A Travel Present

Here's what I received from my family right before my trip from Romania back to Portugal.
Very appropriate :) Thank you guys!

   

Happy Birthday, Sis!!!

Ok, I know it's not very imaginative from one bookbinder to another, but this year your present is nothing else but a journal :) Still, I wanted it to be special so I made it with handmade paste paper covers and leather spine. You can imagine that it also has a chip in there somewhere so I can track it anytime ;) just like in our childhood, only a bit more sophisticated :)

Happy Birthday dear sis! I miss you and love you very much!!!
 

 

  

Mine all mine

This year I got my own Christmas present - this absolutely fabulous wall clock from Paulaart. Actually Santa came two months earlier as if I didn't snatch it, it would probably hang on someone else's wall by now. I fell in love with it long time ago and when Paula discounted it in the shop I just couldn't resist anymore. It has an amazing story as it's made of a cow watering bowl she got from an old barn in Vermont. The place was demolished shorty after for building something else. So I'm the proud owner not only of a wall clock, but of a piece of history! As Paula said, imagine all the cow tongues that have dipped inside of this bowl! :)

Paula makes contemporary artworks from found and recycled objects. Her work has always fascinated me. She is one of those 'natural born talents' who struggles to live through art without making compromises. She has an interesting blog (one of the few I always read) and very much alive at http://selftaughtartist.blogspot.com/ .

Thank you my friend! I love the inspiring tic-tac of your work!!
  

Great Presents from Great Friends

Here’s what I recently received from two of my friends :) Could any surprise be better for me than vintage leather? I don’t think so! 

The piece of leather is coming from a vintage chair and was offered to me by José, my leather mentor :) It is recovered from an old family chair which he upholstered. It’s a big piece but I’ll use it for only one book, a really special one.

The book cover below is almost 150 years old. I got it from a very good friend of mine who was my colleague in high school. He recently visited me and liked my books so much that offered me this cover. The story behind it is quite interesting, as he got it from an orthodox priest who commissioned him to paint some icons for his church. At the end he offered this cover to my friend, which he kept but never knew what to do with it until he saw my books. I, on the contrary, knew what I want to make with it from the first moment I saw it. I’ll restore it and use it with my first real art book. I’m dreaming and designing this book in my head since more than one year.

Thank you to my great friends for these inspired presents and their support! It means so much to me! I'll be back with photos of the work in progress.