Pencil Day 2025 Large Journals
I haven't made anything special for National Pencil Day in a few years, and I've been planning these books for a while now. Each journal is the product of several hours of working by hand: with precise measuring, careful cutting, painstaking gluing, and meditative sewing -- not to mention a day spent marbling the endpapers. I'm pretty happy with the results and am tempted to keep one for myself. There are only 8 books in stock, and each ships in a protective box by the same or next day from Charm City.
The cover echos the colors of a #2 pencil, with yellow, grey, and pink. I created a three-piece Bradel-style case with grey cloth on the spine (for the ferrule) and yellow tree leather on the front and back covers. Inside, the spine is lined in secret pink cloth for reinforcement (the eraser), and the endpapers are suminagashi marbled sheets that I made myself, with each book having a totally different design (but all are variations of yellow, grey, and black). The stitching is visible along the spine, and I sewed the book with Londonderry's "Cotton Candy" linen thread for that perfect eraser color. The late medieval binding lends the rather heavy book some core strength and also allows it to open easily.
Inside, there are a whopping 320 pages of super smooth Japanese paper, specially chosen for both fountain pens and pencils (I find Tomoe River way too smooth for graphite). I left the 64gsm paper blank, and each book comes with a set of guide cards. Each is double sided, with 3 lines/inch on one side and 4 lines/inch on the other, featuring dark lines on card and a dark grid on the other. You can place these guides under the page you're writing on, and they show through enough to guide your writing, your charts, and your comic cells.*
I'm kind of proud of these books, and I hope folks enjoy filling them!
8.25 X approx 5.6 inches; Bradel style case (tree leather and bookcloth over boards); late medieval style longstitch binding with Cotton Candy linen thread from Londonderry; hand marbled suminagashi endpapers; 320 blank pages of 64gsm super smooth Japanese paper; edition of 8 books, made March 2025; ship in protective boxes; free gift wrap is available upon request
*I don't claim to have invented this. I have vintage airmail pads with the same feature, as well as everything from the wonderful Emilio Braga.
I haven't made anything special for National Pencil Day in a few years, and I've been planning these books for a while now. Each journal is the product of several hours of working by hand: with precise measuring, careful cutting, painstaking gluing, and meditative sewing -- not to mention a day spent marbling the endpapers. I'm pretty happy with the results and am tempted to keep one for myself. There are only 8 books in stock, and each ships in a protective box by the same or next day from Charm City.
The cover echos the colors of a #2 pencil, with yellow, grey, and pink. I created a three-piece Bradel-style case with grey cloth on the spine (for the ferrule) and yellow tree leather on the front and back covers. Inside, the spine is lined in secret pink cloth for reinforcement (the eraser), and the endpapers are suminagashi marbled sheets that I made myself, with each book having a totally different design (but all are variations of yellow, grey, and black). The stitching is visible along the spine, and I sewed the book with Londonderry's "Cotton Candy" linen thread for that perfect eraser color. The late medieval binding lends the rather heavy book some core strength and also allows it to open easily.
Inside, there are a whopping 320 pages of super smooth Japanese paper, specially chosen for both fountain pens and pencils (I find Tomoe River way too smooth for graphite). I left the 64gsm paper blank, and each book comes with a set of guide cards. Each is double sided, with 3 lines/inch on one side and 4 lines/inch on the other, featuring dark lines on card and a dark grid on the other. You can place these guides under the page you're writing on, and they show through enough to guide your writing, your charts, and your comic cells.*
I'm kind of proud of these books, and I hope folks enjoy filling them!
8.25 X approx 5.6 inches; Bradel style case (tree leather and bookcloth over boards); late medieval style longstitch binding with Cotton Candy linen thread from Londonderry; hand marbled suminagashi endpapers; 320 blank pages of 64gsm super smooth Japanese paper; edition of 8 books, made March 2025; ship in protective boxes; free gift wrap is available upon request
*I don't claim to have invented this. I have vintage airmail pads with the same feature, as well as everything from the wonderful Emilio Braga.
I haven't made anything special for National Pencil Day in a few years, and I've been planning these books for a while now. Each journal is the product of several hours of working by hand: with precise measuring, careful cutting, painstaking gluing, and meditative sewing -- not to mention a day spent marbling the endpapers. I'm pretty happy with the results and am tempted to keep one for myself. There are only 8 books in stock, and each ships in a protective box by the same or next day from Charm City.
The cover echos the colors of a #2 pencil, with yellow, grey, and pink. I created a three-piece Bradel-style case with grey cloth on the spine (for the ferrule) and yellow tree leather on the front and back covers. Inside, the spine is lined in secret pink cloth for reinforcement (the eraser), and the endpapers are suminagashi marbled sheets that I made myself, with each book having a totally different design (but all are variations of yellow, grey, and black). The stitching is visible along the spine, and I sewed the book with Londonderry's "Cotton Candy" linen thread for that perfect eraser color. The late medieval binding lends the rather heavy book some core strength and also allows it to open easily.
Inside, there are a whopping 320 pages of super smooth Japanese paper, specially chosen for both fountain pens and pencils (I find Tomoe River way too smooth for graphite). I left the 64gsm paper blank, and each book comes with a set of guide cards. Each is double sided, with 3 lines/inch on one side and 4 lines/inch on the other, featuring dark lines on card and a dark grid on the other. You can place these guides under the page you're writing on, and they show through enough to guide your writing, your charts, and your comic cells.*
I'm kind of proud of these books, and I hope folks enjoy filling them!
8.25 X approx 5.6 inches; Bradel style case (tree leather and bookcloth over boards); late medieval style longstitch binding with Cotton Candy linen thread from Londonderry; hand marbled suminagashi endpapers; 320 blank pages of 64gsm super smooth Japanese paper; edition of 8 books, made March 2025; ship in protective boxes; free gift wrap is available upon request
*I don't claim to have invented this. I have vintage airmail pads with the same feature, as well as everything from the wonderful Emilio Braga.