Elvis and the Howling Dogs

Good news! One of the 'unusual books' I mentioned in my last post was on Etsy's front page today thanks to the feature in a stunning treasury made by Fnine.

 
She's such a talented designer and to my surprise, she lives in Romania!
 
Check out her unique embroidered jewelry in her Etsy shop.
 

 

Unusual books

Lately I've been haunted by the idea of elongated books. I'm trying out new proportions, stretching, distorting, searching for the unusual. The idea came to me after seeing a book with uncommon dimensions in the collection of a friend. It was a prayer book, slender and long as it was meant to be hold in the hand. It felt really pleasant and special to have it in my hand so I instantly wanted to create one like it.

A book made out of a vintage glasses case.

Another, made of some very cracky old leather.

And here's one I just finished. My favorite so far, and pretty unusual I'd say.

This last is made of old leather from a Portuguese chair. I had only a small piece which I got from a friend  and used it as it was. It has beautiful irregular edges and the circles are marks left by the nails used in upholstery.

I'm going to play again with this idea for sure. Perhaps try something on horizontal, don't know yet. I like them as objects but can't help to wonder, are they practical too? I haven't tried one like this yet, so I might just go ahead and keep one for myself...  

  

Spring and Shoes

I couldn't take one more step into this spring without a new pair of Machados. Thank you José!

 

Paste Papers

As you probably noticed by now, I'm very curious and experimental when it comes to my art. I'm also in permanent danger of getting hooked to new and new hobbies. I have flirted before with the idea of making my own papers to use for book covers and endpages and it was always such a fun. Yesterday I tried making paste papers for the first time. I won't get into details as to how they are made, as there as plenty of tutorials on the internet but briefly, making paste paper is an historic method to decorate paper by applying a paste made of starch / glycerin / methyl cellulose mixed with colors. The possibilities are infinite - the use of different backgrounds to work on, any type of colors such as ink, paints, pigments, various paper textures and tools, basically anything that can create a pattern - combs, stamps, fingers, etc.

Here are the results of my trials from yesterday. I chose a more 'vintage' color pallet as I want to use these with my old leather books. An overview of each paper sheet (around 12 x 19 inches) at the right and a close-up view at the left.

Book Clasps: getting better

Encouraged by the results of my first experiments with brass and by your wonderful excitement and feedback, I went on with the idea of making my own book clasps. If to the first ones I had to apply some patina as I found the color of new brass too shiny for my vintage leather books, this time I used some pieces of old brass recovered from a broken coffee grinder. I bought it long time ago at a street fair, unfortunately crushed and incomplete, hoping that one day it will be possible to recover or reuse it. I don't want to sell these clasps as they are among my firsts and I don't have much antique brass left to make many more. Honestly, I also fell in love with the book that's wearing them so I decided I'll keep this one to my (selfish) self.