Behind the scenes of the brain factory here at GotchaChaCha. First I am showing off my new soft light boxes, which hopefully will make my product photo’s look better.
Then you see a table of the journals I have put together in search of ways to utilize old books. Nothing quite work, sadly. It has been a while since I have looked at them, so I wanted to see what I had done with fresh eyes. Back to the drawing board! Hope to get something figured out to put in the store.
In my quest to find use for books with no use, I take the covers from old books and fill them with sketch paper. So this is my first one. How does it look? Any suggestions?
The challenge today was a new book: concertina binding, according to my new book, BOOKCRAFT, by Heather Weston. My first attempt at things is usually pretty dismal, but I allow myself to make mistakes, but to forge ahead and make it to the end, to see where I am. So here, my paper was too thin and not long enough, and I do not know how to cover the book cover with paper, even though I followed the directions. Things don’t seem perfectly square and matched up, either. I don’t really see the purpose of accordian bindings, unless I had some great content that would fit perfectly. When my younger daughter was 7 or so, she decorated an accordian fold book, and it is truly beautiful. 
I am having so much fun making these! It has been a process, and the process shall probably continue to be tweaked, but I found something nice to do with these old books. I take the useful parts, and make something practical and functional, and I love utilitarianism. I use these books now all the time. The are happy, unique, and fun. Here are my latest two, up on my Etsy site GotchaChaCha:
These are fun. To make things go so much better, I made a piercing cradle (or as my husband call it, ” the Manger”). I got the pattern from this book: Book Art, Handcrafting Artists’ Books by Dorothy Simpson Krause. So then, my books looked a lot better. Looky:
This orange one I made for my husband, and he is going to fill it up with great drawings and give it to me for the holidays.
I have got the old book craft factory up and running. I took a couple of pictures today of two journals I recently made. They are fun to make, and hopefully to sell. I like putting glue on the pages best, which makes me realize I miss painting, but that is another subject all together.
Gotcha Cha Cha 