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.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Book 139 - A Hot Pocket(s)Book - RecycledLoose Stab Sewn Hand-made Book

Why is it that even the one's you think will be dead easy give you trouble? I thought this little pocket book would be a walk. But one problem I've encountered in many of these "recycled packaging" books I've done is this: If you leave the cardboard alone, it's fine, but if you try to clean it up by lining it or sealing it, it warps to the point that it's almost impossible to get it flat again no matter how much weight you put on it and for how long. Guess I'm just going to have to let myself be satisfied with just the original packaging and not try to pretty it up.

Anyway... we sold the last Hot Pocket out of this box this morning. It was about to be ripped in half, flattened and put in the dumpster before I grabbed it out of Allen's hand at the last moment. I cut the name/logo part off two sides of the box, trimmed it neatly and lined it with red recycled paper. The pages are a bright yellow text paper with a bottom pocket folded up, then doubled over. The vertical fold is at the fore edge so there are pockets on both sides of each page.

The binding is a loose stab binding. As you can see in the photos, the stitching is a normal Japanese stab binding but without wrapping around the ends of the spine. And the stitches are quite loose. With this binding, while stitching you keep opening the book to check that the stitches are loose enough for the book to open completely and lie flat. I just read about this binding yesterday and wasn't sure it would work, but it does. The book opens totally flat. Interesting...





3 comments:

  1. I like this one. The title and cover match the inside pockets and it is quite handy. I am going to make one though I don't eat hot pockets. I can live without that!

    Thank you for sharing your books.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is so cute! And it will lie flat with that loose stitching--cool! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the idea of a stab binding that will stay flat (avoiding the lay/lie choice.) Great idea.

    You were looking for ideas and I was just reminded about Bonefolder web site.

    http://www.philobiblon.com/bonefolder/

    Also, I woke up in the night and thought that perhaps you might make a fabric needle book. I have plans to make one, even bought some cool fabric, but am stalled.

    ReplyDelete