings, and writing my thoughts in long-hand. Many of my brain-storming thoughts were sparked by the books I’m reading now (see my last blog post for a book list). Eventually my idea for this project “gelled”.

The next thing is to rebind the sketchbook I’d gotten from The Sketchbook Project in accord with my design. I’ll be using a 5 hole pamphlet stitch because this allows me to securely add a new page that will open out larger than the original sketchbook.

In the photo below I’m cutting and folding the thin handmade paper to be inserted in my sketchbook.

With my new paper now cut and folded I proceed to remove the staples from the bound sketchbook as it came to me from the Brooklyn Art Library.  I have my sewing needle and my black linen thread ready for sewing my new binding with the new cut and folded paper.  The wooden handled awl will be used to poke the holes for the thread. I’ll be reusing the holes made by the staples and adding one more hole.

Below you can see my almost finished binding and a bit of the way the new paper will unfold from the book.  Now I’ll finish off the stitch and trim the excess thread.

In case you’re following my project’s progress my last post about it is here: https://sueclancy.com/2017/08/01/me-and-the-sketchbook-project/

General info about The Brooklyn Art Library and The Sketchbook Project is here: https://www.sketchbookproject.com/