365: Make a Book a Day

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.

Showing posts with label indian wedding prayer. Show all posts

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Book 343 - "A Wedding Prayer" - a Single Sheet Folded Book

This little folded book is a simple thing but I like this design a lot. The actual book is so simple you could make it in a class with young children. But it can made quite sophisticated too.

I've had this "Indian Wedding Prayer" rattling around in a saved file on my computer for awhile. I wanted to use it in something because it is so lovely, but it wasn't until this book that the proper use hit me.

The book is made from a single 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of heavy paper. I laid the text and image out in a desktop publishing program and printed it. Then it's just a matter of folding it very carefully so all the folds line up properly when the booklet is closed. These folded books frequently tend not to stay closed, so I incorporated the ribbon through the last page and wrapped it around to the front to tie in a bow.

A sweet little thing.