Renaissance Art

Number 27, Chris, won Giveaway #43, our Pocket-Sized Moleskine Cover. Please send us your address so we may send your gift!

One thing that you learn working at Renaissance Art: 8-1/2 X 11 inches is not the only standard paper size in the world. The rest of the world have their very own standards–we use both the North American and International standards to model our journals.

Maybe it’s the size variety, maybe it’s the alpha-numeric naming, but I’ve grown very fond of International standard paper sizes, especially A5. At approximately 5.5 X 8.5 inches, this Goldilocks paper size is perfect for writing, taking notes and sketching.

I want to share this paper size with the world. I figure it’s probably best to start with you guys : )
Our new giveaway? An A5-sized 5.5 X 8.5 Refillable Journal made from a gorgeous piece of leather, this journal unfortunately has a small scratch on the back of it. Below is a stock photo of what it looks like:

Have you used A5 paper? What do you think about it? What’s your favorite paper size? Tell us in your comment for a chance to win: click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway but DO NOT comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS post.

Remember that the winners need to contact us with their address and phone number in order to get their gift.

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Number 12, Tait, won Giveaway #41, our  Wrap-&-Tie-style Rustic Fishing Journal. Please send us your address so we may send your gift!

Arthur has been busy at Renaissance Art developing tons of new products for a wholesale line. It’s pretty exciting each morning to come in and and have Arthur pass us a new journal he’s made the night before. One morning, a medium-sized, buckle-style 120-page journal greeted us:

I love this closure–the buckle adds another layer of time, another rustic element. The charming curve of the belt as it wraps around the spine and dips to highlight the braiding. And being in Santa Fe, I can’t help but feel the Southwestern touch. In fact, I love it so much, we are giving it away!

The closure on a journal is one of the most important parts–it dictates aesthetic and also function. What are some journal closure (wacky and practical) ideas that you have? Tell us in your comment for a chance to win: click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway but DO NOT comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS post.

Remember that the winners need to contact us with their address and phone number in order to get their gift.

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Number 4, Sara, won Giveaway #40, our  Classic Size Leather Cover with flap and D-ring snap closure for your Rollabind or Circa brand notebook with 1-inch rings. Please send us your address so we may send your gift!

So, it’s National Fishing Week and the artisans at Renaissance Art have no shame in confessing that we love fishing. Arthur heads to the Jemez Mountains for fly fishing. LaShanda/Tommy (resident bag maker) catches trout at Monastery Lake near Pecos. Jackie can fish on her property north of Abiquiu. And JenMarie (that’s me) loves sushi (does that count?).

If you love fishing as much as we do (that is to say, if you already knew it was fishing week), then you’re gonna love our new giveaway: a Wrap-&-Tie-style Rustic Fishing Journal.

Where’s your favorite (past or present) fishing hole? Tell us in your comment for a chance to win: click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway but DO NOT comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS post.

Remember that the winners need to contact us with their address and phone number in order to get their gift.

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Number 5, James, won Giveaway #39, our A5 Traditional Recession Refillable Journal. Please send us your address so we may send your gift!

The D-ring is one reliable piece of hardware. Good for fastening clothes, luggage, tow-ropes, theater scenery, scuba diver’s breathing sets, horses’ bit rings and saddles…It’s also one of our most popular closures, though not a closure you’ll see at Renaissance Art every day. But today, it’s the closure of our new giveaway.

For our 40th giveaway, we’ve got a Classic Size Leather Cover with flap and D-ring snap closure for your Rollabind or Circa brand notebook with 1-inch rings. The Rustic Brown cover features three interior slash pockets and a pen loop. Makes me want to get organized, how about you? Check out the personalization: B.G.C. = BeGone Clutter.

What is your best advice on how to get/stay organized? Tell us in your comment for a chance to win: click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway but DO NOT comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS post.

Remember that the winners need to contact us with their address and phone number in order to get their gift.

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Number 4, Joel D., won Giveaway #38, our  Large Journal. Please send us your address so we may send your gift!

While we’ve had our line of Refillable journals for some time, our Renaissance Art Recession Refillables (affectionately referred to as RARRs), are not even a year old. Our Refillable journals are handstitched around the perimeter, which give them a rustic Old World sentiment, and fastened with a wrap and tie closure.*

There’s something about our Recession Refillables that’s all 21st Century: carefully crafted by an industrial and artistic hand. Maybe it’s the even machine-stitching, maybe the metallic snaps and smart straps. Maybe it’s the myriad closures that accommodate any lifestyle.

Maybe you just have to see it, hold it, write in it.  Good thing we’re giving a A5 Traditional Recession Refillable Journal away. Personalized JTA: Just Too Awesome.

Number 18, MariAnn LC, won Giveaway #37, our Valentine Journal. Please send us your address so we may send your gift!

In our studio, we use nonadhesive binding for our book stitching. That just means we don’t use glue of any kind to keep our journals, photo books and presentation books together, we just use tough book binding thread and two trusty stitches.

The two stitches we use are a criss-cross stitch and a braid stitch.* Which stitch we use for which book is based on the number of signatures each book holds (and the book’s size).

What’s a signature? A set of paper sheets (we use between 8 and 12 depending on the book) folded to create pages. One sheet renders 4 pages when folded. For example, our Large Journal contains 216 pages–we wouldn’t be able to fold 54 sheets of paper in one section, so we have to divide it up into 6 sections of 9 sheets each. Each of these 6 sections of 9 sheets has 36 pages(and 36 times 6 is 216).

The braid stitch can only be used on books whose number of signatures is a multiple of three (3, 6, 9, etc.–only two signatures will render a “twist” rather than a “braid.”) The books also need to have spine enough to accommodate at least two stacked braids. That’s why you only find the braid stitch on our Medium 108-Journal, our Large Journal, our Skinny Large Journal and small specialty books and some Photo Albums.

The criss cross stitch is more versatile; it accommodates any book, any number of signatures, nearly any size. This is why we use it for most of our books.

Our Large Journal has one of my favorite spines. And it’s our current Giveaway. 

Because it has more pages than any of our other Travel and Writing Journals, our Large Journal has a satisfying weight and size. The spine is broader than our other journals and accommodates four braids.

Sure, it has a little bit of personalization (RJM), but this journal is ready for the writing.

Where’s your favorite place that design and function meet? Tell us in your comment for a chance to win: click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway but DO NOT comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS post.

Number 31, Julie (okami), won Giveaway #36, our 3 x 5 Binder. Please send us your address so we may send your gift!

Because we offer personalization on all our items at Renaissance Art, we work daily with metal moveable type.

We have to dig through our type trays for the right letters and then place them (backward) in a 300 degree stamping machine.

For most journals, we use the small typeset. It is tiny! And some letters look really similar…

That said…we are giving away a Hers Valentine’s Day Journal (personalized of course: MPD)

And what exactly does MPD stand for? Most Perfect Doppelganger? Many Prizes Deserved? Monster Poet Dork? You decide.

What’s your favorite antiquated tool that you still use? Tell us in your comment for a chance to win: click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway but DO NOT comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS post.

Number 42, Penny, won Giveaway #34, our Pocket Moleskine Cover with Snap Closure. Please send us your address so we may send your gift!

Facebook and Twitter are easily two of the most popular websites on the internet today. In the Renaissance Art catalogue, our Medium-108-Page Journal is easily one of our most popular items. And as Renaissance Art celebrates its Facebook and Twitter launch, we think that a Medium-108 Giveaway is in order.

While you can use this journal keep a hard copy record of your status updates and tweets, post a comment telling us what else you can record in the crowd pleaser: click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway but DO NOT comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS post.

And remember to become our Fan on Facebook and follow our Twitter (You never know when we’ll have a spontaneous sale or Fan’s only Giveaway).

Number 91, Mitchell, won Giveaway #31, our Giant Small. Please send us your address so we may send your gift!

This giveaway is for all you DIYers: a Classic Size Modular Cover. The DIY catch–we’re supplying the cover, you supply the strap. Fitting one-inch discs, this cover comes with a pen-loop and flap (for protection, place-keeping, etc.). Read more about the cover and our other Modular Systems HERE.

You know the drill: click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway BUT do not comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS post. Tell us your planned DIY strap material: use leather, twine, guitar strings, your imagination…

Remember that the winners need to contact us with their address and phone number in order to get their gift.

Number 114, Blair, won Giveaway #29. Please send us your address so we may send your gift!

Nobody’s perfect, right? While the craftspeople at Renaissance Art try to be pretty close, we misstep once in awhile. Like the time that Jackie made a beautiful new 3 x 5 ring binder and just happened to (mis)stamp our logo in a conspicuous place: the front  (check out under the flap) instead of the back!

Remember that the winners need to contact us with their address and phone number in order to get their gift.

No need to mention last weeks winner here.  She already contacted us :)  BTW… I will be adding some pics of the finished designs of the 3X5 card binders.  I am working on the product pages at this time and expect to have them done really soon.  I wanted to do a lot of size comparisons for the three different styles and all the photography is what is taking so much time.  But I hope to post a pic of the three different styles later this week and have all the product pages completed by next week.

Traditionally, when we think of a book, we think of it as either hard covered or paperback.  Well, our version is a little non traditional.  In the traditional sense, it has a front and rear hard cover.  In the non traditional sense we sew the pages right into the spine.  It is both decorative and functional.  In fact, so functional that you can bend the book over on itself at the spine without doing any damage at all to the integrity of the book.  This would break the spine of a traditionally bound book.  But for ours books, it just adds to the usability of the book.

These books will lie completely flat from the first page to the last… no fighting to keep any of the pages down.  This particular one which we are giving away has 144 pages of Rives lightweight paper.  It is 100% cotton rag and a little on the raggy vs. smooth side.  It is 115 gsm and about 90% opaque.  We had some of this in the studio and so decided to use it for this prototype.  The sheet size is a standard European A5 size and we added a strap to keep it closed.

We will be doing these in our colored leathers as they are fully leather lined.  Just something else in the works at the Renaissance Art studio.

Remember that the winners need to contact us with their address and phone number in order to get their gift.

As usual, click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway BUT do not comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS post.

Number 11, Ara, won the free giveaway last week. It was an erasure poem of the 9/11 Commission Report, The O Mission Repo. If you didn’t win and would like to pick up your own copy, click here.

When Julia Child was research assistant in the Secret Intelligence division of the Office of Strategic Services, she typed ten thousand names of officers on thousands of note cards in order to keep track of them. When Julia Child was a culinary deity, she created hundreds of recipes that would be printed on thousands of recipe cards.

For both of these jobs, Julia sure could have used one of our new versatile 3 x 5 one-inch ring binders ($20). Leather lined (no suede side showing), these hand-held helpers hold about 80 cards*, more with other company’s lighter card stock, and will come in every color we offer: rustic brown and black and all seven Rustic Elegance colors. And the exposed rings don’t just look good—they help the covers stay flat.

If you are like Julia and mix business with pleasure, you may want to two-tone your binder—one color for the inside and another for the outside. Mix and match black, molasses, rust, ocean, avocado, cranberry, and rustic brown and leave a comment about your favorite color combos.

Need a pen-loop? A diagonal inside pocket? Leave us a comment to let us know what you think about these features. Who knows. Your comment may be the one that wins this free giveaway.

Remember that the winners need to contact us with their address and phone number in order to get their gift.

As usual, click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway BUT do not comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS post.

Soon to come: ½ and ¾-inch ring binders and a Name the New Stuff contest (winner gets the stuff!)

*We use a super-sturdy acid-free100 brightness 100# cardstock. Check out our website for our card offerings.

Number 21, Jennifer, won the free giveaway last week. It was the leather cover for a discbound notebook with 3/4 inch discs.

This week we are switching things up a bit.  We have offered 26 Free Giveaways to date of anything from our leather journals to our rustic leather bags.  SO… we figured that we would start to giveaway stuff from featured artists, in this case a writer.  It is a 144 page poem… but not just any kind of poem.  It is an erasure poem.  Anybody know what that is?   I sure didn’t.  Well, just go HERE to read more about the book and see a preview.  It is pretty cool.  It is an erasure poem of the 9/11 commission report.  Basically it takes the entire report, erases out some of the lines and words and what is left is the poem… which is basically a commentary on itself.  Hard to explain.  You just need to go have a look.  And once you have, be sure to comment here to enter to win your free copy.

We will be featuring other artists here from time to time in the Free Giveaway section.

Below is a picture of the book’s cover.

Remember that the winners need to contact us with their address and phone number in order to get their gift.

As usual, click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway BUT do not comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS THIS post.

Number 82, Jason, won the free giveaway last week. It was the leather cover for a discbound notebook with 3/4 inch discs.

This week we have another discbound cover and once again for 3/4 inch rings.  Will probably have yet another different one next week too, so if you did not win last week or do not this week, don’t loose hope.  We are building the new prototype on the 1 inch disc notebook.

On previous designs we have done where the rings are hidden inside the notebook, we could only have the notebook attach with the rear cover.  This was for usability reasons.  Basically, if you attached your notebook using the front and rear cover, it would bind up and not close very well.

However, by creating a design with the rings showing on the outside, this issue no longer exists.  This is the first design we are working on in this open ring design.  The one we are working on for next week will have more of a medieval elegance to it.  So, this is design allows you to attach the notebook by sliding the front and rear covers into their respective interior pockets.  The final product will have 2 interior pockets for storage, similar to the post under this one, An Inside Look.  This one does not have any storage pockets.  It is just the initial prototype.  Also on the final version the ring slots will be 1/8 inch wider front and rear.

Just click this link discbound stuff to see what discbound stuff we currently make.  And, all of our stuff is tweak-able (customizable) to fit your own individual style because it is made right in our Santa Fe, NM studio to order.l

So, the item below will fit your 8.5 X 5.5, 3/4 inch disc discbound notebook. It has no extra interior pockets (which the final version will have) but does have a pen loop. Have fun commenting.

Remember that the winners need to contact us with their address and phone number in order to get their gift.

As usual, click HERE to read the rules of this Free Giveaway BUT do not comment on that link to enter. You enter by commenting on THIS THIS post.