Everything is Not Black and White

Details of the wee book that I made for my sister-in-law’s birthday.

I used blank flash cards for the signatures/pages (think kids and school) and tree wrap (used for protecting trees when injured or to prevent injury) for the cover. I love that tree wrap is soft, textured, and easy to embroider. Two variegated colors of variegated embroidery floss were used for the rice stitch.

I saw a tutorial on the Rice-Stitched Book on the San Diego Book Arts Youtube channel.

The cover code is based on Morse Code. Rather than using dots and dashes I used color. The code is Happy Birthday.

I knitted an I-cord and wrapped a washer for the closure.

Each page has the person’s name and date of birth, the last a sentiment.

The code references Morse and Celtic Tree Code. I like the idea of tree code and family tree.

The signatures of the book were stitched together using the rice stitch. I used double stick tape (not sure I like it) to bind each signature together after it was stitched. Usually the signatures and not bound together so the stitchwork inside can be viewed. I don’t like seeing just two lines of thread. I like that binding makes a thicker page. In the future I am thinking about adding macrame to the inside when I use thicker paper like watercolor or handmade.

The gift tag has a piece of paste paper that I made.

Paste paper is enjoyable to make. I use a cornstarch paste with added acrylic paint. I have added milled cloves to paste for color and fragrance. Since the milled cloves seemed to work, I am planning to use some of my ceramic colorants that were used for glazes and clay bodies.

It is a joy using new materials and learning new processes and techniques. And then to figure out how to use them to make art.

I have been considering a change in format from wall and vessel to book. Thought I would start with folding so I purchased two books:

Hedi Kyle and Ulla Warchol’s text, The Art of the Fold

and

Alisa Golden’s text, Making Handmade Books.

In addition to the texts I have been following several Youtube channels:
Bainbridge Island Museum
DAS Bookbinding
Elinat Kessler
Kirsten Varga
Kit Davey
Louise Jennetta
Nik the Booksmith
The Preservation Lab
San Diego Book Arts
Trama Atelier
Vintage Page Designs

I spent a couple of weeks folding templates.

This was my first attempt folding and stitching a small book after watching Maria Rebelo on a San Diego Book Arts video.

Materials
Tree wrap, drawing paper, cotton thread, double sided tape.

Scale
3″ x 2.75″ x .5″