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 women in hats. Show all posts

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Book 355 - "Women in Hats" - Single Sheet Folded X-Book with Pockets

This is another idea I lifted directly from Alisa Golden's book. It's what she calls an "X-book," because of the shape of the thing while you're folding it over. It is exactly the same structure as the Indian Wedding Prayer book I posted a few days ago except that there are pockets at the bottoms of the pages for stashing things in.

The book measures 2 3/4" square and is folded from a single sheet of paper. The folded up pockets hold small images of women in hats--with all their charm and silliness. The photos can be taken out of the pockets and moved around at will.

Unlike the Indian wedding prayer book, I made a separate cover for this one from a piece of decorative paper. Then I folded flaps from the cover over the first page and glued them down.

Kind of a silly thing, but I'd like to explore the idea of the hats a bit more.