Did I Mention Books? Plus Chainmail

Friday night we went to Dick Blick and Hobby Lobby for various things, and some decorative paper followed me home.  I started a couple books with it, but didn't get them done by bedtime.

Yesterday morning we made a trip into the city to Blue Buddha Boutique for chainmail supplies. Ron got a bunch of rings to do "Elfweave" bracelets, like this one he made for me:

We got red, royal blue, teal, hematite, purple, and green andodized aluminum, bright aluminum, and brass rings, plus brass and silver-toned catches. 

Checked on the supplies for chainmail owls, they appear to have shipped yesterday from Ontario.

After shopping, we went to lunch at a Thai place, Summer's Noodles and Rice, two doors down. After we started eating our lunches, which were noodles in a curry sauce, very similar to the Kow Soy that we get at Basai Thai in Oakbrook, we ordered another to take home to Robin. So now we have two reasons to go into the city (Edgewater neighborhood, IIRC). 

Got home, Ron started sorting rings, and I worked on the hard-cover book I started last weekend (some steps require overnight drying). I got the covers covered, and then put it aside to dry again. Here it is this morning:

The marbled red is painfully expensive paper, and the dark brown is book cloth fabric. 

Then we ran out again to Jo-Ann for more little bins for Ron to sort rings. And a couple more pieces of paper followed me home. 

Got home, had dinner, practiced guitar and banjo, and then I finished up the booklets I started Friday:

They've got 8-1/2" x 5-1/2" pages. The black and white one is sewn with black thread, and has black endpapers and white pages. The other is sewn with dark brown thread, and has dark brown endpapers and cream pages. 

Last night I ordered a few things from Hollander's, a store with lots of bookbinding supplies in Ann Arbor. I got a sample set of one of the types of book cloth they carry, a couple pieces of black, because as tired I get of black, it is a useful utilitarian color, a piece of decorative paper, which was both larger and less expensive than the marbled red paper from Dick Blick, and a couple-few other things. 

This morning I did the final assembly on the red and brown book, which was gluing the interior to the cover. Now its drying under weights.  Ron's been experimenting on cover board with the universal mangler. It isn't perfect, but I think it will be better than trying to cut it by hand with a utility knife. 

In the plans for today are working on pouches, and Ron wants to work on elfweave bracelets.