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.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Book 124 - An Airport "Scrap" Book - Handmade Book

So there I was at LAX with an 8-hour layover... in the middle of the night. I'm not great at sleeping in airports, I'd finished reading my book and the bookstores were closed, and I had a book to make for today's project.

I am so terribly clever that I actually planned ahead for this (unusual for me, I must admit). As I was packing my suitcases in San Miguel, I tossed some scraps from previous books into my carry-on. Then I added a couple of needles and linen thread, a glue stick and a tiny pair of scissors that would make it through the security check. This little "scrap" book is the result.

I think I've done pretty well by that red-checked plastic envelope I bought in San Miguel. This is the third (or maybe the fourth) book I've made from that one envelope! It's a tiny little blank book journal with four signatures folded from heavy vellum tracing paper scrap. They are stitched to the plastic cover with white waxed linen thread. Then I took another length of the linen thread and chained it to form a wrap-around tie closure.

I might have gotten some odd looks in the airport sitting there playing with tiny scraps of paper, but there was basically no one to see me. It was 3 am and even Los Angeles airport is all but deserted at that hour. By the way, that black/silver speckled granite background in the photos is the floor of LAX terminal #3.

Onward to Arizona...





2 comments:

  1. CUTE!

    but I have to admit I'm mainly interested in what kind of "small scissors" you have that would make it through the check!?!!??? "

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  2. They are very small embroidery scissors, the kind shaped like a bird--a crane of something. A couple years back the TSA changed the rule for the acceptable length of scissors. You can take scissors with blades less than 4" long in a carry-on.

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