A Quiet Spot Along the Newtown Creek

My friend showed me this secret spot in my neighborhood.  Its an abandoned train track that leads to the Newtown Creek, and beyond a series of industrial buildings.  There's something about this lonely, polluted place that is also very beautiful and peaceful.  I like going to visit it every so often. 

The Unisphere!

I finally made the trek out to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the site of the 20th Century World's Fair, where I saw The Unisphere, and some other strange alien buildings.  The theme of the fair, back in 1964, was"Peach Through Understanding" and dedicated to "Man's Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe."  

 

Seeing the colossal spherical structure and connecting with the theme of the fair was rejuvenating and gave me the inspiration I was looking for last week.

How To Bind A Book

I have been teaching myself the art of book binding over the last few weeks, and I am pleased to say that I just completed my first one.  There are a few mistakes, to be expected, but generally I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I have to give a big thanks to Sage Reynolds, an artist who has an entire YouTube Channel dedicated to teaching these skills to anyone interested.  Click here to watch his over 90 videos posted on various techniques.  

Step 1.  Cutting the signatures.

Step 2.  Sewing the signatures together.  I used a traditional kettle stitch for my book.  

Step 3. Adding the endpapers and lining the spine.  The spine is reinforced with a special gauze like material and lining paper to give it more structural strength.  

Step 4.  Making the case.  I decided to use a neutral toned book cloth to match the netural end paper, and to create a contrast with the brightly colored images inside.  

The book is a combination of pictures from my trip to Peru and blank pages for sketching and writing.  A free association picture journal..

Great Finds at the Flea

I had a great time discovering the old and new at the Brooklyn Flea Market this weekend.

A Month in Peru! Day One.

My sister, An American Girl in Transit, and I spent a month in Peru.  It was mostly for fun of course, but I was also researching a site for my thesis project for school, and she was writing some travel articles.  We started our adventure in Lima, the capital city.  Stay tuned for more!