Waiting for the Wedding Album

A friend requested that I make her a photo album for her wedding photos. I was honored to be asked, but also nervous to take on such an important task. I love making small scrapbooks and photo journals but have never taken a class in bookbinding, nor tried my hand at making an album worthy to hold wedding photos for a lifetime. She had plans to print some photos into a book, but wanted some photos to be displayed in a handmade album because it would be more meaningful.

Mirroring the slow food movement, this was my slow craft project for the year. I spent at least 3 months collecting supplies, reading about techniques, and thinking through design aspects. What colors should I use? What size should the page sizes be? What binding technique should I choose? How do I make it special and personalized? Do I have the skill to pull this off? I learned a lot in the process of slowing down and letting this project unfold creatively at its own pace. It tested my patience at times, but it was worth it.

You may recognize the tree on the front cover.

Even before this project was presented to me, I felt the urge to dig deeper creatively. To push myself to do work that required more time and skill. There's definitely a time for crafting quickly, and certainly there are times when life only allows for quick projects. But there's also a lot to be said for digging deeper and creating something of quality that is worthy of investing extra time in so that it has a chance of lasting

I intend for 2011 to be the year of quality over quantity. To process over producing. To find deeper wells of creativity in me. I'm not sure where the urge will take me, but I'm looking forward to the journey.

p.s. If you decide to try your hand at bookbinding, I really recommend using linen thread, not cotton or polyester, and investing in an awl (not just using a paper piercer meant for scrapbooking). It'll save you some time and heartache. There's always PaperSource for supplies, but locally owned and operated Hollander's is a great choice too. The cardstock I used was Opal Stardust 105lb from Bluedot Paper Shop, which has a beautiful sheen and a really sturdy thickness too. Youtube is a good source of tutorials on Japanese stab binding, and of course browsing online through flickr and etsy for inspiration is a great idea too.