And Lots More Books: The Commissions Update!

My previous post had an update of some books - and one more business card case - that I made in the last few weeks, for my online shops.

I've also worked on several commission books and this post is to show you those.

Commission One - An Italian-themed Holiday Journal: 

Anne chose raspberry red leather, ivory binding thread and a wide ivory ribbon to tie her book.  She specially wanted the ribbon to tie vertically, as shown in the photo.  I used a variation of a traditional Italian Longstitch binding to stitch the pages.  It looks rather nice...

Inside, the leather is lined with red mulberry paper, but each cover has half of a map of Northern Italy, from a vintage atlas.  The map was chosen online by Anne and I purchased it for her.  

I made a label for the inside of the book, using a copy of part of the map, printed onto vellum paper, with the title "Italy 2015" (the label is not attached in the photo). 

* * *

Commission Two - An Artist's Sketchbook: 

Danielle and her twin sister have their 18th birthdays in May.  She asked me to make a special sketchbook for her sister, who is a keen artist.  

Danielle chose a rich brown leather for the covers.  This was lined with red mulberry paper and we decided on a fastening with a simple red cord to wrap round a metal button.

The pages were of Murano paper, which is an artists' paper designed for drawing with pencil, pastel, charcoal and other dry media.  It has a slight texture, giving it a good "tooth" for the drawing media used.  Danielle chose several shades of ivory, cream, grey and charcoal for the page sections.  I also added some loose sheets of glassine tissue paper, to be used between pages, so the drawing doesn't smudge, until it can be fixed with spray.   

The pages were sewn with a cross-stitch, in red linen. 

* * *

Commission Three - A Book of Shadows: 

I was commissioned to make a book, by my sister.  She asked for a Book of Shadows, for her friend's birthday.  

The covers are black leather, lined with purple mulberry paper.  The book ties with a black organza ribbon.  The cover is hand painted in silver, with a traditional Book of Shadows design, of a Pentacle, along with a black cat and symbols to represent the four elements.  

There are forty pages of hand-made Indian cotton-rag paper inside.  The book is sewn in a decorative longstitch, with purple linen.  

* * * 

Commission Four - A Present for Jen: 

Finally, I commissioned myself!  I wanted to make a gift for the birthday of a very lovely lady, who is a skilled artist and produces the most beautiful papercut art.  She goes by the name of Jen and you can see some of her work here - My Papercut Heart. 

Jen designs large and complex paper cuts, which are all hand-drawn on plain paper, before being copied to the sheets from which they are cut.  We chatted about drawing paper recently and she commented that she'd been sticking A4 sheets together, to make a sheet large enough for one of her commission pieces.  So, it was pretty obvious that I should make a Large sketchbook!  

A3 (16.5" x 11.75") Sketchbook.  This has hard covers, in a Nepalese Lokta paper with a screen-printed "Kongpo" design of a garden - a very special sheet, that I bought some time ago and saved for a "special project".  Well, this was just the right project, as I was able to show the whole of the wonderful design on these book covers.  

The edge trim is a saffron yellow silk and the covers are lined with a matching saffron coloured art paper.  The book is sewn with a Coptic style binding, in double rows, with ivory linen. 

The pages are sewn in several sections, so there are plenty of sheets that open out to A2 size, for Jen's large and complex planning drawings.  Hopefully, she won't have to keep tearing out sheets and sticking them together, to have enough room to plan her next masterpiece! 

I wrapped the edge of each section with brown art paper, to give a bit of space inside the book and also to add a nice contrast to the golden silk edge-trim.  I added a small hand-tied silk tassel to the front of the cover, along with a silk-mounted label, with "Jen" printed in an oriental-looking font. 

I'm happy to report that Jen was very pleased with her birthday present - and I'm still smiling! 

Something Close To Normal

Well, just now it seems to be fairly "normal" round here.  We still miss our dear old puss-cat and the house seems quiet and a bit empty without him.  But we're getting on with our lives - you have to really.

* * *

I'm busy helping my mum, as usual, but she is coping a bit better now, which is a relief to both of us.  She's sorted out some problems she was having with the carers who come in on the three days that I don't go to make her lunch & tea - and she is a lot happier with the new arrangement, which starts at the beginning of February.  I will still be going over as usual, but a lady my mum has known for years is taking on the other days, but hopefully there will be less problems with the timekeeping and arrangements for the other days (phew!).

* * *

Last Tuesday I went to Milton Keynes, to visit an old friend, M, who I hadn't seen for quite a long time.  We had lunch and a great chat, during which I told her about James' music lessons at school.  He has been learning the classical guitar for about seven years, but recently the school have sponsored him to have lessons on the double bass. 

He started towards the end of last term and has had about five or six lessons now.  Because he has learned the guitar, which is tuned in the same way, he has picked up the bass very quickly and is already playing pieces that would be graded at Grade 4 or 5. 

He's very enthusiastic and we had been thinking that we might have to rent a double bass at some point, as he was finding it difficult to get the use of the practice room at school - there is only one practice room that contains a double bass and it's not quite small enough to take backwards & forwards on the schoool bus! 

So, I mentioned the double bass lesson arrangement and how keen James has been.  M's reply was "Would he like a double bass?".  Her son, B. is a musician and had played both guitar, bass guitar and also the double bass, for a while, but apparently the instrument had been sitting in the spare bedroom for about four years, unused.  She said she was a bit tired of dusting it and would I like to take it home!

I came home with a 3/4 sized double bass in my car (it did fit - just - good thing it wasn't a full-sized one!).  It's on long-term loan, for as long as James wants to use it.  I am just so thrilled for him - how generous!

Now it lives in the corner of the dining room and is used every day!

 

I need to find someone who can give it a bit of an overhaul and also check over the two bows we were given with it; one of those is in a rather sad state - it needs to be restrung - but the other seems okay and is quite a good one.  James is over the moon and can hardly resist playing it at all hours of the day and night.  I have had to threaten that I'll take it back, if he won't stop fiddling with it when he should be doing homework!

 

* * *

I've been finding some time to work on various bookbinding projects.  I have three commission books to work on, which are all at the planning or quote stage, but it looks as if I'll get those done in plenty of time. 

 

I've been able to make a few smaller items and start on a project that I have thought about for a while.

 

 

I've made some more leather books. These are pocket-sized journals with a longstitch binding.

 

 

And a cream leather book, with covers lined in a beautiful piece of soft, fine, gold-marbled red paper (which was actually given to me by a fellow blogger at the Bloggers' Weekend, in November 2011 - I saved it until I found a special project for it!). 

This is big enough to be a guest book, or a sketchbook, as well as a special large-sized journal. I gave it a longstitch binding in deep red waxed linen, to go with the red lining of the covers. 

 

And this is the start of the Project:

 

 

These are Guest Book Covers, in grey linen. 

They have a hinged section, for a side-binding (like stab-stitch, screw-posts or perhaps a ribbon-tied binding) 

 

The covers are lined with plain, soft white art paper (the paper behind this cover is ready-cut sheets of cream text paper, which could be bound into this album.

The idea is that I can sell a customised book, without having to do all the work completely from scratch.  If it is already established that the covers are a particular size and are grey linen, also that they are pre-made, this takes away a significant chunk of the preliminary planning for me and also means I save time on making up the covers.

 

I will offer the customer the choice of coloured silk edging for the covers - like in the photos above.  They can choose pretty much any colour they want, as I have a very wide stock of silk pieces (52 individual colours/shades just now!). 

 

They can choose the type and colour of paper inside - either 30 pages of white or cream text paper, or 20 pages of stiff card for a photo album.

 

The covers can be lined with coloured art paper, to fit with the customer's colour scheme.

 

And the binding style can also be chosen, to be one of the styles shown - a Screw-Post binding, Ribbon-tied binding, or a Japanese-style Stab-Stitch binding. 

 

I have listed this pair of covers in my Etsy & Folksy shops.  So far I have had one enquiry, though the customer asked if she could please have the album shown in the bottom left corner of the last photo (above), only in blue rather than purple (!).  I think she kind-of missed the point...  I clarified the listing with a note, to make sure it was really clear what was on offer.  

 

Better luck should follow, I hope!  We will see...  I hope to make a few more pairs of ready-to-customise covers in the next few weeks.  I'm really hoping this will work out well, as I don't have time to make custom orders completely from scratch just now.  This seems like a good compromise. 

 

* * *

Finally...

 

A Sketchbook, made with a sheet of gorgeous handmade paper, in a soft mauvey colour.  It has a deep red-purple suede quarter binding on the covers and a traditional Case style binding.  

The cover lining / flysheet are also in the same handmade paper.   

The book is bound with deep red-purple hemp cord.

This is a gift for a lovely friend.  The label will have her name stamped on it in matching mauve ink. 

It's going in tomorrow's post!

 

And that's about it for now - my "Normal Life".

 

Off to make my mum's tea for her now... bye all!

Palm Leaf Book - Artist's Book Workshop Day with Mia Leijonstedt, 9th June 2012

I spent Saturday in Cambridge again. This time, it was to attend an all-day workshop, with artist Mia Leijonstedt, who lives close to ArtSpace Cambridge.

I have been looking forward to this workshop for a couple of months, as I think Mia's work is very beautiful and inspiring. The workshop was to make artists' books, in a Palm Leaf style, but with wooden covers.  Mia's own books are fabulous and I wanted to have the opportunity to meet her and hear what she had to say / see what I could learn from her.  She's about to take a break from much of her bookbinding work, to concentrate on a new venture, making rather beautiful jewellery (see her Etsy shop and be amazed and delighted!)

9:15am - setting up, ready for a 9:30 start...

Mia brought some of her own work for us to see.  I love her use of texture, colour and contrast and choice of materials.  The shiny metal bits are melted tin, which she heats up, pours and cools, before attaching to the work.  

Mia uses a lot of natural materials, such as wood, bark, feathers, coral and stones, combined with lovely beads, coloured cord and twines, leather, paints...  There are lots of different papers inside the books, with various textures, patterns and colours (and you all know how I feel about paper...). 

All very lovely and quite inspiring!  You can see more of these here.

This is the smallest of the books, above. I loved the circle of gold-embossing on the leather, also the little beads that embellish the ends of the cord ties.  The covers are of hand-dyed wood. 

* * *

So, we were to produce our own Artist's Book, using a Palm Leaf style of binding.  The Palm Leaf binding is a very simple form.  It's basically a top and bottom "cover" with "pages" in between. The binding is achieved by making holes at either end of each cover and page, then passing a cord down through one set of holes, along the bottom cover and up through the second set of holes.  The cord is cut long enough to be used as ties, to fasten the pages and covers together. 

This style of book originates from India and Southeast Asia, where the books were really made from leaves of trees, such as palms - hence the long, narrow form of the book.  This is the Wikipedia entry for Palm Leaf Books - it also has some photos of original books, which are interesting.

Mia even produced our course notes in the form of a palm leaf style book - look how lovely it is!  Each of us had one of these, embellished with little scraps of paper, beads and leather.  A gorgeous little thing - it was like having a present!

So, Palm Leaf Artists' Books.... wow...

We weren't just given materials and told to get on with it.  Nor did Mia do that "follow me, step by step" thing that is sometimes useful for something complicated. 

The book form is very simple.  She chose it so that we could each come up with a very personal item, interpreting the book form in our own way.  Before we started making any books, we "made something", then did several exercises, to help us get warmed up, creative, inspired. 

Firstly, we were asked to go and select one item from each of five little heaps of things.  The piles had stuff like leather and felted scraps, buttons, beads, stones, cords, strings, shells, little tin scraps, feathers, flowers etc and each pile consisted of similar items, but was a bit different to the other piles.

We were then to use the five objects, to make "a talisman" object.   This was fun - everyone had chosen items independantly and we all came up with something quite different. Mia said she thought our item would say something about our individual personalities. I don't know, but I think she was perhaps right about that; my item was just a little thing, made from bits that I liked, but that must say something about me really...

Mia examines one of the pieces of work.

Our work laid out on the table.

We then had three different creative exercises. The first was to imagine ourselves reaching out an invisible finger, from where we sat, to touch each of the objects that Mia lifted up for us to see.  There weren't many things - just a few items with contrasting textures or "feels" - a smooth metal ruler, with printed on markings;  a rough piece of bark; a soft natural sponge; a large piece of quartz with crystalline structure.   It just woke up the imagination and made us think... 

Then we had a small stack of paper sheets (not very large ones) and a black pen. Mia gave us a word for each sheet, one at a time. The idea was to draw the word - like sort-of automatic writing, only drawing.  It was just a doodle of our impression of that word. We ended up with about 5 or 6 doodles, all different.  Most people's doodle of a particular word had similarities, but no-one produced the same doodle.  It was very interesting - and quite liberating really.  

The final exercise was a guided meditation. Mia drew the blinds down slightly, put up a big Do Not Disturb notice on the door.  Then she had us get comfortable, close our eyes and imagine what she told us.  It was a kind of story... we started on a warm sunny beach...  paddled in the sea... found a shining object which transported us to a beautiful building... inside the building we were guided to an object in a glass dome, which we couldn't see at first...  there was just a symbol visible to begin with, until we wiped the glass clear... we were allowed to hold the object... the curator of the gallery told us it was our own object... we left it in the gallery and went out of a door...to find ourselves back at the lovely beach. 

Then we were asked to draw - the object, the symbol, an impression - whatever.  I ended up with a nice little drawing of a beautiful book - which I may try to make some time!

I have done this kind of exercise before, but somehow there was always some kind of embarassment or discomfort about it.  On Saturday, it just "worked" and I found the whole thing very relaxing, inspiring.  It got me "connected" with my creative ideas and thoughts.  I was raring to go. 

Perhaps it helped that I had gone to Cambridge with the mindset that I was going there for a Challenge and would be doing something creative, different and new.  So I was all ready for whatever was offered.  It seems to have worked anyway, as I just had the Best day!

The Books

The remainder of the day was spent on our Books.  We each had a pair of covers - all pieces of wood, except for one student, who opted for some black board covers instead, as she liked the more delicate feel of these.

There was a big pile of assorted papers for us to select from - any that we wanted.  There was paint, inks, coloured and natural cords and threads, pieces of leather, fabrics, stones, beads, glass, bark, metal objects... Also a pyrography iron, for experimenting with covers or pages and a little heater, with a melting pan, plus pieces of tin to be melted into interesting shapes or designs. Several people tried one or both of these techniques.  We had no restrictions or rules - we were just allowed to do what we wished.  Mia was available to help with tecnical enquiries, materials, ideas if we needed someone to bounce them off... but she never said "you must do..." or "you shouldn't do..." (except for burning/melting outside because of the smoke alarm indoors!).

All the books, laid out for us to admire.  Quite exciting!

At the end of the day, we had eight (almost nine - someone started a second project) books.  Each was very different and all were really quite beautiful.  The students all came from different places and different artistic backgrounds.  Some were already bookbinders and/or artists, some were not.  One lady was a writer, who was exploring bookbinding techniques because she wanted a vehicle to showcase a special series of poems - a Book of Hours.  Everyone produced something to feel proud of.  Even Mia seemed excited to see them all laid out on the table.  Much photo-taking ensued!

Mostly, I don't know whose book was whose, but here is a Gallery of our work:

The blue book is covered in hand-painted/dyed paper.

A close-up of the wonderful metal mini-sculpture on the red book!

One of those is mine, but I'd like you to look at all of them and appreciate their gorgeousness, so I won't tell you which one it is! 

* * *

A "Gallery" slideshow of my own book is below.  I have also added a Page about my book, with notes describing its creation - there is a new tab at the top of my blog, or follow this link when you've seen enough of the slideshow:

Journey : A Palm Leaf style Artist's Book