Iron Craft Challenge 8

This week we were told to refurbish, renew, recycle, or repurpose something. After viewing Silvia's Iron Craft #7 challenge I decided to do a paper weaving project.

The front of the book

I receive free paper products every time that I visit Japan to go paper shopping. I have been shopping with some of my vendors for over 25 years so I am always receiving gifts when I go and visit. One of the most common gifts that I receive is a new calendar. I usually come home with several new calendars after every visit. I have always wandered about what to do with these outdated calendars and this was a perfect chance to use one.

The back of the book

 I decided to do a simple pamphlet book with a card stock cover. I then used 1" strips to cover the card stock. There was no rhyme or reason to the placement of the strips but I tried to use parts of the calendar that had some color. I also wanted to make sure that I used some of the lettering and numbers.

For the endsheets, I decided to parts of the calendar header so that it would be a little bit more pleasing to the eye.

Overall, I am very pleased with the way that the booklet turned out. While the paper weaving was a little finicky, I would be willing to do a similar project. I would like to go on the record to say how much I have the new Blogger setup. It really sucks.

Front cover endsheet

Iron Craft 2012--Project 10

This week we were asked to create something with "stitches" in honor of Kat getting "stitched up" in surgery (or something like that). Let me first wish her a speedy and full recovery from her surgery.

I have been toiling with this idea for some time and I didn't quite know how to attempt the project that I wanted to do. I wanted to combine thread into a book project. I first started thinking about embroidered book cloth since there is a historical tradition within bookbinding where this was done beautifully. I also remembered my love of string and nail art.

String and nail art used to be one of my favorite crafts growing up. My dad was a carpenter and loved working with wood. This was a craft that he and I could attempt together and he still has some of the projects that we worked on.

After seeing an exhibit of book arts called "Thread," I was even more convinced that I could do something along these lines.  Here is the prototype of the book that I will be developing fully. Normally, I would never share a rough attempt like this but having seen Kat and Susi share their difficulties this week, I felt more confident in doing so.

This is the cover of the book with the peephole showing one side of the threading. While the circle is centered on the board, I should have realized that it is would not be centered on the cover because of the quarter inch gutter of the text block.

Here is the inside cover of the book which shows the alternate side of the threading. The circle is off center because the endsheet has to pass through the gutter of the text block.

In the future edition, I will sewing the text block onto a hinge to alleviate this problem. In this case, I will be able to center the hole and the endsheet without difficulty.

I will share projects 8 and 9 when I get a free moment. My boss has consented to let me blog at work as long as I do it on my own time after hours. The projects are done, I just need to photograph them and write them up.

Thanks for still reading--russ

Still here

My computer has had a malfunction so I haven't been able to blog. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to blog at work.