Seller Handbook

While digital devices and apps reign supreme in other workplaces, Katie Gonzalez has built a tactile career for herself as a full-time bookbinder. Her business, linenlaid&felt, is named after the textures of the paper she cuts, folds and stitches into one-of-a-kind sketchbooks, journals and photo albums in her 10-foot-by-11-foot studio — one that’s free of computer screens. The workspace is located in the carpeted basement floor of the Craftsman-style home, built in 1935, that she shares with her husband in Nashville, Tennessee. While she works, their friendly 12-year-old brindle bullmastiff, Riviera, keeps her company.

Katie's studio is fully stocked with bookbinding essentials. Shelves and drawers hold collections of colorful waxed linen thread, rolls of book cloth, jugs of white glue, awls, scissors and reference books. Book board, self-healing cutting mats and a rainbow of patterned and solid-colored papers fill the drawers of a handsome wooden flat file cabinet, which she scored when her former landlord told her that a local film production company was cleaning out its art department. She hopped in her landlord's truck and nabbed the cabinet, which she uses to safely store the large sheets of paper she uses to make book covers and interior pages.  “It was life changing,” she says.

One perk of being self-employed is that Katie has the freedom to set her own work hours. Since her husband’s schedule as a newspaper reporter varies depending on his assignments, Katie adapts her schedule to mirror his — and maximize their time together. She starts each work day by making coffee and checking her emails at her "desk," which is located on one end of their long dining room table, before heading downstairs to her studio. She returns to the computer to handle online work and update her websiteor Instagram as needed during the day, usually while she’s sipping coffee or eating lunch.

Initially Katie kept her computer in her studio, but found it far too distracting. So, she moved it to a different floor of the house to physically separate the business and creative sides of her work. “The whole reason I started doing this was so I didn't have to be at the computer all the time,” she says. She learned to make books during a six-week summer study-abroad program in Cortona, Italy. The supplies list for the program included a paper-tearing knife — a non-serrated, dull knife similar to a letter opener.  She brought a red-handled knife from her childhood to Italy to make her first books, and still uses it today. Now she collects this style of knife from thrift stores to use in bookbinding classes.

After graduating from University of Georgia with a degree in graphic design, she landed a job as a graphic designer for a newspaper. It seemed like a dream scenario. But she quickly discovered that the job wasn’t as creative as she had hoped. She was miserable working on a computer all day and desperately missed making things with her hands. Three years later, in 2010, when her husband got a job in Nashville, Katie turned her bookbinding side projects into a full-time job.

Katie spends most of the day listening to audio books on a CD player while she works, often opting for contemporary fiction. When attending to tasks that require focus and precision, like measuring and cutting, she plays music on her smartphone, which she also likes having within earshot so she can enjoy the cha-ching sound of a sale coming in from the Sell on Etsy app. Next up on her audio book list is The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.

A couple evenings each week, Katie packs up her tools and teaches book arts classes. She teaches one or two semester-long classes at Watkins College of Art, Design and Film that convene weekly, as well as regular weekend workshops at the Skillery, a local co-working and DIY space, the Nashville Public Library and other locations around the city. Teaching has since become a significant part of her career and income.

In addition to fueling her students’ creativity, teaching has affected her own studio practice by forcing her to purposefully re-examine her methods and figure out how to clearly explain it to someone new to the craft. “I remember how excited I was when I realized that you could make books by hand,” Katie recalls. “I love seeing that same excitement in other people when they start to make books for the first time.” Plus, teaching classes is a chance to get out of her studio and home for a change of scenery. “It’s nice to see other people besides just my dog,” she says.

Selling handmade books in the digital age is not always easy. Katie encounters one particular challenge over and over, especially when selling in person at fairs. “So many people walk by and say ‘Oh my gosh, this is so beautiful! But I don’t journal and I would never use it’ or ‘It’s too pretty to use!’ and then they walk on,” she says. To illustrate the different ways her books could be used, she displays a collection of examples, including baby books, travel journals and guest books, at her craft fair booth and in a dedicated section on her website. She also encourages customers to use the hashtag #myusedbook to share how they have used handmade books.

To keep her product line fresh and relevant, Katie has been exploring ways to combine modern habits with traditional bookbinding techniques. For instance, she recently started making square photo albums for Instagram photos. Each order includes a card with directions for printing Instagram photos and assembling them into the album. “You can take your iPhone photos," she says, "and pair them with this Italian long-stitch binding, which originated in the Renaissance.”

All photographs by Dylan Reyes.

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