I'm late this week - it's Thursday lunchtime already!! Busy, busy... but I did want to join in and I hope you will all forgive me!
Well, last week I posted about a broken car windscreen, which I'm happy to report was repaired by Thursday evening, so I could go out to our regular Craft Club at the local sewing and quilting shop. I took along my in-progress bookbinding project, that I had posted about last week:
This!
It's now completed and you can see it on my desk this morning:
A bit of a messy workspace today...
So, in the middle is my bookbinding project. It's actually for ME, just for a change. I made myself a sketchbook, using one of my favourite cover papers (I do love peacock feathers) and a piece of favourite silk for the edging of the covers.
A couple of detail shots, for anyone who's interested:
Front Cover (pen is just for size reference!)
Binding - I used a hybrid Coptic/French Stitch binding, to make it pretty. Stitched in deep turquoise linen thread.
Don't know if you can see... the pages are a mixture of cartridge drawing paper (l/h side) and mid-weight watercolour paper (on the right), so I can scribble away, but also add some colour if I wish.
Of course, being for myself, I didn't need to make it 100% perfect. So, I took the opportunity to use some paper that had been mis-folded when working on a previous commission project. I don't mind the crease-lines down the edges of a few pages, but I wouldn't want to sell a book that was like this!
And just to return to the Desk...
To the left is a pile of prints, which are drying out. I wrote about how these came into existence in This Post!
To the right there are some greetings cards, with designs from Russian/Soviet matchbox art. In a previous post, I showed a notebook that I had made with a Zebra card...
... I now plan to make a set of these notebooks, as the Zebra looked really good.
As for the rest of the table... well, it's just clutter. But it wouldn't be an authentic Lizzie Desk, if there was no mess!
Anyway, this is my contribution for this week. I hope you'll come back and visit again soon. Meanwhile, once you've finished browsing around on my blog, do return to Julia's Stamping Ground, to see what's going on elsewhere this week.
Thanks for Reading!
LIzzie, it's absolutely lovely. I am glad you treated yourself to the pretty binding :). By the way, have you ever thought about making midori covers and notebooks for the inside? I am sure they would sell really well ... xx
ReplyDeleteOoo! There's an idea... I had seen Midori covers, but forgot about them. I do think about making notebook covers now and then, but so far I haven't really tried that idea. Maybe I will...
DeleteI love to see what you are working on Lizzie and that book you made for yourself is stunning!
ReplyDeleteThat's just beautiful! Love the peacock feathers cover. It's gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteHave a good week,
RosA # 8
Stunning book and lovely that you have made it for yourself. Gorgeous cover.
ReplyDeleteI'm always in ooh and awe over your handbound books... this stitch looks amazing and I've always wanted to bind a book like that. I usually stick to coptic or 'band' bindings but I definitely am going to bind a book like this soon! I hope your day/weekend is as sunny and warm as it is overhere in the Netherlands... sunshiny days and craftyness are the best! happy (belated) woyww and a hug from Holland, Marit #37
ReplyDeleteThank you Marit! The French Linkstitch is very pretty. It's original use was to give a strong binding over tapes, for book blocks that would be inside a hard cover (case binding), but recently a lot of bookbinders have been using it for exposed bindings, with coptic stitch, or just on its own, just because it's pretty.
DeleteIt's also easy to stitch. You sew the first stitch as a long stitch, on the outside of the fold, from one hole to the next. Then, on the next folio /row, you tuck the needle under the previous stitch, which loops the thread round that stitch. As you go on, doing this each time you have a new row, the lovely pattern of twisted, looped stitches emerges. There are a lot of beautiful examples on the Internet. (and it's so funny that loads of us seem to have started doing this, all at the same time... I didn't see any of these books before I started to do link stitch, then suddenly there were loads!)
Loving your new journal. What a nice gift to give yourself. And I'm with you - the zebra turned out great.
ReplyDeleteApril #50
Beautiful book you have made and so impressed that you make them yourself the binding us wonderful hugs Nikki 6
ReplyDeleteOh Lizzie, I think I'm in love!! That peacock feather book is just stunning... What a fabulous piece of work! The binding is so beautiful too. I'd be terrified of writing/drawing anything in such a beautiful book for fear of spoiling it lol!! Just gorgeous...
ReplyDeleteShoshi