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Stonehenge Paper: A Test
I retest Stonehenge paper for binding projects.
Marcia Engeltjes—Maker of Fantastical Bound Books
Above: A sampling of the whimsical and exquisite leather bound books Marcia Engeltjes creates. Image ©Marcia Engeltjes. Books can be art objects, Marcia Engeltjes proves this everyday when she binds her lovely leather bound journals and albums. Collage elements, hardware, souvenirs, photos, it all makes its way onto these book covers. As you can see […]
Adventures in Book Binding: The Tableful of Nideggen Journals
Above: the full batch of regular size Nideggen journals. Click on the image to view an enlargement.
The above photo of mine doesn't do justice to the range of colors in the books' fabric and decorative papers, but people following the current saga of the Nideggen batch of books will enjoy this overview of the completed books. (The two smaller books made in this batch were shown on my July 6 post.)
There is something wonderful that happens when you get that cloth and decorative paper wrapped around a bookboard! Papers that might have looked "marginal" before simple glow in their new incarnation. (To see the papers before they were bound see my July 3 post.) This is of course a great argument for making more and more books and seeing how this transformation happens. Before you discount a dubious piece of decorative paper I hope you'll push forward and discover this for yourself as well. My students are always pleasantly amazed and I am always thrilled with their results.
Paper Choices: Fitting the Paper to the Technique
Above: Two journals I made this week using a purple bookcloth and decorative papers I made with Fabriano Uno Soft Press 140 lb. watercolor paper (a discontinued paper) and acrylic paints. Right—7 x 8.5 inches, “frost” pattern; left—8 3/8 x 10 5/8 inches, loose swirls of color. Click on the image to see an enlargement.
When I stopped to take a photo for my journal (I like to document book batches with swatches of materials used and photos of the resultant books as a record and reminder) of two new journals that had just come out from drying under weights, I realized they gave me the opportunity to talk about paper choices in a concrete way.