Double-sided Frame Book

This is a book I started at my bookmaking class run by our expert teacher Annalise. It took us over the course of two classses as well as working on at home to make. It measures 10cm x 8cm on it's outer frame and 7.5cm x 5.5cm on it's inside frame. There are 9 frames back to back, making 18 frames in total.

This is the front of the book when closed. You can see the folds of mull

on the edges. I laid a torso covered in red raw silk on top of red

glittery mesh and embellished with sequins and rhinetsones.

The frames were cut from grey board (which is basically just a denser quality cardboard). This is where precise meauring and a sharp cutting blade came into play. Once all the frames were cut I covered each one with a decorative paper - in this case Annalise had kindly given us a selection of papers to use including this precious one from Venice which depicted the drawings of Leornado Da Vinci - it has drawings and script on and is quite beautiful. Covering these frames was a laborious task but once I started I just got into production line mode and a logical order to things just took over.

After covering the boards the next step took place in class and that was sandwiching the chosen material between the pairs of frames. There is a wide choice of materials that would be suitable for this, but I wouldn't recommend paper as you have to take into account the folding and opening action of this book and the wear and tear it's going to take. So a material that is flexible as well as long standing is better. You could use, mesh, net, wire mesh, calico, hessian, muslin, acetate, vellum just to mention a few. In this instance we chose mull, which a is bookbinders material - used to strengthen covers of books before the actual book cover goes on. It's a very fine mesh and is quite stiff yet soft and has the added advantage of being sheer.

This is the back of the book when closed. I made the blue

ceramic buttons from paperclay which is then fired

and becomes like porcelain.

Before we could glue our frames onto the mull we had to make ourselves spacers to put between each row and column of frames - for this we simply cut long, thin strips of card o.5cm in width, and lay them in between the rows and columns of frames. This would give the grid layout, prevent the frames from touching each other and would provide the folds when closing this book.

Now came the tricky part and that was glueing the mull to the frames. You could either work across or down and after gluing the first frame right to the edge of the mull, another frame had to be glued underneath to match it, thereby sandwiching the mull between them. This is when the spacers came into play - one spacer had to be laid horizontally under the frane and the other vertically by the frame - this would give you the position to lay your next frame in a grid formation. After laying the first pair of frames and spacers everything else just fell into place.

This is the front of the frame book open - the red torso

in the top left hand corner is the cover when closed.

You can see where the two cuts in the mull are that

provide the opening and folding of the book.

I actually made a mistake in trimming the excess mull

when the book was closed, which is why you see an

open channel. There is only meant to be a cut at

the top and bottom so that when you view the open

book the material appears as a whole piece with

only slits at the top and bottom. I'll remember next time:-)

After all the frames were glued with the mull sandwiched between them it was left to dry thoroughly before the fun part of embellishing the mull could be done. At this stage you could coordinate a theme according to whatever print or pattern your frames are covered in - for instance, I had a Leorando Da Vinci print on my frames, therefore I could've run with that theme on my frames and portray each frame with an image and words relating to that. In this case I decided not to and just made each one different.

This is the back of the book open. The bottom left corner

with the blue buttons is the back cover of the book when closed.

It was like creating a whole load of ATCs really - that's the way it felt when I was creating each one. It also occured to me that you could indeed create framed ATCs like this but separate not attached or if you did attach them in pairs or three's they'd be diptychs or triptychs. The possibilities of making this framed book and altering into something else is quite exciting and I shall be playing with those possibilities and sharing them with you all as I progress - so watch this space folks!

Bookmaking & Travelling Journal

BOOKMAKING
I go to Bookmaking classes every Monday evening. They're run by a really nice lady called Annalise, from New Zealand. She's a professional bookbinder with 15 years experience behind her. Her classes are run from home and it' a very relaxed and informal atmosphere. There are 5 of us in attendance - myself, my sis-in-law, Uzma, 2 of my mosaic buddies, Amanda & Lyn and , a lovely Chinese lady called Terry - we're a good multicultural bunch!

I started this class at the beginning of this year and have made quite a few books in a number of styles and in the process have learnt many interesting techniques. Annalise always gives us printed notes at the end of each new technique and book that we make, so we get to keep the tutorials so that we can practice at home.

These two books above are album type books with hard covers. The music score book has a stab binding and the red bookcloth book is a very simple 2 hole sewn book attached with buttons for decorative effect. These are great as travel journals or even photo albums.

Even if we repeat a style of book, it will always be different in cover design and materials. Besides which, repeating a technique is good for us as some books have a longer process to construct and therefore practice makes perfect (well... that's the idea anyway!)

This is a slimline Tab Book in an accordian style - it has pleated pages with tabs attached to each pleat. It's very easy to make and very different from what we think of as an ordinary book with pages. This is a more decorative book - great as a personalized gift for someone as you can personalize it according to their tastes or hobbies etc. In this instance I made this one for myself and themed it according to my fave colour - can you guess what that could be? - DUH! Yeah ok, it's RED! I titled it "If I was RED I Would Be..." and inside on the tabs I've listed all the things that I associate with the colour RED - such as a red red rose, bright red lipstick, sexy red Ferrari etc. (click on the pic for a closer view). This was great fun to construct and I plan to make more for friends and family (ssshhh... when I get the time!)

The classes last 2 hours from 7.30 -9.30pm and Annalise's place is quite local to most of us, so the travelling's not too bad and some of us car share. For a very reasonable weekly fee Annalise provides all the materials and equipment and shares her vast knowledge of bookmaking skills with us, explaining to us and demonstrating step by step. She makes the same book along side us so that we don't get lost in the process. If we do get stuck, tangled, glued, or behind she is always there quick on the draw to ease the way and we breathe a sigh of relief when it's all sorted out.

This is another accordian style slimline book with 3 pleats (6 pages). The pages are wider and have a slot where another accordian runs through it. I used an old map to lend some interest and to coordinate with the cover, which is hardbound. Again, this style of book is more decorative than functional but can be personalized to suit any theme or anyone. It's also very good for journalling - which is what I'll use mine for:-)

We all leave the class feeling good and having accomplished something creative, practical and unique. On top of which we've had a thoroughly enjoyable time and come home with a book that we've made ourselves from scratch!

TRAVELLING JOURNAL

I'm a member of a Yahoo group called Travelling Journals. This is a group that encourages you to either start off or take part in a collaborative journal. These journals can travel within a country or all over the world and can be tracked back at the Group site. The owner of the journal sets the theme and starts off a few pages to get the ball rolling and leaves instructions in the journal with a return address should it ever get lost and a sign up database on the site. Then the participents who've signed up for the journal wait their turn for the journal to get to them. A reasonable amount of time to work in the journal is set by the owner and sometimes there are delays, but things can be settled mutually and with understanding.

I've participated in quite a few travelling journals, 1000 Journals being the biggest and most popular as well as 1001 Journals. Then there have been the private journals signed up on Yahoo groups. The groups contain a database where you sign up and keep log of the journal, so at a glance others can see where the journal is in line and how much longer they have to wait. In the meantime people who've completed their pages and have mailed it to the next in line scan their pages in and upload them to the Group album where the other signees can have a sneak preview.

The journal I recently participated in was titled "A Day in the life of..." and participants were asked to journal a day in their life either in pictures, words or both. The day could be an imaginary one or a realistic/typical one. I chose the latter and took photos of things I do during a typical day, like waking up, brushing my teeth, having breakfast, checking my email etc etc. Then I just collaged and journalled and decorated the page artistically. Here are my pages - I did 5 double page spreads.

Okay, so this is the front cover of the Travelling Journal entitled "A Day in the Life of..." The cover was designed by the owner of this journal and this was a foreign text book - so not only is it a journal but it's also an altered book.

This is the first double page spread - pretty basic I think - what most people do first thing in the morning. I've added artwork to the pages.

This is my second double page spread showing the daily routine of my life.

Third double page spread - more details about my day!

Fourth double page spread I decided to make a little gift for the owner of this journal and included it in my page. I added stickers and embellishments to liven up my layout.

Fifth and final double page spread - by this time I'd condensed my day right down to the basics, otherwise I'm sure I could've completed the whole book!!

I really enjoy taking part in these collaborative journals - a little bit of me goes out there and I'm sharing my life with people I haven't met physically, but people I know through the group and it feels good - especially when you get great feedback from them, telling you how much they enjoyed what you had to say and how they loved your layouts and design. It gives you the warm and fuzzies you know?

Strangely enough I've never started off a journal of my own and sent it out into the wide blue yonder - I've though of it many times tho' and do have every intention to do it, I even have great titles and themes planned - it's just the getting started bit that's always the hardest (as with anything - procrastination is a great enemy of action) - and you can quote me on that if you want:-)

Playing Catch-up

I go bookmaking classes every Monday evening , local to where I live. It's run by a really nice lady from New Zealand, Annalise. She has 15 years experience in making and binding books and is one talented lady. She teaches from home and the atmosphere and environment is relaxed and friendly. It's a small group with just 5 of us ladies attending - my sis-in-law - Uzma, 2 of my friends - Amanda & Lyn and another lady whom we've become friends with through this class - Terry. Well, on the drive to class this Monday evening I noticed the most glorious sunset and being the habitual photographer that I am, I just had to capture it. Really I could've bathed in the spectacular beauty of it all. Nothing moves me more than a glorious sunset and the serenity of a full moon.

Each week we make a different style of book (sometimes a particular book has a lengthier method of making and so spreads over 2wks). This week we tackled an A5 size book with cardboard cover and 8 signatures inside, with pages of plain white paper. The binding was a longstitch/chain stitch binding, whereby the pages are secured together by a running chain stitch at the top and bottom and in between there are 2 rows of double long stitch. I used a variegated thread to make the stitch more visible and effective.

Later that night when I was admiring my handiwork (big head that I am!) - I realized that it was too plain for my liking so I jazzed it up a little - well a lot really! I had this picture of a mermaid on a greeting card sent to me by my good friend Chantal and I thought it would look right at home on the cover of this book, so I laid it on some purple and white angel hair and then heated that onto some blue iridescent paper and stuck that to the cover. I then peeled off some vellum script and positioned that on top and finally embellished some plastic iridescent shells on the four corners of the picture. The end result was very pleasing if I say so myself! :-D (well to me anyway!)

RESIN CASTING DAY

Yesterday I met up with a few of my mosaic buddies (Amanda, Lyn, Cathy and Sharon) at Cathy's home and we had a day of camaraderie and crafting - is there any other better day! We were having a resin casting day, whereby we put tiny objects into greased moulds and then poured acrylic resin into it to set. But that's all in a nutshell - allow me to elaborate..........

Cathy and Sharon had had experince of doing this before so we had enough help and guidance on hand. Also just to add, whenever we have these kinda days we all bring some food to the table to share - which just adds to the camaraderie of the day. So, step one was deciding upon the moulds we'd use (that in itself is a laborious process but fun nonetheless). Amanda is a hoarder of very useful stuff and over the years had amassed a huge collection of packaging from cakes, biscuits, chocolates, fruit and other foodstuffs and it was these plastic innards of the contents that were going to be particularly useful to us.

We'd also come prepared with what I can only describe as a veritable feast of "bits" - little scraps, beads, shards, shells, lichen, dead insects, dried flowers, sequins, glass, mesh, string, paper, metal... infact anything that cold be embedded into resin and would fit into these moulds. Cathy, like the "hostess with the mostess" that she is, had displayed a selection of all the little resin pieces she'd made before, for us to see and to get an idea of what certain mould shapes would produce and the effects you'd get using different types of material - so that really inspired us and got our creative juices flowing.

After deciding upon the moulds we were going to use and greasing them liberaly with liquid vaseline (to stop the acrylic resin from sticking permanently to the moulds), we then began the fun bit of choosing from the huge array of goodies set out before us that we were going to put into our moulds. This is the bit where you can go as wild as you want - but aahh... therein lies the danger, as sometimes, the "less is more" approach gives better results . But, as "Yours Truly" doesn't know the meaning of "less" and is by quite extremes "more" I'll just leave it to your imagination as to what I filled my moulds with! :-D
Well, the above pic shows you exactly what I put in there but the end result will be blingier - believe me! Filling the moulds with all the lovely lovely bits took quite a while and Lyn, being the perfectionist that she is, was "talking her way through it" like she often does when she gets deeply absorbed in a project - it's very endearing to hear her - "Was this too much?" "did this go with that?" "does this look right?" "does my bum look big in this?" - no, no, she didn't really say that, I just couldn't resist throwing that last remark in:-D. Anyway she managed to fill all her moulds in the end. Amanda nearly died of shock as she was concentrating so hard on what she was doing and Cathy's cat George put his paw through the window and swiped playfully at Amanda's neck - she jumped and screamed with fright and we all burst out laughing when we realised what had happened.


By now it was time for lunch and we'd really worked up an appetite and Cathy had laid everything out so nicely on the table. There were quiches, salad, aubergine pasta, coleslaw and yummy choices for dessert. After that gastronomical delight we were ready and full of energy for the final stage in our resin casting.

The resin was a two part mix and had to be mixed together according to the ratio on the box and we had to wear gloves as the stuff is so incredibly sticky. Once the resin was ready we carefully poured a little into each of our moulds, just enough to cover the tops of the all the things inside. We had to be very careful at this stage as sometimes certain items in the mould would float to the top and we had to prod them back down again. That was it. After this all we had to do was wait 24hrs for it to set completely and then pop them out of the moulds to see the end result.

Well, since I have to wait for my resin pieces to dry so do the rest of you. I'll display my results for you all here in my next posting - so stay tuned folks!