Coil Binding for Journals

Gina asked about how I bind my journals. Several years ago I was teaching some workshops on travel journals and I splurged and bought myself a holepunch for coil binding, (like the plastic coil used in spiral notebooks). This isn’t your everyday holepunch; it punches a jillion holes at once, perfectly spaced, through several sheets of paper. It wasn’t an economical move but I’ve loved being equipped to create my own unique spiral/coil bound journals with my paper of choice. I like the coil binding for my sketchbooks because I can turn the pages back on themselves and have a solid platform for writing or making art. I bought my coil punch from Bonnie’s Best.

Most copy stores will be able to coil bind your books for a small fee, usually around $5. Assemble your pages, clamp them firmly with some bulldog clips on every edge except where the spiral coil goes… and on that edge put a big yellow Post-it with an arrow pointing to the edge you want punched… PUNCH HERE. They may take off the bulldog clips but hopefully the note will stay in place and they’ll do it right.

Sometimes when I have a hardback book that I’ll be using a lot in the studio I’ll take the book to the copy store and have them slice off the spine along with about ¼” of the spine edge of the book, and have holes punched in the book so it will fit into a 3 ring binder or punch it for a big fat coil if they have the large size in stock.

Spirals on Green and a new baby

This has been one of those weeks with very little to show for all the time I’ve spent here in my studio. I’ve done lots of painting, even more thinking and postulating, making starts that go nowhere and wondering why it just isn’t working for me right now. Part of it is that I’m battling a cold, and part has to do with waiting for an overdue grandson who arrived today, only a few days late. This is my daughter’s fourth and he’s really a pistol. Surely those long thin fingers will make beautiful marks in this world. After spending today at the hospital, I’m spent, but nowhere near as tired as my lovely daughter. I want to tell the world how proud I am of her and her dear husband… so I’ll tell you and you can tell the world for me.

I did finish another work in my Sermon Notes series… this one is called Servant. It came easier than the one last week, perhaps because I’ve finally made a color plan of sorts for the series. I started with bright colors 3 weeks ago… yellow orange and a blue green, added spring green and blue to the mix the next week, and now this one has mostly blues and very little of the yellow orange. My plan is to continue inching around the color wheel, dropping a color and adding a new one to each piece. All of them will be a vertical format, and all are 9” X 12”. It’s difficult to come up with the basic compositions for these pieces but I just start sketching formats and something eventually clicks. Some are better than others but it really doesn’t matter because these are personal journal entries and not meant for display, though that may happen some day.

One of the papers I used in week 2 was from an envelope lining, spring green printed with black spirals. I ran out of that paper, so while sitting in a meeting last weekend I drew dozens and

dozens of spirals on a piece of bright green handmade paper and used that paper in my work this week. It will appear again. I’ve used spirals in my work for a dozen years. To me the spiral represents life passages. It’s a natural form seen everywhere in the created world we live in and reminds me of the spirit of God within me.