Blue Crab!

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

I've been working hard in my free time trying to come up with a good design for the Oil Spill cleanup journals, and I'm really happy with what I've done so far! The two that I've made have closed spines, and I got them to case in straight, which was really exciting (casing in is what it's called when you put the text block [the stack of pages sewn together] into the cover)! I decided to start with the blue crab, for no apparent reason, and think I'm going to continue with the same sort of style for the rest of the animals (all animals that are harmed by the oil... brown pelicans, sandpipers, loggerhead turtles, sperm whales, etc...). I'm enjoying this project a lot, and hopefully others will enjoy the results as well so that I can raise enough money to make it worth it! I'm thinking The Nature Conservancy will be my organization of choice. Once I've finished making the journals, I plan on adding an insert with some information on what they're doing to help the clean up process, and maybe how each individual animal has been hurt by the spill.

New directions

So blogging apparently is not my forte. Despite all my good intentions, it just has not been easy for me to update regularly.

The book binding process has been slow, but I'm getting much better! The first attempt was pretty upsetting, because the binding turned out all crooked (although, after a few frustrated tears on my part and some shoving the binding around on my mom's, it looks a lot better than it did originally and I think I'll be able to use it as a day-planner). The second attempt was much better. I decided to do it with an open spine, because I figured it would be easier not having to deal with making sure the spine is the right size, and it was! Despite some glue issues, it looks very pretty. Here are some pictures:

And now for my real reason for posting: I had a stroke of brilliance today while buying more paper. There's a craft fair at St. Olaf sometime early fall semester, and I have been thinking that it would be fun to make enough books so that I could get a booth. However, today I decided that instead of making money for myself, it would be awesome if I could donate to an organization that is helping out with the oil spill. I'm sick of sitting in front of the tv each evening, watching Brian Williams report on the disaster, and feeling sick to my stomach about not being able to do anything. It would be cute to cover the books with original art having to do with the area, maybe animals that have been effected... nautical themes... so that they're more relevant. The only problem is, I have no idea where I would send the money. I'm going to start researching, but if anyone has any ideas, please let me know! Something animal-related would be good, or maybe even an organization helping those who have lost work because of the spill.

thanks for reading!

UPDATE

Ideas for organizations:

• National Wildlife Federation
• The Nature Conservancy (they have committed to long-term help on the coast)