1st Artist Book!

I am a bit late at posting this but here it is - my first artist book - "Walk with a Blind Man" by Razvan Supuran.

The project took place in November last year at Atelierul de Carte from the Romanian Peasant Museum. I first went there to learn how to make handmade paper but the idea of making a book with Razvan was immediately born. The book was written by him, and illustrated and hand-bound by me. It was printed on handmade recycled paper and published in a small edition of 30 copies. We made it in a record time of three weeks which was only possible due to the joined efforts of the Atelier's wonderful team. I'm grateful to Razvan for giving me this opportunity, I learned many things from him and was inspired by his creative spirit. This project came into being thanks to two other people who put a great deal of effort and time into it - Catalin Buzoianu, who produced each beautiful sheet of paper in this book and Raluca Popescu, who printed it out. The fun atmosphere, the inspiring space, everything contributed in a way to the making of this book. I had a wonderful time, it was truly a great experience. So thank you, guys!

Here are some photos during the making :-)

Sketching sketching sketching... I kind of lost my practice at it!

Catalin teaching me how to make paper. Awesome!

The atelier with Alex and Raluca at work

Paper drying

All printed and ready to be bound

All bound and ready to be cased in

Working, cold November at the museum :-)

Stacked, awaiting for the hole

 Binding around the hole - not as easy as I thought!

All piled up and waiting for the letterpress printing

 Letterpress block for printing the cover - Razvan made magic with this one!

Fresh out of the press. Razvan evaluating.


And finally, the book!

 

I see :-) 

More pics of the book on Flickr and Facebook, and now the book is available in my Etsy shop!
 

New work

Lately I've been drawn into making square books. I like that shape, it leaves plenty of space for creativity with the design. It's also great when left simple.

The Labyrint

 

An Old Secret 

  

Burnished Brown

 

 

 Morning Romance 

 

The Mysterious Tome 

    

New Giveaway!

I'm celebrating 200 Facebook page likes with a new giveaway. It takes place on my fan page so make sure to go over there and enter it by March 12th! This time I tried to make the challenge to enter it a bit more fun, so there's a story being written by everyone who participates! So far not necessarily coherent, but lots of fun!

Win this book!

  

Saturday's Fair Finds

You all probably know by now that I love old apothecary bottles. They appear in almost each photo of my books. I've been collecting them since quite a while but it's getting harder and harder to find them at the flea markets here in Portugal at a reasonable price. What I don't remember is if I ever mentioned to you my other big passion that goes hand in hand with the first, which is collecting artist pigments. I have studied them in school and I was fascinated by their history and evolution. A few years ago, together with my boyfriend who's also a conservator, we started a small collection which has been growing and growing...

Last Saturday at the flea market I got incredibly lucky! Look at these marvelous bottles filled with pigments and dyes! They belonged to an old pharmacy in Porto that recently closed. When I bought them they were all dirty and covered in red powder from one bottle that lost its cap. I couldn't even read their labels. I was just happy to find them and bought them immediately. I thought all were red pigments. At home when I started to clean them, all these beautiful colors were revealed. It turns out that they are samples of old pigments and dyes from England and Germany. It's really great for us to be able to add them to our collection!

Natural, synthetic, mineral, organic, modern, historic... we got it!
And this is just a small part of it :)

     

A Surprise in the Mail!

She did it again!!! My wonderful sister Anca always manages to surprise me with something :) I just could not believe when I received in the mail these fabulous metal letters. It's my first letters set, and what better fit for my books other than Old English style.

She got them from Corinne at 6catsVintage. Her shop is closed at the moment but make sure to check back when she opens for a variety of vintage bookbinding goodies!

Thanks so much sis!! You're the BEST! xxx