zie is forever thankful for learning bookbinding

zie has had a really rough week. back at living at the hotel again. there was a massive thunderstorm that scared zie.

the only thing zie could do to calm down was make some new sketchbooks.

living in a hotel for the second time meant zie had a lot of time for overthinking

zie left the work-to-stay transitional housing program. zie thought that zie was mentally well enough to work, but once zie started working, zie mentally fell apart.

it was a rough job situation. while zie was happy to leave the job situation, it meant zie was homeless once again. pretty tough stuff.

bookbinding became zie saving grace

zie luvs sketchbooks. people usually give zie sketchbooks as gifts. this year zie noticed that sketchbooks with a ton of pages are heavy to carry on-the-go.

so zie decided to try using a sketchbook that has less pages. zie has no money, so zie decided to make some sketchbooks. each one has about 40 pages.

surface prepping the pages

zie had leftover blank sheets of white paper. zie has become frustrated with the quality of paper in various sketchbooks. one book had sizing that was so bad, zie colorbrush pen bled through multiple pages.

so zie decided to paint all these papers using zie surface prep recipe. It is a basic recipe that creates a semi smooth surface with a small amount of tooth.

surface prep recipe

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stir these three things together. it should be the consistency of milk. if it is too watery, then add more white acrylic paint.

zie hopes this recipe will help you make papers that don’t have sizing issues. it works best when you add this misture to both the front and back sides of the paper.

testing and swatching

wetumpka sketchbook

totoro sketchbook

faith sketchbook

witchy sara j. maas sketchbook