Handmade Blank Journals || Arion Press Journals
Handmade Blank Journals || Arion Press Journals
We are pleased to offer for sale a series of bespoke blank journals, handmade and crafted at the press in San Francisco. These designs incorporate overages of prints, endsheets, and other ephemeral materials from Grabhorn and Arion projects of yore and make beautiful gifts for bibliophiles, graduates, artist friends—anybody who enjoys a high quality journal to last a lifetime. These are sold exclusively through the press, by phone or on our website. Please contact us directly with your inquiries.
There are two standard journal formats, and each is bound in multiple unique designs. Journals are constructed with quality smooth white 100# text-weight paper suitable for both drawing and writing. All journals contain 160 blank pages.
Format 1: The Classic
The Classic measures 8-1/2″ h x 6″ w. Each of its two basic designs features a goatskin spine in various colors with complementary matching cloth sides. An optional matching onset leather cover label is available, foil stamped with either a standard Lyre or custom monogram design in 24K gold. Contact us to discuss personalizing your journal or gift.
Design 1: Moby-Dick
The endsheets are trimmed from press sheet overages of the 1979 Arion edition of Moby-Dick. The blue-tinted paper was handmade by the renowned British paper mill Barcham Green especially for the project.
Design 2: Japanese woodblock
The endsheets for the second design are excerpted from a collection of multi-colored reproductions created and printed by Edwin Grabhorn from Japanese woodblock designs. These were to have been included in a volume of Japanese prints issued at the Grabhorn Press, although the project never came to fruition in his lifetime.
Format 2: The Sketchbook
This sketchbook-style journal has an oblong footprint, measuring 6-3/4″ h x 9-1/2″ w. The binding is 3-piece with matching Japanese mohair cloth spine, and front and back covers feature multi-colored reproductions created and printed by Edwin Grabhorn from Japanese woodblock designs. These were to have been included in a volume of Japanese prints issued at the Grabhorn press, and although the project never came to fruition in his lifetime Edwin’s careful reproductions can be enjoyed here in limited edition.
Design 1: Chinese Lion
The beast known as the Kara-shishi, the “Chinese Lion,” was presumably the Japanese notion of an mythological creature. The rare colors that were mixed by the first printers of the polychrome sheets, combined with the delightful motifs, make these prints among the most enchanting of the period. Traditionally this image has been attributed to Suzuki Harunobu, but some believe it might be the work of one of his disciples, Isoda Koryusai.
Design 2: Girl by the Brook
The girl seated by a swift brook under a sunset sky is apparently dreaming of an absent lover. This rare print is attributed to Suzuki Harunobu who in 1765 began a new style in color printing. In the five years from 1765 to his death in 1770, he made over 700 color prints which have survived. The one reproduced here is one of the finest both in design and condition, having been perfectly preserved.