Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Today, I'm featuring handmade books in a variety of greens.

These two recycled book are brand new.  One is made from a green Plantation Mint box of tea.  The other box is from a variety of Green Tea.  Both books are available on Etsy!

Books 362-365: Challenge Completed!

Last week I completed books 362-365 of my 365 book challenge, which means the challenge is officially complete!  My last four books of the year were a large red coptic journal, two books made from recycled tea boxes, and a green envelope book.

I think it is very fitting that I started the year by making an envelope book, and I ended the year by making an envelope book.  Looking back on the challenge, it is amazing to think that I accomplished so much during the year.  The challenge helped me build inventory for shows, gave me a reason to publish blog posts every week, and got me started with a facebook page for my business.

I want to thank everyone that has followed along on my journey this year and encouraged me to keep going.  I will still be making books in 2014, just not with such a strict quantitative deadline.  However, with the snowfall and frigid temperatures we have been getting in Cleveland lately, I am looking forward to curling up on my couch, taking a break from books, and working on some knitting for a while.

Recycled Book Class with Jamie: Book 202

A few weeks ago I spent the afternoon doing a private book workshop with my friend Jamie.  She was interested in making a recycled journal as a wedding gift for her brother.  So she got the box, I brought the other materials, and walked her through the process of making a simple recycled journal.

Jamie chose a vegan falafel patty that her brother likes to eat and used the box for the cover.  We lined the back of the cardboard pieces with decorative paper, joined the two pieces with a piece of bookcloth, and sewed a single signature of pages to the bookcloth spine.

 Here is Jamie with her finished book!  I had a great time working with Jamie and sharing my knowledge of bookbinding with a friend.

 

Recycled Longstitch Books 182-183

After taking a longstitch binding workshop with Dan Essig last month, I've been thinking about ways to use longstitch binding beyond what we did in the class.  One thing on my mind was using recycled boxes as covers.

So I pulled out my stash of old cardboard packaging (seriously, my friends save boxes for me out of their recycle bins... it makes me feel like a hoarder), picked out a few interesting boxes, and went to town!  After a little bit of measuring, a little bit of math, and some fiddling I ended up with two recycled longstitch books.

The first is a red shredded wheat cereal box, with a blue button and string closure.  The second book is a green Banana Babies frozen banana box, with a yellow button and string closure.  After making the first two I cut and folded a bunch of extra pages so I can easily make more later.

Books 037-040 and Art Demo

Meet Eva the Girl Astronaut, mascot of the International Women's Air and Space Museum

Over the weekend I participated in the International Women's Air and Space Museum's Family Day by demonstrating and talking to people about book binding.  The event was held at Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport and there were all sorts of space related activities for kids and families.

I had such a great time at the event!  I love space and astronomy (as you can see from my Astronomy Alphabet book) and after my demonstrations I got to poke around and have my picture taken as an astronaut.  (Best. Day. EVER.)

Look, I'm an astronaut!  Pretty convincing, eh?

Anyway, back to the books!  For the demo I brought four unfinished books I've had sitting on my work table for a while.  The covers are old cardboard mounted slides, with plain white paper for the signatures, measuring 2in x 2in x 1/2 in.  I got the slides when I worked for the Art History Department of my college.  The slides were old, discolored, and hadn't been used by the department in years.  I snagged one of the boxes as it was being thrown out, and set it aside until the right project came along

The first two slide books I completed at the demo, and the other two I finished at home.  The next book project I'm working on is a big commission, and I can't wait to tell you all about it!  The project will be completed in the next week, so keep an eye out for a post about it.

Books 030-036

This week I tried out a new variation on recycled book structures.  It involves gluing patterned card stock to the back of recycled boxes and connecting the covers using book cloth. The pages are sewn in using a pamphlet stitch with four holes instead of three.

 This is the kind of project that is easier to do "in bulk" as opposed to one at a time.  I made 7 of these over the course of a week. All fourteen covers on one night, the book cloth a couple days layer, and preparing and attaching the pages on Saturday while waiting for software to install on all our computers at work.

At this point I am just over halfway to where I should be on my 365 challenge.  (March 4th is day 63 of the year, I'm only 27 behind...)  The good news is, I have been hired to do a big book binding commission! I am making 11 or 12 books that will be presented as awards later I'm the month.  I've already started the books, keep an eye out for updates!

Photo Album: Handmade Books

This post is all about books!  Specifically, photos of my recent handmade books.  Because let's face it, I am making these suckers faster than I can blog about them all!  Many of these are blank journals.  Others are made using interesting recycled materials.  And there are a few art books thrown in there for good measure.  Enjoy!

Mini journal with ribbon closure.

Mini journal and regular journal both with ribbon closures.

Astronomy Alphabet book.

Astronomy Alphabet book, detail: Milky Way.

Journal with bird paper and brown book cloth.

Expandable spine, Octopus book.

A collection of journals, roughly 5x7 inches each.

Recycled tea box books.

Recycled tea box book.

Robot journal with cork book cloth.

A stack of journals, roughly 5x7 inches each.

Aurora Borealis art book, front.

Aurora Borealis art book, back.

T-Shirt Shorts

This week I found a great tutorial about making your own shorts pattern based on measurements.  The weather has been so hot lately that I have been planning on making myself another pair of pajama shorts.  So I pulled out some newspaper for pattern making, and a couple old t-shirts from my fabric bin.  I took some measurements and whipped up a pattern on yesterday's newspaper.  After seeing the size of the pattern I pulled out two standard t-shirts (think Jerzees, event t-shirts, not baby doll tees) and I happened to have two of the exact same shade of goldenrod yellow.  I made a second pair using two red t-shirts and remembered to take some pictures of the process!

The shorts were really easy to make and took maybe a half hour of sewing.  I used a three step zig-zag stitch instead of a straight stitch.  This stitch uses three straight stitches for every zig and zag, and is excellent for stretchy fabrics like t-shirts.  When I cut the fabric I lined up the finished shirt edge with the bottom of the pattern.  This meant I didn't need to hem the legs, and the final shorts kept a professional detail.  Instead of adding elastic to the waist I folded over the top edge about two inches to make a channel for a drawstring.  I made a drawstring out of a strip of the t-shirt, stretched so it rolled over on itself.

The yellow shorts turned out great BUT the shorts were a couple sizes too big.  They have a drawstring, so not unwearable...  However, for the red shorts I cut about an inch off the side seam of each pattern piece and a little off the top edge.  This made a world of difference!  The shorts fit perfectly.

 I am helping a friend make a t-shirt quilt, so I am sure to have plenty of scraps once the logos have been cut out of all 22 shirts!  Possibilities for next time include cutting each pattern piece out of a different color shirt, using shirt logos instead of blank shirt material, and freezer paper stenciling on the finished product.

Mary's Necklace

Recently I was given another batch of old jewelry from a friend.  Naturally I immediately got to work reinventing some of these pieces.  This is a necklace I made using a clip-on earring that was missing its mate.  The earring had a plastic cabachon with a floral pattern.  I started by attaching a bezel on a copper disc, stamping a design around the edges, and putting loops on the top and bottom.  The final step was setting the cab in the bezel and attaching three swarovski crystal beads to the bottom in coordinating colors.

Before I could properly photograph the piece, my friend Mary bought it.  So here she is modelling her new necklace.  Work it, Mary, work it!

Dutch Necklace

One of my recent jewelry projects was a pair of Dutch Boy and Girl necklaces.  The necklaces were created by repurposing a pair of sterling silver clip on earrings.  The kissing Dutch boy and girl earrings were a little weird to wear as earrings, but are adorable when worn in moderation!  The earrings were old jewelry given to me by a relative, so these necklaces are two of a kind.  Get one while you still can!

Handmade Books

 The last couple weeks I have been learning how to make books as part of my internship at the Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory.  One of the most basic sewn bookbinding structures is called Japanese Stab Binding.  It involves lining up the pages and covers of the soon-to-be book, making a series of holes, and sewing along the edge of the stack.

 These books are all made using scraps of leftover and recycled paper.  The covers include handmade papers, maps from an old atlas, and an old field guide for identifying trees.

The smaller books are made using lined notebook paper, pieces of scrapbook paper leftover from making cards, and empty Kleenex boxes.

Sewing With Recycled Materials

Three things you need to know about me and anything crafty:
1.  I love recycling
2.  I never throw anything away
3.  I never turn down free stuff

That being said, I do a lot of sewing using recycled materials, stuff people have given me, and little scraps from other projects.  I like to save things and wait for just the right project to use them on.  Lately I had the opportunity to create a yoga mat bag for a friend.  The yoga mat is very thick and heavy so the bag needed to be strong, and she wanted a pocket for cell phone, keys, etc.  This is the same person that gave me several bags stuffed full of upholstery samples that a local furniture store was going to get rid of.  So I sorted out a bunch of the upholstery samples that looked good together and went to town!  I also just happened to have a navy blue shirt pocket that fit perfectly with this project.  I lined the bag with cream colored canvas to make sure it was extra sturdy, and used an old pair of blue jeans to make the drawstring strap.  (The only things I bought to make this project were the grommets to attach the handle, and the canvas.)

Pulling out my upholstery samples inspired me to create some small zippered pouches using the leftovers.  I bought another bag of upholstery samples at a rummage sale a couple years ago.  Most of the fabric is heavier cotton with fun prints.  At this same rummage sale I picked up a big bag of assorted zippers (both the zippers and the fabric probably cost less than $2.)  For these pouches I used bits of coordinating upholstery samples, some of that canvas I bought for the yoga bag as the pouch lining, and whatever zipper I could find.  I also am using scraps of old button down shirts I had leftover from making purses.

This brings me to my shirt purses.  I started making these a few years ago from my own pattern.  Since then I have made at least 7 of them.  The bags are slouchy hobo-style purses made from old shirts and upholstery samples with necktie handles.  Not only are these bags recycled, they are reversible!  I try to pick fabrics and neckties that go well together, and sometimes the button down shirts I choose are really awesome fabric... but really ugly shirts.

Speaking of ugly shirt fabric... this ipod case used to be a ridiculous lime green plaid shirt.  The inside is a scrap of green fleece, and the gray portion is from the leftovers after hemming some dress pants.