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.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Book 122 - De La Luna Loteria Coptic Bound Journal

Here's a couple more cards from the fantastic "loteria" set I found with calavera art by Mexican artist Erik de la Luna. This time, I've used larger postcards of a couple of the images. I glued them to the stiff cover of a notebook for extra strength and I've let the decorative pattern of the notebook cover serve as a design element on the inside, like an end sheet.

The cover image is a skeleton angel with flowing curly hair and holding a flaming sword. The back is a skeleton version of Sor Juana, a very famous Mexican writer and poet from the 17th century.

There are nine signatures of five folded sheets each, alternating red recycled paper with white text-weight bond paper. That gives this hand-made blank journal a total of 90 leaves and 180 pages (both sides). The book is hand bound with a single-needle coptic stitch (chain stitch binding) in white waxed linen thread. Since the coptic binding method leaves an exposed spine, the alternating red and white signatures makes a pretty design element on the spine.

Thanks to the gluing of the covers, this journal needs to go under weights now to flatten it out completely.

I do love this "loteria" set. I've got to find more fun stuff to do with these great images.






4 comments:

  1. I am loving your use of cards in your books.

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  2. May I ask where you found this set of Loteria cards? They're incredible.

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  3. Alexander - I am so sorry for the delay in answering your question. I agree, these loteria cards are fantastic. I bought them in the Mercado de Artesanias in San Miguel de Allende. I don't know of anyplace else they might be available. Sorry...

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