What I did next

How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?
Steven Wright

Remember these?
Everyday in the month of March I painted a square to represent the weather (what a lot of grey!).
Well now I'm going to show you what I do with them.

I make lots of these little books and leave them collecting dust all over my house (ostensibly to inspire myself). Sometimes they are filled with kids drawings, sometimes shopping lists and other daily ephemera.
Check out Tom Judd's 365 day sketchbook. I'm not quite that dedicated although I am considering doing it for 60 days over the summer.
Here's how I make my books:

PART ONE

Tools and Materials

Mount card or other heavy cardboard

Sketchbook papers, in this case my watercolour pages but if I'm making a blank sketchbook I'll use a variety of papers including some with stuff already on them. I usually have envelops on the inside of the front and back covers for stuffing odd bits in. I like glassine envelops best.

Collage materials (below is a bucket in my studio where I stuff every scrap that comes my way. I love kids doodles and writing, edges of paintings, receipts , stamps, envelops, all daily ephemera.)

Japanese paste

Blotting paper or similiar

heavy book

Zenith hole maker

ribbon

eyelets and setter

darning needle

cutting knife and mat

 

How-to

If the pages are already prepared, as in this case, I start by cutting the front and back covers, making them 1cm taller and 1cm wider than the pages. I use scraps of mount card. I'll be covering them so I'm not bothered about the colour or condition.

I gather together some scraps from my collection and collage them onto the mount boards, on both sides, using the Japanese paste.

Here I have used some decorative papers, a kids doodle, and an old car tax disk.

Then I find a heavy book and some blotting paper (okay, just any old paper) and wrap the covered boards in the blotting paper and lay the heavy book on top. I let them dry over night like this so they will be nice and flat.
Next... Well, you'll have to come back and see. I'll finish this tutorial in my next post.

P.S. Did I mention that I'm crippled with muscle pain form too much belly dancing yesterday. I'm off to bathe in Redox.

Comments

[weirdbunny]

They are so cool!

[susan@artesprit]

i love making books too!
what a great tutorial to post... the photos are wonderful. hope the soak helped? i pulled a groin muscle for the first time last week and thought i was going to die...

[tinker]

Thanks for the tutorial!
Hope the soaking helps :>)

[tongue in cheek]

the invisible ink comment is just so funny!

This "scrapbooking" thingy is interest, I must have been living under a rock, it is all so new to me!

[Hanna]

oh, wow! I so want to know the rest, and see some more of your fun collages!

[joanne S]

Why is it that everyone else's bucket of scrap looks so much more interesting than my bucket of scrap?????

[Caitlin O'Connor]

what's japanese paste, please?

[Ulla]

Oh my, how wonderful! You are so inspiring! Wish I had Tom's dedication too. Perhaps once a week is a better goal... I love that you leave them all over the house - just waiting for something to drop in them...

[wendy smedley]

wow- thanks for sharing this with us!
very inspiring
Wendy