Local Makers: Yonder Bound
Yonder Bound co-owners and friends Chelsea van der Meer and Eric Stine like to think of their logbooks as analog apps, only better. Each durable, elastic-banded booklet has a theme (beekeeping, birding, gardening, mushroom-hunting) with special entry pages for recording and organizing information on the topic. The duo partnered with local experts (White Pine Wilderness Academy and the Indiana Audubon Society, to name a couple) to include thoughtful details like space to draw seedlings in the garden, or illustrations to identify different bee types.
Working from the new Pattern Workshop makerspace on Mass Ave, Yonder Bound also produces a Tasting Notes series for documenting one’s obsession with beer, cheese, wine, coffee, or doughnuts. Now, friends and customers pose suggestions for new themes: liquor, pizza, hamburgers, salt, rainfall, and UFO sightings.
In a world that is increasingly digital, van der Meer and Stine regard their logbooks as more of an experience. “There’s just something about the act of recording,” van der Meer says. “You hold it, and it’s your handwriting. It’s more personal. It’s interactive. And it becomes something you want to keep.” That, and the battery never dies.
The Process
(1) Tools of the journal trade include a bone folder, hog-bristle glue brushes, metal plates, and keys for locking the plates into a stamper.
(2) Recycled paper is placed in a punching trough, pierced with holes, then trimmed to size.
(3) The bunches of paper are sewn together by hand. (Though shown blank, these would normally be printed entry pages.)
(4) A hot stamping machine imprints the cover with a foil design. Holes are drilled into the back for the elastic band.
(5) The cover and pages are glued together. Rounded corners reinforce the handmade look and feel.
