Friday, July 11, 2008

Face on the spine

I saw a book done like this when I was at PBI in May. It had the face of Marilyn Munroe on the spine and I thought it was just absolutely fabulous, and sorry I can't remember who had made it. EDIT: Recently I was looking through some photos from my PBI trip and it suddenly became very clear to me who made that Marilyn Munroe book. It was Roberta Lavadour (I'm 99% sure).

The face on my book here is from a sketchbook cover and I had accumulated quite a stack, 20 or 30 of these images, so I had lots to work with.




So by carefully wrapping the same image around each section, just moving it slightly each time, I was able to get the face onto the spine. Then I just added the rest of his head on the front cover. All the materials in the book are either repurposed or 100% recycled; it's bound with four rows of chain stitches.

17 comments:

Michelle C. Moode said...

NICE!

Anonymous said...

I've been a long-time antiquarian book-collector and have just recently started learning to bind, and just a few days ago came across the site. I've read through your blogs and looked at the pictures of your books, and just wanted to say that your work is a pleasure to see and your blogs are a joy to read. It's really nice of you to share your stories and techniques. I wish you the best of luck and much success and will check back often.

Anonymous said...

That is fantastic!

MyHandboundBooks said...

thank you michelle and sue!

hi shawna, i'm glad you found your way here and that you're enjoying my blog - best of luck with your own bookbinding endeavors too :)

Ali said...

Wow! how clever are you?! It looks really good, Rhonda.

DerekL said...

All I can say is... Wow.

Anonymous said...

That book is fabulous! It's not often that I consider the visual impact of the spine in my own work, other than the stitching. You've left me inspired!

Kiley said...

That is stunning!

Kiley said...

That is stunning!

Carol said...

Rhonda, this is very clever and so well done. Your work just gets better and better. Congratulations. I've finally managed to blog again after a long gap but I've been keeping up with you and my other favourite bloggers. Blogging is a great resource for binders and book artists and so good to be able to keep in touch.

PrairiePeasant said...

That is a beautiful book. So inspiring! Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't pass commenting on such an awesome book! I absolutely love the drawing as it goes over the spine - so creative!

MyHandboundBooks said...

Thanks ali, derek, elissa, kiley, carol, prairie, and c+k!

Anonymous said...

This is brilliant! I once did a similar thing by sewing repeat fabric in pleats .Now I'm going to have to try this.
(I got here by googling Ethiopian stitch and I see you know Carol at Barnaclegoose.)

Karen Williamson... said...

This is incredibly effective, the first time I've seen this technique. I have a sneaky feeling it wouldn't be as easy to do as you have made out. You are very clever.

Unknown said...

Rhonda, I love it!
Are you familiar with fore-edge painting? I'd like to inspire you to experiment with more ancient techniques that have a resemblance to your work!

seehttp://theartofthebook.blogspot.com/2006/09/invisible-artwork-fore-edge-painting.html

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fore-edge_painting. I look forwards to seeing more of your work!

MyHandboundBooks said...

Thanks for visiting my blog Karla, and for the links! Yes, I am very familiar with fore edge painting. I've tried a few experiments myself, mostly with marbled edges. Just finished a couple books with marbled edges, actually, and hope to have something here on my blog about them soon.