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, June 24, 2011

Book 147 - Water Lily Book - a Hand Made Folded Book

This hand-made book is a pretty one, I think. I saw a picture of this book today in a book arts newsletter, but it had no directions, or even a hint how to make it. All it had was the name, "Water Lily Book." So off I went a-googling and found a great tutorial at the My Handbound Books blog. It's not a difficult book. Mostly it's just folding with a bit of gluing.

I made four water-lily-fold "signatures" from 6" squares of decorative paper. Inside each of the four main panels, I glued photos of water lilies. The covers are davey board covered with mulberry paper. I added a ribbon to hold it closed. When you untie the ribbon and open the book, it opens up like a water lily.In these two-dimensional photos, it looks a lot like a quilt block, but it does have a lot of dimension and looks quite nice.

The front cover has a quotation from Sri Guru Granth Sahib: “Wealth, the beauty of youth and flowers are guests for only a few days. Like the leaves of the water-lily, they wither and fade and finally die.”








8 comments:

  1. This is lovely. I'll have to give it a try.

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  2. Really pretty! Never seen anything like it. :)

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  3. Gorgeous book! Beautiful way to showcase the water lily my favorite flower. Thanks.

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  4. I am very fond of water lillies, even if they are short lived. this is just wonderful. and now I am off to chase down that site.

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  5. The Water Lily Book was designed by Viva Lloyd, a calligrapher from Surrey England, and it was published (with directions) in "Bound & Lettered" on 2006, though I'm not sure of volume or issue number. Her lovely "Bridge Book" is featured in the same issue. Back issues are available from JohnNealBooks.com

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  6. The correct issue is Bound & Lettered Vol. 5, No. 2.

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  7. Dane et Moi,
    Thanks for that information. I like to credit designers when I can. I will add her name to the original post. And I will definitely check out those back issue of Bound & Lettered.

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