This week I'm doing an overview of the Stillman & Birn Delta Series sketchbook 7x7 in. You can find my previous review pages on Day 1 and Day 2 and Day 3.
Today's I'm showing you three pages I did using various media and faux metal. The faux metal is created by melting embossing powder so that it forms a puddle, then pushing a rubber or acrylic stamp into the puddle.
While nowhere near the weight of true metal, this faux metal does have some weight and might cause some paper to sag or pull the page away from a coil binding. For the first two pieces, I melted my embossing powder on cardstock, and taped it to the sketchbook. But the Stillman & Birn pages remain straight and rigid with no buckling.
Recollection Gold Glitter & Gold Tinsel embossing powders; Spectrum Noir alcohol markers; Tim Holtz Distress Markers; Brown Cardstock; and Viva Las Vegastamps!: steampunk balloon ,gear duo, watch parts, gear quartet. (See the steps to the tangle pattern Hinge #1-Steampunk Series at the bottom of this post).
Stampendous Aged Copper embossing powder; Spectrum Noir alcohol markers; Tim Holtz Distress Markers; Brown Cardstock; and Viva Las Vegastamps!: Map Background.
Stampendous Aged Silver embossing powdes; Copic alcohol markers; Micron Pigma and Viva Las Vegastamps!: gear duo, concentric circles, undulating lines, nesting gears and Gear.
These tangle pattern steps were drawn in one of Geneviève Crabe's Tangle Organizers.
In conclusion, I've found the Stillman & Birn to be durable, well-made and suitable for almost anything you want to throw at it. It isn't the lightest sketchbook for its size, but the trade off is extra-heavy-weight paper. The double wire-coil binding allows the book to lie flat or be folded back completely.
There was some mild buckling when water was used. Weighting the book didn't remove it, but weighting the single page itself did.
This is the last of my review, but you'll be seeing a lot more of my work done in this sketchbook. I highly recommend the Delta series, and I can't wait to try out the Alpha, Beta and Epsilon series!
Today's I'm showing you three pages I did using various media and faux metal. The faux metal is created by melting embossing powder so that it forms a puddle, then pushing a rubber or acrylic stamp into the puddle.
While nowhere near the weight of true metal, this faux metal does have some weight and might cause some paper to sag or pull the page away from a coil binding. For the first two pieces, I melted my embossing powder on cardstock, and taped it to the sketchbook. But the Stillman & Birn pages remain straight and rigid with no buckling.
Recollection Gold Glitter & Gold Tinsel embossing powders; Spectrum Noir alcohol markers; Tim Holtz Distress Markers; Brown Cardstock; and Viva Las Vegastamps!: steampunk balloon ,gear duo, watch parts, gear quartet. (See the steps to the tangle pattern Hinge #1-Steampunk Series at the bottom of this post).
Stampendous Aged Copper embossing powder; Spectrum Noir alcohol markers; Tim Holtz Distress Markers; Brown Cardstock; and Viva Las Vegastamps!: Map Background.
In conclusion, I've found the Stillman & Birn to be durable, well-made and suitable for almost anything you want to throw at it. It isn't the lightest sketchbook for its size, but the trade off is extra-heavy-weight paper. The double wire-coil binding allows the book to lie flat or be folded back completely.
There was some mild buckling when water was used. Weighting the book didn't remove it, but weighting the single page itself did.
This is the last of my review, but you'll be seeing a lot more of my work done in this sketchbook. I highly recommend the Delta series, and I can't wait to try out the Alpha, Beta and Epsilon series!
Hi Sandra, I have a question. I want to do a journaling book next year 2013. I'm looking at these, as well as some others. I tend to use a lot of Micron, watercolor pencils, prismacolor pencils, and graphite. I also use copic alcohol markers and alcohol inks, distress inks, etc. I'm thinking that the heavier weight papers would be the best, so that's probably what I will do. My question though, is, do you prefer the wire bound or the hard bound books the best. I've seen you use both.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Linda Selymes
Linda, I would base your decision on what is more important to you--being able to fold your sketchbook completely back and keeping it that way while you sketch (wirebound) or whether you really like doing two-page spreads (hardbound).
ReplyDeleteIf you do a lot of plein air sketching on the go and need to keep your surface as small as possible and more stable by folding the book back--you'll probably want a wirebound.
If you do a great number of two-page spreads, the wire binding would be in the way and you'd probably prefer a hardbound.
Since I like working on larger areas, I prefer hardbound for the smaller sizes so I can do those two-pagers, and with the larger sizes I like wire-bound because it's easier to hold on to them if they're doubled back.