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.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Books 105 and 106 - Mexican Matchbox Books

I'm not a day late! I'm not! I tried to post this last night, but blogger was down. You could read the blog but I couldn't post or edit. Tried again this morning, same deal. So after a day of wandering around town, I'm finally putting up yesterday's post.

I'm doubling up today because I missed a few days early in this challenge, in February and March. I don't like the idea of being behind, so... double post. And although this might look like cheating, because the two books are similar, it's really not. Though they are both housed in these charming little matchboxes, the individual book structures are different. So I think it's fair to count them as two.

(Oops! Cat on the keyboard. Had to back up and correct. He doesn't spell very well.)

I knew as soon as I saw these little matchboxes in a shop yesterday that I had to have them and make little mini books to fit them. I've been a huge Frida Kahlo fan since before it was the chic thing to do. When I visited her house in Coyocan, near Mexico City, in 1989, I just wanted to move in and stay there. So the Frida one was a no-brainer. The Pancho Villa box is just fun. He wasn't really a very nice man, but he's certainly an important part of Mexico's history and you see his image everywhere.

The Frida box has a tiny mini-journal with lonstitch binding inside royal blue suede leather. There's a little wrap-around leather thong to close it. For paper, I used some of the pale green vellum scrap from the book I did a few days ago. Two signatures of 10 pages each are stitched in, for a total of 40 leaves (80 pages both sides)--that's a LOT for such a tiny book.

The Villa book also has two signatures of the same vellum paper, but they are tied at the spine, sort of a cross between a pamphlet stitch and a tied binding. They are not attached to the cover, which is basically just a folded card stock portfolio. The wrap-around flap at the right tucks into a slit on the cover.

So two more books down...










2 comments:

  1. Of course two in one day is ok, and we all knew Blogger was down, you could get an excuse slip from anyone who uses the internet that BLOGGER WAS DOWN and lots of folks were not happy about it. Great little books, thanks for hanging in there and posting when possible.

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  2. I love Frida too. Good choice. Cute little boxes too.

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