My Wednesday Worktable

Okay, I don't normally join in with this (there are several "versions" of this on the go around the Blogosphere...).  But today I thought it might be fun to show you what's going on in my studio just now!

I've been busy cutting paper and covering boards for book commissions:

These are two front and two back covers for middle-sized Wedding Guest books.  I am working on a commission item, for a lady called Victoria.  She's getting married at a butterfly garden, so wanted the butterflies on this paper to stand out.  I thought she'd like to choose between these, so sent her some photos.  She has chosen the top design for the front cover (left hand side) and the bottom design for the back (right hand sides).  The remaining front and back covers will become another Guest Book, to add to my shop!  I hope to finish Victoria's book very soon.

This is for a Wedding Guest book, for a lady called Kristina.  The cover is in ivory damask-effect, embossed paper.  The purple silk will form an edging for the front and back covers.  This book will have a Coptic style binding, in ivory coloured linen thread, with 20 pages of heavy-weight paper, to allow for writing and photographs.   This is also on my priority list for completion very soon.

These are covers for a large Wedding Guest book, with heavy-weight pages, for photographs.  The binding will be a stab-stitch, in red linen thread.  The customer asked for chocolate paper lining for the covers. It looks very dark in the photo, but is actually very effective and goes with the brown of the bird's branch on the book cover.  This book is going all the way to Australia, for an August wedding day.  I hope its bright and colourful covers will bring a little warmth to the day, as it will be winter then!

I am ready to stick the deep red silk edging onto the covers of this sketch book.  It will then have a Coptic binding, in golden yellow linen, with the orange tassel attached at the top of the binding.  The sketch book is a special one for Holly.  It has a Buddhist theme, and will be embellished with a little string of prayer flags and a mini-photo of a Lotus flower.  Inside are 80 pages of sketch paper.  I'm having fun with this one (so is Holly)! 

This piece of Liberty Tana Lawn fabric will soon be made into book-cloth, for the covers of another special Wedding Guest book, for a lady named Amy.  The covers will have an edging of damson or green silk - still to be decided. 

I also have the covers for another guest book like this one.  It will have a similar binding, in Coptic stitch, in either deep blue, or dark moss green linen, with ivory linen for the in-between stitching. 



At the corner of my desk, there is also a pile of cut pages, for these six books, several more guest books and albums, plus a number of photograph albums.  There are also several sets of boards, to make the photo album covers.  

The photo albums will turn out something like these.  One is destined for a friend, who recently had a baby boy, so the pages are soft blue and the cover will be in either blue fabric, or a fun paper I found, with old-fashioned toys all over it.   There will be a silk or paper edging, like the albums above.  I like this style of photo album - it looks smart. 

I think, in all, there are about 13 books on my side-table just now, with pages and covers cut; some covers are ready for binding, some are almost ready and some are just bare book-board, waiting for me to choose the paper or fabric to cover them.   Soon I will be busy making hole-pricking patterns, pricking the binding holes and sewing lots of bindings, in a mixture of Coptic stitch and Japanese stab-stitch.  

I think you could say that I have plenty to keep me busy just now!  Watch out for photos of finished items, over the next couple of weeks...