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.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Book 127 - A Multi-Signature Recessed Skewer Book - Hand Made Book

Well, y'know... some books are just more successful than others. I'm not in love with this one.

This was really more of a prototype or model to learn the structure. It doesn't look like a finished book to me, probably because it doesn't have a separate cover, just the cover stock that covers the individual signatures. But the structure is interesting and I'm glad I made it. And I think a couple of days under heavy weights will improve it dramatically.

The recessed skewer structure comes directly from Shereen LaPlantz very useful "The Art & Craft of Handmade Books." Lots of good structure ideas and examples in this book.

This hand made book has seven signatures in various colors, The pages are text weight and each sig has a cover in cardstock of the same color. Inside each nested signature is a bamboo skewer. The stitching goes in a hold from the outside, around the skewer and out the same hole, then on to the next sig. I then doubled back, stitching them all again with a coptic-style chain stitch and really snugging up the tension. It's still a bit loose and not lying very flat. It probably needs some sort of overall cover and/or a closure of some kind.

Anyway, here it is. On to something else tomorrow...






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