Life Lessons Thru Book Binding
Coptic sewn binding (front), abstract inks, and brass tone grommets. Sheeba Maya ©2024.
Overcoming self doubt
This project ended up really boosting my confidence in bookbinding. I’m a life long artist, and maybe a bit hyper confident in 2D art. But I still feel like I have new legs in book arts.
I want to master the fundamentals so I can get to my very overly complicated ideas! They are ambitious and experimental and it’s hard to deny that they exceed my current skillset. I get caught up in this “am I doing it right?” mind fuck that can slow me down or turn into the worst kind of self doubt…
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backstory:
I’ve been wanting to put grommets on a book cover for the longest time…years! I’m obsessed with hardware in handbags, shoes, and jewelry. I draw a lot of inspiration from editorial fashion and want to apply these elements to my books. For this project, I just wanted to put a touch of that into a book to get my feet wet with this concept.
So I bought the grommets. Practiced installing them with one tool. And then later with another tool. And then later with different papers, and fabrics, and boards. I illustrated my ideas. Journaled about them. Made super simple notebooks to write out plans on how to execute this concept. I wrote down endless ideas and fooled around with countless practice runs of putting grommets on scraps. I really just sat there and looked at them while I worked on other things that felt safe.
And then it got to the point where I had to slap myself out of it. Like damn girl just punch the fucking holes and put these TWO grommets on the cover. It’s just paper and boards. Nothing catastrophic will happen if I get it wrong. No one would even know. And who the fuck would even care? And who the fuck would even check me if they did care?
There was really no excuse or hardcore consequence to just go ahead and try and just see what happens.
So I pushed thru the self doubt and made a book. With grommets! And it’s lovely. I’m proud of what I produced and I’m pleased to get over that hump. Mistakes and all. It’s crazy to reflect on the hours of agonizing I spent over messing up when I could’ve just spent an afternoon making the project. …sheesh….
Now I can tackle the next idea and take the next project even further in concept.
Lessons Learned
I was reminded that my ideas are valid and worth trying out. But without action…they are just thoughts. I really got into relaxing about making mistakes. It’s just part of learning. Inevitable. And totally okay. Really it’s part of the process and just part of life. Experts make mistakes. Humans make mistakes. It’s okay to be disappointed. But energy is better spent learning from it for next time.
Plus there’s usually a fix. Problem solving muscles are always good to exercise. All this is what makes finally getting it right (or just started and completed) so satisfying.
I think taking classes too helps me boost confidence and eases my tension around this learning curve. Feedback is valuable. I can ask others “am I doing this right?” instead of asking myself and get real responses instead of fumbling around in frustration til I figure it out. I see improvements in my craftsmanship much faster this way and get a real charge from nerding out with others over all the different aspects of this artform.
