#ShopSmall and make a BIG difference!

Handmade Books • Letterpress Printed Stationery & Art
• Gifts for Book Lovers •

This time of year you begin to hear a lot about shopping small, shopping local, and supporting small businesses. But what does it mean to "shop small" and why does supporting local small businesses matter?

If you’ve visited Crowing Hens Bindery a show here in Middle Tennessee, you locked eyes and shook hands with the business owner responsible for designing and manufacturing everything in that booth. Every journal, notebook, print, and piece of stationery and jewelry that you saw was made by my head, heart, and my two hands. Meeting and getting to know the maker one-on-one, that dynamic is unique to small businesses!

The truth is, my love of bookbinding is only in part due to my fascination with how books are made. It’s ultimately how my books are used, who uses them that drives my book obsession. It's the curious romance we have all cultivated for this living, breathing artifact that has helped shape who we are and how we communicate with each other. 

When you show interest in my work, ask how it’s made, and how in the world I got into my craft, we are building the sort of relationship that brings meaning to my work. Half of my job is in the design and making of my work. The other half is getting to know the people like you who have chosen to make my work a part of your everyday lives.

You wanted unique, deluxe journals that won’t fight you or break when you write in them, so I developed my Scribe springback journals.

You asked for convenient, pocket-sized notebooks for everyday note taking with a variety of ruled page designs, so I developed my Daybooks and Scratchbooks.

You wanted to continue to stay in touch with family & friends with a personal touch, so I’ve continued to expand my letterpress printed stationery line, including my newest William Morris monogram stationery.

And you wanted to show off your eternal love of the book every day, so I developed my handmade book earrings and pendant necklaces.

Small businesses like mine rely on being able to develop these special relationships with you so that we can make meaningful work that makes your lives richer for living with our work. I want to thank you for all of the support you’ve given me over the past few years. With your patronage, input, and encouragement, Crowing Hens Bindery continues to grow into the symbiotic book and print champion that I dreamed of years ago.
 
To show my appreciation, I’d like to share with you an exclusive promotional code to both my online store as well as my Etsy store (yes, I have one of those too!) It’s good for free ground or priority shipping on any order of $150 or more. Just enter the code “CYBERCHICKEN” at checkout at crowinghensbindery.com or crowinghensbindery.etsy.com between now and December 31st to redeem your coupon. Remember that shipping cutoffs to receive your orders for the holidays is December 15th!

Thank you again, from the bottom of my inky, paper heart. I couldn’t do this without you!

Yours in book love, chicken scratch, and gratitude, 

Mary L. Sullivan

*Please add crowinghensbindery@gmail.com to your email contact list and follow me on Instagram (@crowinghensbindery) Twitter (@crowinghensbind) and on Facebook!

((P.S. Please remember that many of the local small businesses in your area—just like Crowing Hens Bindery—may not have brick and mortar stores but you can support them too by shopping online! Indie Nash (The Nashville Independent Business Alliance) is a great resource for Nashville-based small businesses!))

Come visit me at my last two shows of 2016!

My final two shows of the year in December are the Studio Be Holiday Market December 2-3 in West Nashville and once again I'll be in the Victorian Trades Demonstration Village in costume in historic Franklin for Dickens of a Christmas December 10-11. Both of these events are free, family friendly, and open to the public!

Come enjoy the food, festivities, music, costumes and demonstrations! I'm so glad to be a featured demonstrator again this year! The Victorian style journals that I sewed last year at the festival will be available for sale exclusively at this year's Dickens of a Christmas. This year's sewn books will be available next year!

Welcome back, #Booktober

Every year when the leaves begin to turn, the air becomes crisp, and we wait for morning frost on the grass, I know we've come to my favorite month of the year, October! Why October? Well, it's birthday month for me and my two siblings and Mom makes the most incredible chocolate chip cookies ever—that is if she can keep us from eating all of the dough first!

Plus, there's Halloween. Love Halloween. I can also start to at least think about digging out my sweaters and scarves, make a list of the things that I could knit (but never seem to have time to) and then, of course, I bind a lot of books. I mean A LOT of books. I call this time Booktober.

My absolute favorite binding is the Springback binding. This is a demonstration of how a springback operates before the custom laminated card spring and split boards are covered by leather and decorative papers. 

Right around October, for those of you who aren't in the craft/trade show circuit, you may not know is that there's a short lull between the slew of shows during the hottest, miserable months of the year and the gradual pedal-to-the-metal snowballing of shows that begin to fill nearly every weekend until the end of December.

I do a lot of bookbinding demos at trade shows and festivals towards the end of the year. Last year at "Dickens of a Christmas" in historic Franklin, TN I dressed in Victorian garb and sewed books on a frame, a traditional production binding method used at a time when the trade was becoming more mechanized.

During this brief lull, as an artist and small business owner, I begin to prepare for this high-selling time by checking inventory, advertising, filling orders, and of course making new work. It's a season that many small businesses like mine depend on, to finish out the year on a high note. It's a time not just to sell work, but also to make connections, meet lots of new people, and connect with the people that use my books. 

The majority of my work is useful and perishable. Not perishable in the sense that it will spoil or that my books will fall apart, but perishable in that I design every book to be thoroughly and lovingly used to the very last page—written in, drawn in, carted around in a satchel, and tossed on counter tops at the coffee shop. The bottom line is that I build my books to last. Nothing makes me happier than being contacted by a former client who's just finished the last page and is back for a second or third journal.

During the month of #Booktober, I step outside of my usual bookbinding comfort zone by using different materials and methods of binding. This watercolor journal uses a walnut-dyed, handmade flax paper as a cover, thick watercolor paper, and decorative stitching on the spine! 

These are the sorts of things that I think about in October, as I'm powering through my last production cycle of the year. Binding new books, working with beautiful materials like leather, linen blend cloths, and gorgeous papers in a range of hues and jewel tones that I haven't had a chance to use all year. Booktober is an opportunity for me to let loose in the bindery and mix all of these wonderful materials to make books that would otherwise never come into being.

To share this manic binding time with the world, I also share photos, quotes, and "did you knows" on social media. This year, I'm also doing something a little different. Every day in the month of Booktober (starting Monday the 3rd), I'll list one unique blank book for sale and share the live link to that one-of-a-kind book on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Every day a new book will be offered up and once it's gone, it's gone. I'm looking forward to #Booktober. Won't you join me?

Be sure to follow me on social media to get your hands on the daily #Booktober offering!

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CrowingHensBindery
Instagram: @crowinghensbindery https://instagram.com/crowinghensbindery/
Twitter: @crowinghensbind https://twitter.com/CrowingHensBind
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/crowinghensbind/

Everything must come from something.

Starting a business isn't supposed to be easy and I knew the challenges and obstacles that I would face as a self-employed, fledgling entrepreneur- or at least I knew of them, that they existed, and that they were many and formidable. Plugging along, I've come to find, is what I do best. My tendency to strive for perfection, to overanalyze, overthink, and do my best to avoid all error can be paralyzing and it's something that my MFA thesis committee at the University of Iowa Center for the Book did their very best to make me aware of and help me to begin to overcome during my final year of grad school. 

I know that I will make mistakes and that not all of my decisions will prove to be fruitful. I am an excellent counter. I love to number crunch material costs, cost per item, and production efficiency. Those things are calculable and fairly predictable. However, they are a safety blanket that can occasionally suffocate my productivity. Color combinations and material choices are something that I struggle with, at least I feel that I do, although some of my colleagues will probably disagree. Speculation as to how to price and market my books, and who may purchase them are another struggle. Technically you're only "self-employed" if you can generate enough revenue to support your needs and that of your enterprise, right?

My springback cutaway sampler, completed a few days before my show installation in early October.

Ultimately I am my harshest critic. This past month I have been simultaneously juggling new work for a gallery show, two separate production runs of springbacks, and preparing for my first bookbinding workshop in Two Rivers, Wisconsin at Hamilton's annual Wayzgoose conference. I must say the gallery show at Maryville College, my alma mater, looks amazing in pictures and has been well received. I look forward to seeing it in person later in the week at our closing reception. I am fully enjoying my production runs and while I am making many mistakes, they are accounted for and I am learning from them. You'd better believe I'm taking meticulous notes. And the workshop is an exciting beginning to the kind of bookbinding evangelism that I have been looking forward to since I began my MFA.

What I wasn't anticipating was the silence and the desire for distraction. The lack of patience and the self doubt. The questioning. The bird watching. The Woodwright's Shop. The Cheetos. And my bonsais.  

During my MFA interview I was told that most professional bookbinders work solo, that the majority of them were kindof quirky as a result. I can see now where the quirks could come into play. I talk more to my cats now than I do to people, at least on a daily basis. But to be fair after being away for three years we have a lot of catching up to do. I'm constantly talking to myself, my materials, and my tools- more often when they're not cooperating. And more than anything I am constantly under the impression that I should be farther along than I am, that I should already have commissions, a website, business cards, a logo, a well designed blog, a business plan, and income. And income.

As of yet I've done very little socializing and networking since I've been home, professional or personal. I am rediscovering Nashville again since it's grown so much while I've been away. I am getting used to my studio and making changes so that I can more easily work and store my materials and tools, and I am learning to work alone. It is a slow process of adjustment, one that I am fully committed to.

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My humble workspace.

I'm not sure where the inspiration came from. I now have three bonsais, two of which I started from saplings no more than a few inches tall, and one from seed. Another two, a dogwood and a persimmon, have yet to sprout. They sit in my window and I get to watch them grow day by day. The hackberry I started from seed is growing like a weed. It germinated in about two weeks and in less than a month is nearly as tall as my other two, a white oak, and a red maple. Even so, I am surprised at how impatient I am with them all, frustrated at how slowly they grow, but how happy I am when I can actually notice changes.

My pitiful hackberry seedling.

So long as I continue to nourish them, they will grow. The same goes for my business, I suppose. A cheesy metaphor I know, but it's true. It has only been a little over 5 months since I graduated, 2 months since my move, and I am still making the transition in a post graduate world, one that is perhaps more challenging since my job will only exist if I make it so. Perhaps the greatest advantage is knowing that I get to call the shots, and I get to do what I love. And all of these adjustments, we'll call those growing pains.

I left a lot of people behind in Iowa that I dearly miss. Colleagues, friends, mentors, professors, my entire social, educational, and professional safety net. But I knew that before I moved. And I am here now, and so long as I grow, my safety net, my social circle, and my success here in my hometown will grow concurrently. I haven't lost my Iowa friends either, just their immediacy. And I am reconnecting with my family as well as my Nashville and East Tennessee friends.

The growth of my business, this blog, my success, and my bonsais- all of it is a slow process. One that requires time, investment, and what I am hoping my bonsais will contribute above all else, patience.