Florida inspired

I still have one more canal-inspired book to make but I thought I would make a Florida-inspired one instead.

I can't remember when I dyed and printed this silk noil which I recently tore into 6 inch squares.  I had used Coral Sand and Robin Eggs Blue procion dyes that I had bought from Hilary Beattie.

In a recent online poetry workshop with Sara-Jane Arbury we were looking at list poems.  In particular we looked at 'Blackberries' by Rhiannon Hooson.  The lines of her poem started with 'I bring you' or 'I give you'.

Using that format I wrote 'Shells'.

I bring you shells.
I give you rippled waves on shingle.
I give you sandpipers running in an out.

I bring you boardwalks on sandy tussocks
And searing heat from the sunshine state.
I bring you remembrances of childhood.

I give you the sunrise glinting on tumbling waves
Easter morning dawning, singing
In praise of the risen Lord.

I bring you pelicans flying in formation
Sweeping low across the shoreline.
Daughter-in-heart, I give you shells.

As the fabric had been printed when I was working on Florida based ideas I decided to add the words of my poem onto the pages of the book.

I printed the poem on paper first and cut it up to make sure the font was the right size and the sentences fitted.  I printed the poem onto organza onto which I ironed Mistyfuse. I cut up the sentences and ironed them onto the silk noil.

I made sure that the pages are in the correct order and decided on a 'hinge' for the joining together.  I'm not sure what else to call the joining piece other than a hinge.

I'm a dab hand at thinking about the finishing of a book almost after the fact but with this one I worked on how to join the pages together to make the book.  I used some left over silk noil to make the hinges.  I bonded two pieces of the fabric together.

I had already bonded cotton fabric on the back of each square of silk noil.  I stitched through the fabrics using the printed lines as a guide.  I will then bond the back and front of each page together trapping the hinge inside.

Come back next week to see the finished book.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Completing the tunnel book

The pages were ready.  Now to work out how to make them into a book!

This set of pages were left over from the Folded Book.   I had bonded them together back to back.

I didn't like the tunnel picture on this page so decided to bond a cover to the book using the page as a stiffener.  I also added some more printed bondaweb to the side I liked.

I had cut the cover so that it could contain the pages when folded up.  Before I bonded the page to the cover I inserted a ribbon of the fabric so that it would hinge to the next page.  Below you can see the Bondaweb ironed to the inside of the back cover.

I bonded a thick piece of Lutradur to the inside of the cover and bonded another piece of 'ribbon' before adding another layer of the dyed silk noil.

I bonded some dyed cotton fabric to the back of one of the pages

I inserted another 'ribbon' piece using Bondaweb

I ironed Bondaweb onto the back of another page and then ironed it onto the prepared page and contained the hinge pieces at the same time.

The book closes with the pages folded inside.  Ideally I think it should have buttons and buttonholes but the buttons should have been sewn on before I bonded the page to the cover and I'm not terribly good at buttonholes.  A work-around will come to me at some point!

As you open the book the fourth page shows first

And then page two and three are revealed as you unfold the book.

I have made versions of this style of book before with the ribbon of fabric that holds it all together as one long piece right through.  However I didn't have enough of the fabric to do that so I improvised with small 'hinges'.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Tunnel book

I am calling this silk noil book - Tunnel Book. Mostly so I can identify it amongst the other silk noil books.  The fabric was all torn up and ready to go.

More often than not I start something without knowing the end result.  I know it will be a book and the pages will be of a certain size because I've already prepared the fabric, but from that point on it's a mystery.  Little things like how the pages will be joined together or how the whole book will be finished happen as I go along.  It's not always the best way to work but on the whole it works for me.

As with the previous book I had put pieces of printed bondaweb onto the silk noil pages.

I made small fabric collages on each of the pages.

Then I stitched over the collages using extended fly stitch and sveral different colours and thicknesses of thread.

Next time I will show you how I put all these together as a book.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice