Some bits and bobs.

Inspiration seems to have returned - at least as far as the monoprints are concerned. Here are a few more of my little samples. The two top left and centre are tissue paper, right top is woven monoprint and magazine pages. Bottom left is the sample I have shown before but now it has its swirl. The final one is monoprinted brown paper again, with holes cut in it and blue fabric behind. There are curtain rings appliqued round the holes.

You may wonder why I have been so consistent with the size. When Cheese Minor went home after his birthday in the summer, he left behind the packaging from his prezzie. The tag has already gone on to my black/white book - and the box now looks like this.

And here are the samples inside it.

At first glance this may not look as if it has anything to do with monoprinting. I used the Gormley heads I produced with cereal box transfer painting, for the covers of a book made by sewing over tapes. The method came from 'Book Arts - Beautiful Bindings for Handmade Books' by Mary Kaye Seckler - except that it is a different size, I didn't make wooden covers, and the structure is slightly different because the cereal box card needed a backing to beef it up a bit.

It is connected to monoprinting because it is a dummy run for a book covered with monoprints. I was going to make a vessel - and I still might - but I saw an inspiring book with what looks like a tape binding in a Val Campbell-Harding book ...

I hadn't made a book like this before - it gives a good result but you could really do with several extra hands while sewing it. Real book makers have a frame for sewing over tapes so I may need to speak nicely to the resident carpentry expert.

And finally - this. If you read Maggie Grey's blog you will know exactly what it s - if not you will think - not for the first time - that I have flipped.

Maggie has instructed her readers to put an old catalogue out into the weather to mature. We don't know why yet but we are so trusting that lots of us have done it. Mmm - maybe I have flipped after all.