I designed this handmade hardback sketchbook with 300gsm Saunders Waterford watercolour paper especially for artists, after I couldn't find one for myself.
The 100% cotton, mould-made, heavy weight paper is far superior to the cheap machine-made, wood pulp-based paper found in most sketchbooks. It is highly stable and durable, with a refined surface, resists warping with wet media, and can be worked on both sides.
I offer both hot press and cold press surfaces in high white. Hot press paper is smooth and dense, with a subtle texture well-suited to fine detail and precise rendering, and is more versatile for mixed media and drawing. Cold press paper is thicker, softer and more absorbent, with a more pronounced texture and attractive organic appearance, encouraging loose expressive artwork. Both perform brilliantly for painting in watercolour, ink, acrylic, gouache, and oils too if primed first.
The book opens completely flat, so you can work across both pages as a single piece.
The hardback cover is made from 2.5mm board, and premium quality, tough, thick, wipeable black archival buckram.
The binding is kettle stitched, glued three times and reinforced with linen tape and mull, so it is extremely strong. Meanwhile the pH neutral glue is reversible, so the book can be deconstructed if necessary.
40 pages / 80 sides, plus two end papers made from 300gsm Bockingford watercolour paper. Paper size: 19x14cm portrait, with a watermark on some pages. May be deckled on all sides or on two sides with one cut edge.
All books are entirely hand-made by me in my London studio. If you need a specific size, cover or paper please get in touch.
