Book 121 - La Tiznada - Screwpost Envelope Book

A hand-made screwpost book - I found these fabulous contemporary Day-of-the-Dead style Mexican "loteria" cards today in the "Mercado de Artesanias" here in San Miguel de Allende. It's a wonderful market with dozens of shops and stalls selling every kind of Mexican handicraft imaginable. It's a real treasure trove for artists looking for materials and inspiration.

The card I used on this book is a "calavera" or skeleton/skull with Frida Kahlo eyebrows and style. The name, "La Tiznada," comes from the Spanish verb "tiznar," which means to debase or stain the fame or reputation of another. Here it's used in the feminine, so it means a woman who has besmirched someone else's name--i.e. Frida's (At least that's my mid-level Spanish take on it. Someone else might know better, and I hope they'll tell me if I'm wrong.)

The pages of the book are made from manila money envelopes, the kind a lot of employers still use here to give employees their pay in cash. The hand-made book covers are made from mat board covered with light blue text paper. And the binding is a pair of aluminum screw posts.


Cool!

Book 104 - Schoolgirl Journal - Red checked Plastic

After another day spent mostly in bed, I'm feeling slightly less drippy. I'm determined that tomorrow I will be all better. Good thing, because I got on the phone today to reconnect with old friends and my dance card is rapidly filling up for the next week or two with breakfasts, lunches, literary readings, drives in the country and art workshops.

Pawing through the mess of materials and supplies on my one table tonight, I picked out this red-checked plastic tie-clasp envelope, like an old-fashioned inter-office envelope. When I saw this envelope in the store the other day, I knew I'd use it for something. Today it beckoned. Or maybe I decided to do this one today because I could see it in the pile and find everything I needed without a major archeological excavation.

I only have the one table in my room, and it serves also as a computer table. I mostly sit on the floor or the bed when I'm stitching. But I do need to get that one table more organized!

This was a regular page-size envelope, which I cut down to the size I wanted. Where the red-checked back wrapped around the front, I needed to attach it to the front panel. I first tried gluing it down with super glue. Wasn't happening. Guess it doesn't like the plastic. So then, after cleaning off the glue residue, I used double-sided tape to put it together. That seemed to work. There are 4 signatures of 9 pages each of pastel bond paper in pink, pale yellow, aqua and white. I stitched them to the plastic cover with  white waxed linen thread using my usual longstitch binding.

Cute little book. I can see a schoolgirl carrying this one around proudly.