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.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Book 213 - A Pamphlet Stitch Journal/Blank Book/Guest Book with Olive Branch

I'm excited right now because this pretty pamphlet stitch journal  made with hand-made paper and Mexican amate paper cover is the first book I've made at my brand new workbench! Solid oak, just the right height, 4 drawers, a shelf for large paper. I love it! I've had it for a while, but it's been in a very large box waiting for me to make room for it. Today I did and tonight Allen and I put it together.

I felt so good standing there being able to simply reach for any tool I needed and it was right there, available! No digging in boxes looking for it. What a concept!

OK, enough about the workbench. The book is nice too. This is almost an exact replica of a book a friend used as a guest book/good wishes book for a party she threw for me several years ago. Everyone wrote lovely thoughts in it and I still have it. This book is a very simple structure. The lusciousness of it is all about the paper. The pages are a thick, wonderful hand-made paper with leaf inclusions. It's hard to photograph the texture, but it is really yummy. The cover is a piece of wonderfully swirly Mexican amate bark paper I brought back from San Miguel. The binding is a simple pamphlet stitch with the addition of wrapping the stitching around a small branch from our olive tree at the spine. I used deep red embroidery cotton, left a longish tail at the top and threaded on a pale red bone bead as an accent.

This would make such a pretty guest book on a hall table for all your visitors to sign.





3 comments:

  1. Oooo-luscious papers! The stick and bead are perfect. But I wanted a picture of the new workbench, too! ;)

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  2. LOL - I'll post a pick of the bench in a few days. there's still a bit of stuff around it I need to clear out.

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