It’s finished

probably. There are a couple of things I want to tweak, but they are trivial and it could go to college tomorrow as it is.

So today’s photo[s] are of the book.

As usual, I can’t persuade my camera to show the colour accurately – it is actually matte gold with dribbles of sprayed bronze and gold paint.

I changed my mind about the binding and used sequin waste as a spine. The end result is a bit sloppy – I could fix it by rebinding the signatures closer together but to do that I would have to punch new holes in them and I don’t want to do that. [The actual sewing didn’t take very long but adding the beads did.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited highlights – paper and fabric samples from the monoprinting, markmaking with ink, and sort-of-batik sessions. The pop up allowed me to insert samples which were too wide to go in any other way. The grommets and ribbons are because the pages were a bit boring before. [Beads for the same reason – well, that’s my excuse.]

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More batik, on hand made paper, transfer printing and monoprinting, some with added stitch, and cut paper to use up a nice sample while disguising the fact that it wasn’t a very good sample.

I do seem to have a liking for things which might almost be landscapes.

Of course if you like neat, well bound books you’ll probably hate this. I like both – I'm just better at making messy ones …

You win some, you lose some

but a few days ago I felt that the balance was definitely on the wrong side.

It was all to do with these - over which I had been procrastinating for some time. I wanted to machine embroider the last one, but I have been feeling very unconfident about my free motion embroidery recently and that was discouraging me. In the end I decided not to FME it but to use set stitches. It [top right] is OK, but doesn't have the texture of the others - and of course, I couldn't do French knots by machine. I tried machine eyelets instead, which had a nicely wispy outline, but are flat, of course. I added beads by hand - I know you can do it by machine but I bottled out.

So finishing the embroidery on the not-landscapes was definitely on the winning side of the equation. [Win #1.] I had bought some stretched canvases to mount them on - but the canvases were slightly too big and I had to staple the backing fabric to the sides, not the back. [Loss #1] Then I looked in the stash for some black felt to cover the backs of the canvases. It was too small. [Loss #2.] Never mind, I've got a big piece of white felt. Except I can't find it. [Loss #3.]

In the search for the white felt I found some canvas type stuff that I think came from my father's upholstering days, and decided that would do. [Win #2.] Except that I cut the first two pieces too small. [Loss #4.] Fortunately there was enough left to recut the pieces. [Win #3.] I cut it, hemmed it, started to sew the first piece on - and realised that because I am planning on covering the sides with ribbon to hide the staples - I can staple the canvas on too. [Loss #5.] So now the not-landscapes are piled up waiting for me to raise the enthusiasm to wield the stapler.

However - things are definitely looking up. I have finished this, which restores the balance. This is the cover

and the inside pages.

It was inspired by planets but Wensleydale says it looks like alchemical symbols. It is minimal embroidery again - a few fly stitches, some beads and some machine embroidery to attach the panels to the pages. I was so pleased with it I cut out the pieces for another, slightly bigger book.