I thought I’d share photos of my last two books with you before I go. I’ll be offline until Monday. I’m sure that I’ll have lots of photos when I get back, but somehow I doubt that I can top the photos I took of that sunrise last year.
This book began with a discarded book titled “Another Spring.” It grew organically from the title. I pasted fibery rough handmade corn husk paper to the outside cover and spine. A vintage printed plate of eggs went on the front cover and a plate of songbirds went on the back. I covered these areas with mica sheets. The inside covers have monoprints of leaves on handmade iris paper, and the signature pages are composed of earthy handmade natural papers that contain corn shucks, iris leaves, okra stalks, artichoke stalks and globes, abaca, cotton, and bits and pieces of whatever was on hand that day. Finally, I bound the book with linen longstitch binding and sewed driftwood twigs to the spine.
I had a lot of fun with this one. Here’s the description I wrote for Etsy if and when I put it up there.
Are you afraid of color? Scared of the white blank page? I’ve taken care of that for you. This book has every color in the rainbow. I painted the covers and eight pages with complete abandon and joy. There are pages with colored recycled papers, made with discarded office files, onion skins, bits of cellophane, and a little cotton to make them strong. The binding, with fuzzy spun recycled sari fabric strips and strong linen, will lay flat. Great for collage, too, if you don’t like the colors – paint or glue something over it to make it yours!
slowly she turned 