It's not really all about me...

So while I have made one new book lately, I haven't taken pictures yet and I'm actually thinking of making a series of really fun books, so I'll probably wait until that is mostly done until I post again.

But in other news, my dad, who in the last few years has really developed his talent as a photographer, entered his photos in the Del Mar Fair in San Diego. Not only did 6 of 10 pictures get accepted (his first submissions into any kind of contest), 4 got honorable mentions and one of his pictures got 1st place in one of the categories (digital panoramic, I think it was). The blue ribbon entry is pictured below. Great job, Dad!



In other news, my mother, who's creativity often takes the written versus visual form, published a book--Multicultural Education: A Caring-Centered, Reflective Approach. Link is on your left. It's got great information not only for teachers and parents, but also for anyone who believes in fostering a thinking community of caring people.

JP and friends

Hi all (apparently this has somehow reached people I'm not blood related to--welcome! Welcome also to those with whom I do share blood ties...I love you too!)

So the first couple of pictures are actually not my own products, but those of friends whose work I am honored to receive.

The first two pictures are the work of Katie (whose last name I do not know). She's the girl who traded me books for hats (or actually I think it's hats for books), so those are the ones I received in the craft trade. Very exciting. I think both are so darling. The first kind of reminds me of Strawberry Shortcake (does anyone but me even remember how good those dolls smelled?). I bet it would look great with my new hair (I have really RED streaks these days--thanks to Ava!), but I'm thankful that for at least the last two days it's been warm enough to go without a hat. I'm really hoping that we're in for a warm streak here in Seattle. Isn't it summer?

This is the second. I think it's great, even though it does look a little funny on. However, I am fairly excited that it will cover my ears--and really when the weather calls for ear coverings, who really cares what you look like (obviously not me). The hat is a beautiful piece on it's own--while it has striking lines and symmetry, I like that the colors are soft and muted. (BTW, yes, that is my own toe on the right.)

This apron was a gift that I just got in the mail from my dear friend and labmate, Jenny. So the funny thing is that Jenny and I, not only have the same first name, but we also have rhyming last names. AND both of our brothers' names are Matt. How crazy is that? Although, they're Matt and Jenny and we're Jenni and Matt. But really, I think it was destiny that we cross paths at some point. I'm not really sure if there's significance to us meeting in a lab that studies tuberculosis; if there is, I think I'd rather not know.

In any case, Jenny made this for me, and isn't it beautiful?! I love the ruffle on the bottom! She thought that the neck strap thing might be too long, but in my opinion it's better to be too long than too short--especially when you have a head as big as mine! :) Actually it's just right!


OK, on to the newest books. I realize that all of these books kind of look like the same size because when I take the picture I try and fill the frame. I might have to use something to use as a size reference in the pictures. I'll think about it.

In any case, this is the first book in the Scrapbook Extravaganza. This one here is one made especially for my Auntie Grace who lives in NJ. I know anyone who leaves HI for NJ, is crazy in my book, but whatever. :) She specifically requested a Japanese print on the cover of her book. I chose this paper from de Medici Ming because it seems rare in Japanese prints that they use blue--especially the lighter periwinkle blue that is the base color here. And I liked that the flowers were a little bigger than some of the other Japanese printed paper that I've bought before. I thought it would go well with the navy silk binding and navy blue end papers (end papers are the papers that connect the inside cover to the rest of the pages--you know, the pages that can't be opened all the way flat. BTW, that used to drive me crazy, but now that I understand how books are made, it makes so much more sense now). In any case, this book, is 11" tall by 9" wide and has 24 80lb cover pages that are slate blue (a super pale blue) from the construction line at the French Paper Company. The book technically has 26 pages, but because the last and first pages aren't really that usable, I didn't count those and I put in an extra signature. Oh yeah, and each signature (the grouping of pages that get sewn together) was only one page each. Because this book and the next were intended to hold photographs, I intended to use spacers (see wave book below), but then I thought if I only sewed signatures of 1 page, it would probably leave enough space between the pages without the book getting huge. I'll have to hear back from my aunt and uncle about how it actually functions.

The last two pictures are of the book for my Uncle Kevin (who is married to my Auntie Grace who also left HI for NJ), so yeah...crazy.

So my Uncle Kevin, in addition to being a neuroscientist--yes, rats in mazes and all that crazy stuff--is a rather awesome photographer. (See his smugmug page at ) So after a recent trip to visit with my parents and a photoshooting bonanza with my dad, I started this dialog with him about the kind of books he might want. So far I think we have at least 22 emails that have been sent back and forth on the subject. Turns out I'm not only a science nerd, but also a crafty one. I had no idea I had so much to say about a craft that I started less than a year ago. In any case, this was the book that I made for him.

It's the same size as the previous book (11" tall, 9.5" wide), but as you can see it's completely covered in this green bookcloth. You might not be able to see it, but it's also kind of linty. I did not know this when I bought the material (really online pictures don't really do texture justice), although I should have guessed as the material is apparently part mohair. But in actuality, I think the book came out really nice--and because the book is entirely bound in bookcloth, it looks very clean. In fact I might even say that the linty texture of the book adds a nice dimension to the book. It has 16 useable pages (80lb cover, recycled white from construction line of FPC), and also no spacers (we'll see if this is a total debacle or not). But one of my favorite parts are the end pages. Also from de Medici Ming, it's just so unique-looking. I don't know how much time you spend looking at paper (I'm always looking, but you know...that's why this bookbinding thing works so well for me), but there's lots of paper that's printed or has patterns or is marbled and stuff, but few of them have this really organic look to them. I loved how it went well with the green and thought it was especially fitting for a book for my uncle as he often takes landscapes, and the paper looks a little bit like a really neat rock.

This last picture is one of my uncle's winning photographs. You should really check out his stuff. It's worth it, and let's face it, you were just going to check your email for the 20th time today anyway. :) In case the link above didn't work (it's hard to tell on these html blog things), you can cut and paste http?//kpang.smugmug.com into your browser.

A little insider information, if you're wondering where the book pictures in this entry were taken, it was on our ironing board with a piece of newsprint hung from the bookcase. I haven't figured out a way to take good photos yet. Like the title says, it's all a work in progress. :)

Gocco Loco!

So with the economic stimulus package, or whatever, and considering I'm going to get $600 instead of the $300 I thought I was going to get, I decided to get this neat Japanese "toy" called gocco.

Gocco, you say?

I could go through and talk a bit more about the whole process, but if you're curious google "gocco". There's a pretty cool gocco group at Flickr and there are several gocco artists out there. Basically it's a small silkscreening press that makes postcard size images. You can also print more than one color at a time (which is awesome!) and isn't messy.

So the following depict the process that took about 40 minutes from drawing to finishing ~40 images. I tried it twice since the first set didn't come out quite how I wanted.

My aunt and uncle own a local bakery and since I didn't have an image that I needed 50 copies of, I decided I'd make oversized business card things. I'm not sure they're really going to use them, but I thought it'd be a good first project.



This is the very first gocco print I made. The rest printed much better.


While the rest of the prints did turn out better than the first, the different colors are a little too close--I think it might work better printed on two screens--but for a first time not too bad.

So I tried a second image that was photocopied from computer text and drawing with a riso pen. These turned out much cleaner.


Things I learned from my first gocco adventure:
1. Don't put different colors too close together until you know what you're doing (which I don't).
2. Make sure that your photocopy is clean otherwise there's a bunch of smudgy stuff on the prints.
3. Make sure that you proof your original for the correct information--who needs the entire phone number on a business card? Totally overrated. ;)

In any case, it was really fun and pretty quick--much faster than traditional silkscreening. While the prints are small, they're fine for cards and other small projects. If I come up with a good short story, I can even use the gocco to print small pamphlet books. How fun!

A Myriad of Crafty Things

So the first couple of photos are new books (yay!) and the last couple are my first attempts at collage probably since grade school. Well, granted that's not entirely true, I just found an old portfolio where, at the beginning of grad school (before I became a puppet upon the fickle hand of science), I stuck a bunch of band stickers, a part of a comic strip and an ad from the Stranger. Maybe I'll take a picture of that soon. It actually looks OK. But I digress...

So the first book I made for my cousin Ari. She has just graduated from Loyola Marymount University and has a degree in something like "sound that you don't even know is going on during the movie." It (the book, not the degree) was made from paper that she picked out on our trip to Uwajimaya's, which is always fun (going to Waji's, but I suppose would also be appropriate to bookmaking). Waji's is especially fun since they have a ton of snacks-nori maki, manju, tomoame, and a whole variety of pickles. The paper inside(the book, not Waji's) is from the French Paper Company called Mod-Tone Taupe. You can't really see, but the pages are lightly printed with a tan, starburst kind of pattern. It's really very nice. It's a quarter page size and is one of the few books where I think the endpages are exactly straight with the end of the cover. The book is 60 pages.


Because of the upcoming scrapbook extravaganza, I decided I should try my hand at larger books. This one is made from Japanese paper from de Medici Ming and it measures 10.24" tall by 9.25" wide. This is my largest book yet. Inside, there are 54 sketchbook pages inside. The endpages are a lovely dark blue. It is thus far unspoken for. How rad is the red and green and gold paper? I think totally rad.

I hadn't really made any landscape-oriented books yet (except for the book I made for my dad over winter break, I think); this one is also filled with 80 pages of sketch book paper, and measures 6.25ish" tall x 9.25" wide. And it's bound using a french knot stitch. Also needing a home. The ones with sketchbook paper are not good for scrapbooking 'cause the pages are not acid free. Mostly I bought the paper 'cause it was pretty reasonable and I wanted a chance to make larger books than a quarter sheet.


Isn't this one pretty? Also unclaimed. Pretty soon I'm going to have to peddle my wares to some kind, indie-friendly shop. Quarter-page size, 48 pages of 80 lb text from the Mod Tone line in Blush (so very faint pink flowers adorn the pages of this book). The cover is entirely, well, covered, in a natural bookcloth, and then when you open the book it has all the pretty paper inside. The full coverage of the cover with bookcloth makes a very professional and neat looking book.

And now we come to the collage portion of today's post.

So I recently procured (and when I say procured, really I just mean "bought") a book called ARTIST to artist (I'm not really sure if the capitals are really supposed to stay intact, but that's how it is on the spine of the book). In any case, it's a book put out by the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Yep, there's a museum for picture book art and one day I'm going to go there. Anyway, so the book is basically a bunch of very established picture book artists (name your favorite, they're in there: Stephen Kellog, Tomie de Paoula, Chris Van Allsburg, and of course Eric Carle himself) explaining either their process or how they started out or whatever. The nice things about illustrators is that in general, they're pretty terse, so there's no going on and on about things (bet you wish I was following their example right now.) OK, so yeah, the sharing is nice and all, but along with each of their essays, each artist has a fold out page that shows their self portrait and samples of their picture book work. In the case of Eric Carle, it shows (kinda) how he made The Hungry Catapillar, by drawing on tracing paper and using the guides on the tracing paper to cut out pieces of tissue paper and then drawing on them.

So I decided to try it and here were the results. In reverse order are a Sasquatch! (inspired by the recent festival at the Gorge I just attended), a girl in the rain ('cause I live in Seattle, so really there's nothing else to show), and two kind of weird looking monsters (I suppose I should explain that I also recently got a book that is called Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles (and dude, it was $5--no way I could pass that up)...so those sketches might have been some of the inspiration for the monster like things.

Past Projects

These two pictures are of the card I made for Nada, my dear friend who lives in AK and whose birthday is only 4 days before mine (well, 4 days and a couple of years, but who's counting?)

This book is called a tunnel book and I used different sheets of cardstock (that I probably got from Impress at U Village) to make the little sheets that hang in the windows. The text was hand written on vellum then hung with the sheet of cardstock in the back.



This book and the next were "craft traded" for some hand-made, knit hats made by a friend of a friend. How awesome is that? I have to admit, the craft trade was Katie's idea, and she still retains the dubious honor of being the only person who has one of my books (actually two of them) who doesn't share my blood or at least several years of friendship. I should put pictures up of her hats--maybe soon. Anyway, this book is a case-bound: the spine is made of cloth from Talas Online--and the paper is from Uwajimaya's in Seattle. The pages are 70 lb text from the Construction line at French Paper Company. I think there were 80 pages, and they were sewn on linen thread.


This is the second book from the "craft trade." This one is covered in oilcloth bought from the fabulous Archie McPhee's--who knew? It was coptic bound and had 90 or so pages of sketchbook paper from Artist and Craftsman. (not acid free). I think it's about 4" by 6". The thread is a waxed thread from Weaving Works. It's super waxy!



This one's a rather failed experiment at making vinyl work for the cover of a book. This vinyl was also purchased at Archie McPhee's, but it's really difficult to work with as it is not only thick, but also non-porous; this means that it takes forever for the glue to dry. It also makes a super thick cover, which does not look that great, especially with few number of pages that are contained in the book (only about 60, I think). Just 24 lb text from Office Depot. It's about 4.5" by 5.5" (quarter sheet).




This is one of my favorite books. I just love the red cover and the jazzy inside end pages. The cover is all crimson raw silk from Talas, and the jazzy inside pages were purchased at a little boutique on Capital Hill near Bauhaus, I think...but I can't remember the name. As it turns out, those end pages are printed by Pop Ink--whose products can be bought through the French Paper Company. The pages are 80 lb text, Sundance Natural, from Paper Zone (I know, I'm almost ashamed, but I love the paper!). The paper is nice and heavy and you can write on both sides without bleeding through . Totally vital. This is also a quarter sheet book.






This is a book that I'm going to send to one of my oldest friends--Renee. And when I say "oldest" that's in reference to friendship, not actual age. Renee's actually 51 weeks younger than I am, but that's neither here nor there. Renee is due to have a baby soon (name TBA), so this book is actually intended to be a scrapbook, either to catalog baby stuff or family stuff. The Matos Baby is a boy, and I thought the waves were strong and masculine, but the color was appropriate for baby's first "fill in the blank" if that's what they want to use it for. You can't see it in the picture, but the cover is very lightly shimmery with gold. It's really very pretty.

Again, the bookcloth is from Talas (really all my book cloth is), and the paper was purchased locally from the small yet fantastic de Medici Ming--a lovely paper shop located near the SAM. I'm sure I purchased the inside pages from UW bookstore, but I'm not sure what weight they are. And as you can see, there are even spacers. There are 60 pages and they were loosely bound on linen tapes. The book measures something like 8" tall by 9.5" wide. One day I'll actually measure before writing. :)

First posting

I'm a new book binder (who knew anyone did this anymore?). I've taken a couple of classes at Seattle Center for Book Arts; the organization is filled with fun classes and lovely people. So far I've made about 20 case-bound books (mostly as Xmas presents for my family) and now I'm embarking on making a few scrapbooks.

I've recently realized that I should be keeping track of the kinds of books I've made and their details (materials, bindings, size). One would think that my lab notebook at work would be pristine, considering I'm going to endeavor to keep track of all of the details of my book projects, but alas, God help the person who has to go through those sad, sad lab notebooks.

So at least for now this will be a log of my books and plethora of other crafty projects. :)