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.
I decided, at least for now, to house the 31 March collage-a-day pieces into their own little handmade box. This one is a drop spine, and I have to admit the collage on top isn’t from March first, it is one with the best color-coordination!
Here’s a little 2 needle Coptic book made with homemade bookcloth. I make bookcloth using the Heat N Bond and tissue paper method, and it’s a great way to use up the huge stash of fabric I have and give me more color and pattern options.
This is not my first handmade book, but my first project with the #handmadebookclub. Ali Manning has put together a great community and I’m looking forward to making it part of my creative practice and creative community.