I had the most wonderful and productive day. I arose this morning to a cool day with a light rain falling. I have been toying with the idea of making my own watercolor sketchbook after looking over some of the reloaded books like: Shirley's Paper and Threads, Jan's In my Spare Time, and Martha's Trumpetvine Travels on their blogs.
Fortunately I have done some bookbinding and already have all the supplies in my studio. I just needed a book to re-love. So I headed downtown Riverside to the only used book store I know and found 2 great books. One of Degas (which I couldn't bear to take apart) and the other 'Art Centers of the World: New York' I came home and quickly got to work.
I kept all the color plates in the book and incorporated them into the 11 signatures. I used arches 90# hot and cold press and 140# cold press for my signatures. I loved he end papers in the book which is a map of New York and location of all it's museums. I found the sewing to be relaxing as I listened to a new audio book "Albert Einstein."
After the photos for this blog entry the book is resting under several heavy nursing and art books to dry for a few days. I can't wait to start using it. If I love it I will have to make another for my trip to Europe next fall.
Oh, as a side note: While downtown I treated myself to a nice authentic Mexican meal at my favorite: The Tamale Factory and then went out in the light drizzle to sketch one of my favorite boutiques with my new mechanical pencil !
Good day, just plain good!
this is lovely. and inspiring. thanks for sharing. make sure you show us the new art that you create within those pages!
lshannon
That does sound like a creative and fulfilling day!
Great job on the sketchbook. I'm not sure I would have the courage to take a book apart, but the end result must be so rewarding.
That's inspiring! Good idea, and you appear to have done a neat job. Can't wait to look inside it.
Marta,
I LOVE it! What a beautiful book! I can't wait to see the pages after you start filling them up!
Looks great! I'm glad you enjoyed making it so much. I loved making mine. But be careful! I now have a huge stack of books that "I will make into sketchbooks one day"! It's addictive.
Cool Marta, you have been very hard on yourself lately so maybe a fresh book will give you a fresh start, you are too talented to waste time!!
What a great project! I like that you used more than one kind of paper in the book. And nice little sketch there too.
(Also love the slideshow - I'll have to try that myself!)
I love this idea. Thanks for sharing the info on how to do it. It's such a great idea to get an interesting used book for the cover!