Rags to Riches is designed especially to share handmade books, journals and paper art. The objects on this blog are made totally of recycled materials or discared paper, and cardboard. Please feel free to comment on any of my postings. I would love to hear from you.
Enjoy
♥♥♥

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

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.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

MIXED MEDIA AND CREATIVE BOOKS

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

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.

Read more books.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

LIBRARY STAFF BULLETIN

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

Saturday, April 18, 2009

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.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

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

Saturday, April 4, 2009

PAPER MAKERS OF VICTORIA

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

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

RAGS TO RICHES OPEN DAY

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

Saturday, March 28, 2009

THE LIBRARIAN BOOK

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

Saturday, March 21, 2009