Sunday, July 21, 2013

Trinkets and Charms

Trinkets and charms made yesterday - jewelry for the well dressed book

Some days are for making covers and other days are for cutting and dying leather and still other days may be about tearing paper or sewing bindings.   Yesterday was a trinkets and charms day.   Most will be used for adding to bookmarks that I sew into some of the books I make but others might get used on covers.   I love working with the beads and metal and on some books the pairing of metal charms and a leather cover is really quite beautiful.  




Saturday, July 20, 2013

Summer Inspirations




All the black eyed susans around our property inspired this book that's just waiting to be put together and sewn.   The flower on the cover actually ended up more of a coneflower than black eyed susan but the technique of engraving and partial painting on the leather was certainly fresh and summer inspired.

I used acrylic paint on the cover so it will stand up to leather cleaners or conditioners, but the  coneflower on the top end paper is done with watercolors on 140 lb watercolor paper.    The rest of the pages are a mix of papers.

The beads and ribbons are for a bookmark.  I hand painted the yellow wooden beads.



A better picture of the engraving on the cover.



My inspirational bouquet. 
  
At this time of year I can't resist picking just enough flowers to fit into a coffee mug that I can put down  on the table I do all my work on.  I can only do this with a wide bottom mug that I can't knock it over without really working at it.