Coptic headbands

As you may remember - somewhere hidden deeply in a dark corner of your mind, in case it didn't get lost completely, but I won't blame you if so - I won an instructional book about how to make coptic headbands written by buechertiger way back in february. In case you already asked yourself whether I will ever put it to use or have forgotten it, well then, here is the answer ...

No, I definitively haven't.

and another detail shot ...

I hope, I did everything right - in case anyone might notice some mistakes, just tell me, since it is the first time I did those so-called simple two-colored coptic headbands. Anyway, it was fun doing them, and I felt that they add some sturdiness to the finished coptic bound book besides looking very decorative.

Inspirations

Do you know the feeling when you see something that inspires you, and you immediately have to do or make something with this inspiration? Happened to me this weekend when we saw a movie about China - it was just a tiny scene in the movie's intro which was showing some kind of swirls. I tried to work out a *swirly looking* binding (never would have done so last week, but this week I made the binding test cards ...) and here is what I came up with:

Next time, I'd choose a diffent color scheme - red, black and white, perhaps - but as always, I grabbed the next scrap piece of felt, which was a bright green, so I ended up with bright green on the cover, too. The pocket-sized book measures about 11 x 8 cm and is filled with 200 blank, off-white pages with torn egdes. Since it is completely handsewn, I was pretty glad, I made this one rather small ;) ...

The reason why I do not like the color scheme of this book right now is my current liking for bright white and pale blues - only, I didn't even notice before having a closer look on my *inspiration* wall ... ahem, actually just a few pins and doodles on a hemp cord.

... well, seems, inspiration mostly finds you when you are not looking for it, isn't it so?

Stitches

Since I am still giving the sewing machine a time-out, I switched to simple but nice handstitches - a blanket stitch, to be exact - to do sewn egdes of projects for now. Pretty time-consuming, but the results are worth it.

I started with a large suede leather book - size about 21 x 16 cm - with handpainted details on the cover, a handstitched edge and 200 pages of creme-colored, french laid paper with wave cut egdes. I decided to keep the binding rather simple. It is bound in a combination of longstitches and linkstitches, a modifacation of a binding I tested on the binding test cards.

I also made, only much more quickly ;), a birthday card for my sister; thrown together because I did not have a card at hand and let's be honest, because I don't like the cards you mostly find in shops - often, they are too kitschy or too impersonal. The card is simply drawn on a scrap piece of linen-cotton fabric, backed with blank cardboard for writing and the edge is done in blanket stitch.

Since we are living rather far apart, I hope my sister had have a nice birthday party with lots of friends and fun this weekend ... xoxo, big sis.

Use your hands

Let's just resume this week and the one before under the headline *back to basics - doing stuff by hand* ... I don't know whether it is my *magical* hands or the hot weather - the technical stuff I am using seems to beg for a summer vacation. Well, the demon in my sewing machine decided to appear again, nothing new to me - luckily after I finished a birthday present for a friend - a gardening apron, since there are plants all over her home. 

 

So, damn, where to hell have I left the number of the exorcist?

Whereas, the fact that the graphics card of my computer went on strike was pretty new to me. The only positve thing to mention here was that there wasn't much to see either, since the internet skipped working, too ... o_O ... as well as the telephone. Oh, yeah. So, besides a lot of frustrating hours in front of some cryptic programs, updates, test runs and so on I used the time to do some experimental stuff ... ahem ... no presentable results here, so I am just pretending I was trying to take some nice pictures of my messing  around with inks ;)

or my playing around with fimo (polymer clay)...

or my fiddling with threads...

The fiddling with these *binding test cards* was a nice way to work out some bindings and to test how to modify the stitches. So at least, there was one - more or less - presentable result. The first, rather small (5,5 cm x 8 cm) book I made with a leather cover, sewn with linkstitches and a modified longstitch.

The blue book below the leather book still needs to be sewn, but I haven't decided on a binding yet, since the binding should match the handsewn edge ... maybe I will do it today, or maybe, I am just going to enjoy the brilliant summer weather ...

Have a nice weekend, everyone - one without technical issues, but with a lot of sun :)

Hello, chaos, welcome home

It happened again, although I tried very hard to avoid it and keep things sorted ... I have been visited by my old friend - guess who? Yeah, you are right, the name is chaos *sigh*.

Well, at least, I won on the stay sorted side, but I badly lost on the finishing projects side. The visit seems to be the revenge for all the painting I did lately, just too many pieces on that *fabric-painting-pile*. But on the other hand, it's always nice to find long forgotten things underneath the ones you still remember ;). Although there are always some things I like to stay buried ... awful color combinations, unsightly experiments or simply overall epic fails.

This is what I found when I sorted through the paintings pile, see that seastar in the lower corner? I totally forgot about it, it was among one of the first paintings I did - months ago ... Sad, isn't it? But well, I guess, that is just me - slightly chaotic and ticking slower than the rest of the world. The proof can be seen above.

The only book I finished lately (although I admit, I had to deal with severe/stupid computer problems for a while which needed to be solved) can also be considered as an experiment. It is a handpainted softcover fabric jounal with a polka dot, hot pink sideflap and off-white pages with pink colored egdes, bound in a combination of long stitches and link stitches. Whether it is totally unsightly or not, may be up to you ;).

I guess, I should stop writing now and get some things done ;)

Starting small and simple

Going back to bookbinding, I started small and simple with one of the most basic bookbinding stitches, the pamphlet stitch. And since I wanted to use three already cut up tiny pieces of a larger piece of handpainted fabric, I made three tiny pamphlets - to be easily tucked away in the backpocket of a jeans or any other pocket.

And what is the best thing about summer - besides the sun and icecream, of course ;) ? All sorts of fresh fruits, naturally. So I quickly made an easy summer dessert cooking some fresh peaches, lime juice and leaves of fresh peppermint - it still needs to cool down and be put into the refrigerator, but already smells delicious.

If your garden is full of mint or peppermint, too, like the one my peppermint came from, why not give this recipe a try?  Looks incredibly yummy!

Looking back

Again, another year has passed by far too fast with all the small and big changes, it brought for all of us. One big thing for me was that I discovered - and still am discovering - the joy of bookbinding. Having put bookbinding away for nearly one and a half month now, I am trying to motivate myself to resume it by reminding myself with all the books I made in that past year. And yes, it's really for self-motivation ;) since I tend to be easily carried away with different and new things I am learning and discovering (prooved by the accusing looks the unfinished bookcovers are always giving me when I see them on my shelf o_O). However, I think bookbinding is the ideal project to combine so many different aspects of paper work, drawing, painting, sewing... within one object of not only decorative but also funtional purpose one can actually use every day.

Beginning with a quickly done book with nearly no knowledge of what I was doing back at the end of July and ending with - hopefully - better ones in November ...

If you are interested in the appropriate links, just klick below.

Autumn floating in...

... yes, I know, autumn came already quite some weeks ago, but so far I still managed to hold onto the bright summer colors. Well, that's over now. The reason is a present for a book loving friend, who hopefully will become the author of her own book one day - at least this is a dream of hers. So I made a book in a more or less autumnal color scheme (hope she still likes purple!) to put down all of her ideas onto paper instantly - and what is needed besides paper to do so? Pencils, right? Therefor this book has a *built-in* pencil case in the sideflap sewn in a contrasting purple fabric.

Happy birthday D and I hope you will have a great party.

:)

Last weeks ups and downs...

... came for me in a full color scale from purple to red. Some colors in-between were missing, though, mostly due to the new behavior of my personal satan - the new nickname for my sewing machine which definitely ruined some covers during the sewing process. I hope I can overcome this tricky behavior and it will turn into a nice behaving sewing machine again. But when you have a closer look at the red satin book, you will see that the front fabric also looks crumpled, this time mostly due to my lack of sewing experience concerning patches *~*  So, there is still a long way for me to go, to do things right and to make them turn out the way I originally had in mind - or at least close to this ;)

So, no light yellow and green this week except a work in progress piece combining a mellow yellow theme and my personal favorite: a line related theme.

Yes, I definitely love lines. Simple line art can express anything when used in right way as shown in a very impressive way by tape artist Chris Hosmer. All those great images are made with different tapes - which means a real limitation to line itself. Just a tiny glimpse of his work below, called "Africa 2", which I think is really great in perspective and color choice, but there is so much more to see on his blog:

Well, onto fighting the demon in my sewing machine, we will see who won the next few days...

;)

Mr. Green O'Crab

Let me introduce Mr. O'Crab, Green O'Crab, to you. He might look a bit odd, but believe me, he is quite funny and a very nice being. The only thing with him is that he is always longing for ink or a pencil to tickle his belly full of 200 limegreen and tropical blue lightweight pages. But when he sees no one around, he securly closes his mouth with bright white thick cotton cords - but be aware: he always keeps his limegreen button eyes on anything that goes on around him, they are never closed! But if you treat him well and stroke his flower print fabric back from time to time, he will be a trustworthy friend...

;)

Denise

Tropical snow

What a day... didn't I talk about the *rainy* season lately? Well, replace the rain with snow and here you go. Since I am really not that much into snow - mostly because it is intrisically tied to cold weather - I prefer to hide myself as much as possible behind my desk with a nice huge cup of hot coffee, thinking of something else than snow. There will still be enough time to enjoy the winter, but not yet, at least I am not willed to do so yet ;)

 So, I finished another softcover fabric book whose components laid around for quite a while now, but which was perfect for a little vacation for the eyes - seeing bright tropical blue and limegreen paper in combination with a white cotton fabric strewn with nice flower prints lets you instantly forget the freezing cold outside. Offwhite satin cords, which are used to close the book, bring in a warm shine which reminds me of shells I always pick up when I am at a beach. To add contrast, the edges are stiched with a dark teal that reflects the depth of the ocean where the shadows slowly creep into the light turquoise water....

 
Oh, how I wish I could be at a warm sunny beach now...

Red ribbons

This time something about my newest adventure - bookbinding. Since I am quiet new to this I am still trying this and that and everthing without a certain direction - well, at least yet. ;) Inspired by red poppies and using my favorite colour scheme of black, white and red, I made a softcover notebook with 120 plain white pages of slightly heavy drawing paper. For this book, I tore all pages apart at all sides to give the egdes some texture and a soft touch so that the egde of the textblock feels somewhat like fabric or as soft as the red felt, which forms the *inside* part of the cover.

The ribbons which are used for closure have a very nice fishbone weave and are made of cotton. They are still very long, mostly for decorational purposes, but for now I will leave them as they are since cutting them off is far easier than  cutting them *on* ;)

And one more important thing: A big thank you to the nice Fioleta who already mentioned me on her blog and contineously supported me right from the start since I made (and am still making ;) ) my first steps into the world of the internet. Thank you, Denise.