Tacket Book in the Works

 Got a bug to make a Tacket bound book. Very old structure from the 2nd century. The threads on the spine can be snipped to change or replace the pages. Still has practical use.

This is a little Tacket book that was my first, learned in a class a few years back. All hand made paper. About 5" X 6" finished size closed.

 Each signature (Signatures are two or more sheets of paper stacked and folded as a group.)  is sewn into the spine separately, which creates the interesting exterior look.

The little support piece on the inside where each signature is attached is another nice visual element.

                         
For the cover I'm using 2 papers I made using my Gelli Plate. More on that in a later post. Fused them together with EZ Steam fusible web.  Gotta say I love the stuff, Works great for paper as well as fabric.

                       Lots of measuring, templates, cutting of pages, labeling, hole punching ensued.
 

                                

 Here are the 3 signatures, 5 folios each, making 20 pages to a signature in my book.

                  Plus a little practice on wrapping the thread that attaches the signatures to the cover.  It's  wrapped pulled snug then knotted at both ends. An extra layer of paper is added to the spine for added support of the stitching. 

The cover cut, spine folded, waiting for the support piece to be glued.

By the way I love my hand made weights. They come in handy for so many book binding tasks. I'll post pictures of the finished book when completed. 

Happy Monday!

Beautiful Words

 

                                          

 Calligraphy PRACTICE, like playing a musical instrument, is necessary. It's the thing you can get lost in for long periods of time as the ink flows (or not) smoothly on the paper. I don't practice enough. It's something I'm working on rectifying.


Tools. So many choices. You have to try them out. Papers, writing medium, nibs. See what works for you. If something isn't working try changing any or all.

                                   


What to write? It's nice to have words set before you when it's time to practice. Poetry is a great choice. Song lyrics, your own thoughts.

 I saw this poem in Poetry Magazine at my local library the other day. An Explanation of Doily by Gwyneth Lewis. Another favorite is The Jabberwocky from Alice Through the Looking Glass, just the first & last quatrain. Mike Gold taught a class in Kalamazoo and had us use it over & over. Get lost in the letters without worrying about the meaning. Ran across this site, Hello Poetry. Has everything from classics to newbies trying to break into the literary world. I copy & save words of interest I find in my internet wanderings into a word document. If I'm headed to a calligraphy work shop or just need inspiration I print out the one's I want to work from. 

A few of my favorites for ink are seen at the top. Higgins Eternal is a nice wet smooth flowing black. Walnut ink is earlthy, somewhat transparent depending on how thin you apply. MCaffery's Ivory is nice for a light on dark paper. Got mine from Wet Paint. No mixing necessary with those 3 so you can keep the momentum going.

This stuff is gorgeous! Fine Tec metallic water color. There are other color choices as well. An example of the far right color below.

Have a great week end!

A Stitch in Time

I'm back to my obsession with Rust. Time to create a batch of ATCs so I decided to play with shibori style fabric dying with rusty objects I found in the man cave. Wrapped and tied the little tid bits then submerged them in the rust solution recipe seen in a previous post, see featured post link to the left. Above is the fabric with no embellishments and a couple of the items I used for the rust.

I went through my stash of stencils & tried a few out to see what I wanted to use to spice up the piece using Shiva Paintstiks. One of my favorite supplies.

                                    

 This is the entire piece with embroidery that accents the imagery as it stands now.  I'm really enjoying getting back to my textile roots and disappearing into the details of enhancing with thread.  A few close ups below.

We'll have to get back to Calligraphy practice later. I tend to jump around a bit in my endeavors.