Here's a collection - six neat little pocket notebooks. I got this idea when I noticed sellers on etsy were buying classic little Moleskin journals and simply decorating the covers with drawings or stamped art. I heard that voice in my head saying, "Those are pretty simple. I can make those in a jiff."
But of course, I don't do truly simple very well. So I spent a few hours trolling through my thousands of image files looking for what to put on the covers, sizing them, cropping them, playing with the colors and contrast. I think I came up with quite a range of styles.
I printed the images on letter-sized card stock, two images per page, so each notebook ends up 5 1/2"x4 1/4", more or less. I folded text-weight paper into a single thick signature, creasing it very well, then trimmed the fore-edge to get a clean edge. I punched holes 1/2" apart all down the spine and sewed the signature to the cover with a running stitch, down the length then back up again so that the stitch line is solid.
I creased the whole thing again very well, rounded the corners with an X-acto knife, then put them under heavy weights overnight to crease and flatten them even more.
These are actually pretty neat little notebooks. After showing them to Allen and a couple of other friends, the general consensus was that the pulp fiction cover ("Women in Crime - I had Nothing to Lose but my Virtue") was the best. I have lots more of these pulp images so I'll probably make a bunch of these to sell. They're fast and cheap to make so they should sell well.
I'm Donna Meyer and this is a Daily Journal of a Challenge: to make a book a day for a year, to stretch my imagination, creativity, skills and discipline. Inspired by Noah Scalin's Skull-a-Day. Why books? A book can be made of almost anything, and I can stretch its definition. Some will be fancy, skilled and take time. Others will be quick-&-dirty, maybe just images, or ephemeral, disappearing books. Follow along. We'll discover together how to create a book a day for 365 days.
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.
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I like them and think you could sell them. Just the right size for a pocket or purse. :)
ReplyDeleteLove these!
ReplyDeleteThese are sweet. I have to admit I bought a set of passport notebooks for myself for Xmas. (by unemployed philosophers) They are like yours, the perfect size to tuck away for travel notes.
ReplyDeleteI like the Women in crime best uh oh, I could see a whole set of those on my book case...sigh... Never enough book cases.
Never,Frances, never ever.
ReplyDelete