Rags to Riches

Exciting News and Exhibition Ended

2009-12-07T22:03:00.021+11:00

I am proud to announce that my book "Past Life" was picked up by Richard Overell the Rarebook Librarian of Monash University to be included in the Rarebook collection under Art books and Monash Authors. Past Life was part of Rags to Riches II Exhibition and a description of it reads: Re-purposed book cover painted over with artist's paint. Tin cans were crushed by the wheels of cars in the blue parking permit area of Monash University, Clayton Campus.

This art book represents the modern era because the tins included Coke 0 and Pepsi Max even though it took me over two years to collect all the tins from the parking lot. There weren't many tins lying around to be crushed by cars!

Here I am on the day we took down the exhibition. It was quite sad to see the end of it, but all in all the exhibition was well received by the public. We have no planned for the next exhibition. At this point I would like to have a break from trying to meet deadlines for a while and to enjoy the holiday season. Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for visiting.

Leather Bound Books

2009-11-22T23:34:00.015+11:00

I have not post anything here since the exhibition. Not only I have been making too many books (bookburned) lately, but life is running away with me. I do have load of books that I have not posted here before so today I have chosen this set of leather bound books I made for the Papermaker of Victoria's exhibition last year. They are also in our exhibition at the moment too.

I found a large piece of hard leather from Reverse Art Truck that was perfect for the covers of these books.

I intended to cut up a large piece of leather and make a few books out of it, but the odd shape of the piece made it difficult. I didn't want to waste too much leather, so I decided to leave the exposed area uncovered and I inserted fancy paper as part of the signatures. After making the first book, the second and third were fun to make with different insert papers. I like hanging charms at the end of handmade cords as bookmarks.

You can see them better standing up. The stitching on the edges were hand stitched. I added a layer on top of the covers using leftover pieces of leather. I used every leftover bit of leather for these books. I enjoyed creating the set and feel very satisfied that I used a discarded piece of leather to create unique handmade books.

Exhibition Opening Speech Part 1

2009-11-07T21:35:00.012+11:00

Finally I have managed to upload the Exhibition Opening Speech part 1 video. It was a much bigger video than part 2, so with DH's helps we found the way to reduce it to an acceptable size for uploading to the blog. Right, here we go the Exhibition Opening Speech Part 1 by Dr. Raphael Zimmerman just click play and with the sound on your PC turned on you should hear the speech.

Enjoy and thanks everyone for your support to make this exhibition successful.

I will post more of the exhibit photos in the following weeks.

Exhibition Opening Speech Part 2

2009-11-04T22:04:00.008+11:00

Part 2 of the opening speech by Dr. Raphael Zimmerman. He concluded with a praise and toast to all the exhibitors and guests.

Lastly I would like to thank Dennis Kishere for his innovative thinking of taking this video of the speech. This has given me the opportunity to post a video for the first time on my blog. How much there is for me to learn about this blogging technology! I am enjoying it. It is the best way to share what I create with the world.

Exhibition Opening: We did it!

2009-10-31T18:40:00.017+11:00

WE DID IT!!! We had the opening this afternoon and it went very well. It has been a hectic few days getting ready for the opening. I had to make sure that I remembered to take everything for setting up on Firday, but when I actually got there the plan had to be altered slightly. I had to quickly put on my thinking hat while I was cleaning the cabinets, but in the end I came up with the solution. Two of my students Ayako and Dennis came to help set up. I found that the process of setting up was fun and creative. I did need someone else to bounce my ideas off for it to work.

Finally the time had come. Tom and I set off a bit early to make sure that all the arrangements with the gallery were allright. When we arrived, Dennis was already there. It wasn't long before people were arriving. We had enough finger food and drinks for everyone. The MGA had generously provided us with wine and champagne. The speaker, Dr. Raphael Zimmerman and my dear friend Jane arrived and the rest of the event went very smoothly. We had about sixty guests in total. I took quite a few photos and here are some of them.

Dr. Raphael Zimmerman our guest speaker is a Visual Arts graduate from Monash University majoring in print making. He is a practicing artist and is focused on his current painting. In Dr. Zimmerman's speech he mentioned that art and craft are now merging into one. He praised our work as crossing over from one to the other. Dr. Zimmerman attracted a lot of attention from the listeners.

Kumi, Dennis and myself were ready to receive our guests. One of the display cabinets is behind us. It was a nice day for a photo shoot.

A visit from Cathrine Harboe-Ree, the University Librarian. It was a pleasant surprise to see her there. From left, Cathryn Harbo-Ree, Natima Palaskas, Kumi Suzuki, Dennis Kishere, Jane Hammond and Jane Rumbold.

I took this photo of Dennis yesterday after we finished setting up. You can see one of our exhibits in the cabinet. It was a book clock made by Jane Rumbold.

This is Ayako standing by one of the display cabinets. Ayako could not be here today. She is on her way to Japan for her sister's wedding. You might remember the wedding journals she made for her sister? Ayako, I hope you have a safe trip.

The guests were listening to Dr. Zimmerman's speech.

You can see a glimpse of the exhibits. The white looking stuff on the bottom shelf is recycled shredded plastic. We just laid the exhibits on top of them. We have different recycled stuff in all the bottom shelves of every cabinet.

More visitors and friends admiring our handy work.

I think they really liked our work. I think I need a holiday...! I didn't think that it is going to be a lot of work, but you have to put effort into everything if you want it to be successful . To think that this is our second exhibition in a year; we achieved quite a bit.

One Day to go

2009-10-27T22:14:00.011+11:00

One day to go before the opening of Rags to Riches II. It is all organized except setting up on Friday and just turning up on the day, Saturday 31 October at 3:00 PM. In the meantime I thought I would post one of the items in the exhibition here for you. It is a new book; not sure I can call it a book. It's more like sculpture than a book...!

Past Life

I've given it a name Past Life because of how everything come together as a book. I re-purposed the book cover and painted it over with artist's paint. Tin cans were crushed by the wheels of cars in the blue parking permit area of Monash University, Clayton Campus. I collected the tin cans over the years. I like the really squashy ones with the rough gravel marks on them. With the help of my friend Lynette I gained the confidence to paint the book cover with layers of artist's paint. It looks great. The photo does not do it justice; I wish you can all see it in person...!

Rags to Riches II Exhibition Catalog

2009-10-23T21:18:00.028+11:00

I am pleased to say that the Rags to Riches II exhibition catalog is finally finished! I am so relieved it is ready to go to print. There are a total of fifty-four items in the whole collection. Complete with the photos of us nine in the group, I managed to fit everything into six pages. It will be printed double sided, that is 3 pages per catalog. That will work out very nicely.

It's exactly a week tomorrow before the opening day, Saturday Oct. 31 at 3:00 PM. I only have to make name badges for the exhibitors and myself as a curator, and hopefully my job is done here on the computer. The setup day is on Friday before the opening. I have to go in this Saturday to check the last minute arrangements with gallery officer.

Here is the catalog to share with you. The exhibition is on for the whole of November, so please drop by anytime. You might notice that the logo I used on the catalog is the same as my blog banner. The reason was that I started this blog when we had our first exhibition and I didn't want to keep posting about handmade books on on my craft blog so, I created this blog using the same name.

Members of the group from top, Jocely Bloye, Jane Hammond, Ayako Hatta, Dennis Kishere and Le Tuan.

On this page are Peter Mathews, Natima Palaskas (me), Jane Rumbold and Kumi Suzuki.

Click on the catalog to enlarge the images so that you can read the small print. I wish you could be there in person and share our excitement, but if you can't, please enjoy the catalog and I would love to hear from you. Big thanks for your support and help in lots of ways. If you are visiting this blog for the first time, you can read more about the exhibition here.

Papermakers of Victoria

2009-10-13T23:59:00.002+11:00

I am a member of Papermakers of Victoria and in this month newsletter The Deckle Edge I was featured in the member profile column and I would like to share it with you. For easy reading you can enlarge the image just by clicking on it.

You Are Invited

2009-10-02T19:09:00.022+10:00

October is here and it is time for me to put a thinking cap on and get ready for The Rags to Riches II Exhibition. It will open on Saturday October 31 at 3:00 PM. I posted about this a couple of months ago on Exhibition Announcement. The exhibition will be at the Monash Gallery of Art, Wheelers Hill, VIC 3150. Everyone is welcome, but please RSVP by leaving a comment on this post so, we have a rough idea of the numbers for catering purposes.

This is the invitation to be published in the Library Bulletin next week. I've also sent some off to colleagues and friends that might be interested in coming. The exhibition will be on until Dec. 5th. if you can't make it for the opening. I hope you will drop by to have a look at the later date.

Ayako Hatta's Works

2009-09-19T17:13:00.015+10:00

I am so proud, Ayako Hatta is one of my bookmaking students. We meet once a week for only an hour during our lunch break. The three of them Ayako, Kumi and Dennis started handmade books from scratch. Being a quilter and stitcher I can't help but incorporate embroidery and quilting into my books. Dennis was the first to ask if I could show him how to do embroidery. I showed them the basic stitches such as blanket stitch, cross stitch, stem stitch and French knots.

We have been together for over a year and to see what they can make now is amazing. They are all creative in their own way. Ayako created these two wedding journals for her sister's wedding. She embroided their initials on each of the journals and surrounded the initials with embroidery designs. After that, she bound them both into journals using stab stitch technique.

Here is Ayako adminring her own creative work. She is so pleased of how they turned out.

The closed up view of both journals. The cloth she used came from Reverse Art Truck in Ringwood, Melbourne.

Ayako's intention is to get each of the Bride and Groom's family and friends to sign each journal. Ayako thanked everyone in the group who had given both verbal and physical help such as stitching the leather corners and drilling the holes. She said that these journals were really a group effort, but of course it was totally Ayako's original idea. Congratulations Ayako, you made me proud...!

Combo Book

2009-09-02T20:32:00.011+10:00

I like giving my students challenges to work on. Challenges are great to get them thinking outside of the square. I give them a brief outline of the projects and get them to think of what to do and what materials to use. It was quite a while ago that we were all making combo books. I gave each of them printed cardboard to use as covers, and we used all types of recycled materials that we have on hand as the signatures (pages). The results were very amazing.

This is my combo book. I fished out the printed cardboard from a recycled paper bin. You might have read somewhere on here that I like printed cardboard, so naturally I always spot it in the recycled bin. This one is very colourful and not damaged. I added a few bits of hand torn paper onto the cover as decoration.

You can see what I used for the signatures. I used some recycled envelopes, office mail envelopes, handmade paper, pages from old magazines, bubble wrap plastic and the pink paper that was an office folder. Of course everyone else's books look totally different from mine. I hope you enjoy looking at my one-of-a-kind combo book.

The Winner of Birthday Giveaway

2009-08-23T23:52:00.007+10:00

We returned from our mini vacation tonight (Sunday 23 August). Without delay, I got busy preparing for the giveaway draw. My random generator system consists of typing out all the entries, cutting them up into strips, and putting them all in a hat. I then got DH to draw one out for me. I think that this is as fair as it can be.

Here he is in action drawing a name out of the hat!

And the winner is Julia from Julia's Place Congratulations Julia for your entry.

Here are your winning prizes:

A handmade Coptic Stitch book and a book made from CD ROM. I am sure you will like them.

This was my first giveaway since I started blogging 8 months ago. I really enjoyed the process. I enjoyed planning it, making the journal, and looking for something to go with it. I am already thinking of another giveaway at around Christmas time.

Thanks everyone for your enties. I am sorry I did not respond to any of you because I was away from home and the only internet connection was through my iPhone. Typing with one finger is never a favorite of mine!

Birthday Giveaway: IS NOW CLOSED!!!

2009-08-10T20:38:00.019+10:00

I have been planning this giveaways for quite sometime now. I thought the best time to do this would be on my birthday month which is August. Because we will be taking a mini vacation from August 15 - 23, it is a good time for me to post my giveaways before I leave.

I will draw the lucky number when I return on 23 August. I will have giveaways on my other blog Notjustnat as well, so please go over and enter there too.

I wish everyone whose birthday is in August a Happy Birthday, and I hope that someone will remember and bake you a birthday cake. If not, have one from me HAPPY BIRTHDAY...!

And here are my giveaways:

1 - A handmade Coptic stitch book made by me using a discarded dust jacket for the cover. The pages have been left blank for you to fill in with your activities. Animal lovers would love this book.

2 - A CD book with handmade a Japanese paper cover. The pages in this book are black. You need to use a silver pen to write on it.

All you need to do to enter is:

a) Leave a comment on this post; b) post this link on your blog; c) Sign-in as my follower and please mention on your comment that you have done so.

Please include a blog or email address so that I can contact you.

The Giveaways end on Sunday August 23rd EST at 6:00 pm. The winner will be drawn by random generator system and be notified asap.

It has been fun planning and making the giveaways, and I hope the winner will enjoy using them too. Don't forget to go over and enter for the giveaways on my other blog: Notjustnat

as well. Please pass on the word to any of your blogger friends.

Good luck everyone and thanks for visiting...!

Exhibition Announcement

2009-08-02T21:21:00.009+10:00

I have good news to tell you. Rags to Riches's second exhibition is going to be at Monash Gallery of Art from 31 October 2009 - 6 December 2009. The first Rags to Riches exhibition was held at Monash University Library, Clayton Campus in March of this year. The exhibion was very well recieved by both the staff and students from the university. Now we are fortunate to get accepted into one of the great community Art Galleries in the area. We are very excited and looking forward to it.

Monash Gallery of Art is located at 860 Ferntree Gully Road, in Wheelers Hill, Melbourne. I am so excited to have our work exhibited in such great venue.

This is one of the exhibition areas. It is called the Community Exhibition Space. It is situated between the main gallery and the public library. Our exhibition will be viewed by not only the gallery visitors, but the visitors that use the library as well. We will have five show cabinets to use for our exhibits. How exciting is that going to be?

Journal make in Book Frame

2009-07-22T20:33:00.013+10:00

When I started bookmaking I didn't realize that they are many ways of making books. My first book was made using a single sheet of A4 paper. The next book was a concertina book using discarded cardboard for covers. When I started teaching (free of charge) my colleagues, I had to acquire more techniques and skills. Luckily, I am an all-rounded craft person. I can sew, stitch, embroider, weave, knit. I can always teach them something they have not learned.

To keep up with new skills and challenges is very motivating for me. Of course I know my limitation, I don't go into skills that need carpentry or mechanical mechanisms. The project I just learned recently would have been very hard to do in the traditional way, but because I am only making a small journal the technique is more than adequate for what I am doing.

I agree it does look pretty complicated at first glance. This is a book frame using for sewing book pages together. The traditional version of it is made of timber and steel bolts, but this is a simple version (my version) of a book frame. It is made out of a hard cover book with the window cut out of the cover. The book title is Great Women of the 21st Century. Good book to use for this project. You don't know how excited I was to discover this technique from a library book. It's much easier than I thought it would be. I leapt in and started this great project using my very own handmade book frame. The result is as you can see below!

Here is what I made using the above frame. It's a journal for all occations or as gift. I have a feeling it's going to be a gift for one of my friends at Christmas. The cover is black leather printed over with graffity type prining. I have used two old fashion clasps for the closure. If you click on the picture to enlarge you will see the clasps better.

And this is how it looks when it is opened. I made an envelope type of cover so if you have dockets, photos, show tickets etc., you can keep them safely inside when the cover is closed. I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Gifts For Friends

2009-07-18T17:01:00.014+10:00

It has always been my belief that giving a gift is an art. It gives pleasure to the receiver and it gives a greater pleasure to me as a giver. And I feel blessed to have many friends that I can give to. I make a lot of my gifts myself. For the reason that I can not always afford to buy gifts. Another reason is that I am very choosy with my gifts. I don't like to receive trashy stuff so I don't like giving trashy stuff either. My blogger friend Serena who I have been writing to for a while now is expecting her second child and Sophia her first, is expecting her little brother so I thought they both need a little treat before the busy time ahead of them.

I made this journal for Serena knowing that she is very fond of journal writing. The quilted cover is free motion machine ebroidery with a single rose on it. In the center of it are three silver rose charms with a few hand embroidered leaves.

I free motioned Serena's initial on the back cover. It is a very personnel journal for you Serena. I have left a lot of room inside the journal so Serena can save keepsakes in it. The tie and the edging is the easy part of the journal. I get braid, yarn and cord together and zigzag by machine. Once I have enough length I hold the finished cord against the edge of the journal cover and zigzag it to the journal's edge. This was the first time I tried this and it worked out really well.

Serena's daughter Sophia turned two last month so this is her birthday present that she can learn about her new baby brother. I re-purposed this Little Golden book by making it into a journal. I cut the book apart and inserted blank pages and the original pages together. I then bound it using Coptic stitch technique. Serena told me she received the parcel today so I am not spoiling her surprise by blogging it here.

Digital Collage: Lesson Two

2009-07-15T20:16:00.001+10:00

This collage was created in my second lesson of Digital Collage Workshop that I am taking online with Creative Workshop . This is part of my assignment that I should have done ages ago, but I just did not have the time these last few weeks. Anyhow, here it is now; hope you enjoy.

Lesson two of course was harder than the lesson one. In the above collage I worked with eight layers of images. It is really fun and I did not get lost in all the layers. I am very excited from what I have learned woo hoo!!! A month ago I would not have had a clue how to make this collage.

Digital Collage

2009-07-09T22:16:00.007+10:00

As I mentioned in my last post that I am taking an online digital collage workshop. I am only up to my second lesson and in this lesson I am making collage using more images and more layers. I am having a lot of fun with it. I do get frustrated when I can not do what I supposed to do. Well, practice makes perfect, I hope so!

Like a Bird

The collage above was make using the image provided in the workshop, but the background image came from a page of an old book. I scanned and used as background layer. I am quite excited of how it ends up. Good job right?

Happy Birthday Mark

I created this collage for DS Mark's birthday. Mark went to Russia to attend the Modern United Nation (MUN) conference when he was at high school. I thought I would use some of the scenes from Russia as a background and add Mark's photo over it. I then add a layer in sepia tone on top. I am very please of how it turned out.

Digital Images

2009-07-01T23:26:00.015+10:00

It is so cool! I created these two digital images through the Create A Digital Collage workshop with Creative Workshop I am so very happy with the result because I had so much trouble with technical difficulty loading the video of the lessons onto my PC at the beginning. Thank goodness with the help from DH and a new computer (secondhand) that I purchased from my work. I can now start my lesson.

Waiting for Lover by: Natima

In this first lesson I was given a set of images and I have to work in layers. In the image above it has four layers and with the sparkles on the top layer. Wow, you can see how excited I am. Aparently what I am doing is a very basic step in the lesson. I cannot imagine how much I would learn by the end of the workshop.

Ghostly by: Natima

That is it, I have given the images names Waiting for Lover and Ghostly. Hope you like them. They can be used as greeting cards or in journal entrees. What fun I am going to have creating more of this kind of work. Now I have to start thinking outside my books and recycled materials to think in digital images! It might not be easy, but I am up to the challenge!

Enjoy and please tell me what you think of my new adventures.

Polka Dot Swap

2009-06-28T21:51:00.014+10:00

I made this book as part of a polka dot swap that I took part in. The Polka Dot Swap was organized by Stacey in Auckland, NZ. I really enjoy the swap mainly because it does not have too many restrictions and I could choose my swapper who lives locally. Another fun thing about this swap was that it gave me a chance to get some polka dot fabric that I did not have. Some of the items have to be handmade so I made this book as part of it.

As I have mentioned often in this blog, I only use recycled materials for my books. The cover of this book came from a discarded book jacket of the Oxford Handbook of Personnel Psychology. I love the vibrant colour of the cover and it has all the colour balls that are perfect for a polka dot swap. I did not know at the time that it would come in handy.

I used yellow as signatures (pages) and the paper came from a recycled photocopy paper. When I finished the stitching, I used the same thread to make a cord for the bookmark.

CD Books

2009-06-24T00:28:00.012+10:00

I went to a workshop on how to make books from CDs last weekend. Yes, ordinary CDs that play music. Of course we only used rejected CDs. I have seen these books made and was always fascinated by them. I mentioned to my friend Tricia whose orginally taught me book making that I would like to know how to make them. She told me she could show me how one day when we are on duty at the Cottage in Wattle Park. That one day was last Sunday, and we had lots of fun creating these little babies. It was not easy, but I was on a roll and made a few of them. They will be handy as gifts.

Here they are, the whole bunch of them. I was lucky to have saved some little CDs amongst my collections of recycled materials. I used Japanese handmade papers that DS brought back for me from Japan for the covers and embelished them with charms, beads and tassles.

A close up of the very first one I made.

These are the ones Sue and I made in the workshop.

Here is Sue concentrating on where and how to assemble the book. Notice the shelf behind Sue? Wattle Park Cottage house Basket Makers of Victoria and it is also a gallery that is open to the public on Wednesday and Sunday. I am a member of BOV and very often I am on duty there on Sunday. There are some cute baskets on display at the cottage and what you see in the picture is only small number of them. There is another room across the hall full of many creative baskets. Take a look at their website to read more about BOV.

Book Workshop for Robin

2009-06-17T20:33:00.000+10:00

It was an honored to have Robin Wagner in my book workshop on Sunday. Robin is visiting Australia to attend a conference. She managed to find the time to attend my book workshop. I met Robin last year when she visited my university. We got talking and I told her that one of my passtimes is making handmade books using recycled materials. Robin is a librarian and every librarian loves anything to do with papers and books. Unfortunately, Robin was due to return to the USA when I met her. We kept in touch and I promised her that I will teach her book making next time she is here. So here she is, sitting at my house learning the age old art of Coptic binding.

Here is Robin going through the box of dust jackets looking for a perfect one. It was not an easy task to choose just the right one for her first handmade book!

Here she is putting the last Coptic stitch on her book. She was hard at work all day trying to remember and learn what I taught her. It was not an easy task, but Robin is a sewer so she caught on very quickly and soon she was on her way to finishing her very first handmade book.

I had invited my students from my Wednesday book workshop to join us for the day too. Dennis on the left and Ayako at the top of the photo. Both of them kindly brought a plate to share for lunch. I made pumpkin soup and bread rolls for them. We all had an enjoyable day.

This is the book I made on Sunday using dust jacket with the cute little picture of a dog on a pink chair. I just love the way this dogie lying there without a worry in the world. I finished it in time to take for show and tell at the Wednesday workshop.

Altered Books

2009-06-09T19:04:00.001+10:00

I know I have not been making any books lately, but I do have some books that I should be showing on this blog. One of them I was so lucky to receive for my birthday last year from my friend Lynette.

This book looks like an ordinary book on the outside. Yes it was once a book titled 'Australian Short Stories'. With Lynette's creative thinking she turned this book into a sewing caddy. Lynette knows that I am a collector of sewing gadgets and this one is a unique one that I was lucky to receive.

In 2008 our sewing group SBOV (Sewing Basket of Victoria) had a birthday challenge. This book was my birthday challenge that Lynette made for me. Lynette cut out some of the pages from the book and lined it with fabric and paper. She went over it with clear varnish to seal it. On the top part of the book she decorated the scissors and nested them there nicely. On the lower part of the book she made me a needle holder that fitted there neatly.

Little Golden Books are all time favorites of my daughter. In her collection there were some Barbie books she used to read. I have kept all of my children books, and with my book making skills I turned this Barbie book into a Journal. I inserted some of the original pages amongst the blank pages of the journal. I am delighted to give new life to an old classic book.

Books from Recycled Objects

2009-05-26T21:50:00.001+10:00

I might not have mentioned before that all handmade books on this blog are made from recycled material. What inspired me to make handmade books was working in a library. In my workplace there are many recyclable materials such as paper, cardboard, discarded dust jackets and even discarded books. I am now teaching some of my colleagues how to create handmade books too. We meet every Wednesday during our lunch break. There are five of us, but as from tomorrow two more will join the group.

A book made from a Vita-Weat box. There are endless types of product boxes I can use for book making. For this book, I used recycled photocopy paper as signatures. I do not cut my paper, but tear them using a metal ruler instead. This is a simple book using long stitch binding method.

Everyone at my work knows that I recycle things. I often return to my desk to find various objects left for me by my colleagues. The green velvet coated paper I used to cover this book was given to me by my friend Sophia. She told me it was a wrapper from a bar of soap. She thought that I could use it for something. I made this book and gave it back to Sophia on her birthday. I used light green recycled paper for the signatures.

This is one of my earlier books. The cover came from a Japanese book box that was discarded. I rescued it from a card board trolley. The signatures were brown packing papers. When I finished it, I thought it needed something else to give it a lift. I had this old button lying around for ages and it was a perfect thing for this book.

MIXED MEDIA AND CREATIVE BOOKS

2009-05-02T20:25:00.001+10:00

I have not been posting since last week. The reason is that Winter is almost upon us here in Australia and when I get home from work, it is too dark to take any photos. I prefer not to use a flash when I take photos for my blogs. Natural light is much better. I am a bit fussy with my blog photos. Today I have a chance to take some photos under natural light.

Stacks of books always looks great. For someone who works in a library you would think I would have had enough of books. Actually am not bored with them at all. I love working with them.

The cover for this journal made using mixed media method. It has layers and layers of different fabrics. I then machine embroidered with free motion stitching and then went over it with hand embroidery and hand stitching. In the end, I made a blank book to fit inside. When I showed it at my book workshop on Wednesday I was told that it looks like something out of Harry Potter. Because I did not see any of Harry Potter I did not know from which particular bit of Harry Potter does this journal represent? Well, that was a compliment and I might have to see the next Harry Potter to find out...!

Collage paper is really fun too. Up until now I have been using dust jackets to cover books, but this time I used a few different dust jackets and collages over by machine. After that I made it into a book using Coptic stitch binding.

This book is made for ANZAC Day. I love the texture of print on cardboard. You can get very neat print on some of the cardboard boxes at my library. This one comes from an Australian Standing Orders publisher. It is only a small impression with their company name on it. I have another one with a typical Australia house on it. I am looking for something to make out of that.

On the inside it contains memorabilia of ANZAC Day for example, Anzac biscuit recipe, red poppy, message from Kamel Ataturk, apple tea package and some photos of Australia soldiers.

Memory book

LAST WEEK OF THE DISPLAY

2009-05-02T19:26:00.002+10:00

Rags to Riches handmade books display has been on for the whole of April. This week is the last week of the display. At the beginning for the week we decided to rearrange the display one more time before it finished. All the vibrant colours of the books were all mixed together before. Every time I walked past the cabinet I kept seeing red, blue and green jumping out at me. Then I thought, what if we arrange them by colour? And that what we did. The end result was fantastic. I have noticed that more people have stopped by and looked at the display since.

Here is the close up of the red section. I can see Kumi's Mondrian book on the left. The red book I made for Steve is on the right. Snowman book that Kumi made out of molded plastic is next to the one with the green stripe by me. We have thrown in a few paper beads for decorations.

This is the green section. From the left is Dennis's hand embroidery journal then Ayako's recipe book. The Journal for a quilter and the other green books are mine.

This is the brown section. There are handmade cards by Cathrine Haboe-Ree. Her cards were made using handmade papers with leaves and feathers.

And here is the blue section with my Japanese lady book and Kumi's bag book. It is sad for the display to come to an end. To think that this is the first ever private display at the library. We could say that we have made history for the library! We are now working toward next year's display.

LIBRARY STAFF BULLETIN

2009-04-21T22:25:00.001+10:00

In the article 'Around the traps' from the Library Staff Bulletin was the article about our Handmade books didplay with some photos from the open day. I have attached the article below: Click on the article to see the large image.

Books and more books

BOOKS FROM ENVELOPES

2009-04-18T11:06:00.001+10:00

If you love paper and working in a library you are in paper heaven. I didn't know how to make books when I started working in the library 4 years ago. Because I love using recycled materials and re-purposing stuff I was constantly thinking of ways to use all the envelopes, cardboard, and dust jackets. I started making handmade books in early 2008 with my dear friend Tricia. She generously gave a few of us a beginner's workshop in book binding. I was hooked like a poor fish! Not long after that, my colleagues (who were librarians) saw my handmade books and asked me to teach them book making. We started meeting one hour a week during the lunch break. The result from our meetings is now in the display cabinet at Monash University library until the end of April 2009.

This cute cat book is made from internal mail envelopes torn in half and stitched on to the covers. The yellow handmade paper I bought in Nepal many years ago. The cat picture came from a painting. I made this book as a gift for my daughter Kit. She loves cats.

This is my favorite envelope; it came from a Beijing rare book publishing company. The picture is printed on the outside of an envelope and it comes in A4 size and standard envelope size. This book is bound with Coptic stitch using twine.

Books for life.

HANDMADE BOOKS

2009-04-15T20:29:00.001+10:00

Here are some more of my handmade books in the Display at Monash University Library at the moment. The Display will be on until the end of April. The Display is well received by the library staff and students. Today we rearranged it just to give it a fresher look. We had extra books stacked at the side supported by book ends. Today we brought them forward and swapped them around.

I found the front cover of this combo book from the YMCA sale in Canberra a few months ago. It must have been designed at a key plate. The plate has 2 holes for screws to hold it in place and a large rectangular hole for a key. For signatures I am using handmade papers, soft brown papers and papers from used envelopes. I have not finished it yet, I wanted to keep adding more signatures to it to see how it will end.

The Journal of a Quilter is designed to be a journal of my complete quilts. I have not entered anything in it yet. I can't seem to mix my two crafts together at the moment.

This red concertina book is a travel journal. It has pockets for brochures and memorabilia from my travels. The fabric came from an upholstery sample. I embroidered over it with hand dyed threads and added beads to give the lines a lift.

This brown concertina book is a travel journal. It has pockets for brochures and memorabilia from my travels. The fabric came from an upholstery sample. I embroidered over it with hand dyed threads and added beads to give the lines a lift. I used this book for teaching sample to my students. They have now made some of their own.

Practice make perfect

PAPER MAKERS OF VICTORIA

2009-04-04T22:20:00.000+11:00

I am a member of the Paper Makers of Victoria I am not a very active member and I don't make paper (not yet anyway). I have only been to their meetings a few times. I went today to take the brochure of the book display 'Rags to Riches' for them to publish in their next newsletter. They are very supportive of our display and a few said they would go and see the display.

Today the guest speaker was Amanda Degener the paper artist from the USA. She spoke to the group and showed the slides of her work. I was very impressed with her process. Amanda's paper is called CAVE PAPER. She had some paper with her for sale as well. I bought one called Walnut Red and another one called Green Crackle. They are beautiful and I don't know if I would be able to cut into them...! Amanda is such a nice lady. She is very friendly and down to earth. I asked if I could have a photo taken with her for my blog. She was very happy for me to do that.

I also took a whole bunch of dust jackets to share with the members of POV. They were very happy sifting through them and took want they wanted. I hope they will make something with them.

Enjoy

RAGS TO RICHES OPEN DAY

2009-03-31T22:06:00.001+11:00

Three months of planning and a year of work has finally gone on display today. The opening for the 'Rags to Riches Handmade Books' Display was this afternoon. Over sixty guests attended. The cabinet which normally would be used to display library collections is now bursting at the seams with our handmade books. The variety of colours and materials brilliantly blends together. All different shapes and forms of books we have been making since the beginning of 2008 are now together in one place. I am so pleased with how it looks. Full, overlapping and crushed together as I pictured it in my mind beforehand.

Kumi Suzuki is showing off our handywork.

A red section of the display.

Dennis Kishere introduced the University Librarian Cathrine Harboe-Ree. Cathrine said that taking part in creating some of this work was a great deal of fun and most satisfying. She called us a gleaning group and said the name Rags to Riches is very well suited for the display.

Picture of us infront of the display cabinet, while Cathrine was busy inspecting her gift, the Librarian book - see previous posting on this blog.

All guests listening to Cathrine's speech.

Guests crowding to view the display.
Rags to Riches Handmade Books Display is showing at Matheson Library Music & Multimedia foyer Monash University Clayton Campus during library opening hours.

Enjoy

THE LIBRARIAN BOOK

2009-03-28T00:16:00.000+11:00

The Display is next Tuesday March the 31st. I have finally finished a gift for the university librarian for when she comes and opens the Display for us. I made her a concertina style book with pockets. I filled posckets with interesing goodies. I hope she will like it.

Inside the pockets from left to right: bone folder, sewing kit, matches, measuring gauge and menify glass, hand painted button, secret lettle book, scissors and pencil.

I just added the new background on my blog for fun. Hope you like it?

Enjoy
♥

INVITATION TO THE OPENING - Click to view full screen

2009-03-21T10:46:00.001+11:00

ENJOY

COPTIC STITCH BINDING

2009-03-19T21:10:00.001+11:00

Okay, finally I have managed to uploaded these photos into a group of 2 x 2, wow, it's not easy!!!
Anyway, lets get on with the blog.
These are two of my handmade books. Both of these books were bind using Coptic stitch binding. I used book cloth for the cover for the one on the left. Putting window on the cover was quite challenging, but it gives a lot of potential to insert pictures, letters or other interesting motives in the window. The red and yellow book came from a tea box El Arosa Tea. I picked it up from a waste paper basket at the Coptic Church in Cairo when I visited there last year.

I made these books for presents. The redwork book was for Georgina's last birthday. I did her initial in redwork embroidery and Coptic stitch binding.
The book Ine's of My Soul was for the university librarian. The dust jacket came from a book of that title. She had since read the book. This book was also used Coptic stitch binding.

Enjoy

FRUITY LITTLE BOOKS

2009-03-15T20:48:00.001+11:00

A treasure to discovered this journal cover to use as covers for these little books. The signatures papers were recycled also. I am happy with how they turned out at the end.

Set of three little books with watermelon, pomegranate and orange covers.

Enjoy

STEVE'S BOOK

2009-03-11T23:15:00.001+11:00

Steve Langan saved this red dust jacket for a long time. When he knew that I use dust jacket for handmade books, he gave it to me. I then made it into a book and given it back to him. He just loved how it turned out and couldn't bring himself to write on it. I have borrowed it from him to enter it in an exhibition we are having on March 31.

Graham Harrison's book. Graham's book made from a cover of The Journal of History of Idea. Before we send journals to the binder we removed the covers and some of the covers are very beautiful like this one. This book was bound using Coptic stitch binding and recycled photo copy papers for signatures.

Concertina Book

2009-03-10T23:01:00.001+11:00

This is a Concertina style book with pockets. I made it for DH Father's Day gift. It contains old coin, measuring tap, safety pin and a husband of a sewer must have a sewing kit. It is a cute little book for HIS desk

Japanese Journal

2009-03-01T20:11:00.002+11:00

This is my first book I ever made. The style is called Accordion binding. The cover paper was from Japanese book box. I cut it up to size and stitched and glue on the the signatures (inside pages). The buttons are hand painted from Japan.

This is the back cover of the book above.