Words & Letters - Papercut layer

Here is the second layer of the book. Over the letters I cut out just the capitals (not the lines and patterns), and to frame the words I did a few of the circles and lines, but very simplified and only around the outside.

The second half of the book. I like the 'Q' because of the positive/negative thing going on with the stem. I did the same thing with a few of the circles, or wherever the letters go outside the square.

Like in this close-up!


And in other news, the winner of last week's giveaway is Velma! Congratulations!

Words & Letters - a smallish art book. No, really

I'm staring another art book, but this one is going to be a pretty small project. It's the one that lead to this piece as I was planning it out. It will be another star book, all the black and white.

I wanted to do something on old book pages, and really like the Roman alphabets with all the lines and circles around them showing to make the letters. However, I didn't want to just to an alphabet book. So I decided to but some quotes in with them. I was going to just do random quotes about words and writing, kind of like an old sketch I did way way back. I can't it, but here's an abstract (ish) painting based on it, which might give you the idea:

This time around I wanted the quotes to have a bit more coherence. So I tookt he quote I liked most, "Words, words, words" from Hamlet and expanded it to include a few of the lines around it as well.

Close-up of the pages. There is one letter and one quote per layout. This is the back layer, and the others will be cut-out so you can see into this one. It's based on a square, because the letters are. The quote is smooshed into the same shaped. I didn't really use calligraphy for the quote, what I did was trace the outline of the letters and scribble inside to (mostly) fill them in. I love it with a little 'sketch'-like quality to it, rather than a more polished finished product.

When the separate pages where done I threw them all on the floor and decided on the order they would go in (see the top photo). The quotes and alphabet to go in order, but I didn't want them to simply alternate (letter on the left, quote on the right) so I played with it a bit until I was happy.

Then they all got cut out and glued to nice stiff paper to finish it off. I ripped the 'H' when I was putting it on, but that turned out to be a good thing because it was a boring letter and I replaced it with a more intricate 'K' instead.

A Leftovers Cover

Many months ago I was browsing around on Etsy and found some Rhonda's books that looked like they were made of two separate pieces of leather. That seemed like a great way to do two-tone books, or get rid of some old leather. So last week when I was again actively looking to use up some scraps I remembered my brilliant plan and did a bit of reverse engineering and adapting to come up with this binding.

Of course after I was done I realized that I probably could have looked at her blog for more information about it, and there was tonnes. They're called Crossed-Structure Bindings, and were invented by Carmencho Arregui, who also has a very informative website.

Nevertheless, I'm happy with what I came up with on my own. I think it works better for my purposes, since the proper version actually would have used more, rather than less, leather. But now that I've found more things to play with and adapt, it should be fun to have all that extra information!


ps. I missed Canada Day due to some computer problems, and of course, fireworks! But here's something for a little late celebration. Happy July Long!

My new favourite binding

I'm making a whole bunch of books to get ready for the Beads Paper Water Gift Fair this November, not to mention the Hotel Sask (they'll need more for Christmas too!). I want to get as many nice, simple, books as I can first as basic stock before I get caught up in the stranger, time-consuming ones. On top of that, I'm making myself use up all the supplies I have (as much as possible) before I get anything new. So, leather books first, then on to Coptic and the like to get rid of all the paper I have.

I came up with this way of binding some of the softcover leather books. I will likely make a few of these because the ribbon (and that can easily be suede or something else, to get a different look) both decorates the spine and closes the book in one easy step, and there's very little hole-punching/sewing because there are only three lines of it! But don't worry, the paper still stays in place very well.

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven - all put together (well, almost)

So here we are, at the end of a very frustrating project. If you read my other posts about it, you know this already, but nothing seemed to go quite right on this one, and I'm glad I'm rid of it. Which is not really the attitude to have about these things, but still, it happens sometimes.

Here is the cover. I think I will end up changing this, or at least the ribbon, at some point. I had no idea what to do for it. I'm not a very good embroidered so I didn't really want to do that. It worked fine for "The Tell-Tale Heart" because that was supposed to be messy. But this should look nice. Also, it isn't seen when it's open, and will probably never be displayed closed, so I don't want anything elaborate. Leather would have been much too thick because it would be bulky when it closed. Any papers I tired looked bad against the fancy calligraphy. So I just went for some silk. Other than that... yeah, I have no idea what I really want here. Maybe I'll take it with me to the fabric store and see if I can find anything that doesn't look stupid with it.

With the embroidery on the edges. I used silk thread in grey and purple, in a sort of twisted chain stitch. It blends in and compliments and looks terrific all at the same time. At least one thing went right!

The cover when it's on display.

Yeah, I think I'm going to rip it off. In fact I know I will. I'm going to look for something in ivory and gold.

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven - background

This is the layer going behind the poem. It has the title and author. It was done in masking fluid with a really thick nib I've never really been able to use but work wonderfully for this. On top of that went a few layers of calligraphy and ink to darken it up. I found it kind of difficult getting the look I wanted with this. It had to be lighter and simpler than the poem layer, but it just never quite looked like I'd done enough. I guess the poem was just too complicated and full of colour. It might look simple, but it's actually very very involved and that makes it difficult to work with if it's not totally plain white, really. Still, turned out all right.

Here's a closeup. I like it. Though after I finished I wondered why I hadn''t done it in the same font as the poem. Old habits, I guess.

My 100th Post! and a giveaway.

Congratulations to me, I am still writing these things up! Actually, I find I enjoy blogging and it makes me work more consistently so that I will have something to say. Since I made it to 100 and that's a big round number I decided to skip ahead in my projects a little bit and make something new.

This is an outgrowth of the book I'm going to start working on as soon as He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven is done. I love LOVE the old letters with the lines around them showing how they are formed. I always have. I think it's the Steampunk in me.

This piece is made from three layers. The cutout letters, the cutout lines, and as a background, an old book page. They have matte board in between to seperate and define the different pieces. I think it turned out really great and I'm looking forward to making more!

Here's a close-up so you can see how they're on different levels.

If you can't wait for the contest, you can buy it in my Etsy shop.

If you want to win it instead (sorry, no frame, though), just leave a comment to enter your name! And if you want to link to this blog (because this is all about shameless self-promotion), let me know you posted something about it and I'll give you two more entries. I'll draw for it in one week. So check back Sunday!