I don’t really know why this structure is called Sewn Boards, but I can tell you that a lot of work goes in to it that winds up being covered up. This is another project with the #HandmadeBookClub, and it was my first experience with using Kraftex. It was also another opportunity to practice precision – I’d give myself a solid B/B- in matching up the edges. The stripey paper is a long-ago gift from my dear friend who sees me and my obsessions and aids and abets me regularly.
I’ve shown this paper before, apparently it’s one of my favorites. I’d already used it for some drop spine and clamshell boxes, along with a small coptic notebook, but I really like the Secret Belgian Binding too (thanks again, @barizakistudio and @rosspressandbindery). In case it’s not already obvious, paper is only one of my many stashes – seems like if it is something that comes in a bunch of colors, I need it, in a bunch of colors.
I made this mala a couple of years ago, and it has seen some hard use lately (can you seen the wear and tear on the stringing?). So, it’s time to repair it. While I’m at it, it’s probably time to make use of these tassels and beads I have in “inventory”. I’d love to say that I can make a few more strictly out of my stash, but like all projects we start with good stash-busting intentions, some new shopping is likely to be in my future.
This is a project that has gotten totally out of control. It’s what happens with a big stack of holiday card boxes and leftover notecards added to a huge stash of found and manipulated papers. Over the years I’ve made a habit of sending as many as 450 holiday cards a year to business contacts, and my favorites came in nice chipboard boxes with magnetic closures (Peter Pauper Press), so of course you can’t throw them away even if they were a great buy. On the other hand, I don’t need a big stack of boxes with pine trees and doves and that kind of thing. So, I learned how to deconstruct them, how to do corners the right way, and got to work. (Thanks to Nicolette Ross of Ross Press and BIndery for my first boxmaking lessons).
That’s how the first stack came about, and they seemed so empty. So, I remembered I also had a stack of notecards left over from workshops I used to do. Problem is that they already had line designs outlined on the front flaps (has to do with a workshop exercise, story for another day). So, collage stash to the rescue.
I didn’t really have a solid plan in advance for what to do with them, but some are in my Etsy store right now, and I still have plenty of raw material to work with, so I think I will be at this for a while.
One of the things I’m enjoying about the Handmade Book Club are the monthly projects. In the club, the monthly projects are usually about learning new structures while over in the free group, Vintage Page Designs, they are theme challenges. This month the theme was poetry. Now I certainly don’t write poetry, and to be honest I don’t even read it very often, but now and then there have been poems that have impacted me deeply. This past year it has been Mary Oliver’s poem about worry. I also don’t letter very well, but I thought I would give it all a try with this project. Here are some pictures of the inside pages.
