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, October 6, 2011

Book 236 - A Cased in Codex Blank Journal w/ Marbled Paper

Here's a "proper" book, a cased-in codex journal complete with headband.

But first, a technical update. I finally got the camera memory card worked out, but don't ask me how. I just kept fiddling with it, playing around with the camera's menu, putting the card in the computer's card reader to check, taking it out. Finally, it just worked. It sort of reminded me of the time I was a teenager making a dress I wanted to wear the next day when my sewing machine broke. I started taking it apart, took off the flywheel, took out a bunch of parts, dusted everything off, put it back together and it worked... and I still had three pieces in my hand. Hmmm....

Anyway, back at it. Today I have a very pretty hardcover journal. The covers and spine are made of Davey board and covered with a lovely blue/green/purple hand-marbled paper. The spine of the case is covered with royal purple bookcloth. The signatures are stitched with white waxed linen thread, then glued in the gluing press, then covered with mull, which was also glued down. The block was trimmed on the big cutter for a very clean edge. The headbands are black and white. After everything was done, I wrapped it all in waxed paper and put in the press for several hours to make it lie completely flat and neat.

The end papers are a heavy mottled green paper, Thai perhaps. Very nice.

This is a very clean, traditional cased-in codex blank journal that I'll be proud to offer for sale when this challenge is over.





3 comments:

  1. LOL! Love the sewing machine story!! Glad you got the memory card to work. And, yes, this is a lovely journal! :)

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  2. I call dibs!!! I'll be excited to see the items for sale when your challenge is completed.

    I wanted to ask, where do you get your papers for signatures. I am used printer paper because I don't know of a resource to get the lovely papers you mention.

    Thanks for sharing! It looks like you had a great time with your sister.

    Rean

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  3. Rean- I don't have ready access to great paper where I live either, but when i come to Oregon, my sister and I go to a fabulous place called Arvey paper--a HUGE store with just reams and reams of paper. That's where i discovered the Neenah Sundance.

    When I am here, I also have access to all the paper in my sister's studio. She loves Arches Text Wove and always has some on hand I can use. Whenever possible on my trips to Oregon, I DRIVE... so I can take as much great stuff home as possible. :)

    Somtimes plain printer paper is a fine alternative. If you're near a big Staples or Office Depot, you can often find better paper there, but the selection's not awesome.

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