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.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Book 149 - "Don Julio" Tequila Book - Longstitch Binding Handmade Book

A little late once again, since this is yesterday's book. I actually made most of this longstitch binding handmade journal yesterday. But it was a very long day and I was exhausted last night. You see, yesterday was one of the two biggest days of the year here in little Chloride, Arizona, our annual "Old Miners' Day" with a quintessential small town parade, raffle, bake sale, gunfights and vendors. Allen got me up at 6 am (I am SO not a morning person) to take care of last minute stocking and preparing the store, then I was at the cash register most of the day with people lined up. By 6 pm, we were both exhausted. It was a "throw-a-pizza-in-the-oven" night.

By the time I could start on my book, I was literally falling asleep between stitches. Finally, I realized that if I forced myself to finish the book last night, I was going to screw it up somehow. So I crashed. Finished it this morning.

It's made from a Don Julio tequila box my friend Juan gave me while I was in San Miguel, a pretty and quite sturdy box. I cut it up, scored an extra fold line for the spine and trimmed it to size. I lined the inside of the cover with textured black cardstock for a nice clean finish. I painted the spine part with silver, made from PearlEx powder mixed with a little acrylic medium. The pages are three colors of text paper--blue, gray and white, in six signatures.

The stitching is the longstitch binding but slightly different than any I've done before. Instead of punching holes in the spine for stitching stations, I cut four cross slits to sew through. And I wrapped the stitching around the cover at top and bottom. It's a different look and one I'd like to play around with some more.







1 comment:

  1. Love the signature colors and the binding. The silver is a nice touch, too. :)

    ReplyDelete