The journal
Technique guides, materials explainers and project walkthroughs. Written to be genuinely useful on their own — no box required, no account, nothing to sign up for.
All posts
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Why your resin is still sticky: ratio, temperature and mixing
The four usual causes of soft or tacky epoxy, how to tell a slow cure from a dead one, plus bubble control, the sand-and-recoat fix and basic handling safety.
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The pamphlet stitch, start to finish
A complete single-signature notebook from folded sheets to trimmed fore-edge, including the exact three-hole sewing order and the five-hole variation.
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Mordanting: the natural-dye step people skip
What a mordant actually does, why cotton needs tannin and wool does not, and how weight of fibre governs every measurement in the process.
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Grain direction: the reason your notebook will not lie flat
What paper grain is, why every component of a book must run grain-parallel to the spine, and three reliable tests for finding the direction in a sheet you have never seen before.
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Scenting candles: fragrance load, flash point and cure time
How much fragrance to add and why more is not stronger, what temperature to add it at, and why a candle tested the day after pouring tells you almost nothing.
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Five ways to transfer a pattern onto fabric, and when each one fails
A comparison of five pattern transfer methods, the fabrics each suits, and the specific way each one goes wrong.
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Printing inks: what actually works on paper and what works on cloth
The five ink families a block printer runs into, what each one is good for, and the handling details that decide whether a print looks crisp or muddy.
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Why your candle tunnels, and how wick sizing actually works
What tunnelling really tells you about your wick, how to run a burn test that produces a usable answer, and how to rescue a candle that has already tunnelled.
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Fabric, hoops and floss: choosing materials that do not fight you
A practical materials explainer for surface embroidery: which fabrics forgive mistakes, why a smaller hoop holds better tension, and how to match needle size to strand count.
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Carving your first lino block
The mental model behind relief carving, the difference between traditional lino and soft-cut blocks, and the handling habits that keep the blade away from your fingers.
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Soy, beeswax, paraffin and coconut blends: an honest wax comparison
A straight comparison of the four common candle waxes across melt point, hot and cold throw, finish, cost and container or pillar suitability, plus why a wax change always means a new wick test.
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Six embroidery stitches that cover almost everything
Six surface stitches, worked step by step in words, with the specific error that spoils each one and how to correct it.
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