...I would be a bookworm. I love libraries, book stores, the smell of leather books, I love to handle them and read them, alter them and write/draw/paint in them! Which brings me to the subject of book making. I have always been interested in making books and polymer clay lends itself well to this craft: the covers are easy and so much fun to invent. I made a lot of books: all clay books, box books (or book boxes, I don't know which), books from notepads, accordion books, whatever I could think of. About two years ago I decided I wanted to make a real book from scratch with paper pages inside. Said to myself: "Easy kn easy"(sp?)... NOT... I didn't have a clue. So, when we went to Tremblant (which is our yearly gathering of friends who play with clay for one whole week),
Krista was making books; I watched her from the corner of my eye and thought that I could repeat what she was doing, no problem. So during that week I made two covers...nooo they weren't going to be the conventional covers; I wanted something different. That year, we also experimented with extruders as you can see.
Got home, took the needle and thread out and started sewing. Got me a book! But it was wobbly and the spine looked like a bunch of noodles all scrunched up. Oh boy! To hide the spine, I used fibers and beads and whatever was handy. Looked OK but was still loosey goosey.
I was determined that next time in Tremblant I would make a real conventional book. I did my homework by looking around on the net and learned a lot about Coptic stitching. So last fall, Krista gave me the little extra push I needed to complete my first book (see the first picture on this blog). I have been making them like crazy and now I know a little of the craft - still have much stuff to learn though. I'll be teaching a class on assembling a book at Morrisburg. Oh and yes, what joy it is to hold a book you made from scratch and sketch, doodle, paint and write in it!!!
The inside back cover of my first wobbly book was made using a modified transfer: a young girl's head in an old lady's body. I guess that describes moi. he he
2 comments:
Hey Vio, I'm so glad you're going to teach bookmaking at Morrisburg. You'll be perfect for getting people not to get all anal and overly fussy with their books. I find that much of the instructional literature scares me because it can get so technical and I'm afraid to try and "fail". I say what the heck, and make a book that embraces the fact that it is obviously hand made. It has so much more character than one that is so perfect one would think it's made at a factory.
Krista
There's nothing listed on the class schedule for you teaching - is this a pleasant surprise?
Now even more to look forward to!
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