I did see if I could figure out the binding with hidden starts and finishes in Coptic.
At least the spine stitches are neater. Not so with the inside. But I will give up because I do not need any more blank journals to fill.
In looking for cover material, I found this sheet of all cotton paper I made in John Risseeuw’s class in 1994 or 95. He taught at Arrowmont for a week and it was all about making paper and assembling books. Even the paper content had to relate to the text of the book. It was a super workshop that emphasized the importance of doing work that was unique to the maker.
At the time he was deeply involved with making and exhibiting work that was politically based. I was working on a series of coats showing the duress of women in Sarajevo. I still admire his politics long after his retirement from University of Arizona. We share comments and views on Facebook. His views give me hope for another generation down the line….one I am sure to miss because of the catastrophic situation being perpetrating on the world through our government and republican party that will take a generation to mend.
Anyway one of the papers I made that week was from scrap threads from my sewing stash. It came out a lovely lavender color. Lovely to touch. And like all workshop results the paper became precious and unused. Nothing quite worthy of cutting it up! How familiar is that?!
So I used it. Used a rice paste to glue it to double boards inserted between the folio making up the covering. Because I hate waste, the long cuts from the 11″ side are now folded in thirds and will be pasted to make a collar to slip the book into. This is necessary because like most landscape Coptic books, it has a tendency to slide into a fan shape easily.
And because it is 3.5″ by 5.5″ I decided to use it for haiku writings with small illustrations.
It has been hard to concentrate on writing under the dark cloud of politics, so I decided to escape into more children’s stories or poems. That and lose myself in drawings that require concentration. The first story of Ralph was well-received at poetry reading this week. And it occurred to me that I have done this drawing into negative spaces before. Remember “Down the Rabbit Hole”? And the one “Searching for Lost Time”? I wonder if I should hunt up those drawings and publish the stories for a larger audience. I will give that some thought.
I wish I had more pictures in this post. But it has been hot, rainy and reclusive this week. I’ll do better next time.
Til later….