Mother's Day book for MIL

I made a photo album of the San Francisco trip we did with MIL last year. It's 3-dimensional.

MIL was delighted!

Butterfly parade

This is the book I made for my mother for Mother's Day. She called it a butterfly parade, which is really a good title for it.

Butterflies have always had a special meaning for Mom. She was raised by her grandparents and was especially close to her grandfather. Near the end of his life, he told her that when he died, he would come back as a butterfly and sit on her grandmother's apron. Those were the days when women always wore aprons.

This is the book opened up. Each butterfly, printed onto translucent paper and sewn into the book, contains a memory my mother and I have shared.

This is the book closed.

The book from the back. The butterfly paper is from the wonderful Zetta Florence paper shop in Melbourne.

I am really proud of this book, and hope to make a similar one for myself.

Craft room

Hey Techie Son! Look at your room! Look at your desk!





Oh, and that's NOT a box of Red Tulip chocolates on the desk - it's filled with MIL's embroidery threads that she gave me - every color of the rainbow, great for sewing books together.






Look who's sitting in your oh so comfy armchair!














I've been making more books in my craft room.

Coptic stitching with slip case
















Two accordion books

Some of my latest book creations

This is a book before it is sewn together. The text papers (middle) have been bound in two places. This is the inner binding which is not visible once the book is sewn together but ensures that the text will not fall apart if disaster strikes and the binding threads break.



The finished book, with three decorative wooden beads incorporated into the stitching.



Inside the book (forgot to turn it!).



Now for the results of the weekend's bookbinding course. We ran out of time so there are still things to finish, but this is a book case, held together with two toggles which you can just see at the front. That's a fabric covering, which first needed to be backed with paper and dried before pasting onto the bookboards.



Book case from the top.



I've propped the lid open so you can see the toggles better.



The book case open. The end papers still need to be attached to go over the white areas, but I'm first hoping to be able to create a book BOX which would have a head and tail at the middle section. This was what we were supposed to make during the class but we ran out of time.



One of the three books we made in class that are meant to go in the book box. The cover and text papers are all handmade, with the most wonderful soft feel to them. I will probably wear out the book just touching it all the time. (I have just confessed to Pea in an email that I also love the sound the book makes when I touch it. Is that too weird?) The stitching is the 4-hole hemp leaf stitch often used in traditional Japanese bookbinding.

Exploding books

No, this is not to combat the bats, but is a fun type of book I learnt to make last week. The first photo shows the exploding book closed, on the right. The one on the left is a book made out of a CD cut in half (caution: CDs need to be heated with boiling water first before cutting to prevent pieces flying up into your eyes).



This is the exploding book opened up. You can make them out of contact sheets of photos printed out onto normal photocopy paper, or write things on them, decorate them (wish I could draw!), whatever you can dream up. They can be made in any size. I was always attracted to pop up books, even as an adult, and exploding books are a very basic kind of pop up book. Fun!

This is the CD book opened. It would be good for cards, or for decorating, writing poems in, etc.

Productive day, despite mishap

Today I finished two books I started late yesterday afternoon. My work rate is gradually picking up.

The book on the right is for MIL's birthday in September. The embroidery thread I used for the stitching is from a box of embroidery thread she gave me as she no longer does close work. The colors are neatly ordered (not by me!) into 3 layers, with like colors together. Fabulous selection! It's a hard bound book, and as usual I had a bit of trouble getting the needle through all the layers. I used a thimble but also a bit too much force and the needle broke through the thimble and went into my finger. Ouch! After doing a bit of first aid I took some time out. Wouldn't want to bleed on the book after all that work. Also raided hubby's workshop and found that pliers are great for working the needle through to the other side, so I'll use that in future. When he finds out he will probably use that as an excuse to go to Bunnings and buy me my own pliers.

The other book I'll be taking to the U.S. along with others that I'll be making, to give as gifts. I've done tortoise shell stitching which I think is so pretty. The little print, which seems to be almost 3 dimensional, is just cut out from a glossy catalogue. I'm always on the lookout for such things now to use as decoration. Now I know why people into crafts are always talking about storage!

Star tunnel book

I made my very first star tunnel book at Barb's workshop yesterday. Ok, confession, I needed to finish it at home today, because I got a bit ambitious with the content. Anyway, it starts out as this normal looking book tied up with a ribbon, but when you open it out, it turns into a star shape with views through "windows" (tunnel).















A good overview.

Can't believe we made these books!

Look at this! Hard cover books with hinges that Annie and I made at Barb's workshop. Covered in fabric brought back from Beijing, chopstick used as decoration near spine. We are happy campers! Can't wait for the next workshop in August. I think I could spend my whole retirement sitting in Barb's cosy work room, making beautiful things from paper. Oh, we made beautiful paper too!

Coptic binding

Today I attended a workshop on how to make a book using coptic binding, an ancient Egyptian art. This book took a number of hours to make, but the time and effort were well worth it.

Making books - what next?

Alice asked in a comment on yesterday's post, what I might do with the books I make. They do have pages in them so can be used as diaries, journals, even photograph albums. Some people use them to produce catalogues for their work (there were artists attending the weekend's workshop). Some people write poems in them, give them as gifts, blank or with photos/messages in them. I've thought of creating scrapbooks when I finally get around to doing that. The smaller easy and quick to make ones can be stationery, greeting/gift cards, and so on. They are also great for special events such as weddings. I've got a few projects in mind (no weddings though!). But it is scary to think of using the more elaborate ones that take a bit of work. They look so perfect, I'm thinking I'll just display them for now, especially the accordian book. That embossed paper has the look and feel of reptile skin.

This is another one we made, I still need to sew in the second and third sections of text pages. It's called a three signature hard cover book.

Val gets crafty

I have never been good at arts and crafts, but I have long wanted to do the weekend course on "simple oriental bookbinding" offered by the Council of Adult Education. The inclusion of the word "simple" gave me a bit of hope that I'd at least be able to make some of the books.

Well, it was the most fabulous class: lovely people, great teacher, and I was actually able to produce beautiful books over the two days. I can't wait to visit the specialty paper shops that import the most exquisite paper from Japan and elsewhere. Apparently I'll have to take out a loan to afford them, but I actually already have a supply of oriental handmade paper. A few years ago when the Man Who Cooks was still travelling to Asia, he bought large sheets of handmade paper to cover parts of the walls in our studies. We wound up using shojii blinds instead, and just stored the paper and forgot about it. Turns out that stuff is a mini goldmine for bookbinding. I can see a new obsession coming up. Hope I'll remember to blog now and then.

Tortoise shell sewn binding



Embossed paper, accordion book (see photo in next row)

Two signature ledger book with origami figure