January 20, 2007
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A Most Excellent Day
First of all, I encourage you to check out Alias Eliot, a wonderful website made by a dear friend of mine. If you are interested in global issues and humanitarian efforts, please don’t miss this excellent site! There are action items, links, discussion forums, and more.
For Christmas, TGD got me a gift certificate to an afternoon-long, bookbinding class at an art studio near us. I’ve been looking forward to it with great eagerness, and today was finally the day! For over five hours, I got to sit in an art studio and learn how to make different types of books and how to bind them, eat a catered lunch, and actually work on making books.
Although I didn’t really learn a lot of new information in terms of the technical details, I was given a book on loan which explained how to turn me into Mo from Inkheart. (a real, live bookbinder) I vastly enjoyed the relaxation of creating with paper.We were given the instructions and were told, “Okay, make whatever you want, whatever size you want. All the supplies are there.” We had just about everything we would want for art supplies, of course, and all of them were included in the class fee. The first book we made was an accordion book. Here’s the front.
It actually looks really pretty in real life. It’s hard to see the subtle and delicate details online. (Is anyone else piffing and snorting at the thought of anything I make having the words “delicate” and “subtle” attached to it? As if! Okay, it’s just ripped paper with glitter and braided hemp.)
Here’s the back of the book. Since it’s an accordion book, it might be the front.
Because some of my pages had seams where they met, I decorated the inside a bit. This picture shows one decoration.
The book I just showed you was given to LibbyK. Not to ignore Little Miss, I made a book for her as well with a different binding technique. The inside is just blank paper, so here’s the more interesting cover. (The bears are just cut out of paper. I didn’t make them, of course!)
I loved the day. I forget how much I love arts and crafts, especially paper crafts. If you had five hours to spend however you wanted it (with no guilt!), what might you do?
Comments (27)
How wonderful….to spend the afternoon doing something that you love and was looking forward to!! Me- on the other hand, spent the afternoon cleaning the house, scrubbing toilets and ironing.
I’m glad that ONE OF US enjoyed our afternoon!!! (lol)
Your creations are beautiful.
-Cass
I would spend the time writing up a set of elusive mathematical theorems, such as the congruences modulo powers of 5 for two-colored Frobenius partitions that I have wanted to prove for a dozen years or more (hey, you asked!).
Oops, I hit Submit too quickly. I am thrilled that you had a good day. And I think the books you made are wonderful.
Thank you!
hmm… 5 hours… I’d probably be trying to do some extreme catch-up with school.
Nice books. If I had 5 hours I would go skiing in New Hampshire where I skied as a girl. (but it would take longer than 5 hours just to get there)
Make jewelry!
(Your books are beautiful! Since you enjoy paper crafts, you might like this site: http://www.thetoymaker.com)
Looks good! Glad to hear that you had such an excellent day.
Five free hours sounds too good to be true! Probably lying in bed reading a book would take up some of that time…although I might enjoy a little snooze somewhere in there too.
If you had five hours to spend however you wanted it (with no guilt!), what might you do?
All kinds of things: Sew, write, read, crochet, and use my new scroll saw, band saw, and drill press. Or it would be lots of fun to learn to bind books!
God bless you.
The books look very creative! I’m impressed.
If I had 5 hrs w/ no guilt, I’d mostly just enjoy the no guilt!
Actually, whenever I have free time, guilt or no guilt, I usually read!
Oh, yeah, I came over here to tell you that ryc: I’ve never read House, so can’t tell you about that. I thought it looked nasty! I read The Oath by Frank Peretti and couldn’t get it out of my mind for ages–I wonder if it’s kind of like that. I did really love TD’s trilogy (Black, Red, and White) and the Song of the Martyr series–I’m finishing the last one of those now, and it could remind me a bit of This Present Darkness, by FP. TD is seriously into mind games–flashbacks, visions of the future, other parallel worlds, etc, and those always figure into his books somehow. It’s fascinating, but always strange. I am amazed at how he manages to weave some serious spiritual seeking into it, though.
Shop
Oh my daughter would love to so something like that. So Cool– Happy Sunday. I would scrapbook. Marlo
You are so cute! I just read your comment on Homefire. I’ll come back and read this later…
I would either work in my garden or read. Maybe a little of both!
God has given you a talent…..Art.
If I don´t have to do anything else…..I will spend my whole day on the piano or keyboard and play and sing my heart away!
What you made is beautiful! Looks like fun, too. If I have 5 hours to myself to be creative… I would write or make greeting cards. Thanks for visiting my site today. Come back often.
that’s amazing! did rachel react in squealing delight at the sight of a bear-binded book? i sure would have!
sounds like a fun afternoon!
I’d spend five hours at the Hotel Hershey Spa.
Your books are cool, Mary!
Thile
While home alone a few weeks ago, I availed myself to M Girl’s huge selection of acrylic paints. I have no talent, and had never even tried to paint before (even though I had bankrolled the whole collection – so no guilt there!) It was so fun smooshing all thouse lovely blues around on the canvas. I might choose to spend five hours with a patient artist that could show me how to mix paints and other basic techniques. On the other hand – maybe a 5 hour, (after hours – so we had the place to ourselves…) private tour of a *major* art museum – with a charming and informative expert…. I’d even be happy w/ our own National Gallery if the Louvre, Brit National Gallery, or the Uffisi wasn’t available….. OK.. First choice would be the Vatican museums…..No, the Louvre……
^wanders off mumbling to myself^ ~M.E.
o lady . youre starting to scare me. lol jk
Sounds like you had a fun afternoon! How would I spend five hours? Hmmm . . . I’d probably round up Laurie and we’d drink tea and talk and perhaps play chess, or I’d invite a few people over for an afternoon . . . or I’d play archery . . . or something like that.
–K
LOL, I have content now!!
Your subtlety and delicacy continue to astound.
I like your books. I have a book on lapbooks & such that show all that stuff.
Did I see that you were watching the DaVinci Code? What did you think of it? We have some materials that refute it, but feel we should watch that as well (with mixed feelings, of course!).
I’d shop, go out to eat, take a bath, and if it were beach weather I’d relax on the beach for an hour.
Very nice! I wouldn’t mind a bookbinding class–I love creative things, but I’m not very good at thinking up projects myself.
Normally I prefer to photocopy old oop books, but this one is so very brittle I don’t think it would hold up to photocopying, and I don’t want to damage it anymore than it already is. Also, I have toyed with the idea of having it published. It is a wonderful set of history books; maybe others would enjoy them as much as we do.
Well, I finally read this post. Does an accordion book have a fastened edge where the spine would be? They are both very pretty though I’d say the accordion one is my favorite. It makes me want to write something.