Remember the 1980’s when Martha Stewart was queen of all things domestic? I sheepishly admit to being young, impressionable, and eager to emulate the perfect holiday table – even if it meant buying a whole new set of dishes.
Fast-forward to being older, hopefully wiser, free of any illusions that I will ever be Martha Stewart — and wondering why that was ever my goal. Oh, and embarrassed that one of the most useful tools in my studio has her name on it. I suppose the saving grace is that the tool isn’t pink or purple — why do companies think that women need their tools to be pink or purple?!
This nifty tool found its way into my studio when I was teaching a book arts class for photographers. One of my students, Donnasue, showed me her Scor-Pal and I was hooked. I was in the middle of making an edition of The Heaven Project which is a post-bound book and I was scoring a lot of pages at 1.25 inches – a lot of pages! At the time I was using a quilt ruler – another favorite tool – but once I saw the Scor-Pal I had to have one.
Before I had the chance to order my own, I was trolling Michael’s with my 40% off coupon and happened upon the Martha Stewart version, the Scoring Board. And, while not thrilled that it was Martha Stewart brand, I was glad to get the board at 40% off since I was “just trying it.” I took the board to class the following week and we compared.
The Martha Stewart Scoring Board has many advantages over the Scor-Pal, the most important one being the frequency of the scoring grooves – Where the Scor-Pal grooves were 1/4″ to 1/2″ apart, the Martha Stewart board spacing is 1/8″ across the board. (Note: while researching this blog post I found that the new version of the Sc0r-Pal now has both 1/8″ and 1/4″ grooves – unfortunately still not 1/8″ uniformly across the board.)
Another advantage of the Martha Stewart board is the scoring tool itself – it is narrower and leaves a sharper crease (yet does not tear paper) than the tool with the Scor-Pal. Unfortunately neither board has grooves that really accept a standard bone folder so it is necessary to swap tools while working.
The third advantage is that the Martha Stewart board is available in local stores – stores which usually have coupons – so not only do you not have to pay shipping, you can usually get the tool at 40-50% off.
I started to write a more in-depth review of both tools and came across a blog, Crafting with Sue, which has a great comparison of the two tools so if you want a more detailed analysis – Check it out.
I’ve been using my Scoring Board for almost two years now. I use it daily and for every possible variation of book arts structure. It saves me time and gives my books a crisp, consistent fold and makes measuring a breeze.
Do you have a favorite scoring tool? Another tool you’re embarrassed to admit to other artists? And why do they make tools for women pink or purple?
{Update June 2018: The Martha Stewart Scoring Board has been discontinued. You can get an identical board from EK Success via Joanns.com. Scor-Pal also has a new board with 1/8″ grooves all the way across but I still wouldn’t choose it because it has a ledge on the right side that makes it difficult to use larger papers.}
~Ginger
Midnight Musings 