11.09.2007

Bookmaking Field Day


To my mind, one of the real joys in life is spending time with people you like engaged in activity all of you enjoy. So I'd been looking forward to getting together with my friends Priscilla and Cheryl to make books. By the time I arrived at Priscilla's she and Cheryl had been experimenting for a while; they love art supplies as much as I do, but are way more prolific than I am.

Priscilla's cats, Chloe and Ginger, kept us company. I was fascinated by Chloe, a very fluffy calico, with a face the spitting image of Garfield's. On her own, she hopped into a bag that Cheryl had placed on the floor and we caught her in the act (below).

I spent most of the time day cutting book board (with an exacto knife, no less -- tedious but meditative) for several books than I plan to make over the next couple of weeks. One of these will be a gatefolk book, like the one in the photo below; the others are straightforward coptic journals. I thoroughly enjoyed dedicating a whole days to book projects. Sharing it with like-minded friends made it all the better.

One of Priscilla's books. Part of the fun is show-and-tell.

Cheryl's card -- using texture paste and a stencil.

Cheryl is making these as gifts -- using the covers of the recipients' favorite childhood books (and a Scrabble board for a Scrabble lover)

Cheryl stitching
A book cover Priscilla made using silver duct tape (!)

A few photos of my gatefold book. The hanging threads are from strips of papers I sewed onto some of the pages.



Chloe feeling snug in Cheryl's bag.

The view from Priscilla's living room -- my photo doesn't do it justice.

3 comments:

Diane said...

How lovely to have friends to make books with! I'm afraid I am going to end up a total hermit - I make books and I design web sites - both fairly solitary pursuits.

I love the things I do with my friends but I wish I had bookbinding friends too!

TJBookarts said...

I love it when I get together with my art friends for a play day. Sometimes we make books or do other activities. It all helps to jump start the creativity.

Looks like you all had a great time.

Diane said...

PS I have tagged you over at my blog - hope you don't mind - especially if you are busy.

(Memo to self - read first then tag) if you are so inclined do it in your own time... :)