Sunday, February 11, 2007

Making more books

Open spine books, with chain stitching linking the signatures and board covers together.

1. Plain board (sketch pad backing) and A4 sheets folded in half. Paper is from an activity pack for children bought at the Early Learning Centre so its a bit rough and ready! I'm using the book to make notes on the TAST series for which it is proving just right. 2. Grey board covered with printed and painted paper. The print block was made by incising a piece of polystyrene tray used to package meat in supermarkets. The paper is printer paper and thread a multicolour hand dyed mercerised cotton. A5 sheets folded in half.

3. Grey board again, covered with painted paper (back) and more painted paper backed with iron-on vilene and free machine-stitched with rayon threads (front). More dyed cotton thread for the stitching. The paper comes from a scrapbook. I reckoned on using a white gel pen in this book, but the one I bought doesn't show up, so what do I do now? Use it to stick things in I suppose. Bit smaller pages than 2.
4. More covered grey board, and activity pack paper. Bought thread though, a thick stranded cotton. I've tried to find a way of incorporating beads as the signatures are stitched together and have failed, so I stitched this book up, then attatched the beads separately afterwards. Also invented the ties. Pages are A4 torn in 3 across.
Closer view of beads and ties to finish this entry.
I love handling these books, making them is a real joy and using them even better!




2 comments:

Linda B. said...

I love these and can imagine the pleasure of just holding them!

I know nothing of book making - do books made in this way lie flat when open? Any chance of a picture of the inside?

Mandy said...

These hand-made books are wonderful, Barbara. I especially like the added texture of the beads.