Creatives with big personalities,
I see you.

Hi, I’m Lou, and I’ve always been a memory collector. I have boxes of birthday cards and photos mixed with keepsakes and mementos, think business cards from favourite cafes and concert tickets, intermingling with friendship bracelets and notes passed in class.

Just like you, I find the beauty in doing the everyday things with my favourite humans. I think you’ll agree breathing life into those memories to keep somewhere at your fingertips is far preferable to having them gathering dust under your bed or in storage boxes in the garage.

At a time in my life where I had lost my career due to my health and couldn’t rely on my body to do anything I asked without excruciating pain, my high school bestie’s mum (a beautiful artist named Susan) generously adapted her teaching style so she could find a way to teach me everything she knows about book binding.

After realising book binding is something I can do standing or laying on the floor, in five-minute increments, as well as being flexible in how many hours I can do in a week,
I felt uplifted, even if it was just for minutes in a day. That was enough to make a difference to my mental health.

I now have the skills to make beautiful books and sharing them with you makes me feel like even in some small way, I am contributing something positive to the world. Connecting virtually through the Bound to Love Them universe has become a source of joy too, seeing how you resonate with filling your blank pages always blows my mind.

Sustainability

When I was recovering from one of my surgeries in 2020, I wanted to use my time wisely, so I studied a post-grad sustainability course for the love of learning, innovating, and trying to take my mind off the pain. A few specific aspects of sustainability align strongly with my values and I aim to use circularly economic principles including designing products in a way that eliminates waste and adds value to raw products. I am always striving to follow the best sustainability practices.

It’s why I:

• have specific book sizes for my ready-made journals, because the paper can be cut without offcuts, and the fabric and thread remnants are minimal. 

• often use a rice-based glue unless a specific material calls for PVA, and I source fabric from local businesses who are designing and printing fabric in Australia, rather than a big box store. 

• source my packaging from Hero Packaging or recycled Aus Post boxes, and upcycled padding. The hand-written notes and business cards I include are all offcuts that happen if I make a custom sized book.