Sunday, February 07, 2010

Repurposing materials for bookbinding

A while back, I asked Pegg, fiveforty.etsy.com, to help me come up with some ideas for making books with repurposed materials. Pegg is a weaver, and so she wove two book covers for me to play with. This first one is woven plastic - this is the kind of plastic that comes wrapped around products at grocery stores before they are unpacked and shelved. Pegg collected the plastic at her local grocery store, took it home and wove it on her loom. Then I used it to make a photo album. Pegg also made another one for me, using lotto tickets. She cut them into strips, stitched them, then wove them together to make this book cover. It made a very sturdy book cover and I was able to case in a text block (consisting mostly of reclaimed papers in reds and blues) and have a wrap around cover with a button closure. Thanks for working with me on these projects Pegg! Check out Pegg's recycled textile rugs, woven using pre-used sweaters, t-shirts, jeans, etc in her Etsy shop, atFiveForty.Etsy.com.

10 comments:

IvaArt said...

Super awesome collaboration!!!

PrairiePeasant said...

These are great Rhonda! What a wonderful way to work together.

Pegg said...

Thanks Rhonda, it was fun playing with you! Let's do it again sometime soon!

Serendipity Crafts said...

Love the recycled lotto ticket project. You both rock!

It just begs the question - who is buying so many tickets? LOL

MyHandboundBooks said...

Thanks IvaArt, Prairie, and Serendipity!

And double thanks to you, Pegg :)

Lizzie said...

That's such fun! I love to see books made with unusual materials. Beats the recycling bin any day!

Leena K said...

Fascinating ideas, thank you!

MyHandboundBooks said...

thanks Lizzie and Akileija!

Anonymous said...

I also bind ooks (not as prolific as you, that's for sure) and I found these recycled gum wrapper book covers on a scrapbook site that I liked the look of. You might want to have a look.
http://www.making-mini-scrapbooks.com/gumwrapperchainbook.html

Cheers, N.

MyHandboundBooks said...

hi smallestforest - thanks for the link, that looks really neat!