Friday, October 31, 2008

More Halloween Book Stuff

Happy Halloween everyone! Firstly, congratulations to Re:Paper, and the Sugar Skull book who won the BEST Zombie Award! The voting was a real nail biter. The Sugar Skull and my coffin book were neck in neck, always at each others heels, breathing down each others necks! Phew! During the last few days, I've come upon some other books and book-related items that seem appropriate for Halloween. One of my favorite books, read and re-read, love it completely is Shelley's Frankenstein. Etsy seller, Lightreading, made this Mary Shelley art paper doll. Stained and shredded pages from Frankenstein are used to make the skirt, and lots of other materials and textures and images are used to complete her. Also by Lightreading, this is a Halloween room decoration. Described in her Flickr photostream as "paper shreds strung with wire & black feathers and charms." The text is from three books, all in my list of favorites: Dracula, Sleepy Hollow and again Frankenstein. This one seems to be the opposite of my own halloween book, which was the coffin with a book inside. This is a book with a skeleton inside. By Etsy seller,SauvageRavenCreation. This is "Tina, the twisted" - a small wooden book box transformed into Tina's final resting place. I thought this was a terrific Halloween image, very goulish and spooky and such. And also great that it has a spooky book in it. I found this photo on Flickr - the description made me laugh, as it says the old book was "borrowed" (with the quotation marks) from a rare book library for the photo shoot. Hmmm...! This photographer also has a nice photo of Bram Stoker's gravestone and the absolute best Alien costume ever. More room decorations for Halloween - book pumpkins! Looks like the books have been trimmed and opened 360 degrees, then little jack-o-lantern faces attached. I found this image on Flickr and also in context on the same person's blog, RoseyLittleThings, who has done a lot of Halloween decorating if you're looking for ideas.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Halloween Books

The Bookbinding Etsy Street Team issued a Halloween Challenge to its members. The plan was to make themed books to capture the spirit of any of the upcoming holidays: Halloween, Bonfire Night, Thanksgiving, etc, whatever inspired us. Now we want everyone to vote for their favorite. I made a little coffin book, and it has its own coffin!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Using Antique Photographs

I recently fell into a selection of antique photographs. Well, not literally. They were carefully handed to me by my mother, and I did not fall. My mother is involved in a local historical society and they were given these photographs - but the subjects are unknown and probably not local, therefore not of much interest to their group. So, the photos were passed on to me. The pictures are in excellent condition, especially since they are probably 100 years old (give or take a decade). Nearly all the photographs are mounted on sturdy board and show very little wear or fading. Here is my first project with them, simply using the photos unaltered, as covers for a few journals.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada

Happy Thanksgiving to Canadians having turkey or tofurkey from coast to coast. The leaves are turning red and orange and falling all over the ground now. I must have been inspired by the season when I was making this book today, a chain stich binding with autumn flavoured Chyiogami covers: And, on an almost entirely unrelated note, check out the article about the Saint John's Bible project on the B.E.S.T blog. Imagine writing the entire bible by hand, in perfect calligraphic form, illuminated beautifully, using ink you made by grinding pigments, etc etc. Quite a tremendous undertaking. The project has its own website too, at www.saintjohnsbible.org.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Yotsume Toji

"Japanese Bookbinding" by Ikegami was the first bookbinding book that I ever bought and I've always loved its focus on technique and process. I got it the day after my first bookbinding class and I read it cover to cover and gradually made everything in it including all the books, boxes, and scrolls. Just recently I did a few simple stab bindings, shown here, and I still think these bindings are the epitome of style and structure.

Shown right to left: basic four-hole binding yotsume toji; then the embellished corner variation called the Kangxi binding; the third is the tortoise-shell variation called kikkō toji; and then the hemp leaf pattern called asa-no-ha toji (which usually includes the Kangxi corners, I think).


Friday, October 03, 2008