This Venetian Blind book came up unexpectedly. At about 10 pm, I still had no idea what book I was going to do tonight. My brain was like a piece of dry toast. Bleh!
So I pulled out my trusty Alisa Golden--"Making Handmade Books: 100 Bindings, Structures & Forms," and looked for something quick and not too demanding. Found it, then proceeded to make it more complicated than it needed to be. Why do I always do that? The Venetian Blind structure is dead simple. But I wanted something in it. Turns out the math of trying to get the photo to fit right was disgusting.
I always assumed most bookmakers, unless making a blank journal, begin with the content then design a structure to fit it. I seem to go the other way. Perhaps it's because so many structures are new to me in this challenge and that's where my focus is. Once I'd decided on the Venetian Blind book, I spent ages trying to come up with an idea for the content. But once I hit on the idea of a photo and decided to scroll through some of the pictures I've taken in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, this was the first picture that jumped out. I knew it was the one.
I printed the photo to the size I wanted and sliced it into six pieces. I folded a piece of 9x12 card stock into an 8-fold accordion, pasted the slices onto the "pages," punched holes in the two ends, and threaded through a length of hemp cord. Tied it off at the ends so it won't come out, then closed the book and tied it shut.
So I pulled out my trusty Alisa Golden--"Making Handmade Books: 100 Bindings, Structures & Forms," and looked for something quick and not too demanding. Found it, then proceeded to make it more complicated than it needed to be. Why do I always do that? The Venetian Blind structure is dead simple. But I wanted something in it. Turns out the math of trying to get the photo to fit right was disgusting.
I always assumed most bookmakers, unless making a blank journal, begin with the content then design a structure to fit it. I seem to go the other way. Perhaps it's because so many structures are new to me in this challenge and that's where my focus is. Once I'd decided on the Venetian Blind book, I spent ages trying to come up with an idea for the content. But once I hit on the idea of a photo and decided to scroll through some of the pictures I've taken in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, this was the first picture that jumped out. I knew it was the one.
I printed the photo to the size I wanted and sliced it into six pieces. I folded a piece of 9x12 card stock into an 8-fold accordion, pasted the slices onto the "pages," punched holes in the two ends, and threaded through a length of hemp cord. Tied it off at the ends so it won't come out, then closed the book and tied it shut.
I like the way you described how you found the content for your book. I've always found the venetian blind structure to be interesting but not practical.
ReplyDeleteI hope you don't mind, but this inspired me to make my own version - just what I needed to use one of my photos.
ReplyDeleteI've often used this idea for class, mainly for key facts/reports. I like the picture idea though
ReplyDelete