Well, hello!



What would you say, what is bookbinding..? For me, it's a metaphor for binding moments of our life into unmerited gift of our existence. Like gathering blurry guessing into a clear perception or scattered thoughts into a single prayer, or something dispersed and shapeless into a transfigured form of something completely new. So, let's say that our present is a bookbinding of moments that make up our life.



That's how my idea for hand bound notebooks, journals and diaries with the original design for the covers originated, as something authentic that will surpass just being my own, achieved within various techniques such as: drawing, distressing, painting, decoupage, embossing, stamping, mixed media arts and others. Reprinting it for the covers, it became a "uniqueness" I could share with others. I wanted moments we treasure as important, needful or useful to find their expression in the inspiration of the design since we always look for special treasuries to store priceless cognition, conclusions or food for our mind, heart and soul.



The village of Veljusa in Strumica, Macedonia where I live together with my sisterhood in the Orthodox Monastery of the Most Holy Mother of God Eleusa is also the place where I create. The name of my shop comes from the name of the Monastery - Eleusa. This still untouched particle of the nature's universe surrounding me is a small oasis in which all that we do as a part of our monastic life is handmade and accompanied by the prayer. That's why, I find that sewing each and every new notebook is something personal. It's a long process from the first stitches of the first bound pages until the assembling of the hard covers with the notebook and all is asking for precise, detailed tuning to make everything fit together perfectly, although specific alterations always appear as a particularity of the handmade process. But that's also the beauty of it, making something special as something special for someone personally.



Trying to participate in the preservation of green environment, I made the notebooks eco-friendly from ecological paper. What actually makes them different except for the original design of the outside covers is also combining the inside covers by using an inserted piece of fabric. This is a traditional custom within an authentic bookbinding but rare nowadays.



It's truly nice being able to sew and in the same time listen to so many different birds sing or pass the yard to get some new sewing paper and see squirrels freely running up and down the tree just beside me... Since Macedonia is one of the countries with the highest variety of butterflies, you can imagine, they are all over in all the colors and shapes... I could certainly say that my notebooks have emerged from such an ambiance and a touch of that inspiration will be traveling with them on their way to you...



Thank you for stopping by!



s. Anastasija