Beautiful Decay

Fall may be my favorite time of year. The colors in our neck of the woods are so beautiful. I collect leaves every year at their peak, then discard them back to whence they came when they shrivel.

  I'm so taken with certain flowers in their decline. Thistle and Queen Anne's lace in particular.

 

       Spent some time yesterday making stencils of the images from spent blooms. I have plans for some large fabric vessels with these & other images on the cloth.

Often Mother Nature creates the best compositions on her own.

Tacket Book Reveal

 Done!  Now I've gotten my feet wet again with this structure there will be a series of them as I enjoy the process & it's a good way to put the new Gelli prints to good use. More pictures of the book process next time.


I took a Gelli Plate printing class with the Pendragons 2 weeks ago. The Pendragons are a fantastic group of calligraphers. I'm a member, but I'm an infant compared to them in the lettering arts. The link above is to our Facebook page. About 6 posts down there are a bunch of pictures from our play day with the Gelli Plates.
Lorrie Granger Adbo  was our instructor. A very fun spontaneous messy day.

A few examples of the results.

Old book pages end up being a great substrate for the prints.

                                               

Me posing for a photo op for the Facebook page.while unpacking for the day. 

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!