A Book a Day? What's Up With That?


Hi, and welcome to this year-long project. So what's this all about and how did it happen, you might ask. In mid 2007, artist Noah Scalin decided to make a skull out of anything he could find, every day for a year. It stretched him in ways he never imagined, as an artist, a writer and a person. His experience turned into a blog that went viral, and then a book.

Others have picked up on the idea: 365 Hearts, 365 Masks, 365 Bears drawn on a cellphone, 365 paper napkin mustaches.
I wanted to play, too, and I chose books. I love books, I know a bit about making books (thanks to my talented book-maker sister, Marilyn Worrix), and they're broad enough in definition to give me a lot of creative leeway.

The whole point is not really the books. The idea is to stretch myself in many ways as an artist and a person, to set up a discipline, stick with it and see what that teaches me.

I hope you'll join with me and follow along on the journey chronicled here, and let me know what you think.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Book 118 - Mexican Loteria Coptic Bound Journal - La Sirena

Well, I finally got up to the "Tianguis," the weekly open-air market here in San Miguel de Allende. And I got the "Loteria" cards I went looking for. Then I turned some of them into a coptic bound blank journal.

Loteria is a popular party and family game in Mexico. It's played just like Bingo, except instead of numbers the cards have pictures and the caller calls out the name of the character or item int he picture. The traditional images on the Loteria cards have become icons in Mexican popular culture. On the front of this book, I've used one of the most popular, "La Sirena," The Mermaid. On the back, you see another well-known character, "El Borracho," The Drunk.

This little blank journal is bound with a single-needle coptic stitch, which creates rows of chain stitches on the spine of the book. There are 9 signatures and a total of 126 leaves (252 pages both sides). As I was making the holes for the stitching, I realized that the mat board covers needed some kind of reinforcement or the stitching was going to pull through the edge. So I added a narrow slice of the red check plastic I used for an earlier book.

I took the photos as soon as I finished stitching it, so the book is not quite as flat as I'd like in the pctures. It is now under weights and will be better tomorrow.

I've got a lot more Loteria cards, so you'll be seeing some variations on this over the coming days.





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