More Darning and Books, Books, Books

the finished piece of darning

now made into a book

The piece of darning finished, lined and neatened with satin stitch, and made into a book.

another book in the making - machine couched threads

another finished book

hand bound style books

folded pocket wallets

As is obvious, I'm slightly obsessed with making books at the moment - I've used the hand stitched bound style for three. This involves making signatures of the pages and binding them together. The hardback outers are covered with fabric, two here are hand dyed or hand printed and I really liked the little piece of japanese fabric for the small one.  The pages are black and white card, hand made paper and cartridge paper painted with brusho.  The darned cover and machine couched cover books are made with soft outers and the spine is tyvek - a small amount is bonded over the centre of the flat piece of fabric before the lining is added - this spine is pierced from the back, in two places, through the pages and then through the front cover and tied - with beads added. This means that pages can be added or removed and is a very useful way to make books and is so quick!  The pages are plain cartridge paper here because I wanted them to be ready for the Wessex Country Market today.

The two other little gems are folded pocket wallets and have numerous little pockets all over and are very useful - I credit Lynda Monk with the idea!