Leather Bound Books

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.

Combo Book

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.

Books from Recycled Objects

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.

BOOKS FROM ENVELOPES

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

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