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