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.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Book 235 - Black Leather Mini-Journal with an Asian Touch - Long Stitch Binding

This little black leather mini-journal marks a departure from my recent obsession with making books out of wallpaper samples (if you love them, don't worry, I have a few more in the works. If you hate them, sorry 'bout that.)

This is just a classic little leather journal with a long stitch binding -- also known as a Medieval limp binding because the leather is, well, limp. This black leather is not terribly thin but it is very soft (i.e. limp). It has a nice pebbled texture on the front - softly sueded inside. The Asian touch comes in the use of red leather as an accent in the thong tie, red waxed linen thread for the binding and the Chinese coin as a closure.

This little book measures 3 1/2" x 4 1/2" by not quite 1" thick. It has six signatures and a total of 60 pages (120 both sides) of really nice, thick hand-torn Arches Text Wove paper It makes for a nice fat book. This great art paper will take pen, ink, marker, pencil, charcoal and light water media, so this would be a great pocket sketchbook or art journal.






2 comments:

  1. This is classy! Could I ask you where you bought the coin?

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  2. Suri - I'm afraid I filched it from my sister's studio. But they are fairly common. You can sometimes find them in New-Agey shops as "I Ching coins" or if you can get to any big city with a Chinatown (New York, San Fran, Vancouver) you can usually find them in gift shops. Or try searching on ebay or etsy.

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