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.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Book 202 - Green Leaf Journal with Leather Spine - Longstitch Binding

I made this pretty green leaf paper book with a leather spine and long stitch binding yesterday, but it just did not want to lay closed flat. So I put it under weights overnight. Hmmm, no luck. Still not flat after several hours under heavy weights. So then I dampened the leather spine piece with water and put it back under the weight for several more hours.

Ahhh,... success! Finally flat and very neat. Except... now the leather spine has a few wrinkles in it. Actually, they don't look nearly as bad in life as they do in the photos here. This is really a very pretty book. The leather wrapped around the spine is very soft and the ripples don't seem to be a problem.

The paper I used for the eight signatures is wonderful, a 28 lb Strathmore paper called "Lines" because it has very fine and very faint, subtle lines through it, almost like a water mark. The 118 pages are hand torn. The cover boards were covered with the pretty green leaf paper and lined with leaf green pearlescent card stock. Then the soft leather spine was glued on and the sigs stitched to the leather.

Think I'll make more of these...





7 comments:

  1. OH, I love the leaf paper! Very nice!!

    Never heard of Strathmore Lines. Are the lines meant to be used as a writing guide? How far apart are they? Is it more like wide-lined or college ruled or thin? mm? Where did you find it?

    I hope you make more of these. Very pretty journal style. :)

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  2. Rita - The lines are very subtle and very close together, like 1/16" apart and faint. They just give the paper an elegance I love. I bought the paper at Arvey Paper in Portland at least two years ago, maybe more.

    And I will definitely make more of these.

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  3. Oh, okay. More for looks, but could actually be adapted for writing...pick a faint line and go for it--LOL! Sounds cool! I'd love to see a picture of that paper some time. :)

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  4. Just beautiful. Fortunately at my age my vision is such that I never see wrinkles.

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