Clematis as a Source

These books are addicitive and I see a number of people trying out Traci's book ideas and I thought I would share my latest book with you.

Using my Clematis photographs as a source I have been working on another book.

I was having a bit of difficulty hand stitching the signatures on the last book as they were all different sizes and they kept slipping. This time I have used coloured papers (A4 folded in half to give an A5 size) just as I did the last time. I bought a couple of boxes of these papers/cards from a place called The Paper Mill Shop. You fill a box with all sorts of papers and card and it's about £6 a box, if my memory serves me right. Needless to say I filled two boxes knowing they would come in handy for something.

I wanted to experiment with different ideas and the thought of using hand painted papers didn't appeal as I wasn't sure I would get a usable book in the end. I made 5 signatures, or sections, with 5 pieces of paper in each. I decided to machine stitch them together using a 3mm stitch. It was easy and the pages are held together well.

I also found it a bit fiddly machine stitching the spine to the book cover and I had one of my "what if" moments the other day. Sadly I had finished rag rugging the spine so couldn't try out my initial idea.

I decided to attach the spine to some pelmet vilene before I started constructing the book.

Here is the inside of the cover. I also attached the signatures to the cover differently. I did some research on traditional bookbinding techniques. I used a simple binding. Using some lutrador, because it's strong and thin, I cut three small strips and glued them across the spine with an overlap of about 1" to hold the signatures together, I held it together with some clothes pegs whilst the glue was drying. Once it was dry I glued another strip of Lutrador all the way down the spine again leaving it all to dry.

I glued the first and last pages of the signatures to the book "cover". I used Fabri Tac glue as it's nice and strong but I think PVA glue would do the job.

The next time I will add the pelmet vilene and then do the rag rugging. I was thinking it might be possible to make up the whole of the book cover and do the rag rugging as a final step. I will try it and let you know if it works.
The cover was made from my clematis photo printed on fabric and attached to Fast2Fuse and then satin stitched. The covers were then glued in place and I stitched a straight stitch down the left hand side right next to the satin stitching to give the covers extra strength.

Finally I glued end papers to the inside front and back covers to make everything neat and tidy. The next time I do this I will stitch the pelmet binding to the canvas for the spine so that the spine is on top of the vilene I think this might be better.

Whilst working on the previous book I had another idea. I have used Punchinella (sequin waste) for the spineof this small book. I have stitched it to pelmet vilene.
Using the Punchinella as a stencil I painted some hand dyed fabric and cut a piece of punchinella to decorate the front cover. I have another piece painted a little differently that I was going to use for the back cover but I have decided to make a second book using it as the front cover, I think it was too nice for the back.

I have an idea for decorating the spine but I need to do some experimenting first. I just wanted you to share my thought processes. If you have any ideas on how to decorate the spine I would love to hear them. At the moment I am thinking weaving and large beads. Food for thought?