Redheadwondering Hand Bound Books, beautiful and unique handmade journals, albums and sketchbooks

Posted on 18/02/202218/02/2022 by Redheadwondering — Leave a comment

I’m Launching my Spring Collection of Journals

Spring Journals covers ready for binding

How are you? It is one very windy day here in Wiltshire as I write this, so I am turning my mind to Spring.I love it when I see the first snowdrops arrive … Spring is on its way and although the weather may be wet and windy (or even snowing), these valiant little flowers…

How are you? It is one very windy day here in Wiltshire as I write this, so I am turning my mind to Spring.

I love it when I see the first snowdrops arrive … Spring is on its way and although the weather may be wet and windy (or even snowing), these valiant little flowers push their way into the light, year after year, and so many of the roadsides and hedgerows around here have scatterings of these pretty white flowers.

So, with my thoughts on Spring, I’m in the process of creating and listing in my new Collection of journals in my British Craft House
shop.

These are part of my Spring Collection of journals, which are all 8” by 10” in size … this is such a wonderful size for a journal … as wide as A4, but not quite so tall. I’m using this size of journal myself at the moment, and I really like it.

The covers that I’ve made so far for the Collection feature snowdrops. I gathered these wildflowers from the hedgerows around my
lovely Wiltshire home.

(I’m planning to make a few more using the tiny ‘Tête-à-tête’ daffodils that have just opened in my garden … if they survive the storm!)

The first journal that I’ve just listed this afternoon is …

: Spring Flowers Journal – Snowdrops and Golden Sparkles

Posted on 23/11/2021 by Redheadwondering — Leave a comment

I’m Supporting My Fellow British Craft House Makers on Small Business Saturday!

There are so many beautiful gifts to choose from in The British Craft House.

As a small independent business, I appreciate it so much when you choose to shop small and shop with me! I am grateful to each and every one of my customers.But your custom is especially appreciated at this time of year, when everyone is gearing up for Christmas and the big companies have launched their…

As a small independent business, I appreciate it so much when you choose to shop small and shop with me! I am grateful to each and every one of my customers.

But your custom is especially appreciated at this time of year, when everyone is gearing up for Christmas and the big companies have launched their promotions … advertising campaigns that those big companies have oodles of money to splurge on (whereas we small business owners have to rely on the kindness of our friends and social media followers to spread the word!).

Small Business Saturday UK is a grassroots, non-commercial campaign, which highlights small business success and encourages consumers to ‘shop local’ and support small businesses in their communities.

Posted on 11/09/202120/10/2021 by Redheadwondering — 4 Comments

My Hand Bound Books

The covers for this landscape A4 hand bound book were made using original cyanotype prints. The front cover is a wet cyanotype, created using so many wildflowers gathered from the hedgerows around my beautiful Wiltshire home … there are Wild Mallows, Oxeye Daises, Buttercups and Toadflax. The back cover mainly features Wild Mallow flowers.

So, I should start bybeing straight with you … I am a stationery addict! There! It’s out there! Nowyou know my biggest vice!!I’m also a writer anda keeper of journals. I am a lover of words… their meanings, their origins, and their use. My home has always been full ofnotebooks, there are piles of the…

So, I should start by
being straight with you … I am a stationery addict! There! It’s out there! Now
you know my biggest vice!!

I’m also a writer and
a keeper of journals.

I am a lover of words
… their meanings, their origins, and their use. My home has always been full of
notebooks, there are piles of the things on every available space on the shelves,
in the cupboards, in the drawers.

Then, a few years
ago, I had a life-changing experience … I attended a Coptic bookbinding
workshop with local artist.

Why “life changing”,
you ask??

Well, imagine you absolutely
love music, and one day, someone sits you down at a piano and shows you how to
play, and then imagine that you’re good at it!!

Well, that’s what
learning to create books was like for me! I am a voracious writer, I am a woman
who has always found her voice in the written word, rather than the spoken one.
Hence the aforementioned mountains of stationery!

Here was a way for me
to create the very journals that I love to fill with words.

Here was a way for me
to create something special and beautiful with my own two hands.

: I use recycled cartridge paper, 140 gsm, or heavier

Posted on 21/08/202121/08/2021 by Redheadwondering — Leave a comment

Part Science, Part Alchemy … The Art of Cyanotype Part 1

I have been a keen photographer for many years. A few years ago, I was given the opportunity to do a short photography course, and from Day One, when they gave us disposable cameras to mess around with and find our feet, I was hooked! Since I first picked up a camera and realised that…

Since I first picked up a camera and realised that I had a “good eye”, I have delighted in the fact that I am able to create images. I have for so long been envious of artists, who can paint and draw, who could
create “something” from “nothing”.

Discovering that I had a “knack” for photography was such a gift; being told by my photography tutor on that long-ago course that I had a good, was such a gift. Here was a way to create images.

Alternative Photography

A while back a wonderful artist I know introduced me to cyanotypes and from my own first experiment with this medium I was completely smitten by this alternative form of photographic development.

Posted on 10/07/202121/08/2021 by Redheadwondering — 2 Comments

The Wonderful World of Wildflowers

Summer in Wiltshire. A field of barley starting to turn yellow, sprinkled with red wild field poppies.There are so many wonderful aspects to my book making process, and one of the best bits is that I get to work with flowers. The cyanotype process is an alternative photography technique that produces a negative image of…

: Summer in Wiltshire. A field of barley starting to turn yellow, sprinkled with red wild field poppies.

There are so many wonderful aspects to my book making process, and one of the best bits is that I get to work with flowers. The cyanotype process is an alternative photography technique that produces a negative image of whatever is placed on the paper. In my case, I use flowers, and that makes me very happy.

I love my garden, which may be small, but which is filled with as many flowers as I can possibly cram in and I use quite a lot of them in my cyanotype prints … osteospermums, black-eyed susans, clematis and cosmos. These are my favourite cultivated flowers. But mainly I use wildflowers.

Posted on 22/05/202122/05/2021 by Redheadwondering — Leave a comment

Redheadwondering Hand Bound Books … An Introduction!

Hey there! My name is Lizzie and I create beautiful hand boundbooks because I believe that your words are worth it!The books I create are perfect for journals and diaries, forsketchbooks and photograph albums. These books can be whatever you want them tobe.I make the covers from original cyanotype prints, which I createusing wildflowers and…

Hey there! My name is Lizzie and I create beautiful hand bound
books because I believe that your words are worth it!

The books I create are perfect for journals and diaries, for
sketchbooks and photograph albums. These books can be whatever you want them to
be.

I make the covers from original cyanotype prints, which I create
using wildflowers and sunshine and a little bit of alchemy! I use Coptic
stitching to bind the books together.

Each book is unique and made entirely by hand.