Intricate Beauty By Design

Intricate Beauty By Design, a talk by Marian Bantjes, graphic artist.

Thanks to my friends at the Saskatchwan Chapter of the Canadian Book Binders and Book Artist Guild (CBBAG) for sharing this!

Click the link to hear Marian Bantjes speak on TED. There are some great pictures, too!
 Marian Bantjes Intricate Beauty By Design

Japanese Stab Binding

My recent endeavours into bookbinding have included learning Japanese stab binding. You can make a variety of patterns with your thread. These books have the the hemp leaf pattern.

The books are about 3" x 6" with blank paper inside. I borrowed my husband's drill to make the holes right through the covers and paper. I am hoping to get a dremel sometime soon to do more of this fine work.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of the finished products!

Influence

Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing. ~ Albert Schweitzer

Clay Covers

 Recently I've been trying books with clay covers. These books were made the last couple of weeks and utilize polymer clay.

The clay provides an interesting cover and allows me to sew them up with a coptic binding. I wrote about this type of binding in a past post. I've learned a lot more about this type of binding since I made the original books and will likely post about them in the future.

In the meantime, these are pictures of the polymer clay books!

More Books!

This is a new book I've made for my daughter. This book is  11 inches tall and is about 2 inches wide at the spine and the front is about 4 inches wide. Inside the book are pockets and various decorative pages, including map pages for putting in pictures or writing. I am really pleased with it and am loving the beads on the spine!

This is a variation on the previous book that had the ribbons and threads attached to the spine.


I am also including pictures of another book I've made for a friend's neice. This one has all of the ribbons. I like them both and am having way too much fun!!!

Christmas Books

This year's Christmas tree will be decorated a bit differently. A week or two ago I was able to get together with some book making friends and made some new decorations. They're all 1 inch square. Tiny, but I think they're pretty fun!

The Paper Place

There's a great store in Toronto that I really want to visit. The Paper Place sells all sorts of beautiful papers. I've been buying a few of them for my bookmaking endeavors! This week they announced a contest. They're giving away 700 sample sizes of Chyogami paper.

They have a great description of their contest on their blog http://www.thepaperplace.ca/wp/2011/12/01/the-2nd-great-chiyogami-giveaway/  this entry on their blog also shows the way Chyogami paper is created. Very interesting in and of itself!

I have only just started using this paper.

My first use was very basic. The owls I cut out for my owl book covers came from a sample sheet I'd bought. 

I've got a nice stack of Chyogami that I'm preparing to use for some bookmaking for Christmas, too!