Lovely new year

Thought I would try to catch a January post before the month whooshed by.  As I was preparing photos for posting, I realized one of the reasons I hadn't been posting regularly.  I updated my Mac operating system a couple of months ago and they changed Iphoto interface.  I haven't gotten comfortable resizing and copying photos with the new version.  I should be posting completed projects more often as I've taken a digital photography course and learned a bit about manual settings on the Nikon, bought a nice background and finished a number of odds and ends.  No excuses, except for lots of distractions and busyness.

So without further ado, here are some highlights from last week's Callaway Garden's trip:

Butterflies at the Butterfly House

More butterflies

Beautiful glass structure with tropical plants in Winter

From the outside!

Inside the chapel

Outside the chapel

My lovely group of friends at the Horticulture Center

Outside the Discovery Center, even in the dead of winter my beloved South is beautiful!

Pendant finish for "Solace"

I made a pendant for an installation called "Solace" in Australia.  They are basically prayer flags and I read about the project on India Flint's blog.  Below are photos of my repurposed cloth napkin, dyed with walnut and sewn by hand.  We were supposed to stitch words of solace and mine were "By the sea".

Photo class and opportunity to play

I've been taking a digital photography class at Education Encore this month.  Grandson had a horseback riding lesson on Saturday so I took the opportunity to take some photos.

Wonderfully patient instructor

Cisco is his favorite horse!

The girl on the right rides the horses bareback at a trot!

Couldn't resist!

Another bookish post

I've been working on books to go into another multi-section (5) slipcase for our TeaBAG challenge.  I wanted to do a pop-up carousel book for a while and wondered if you could tell a story using just 5 pages and 5 books.  First is a photo of the last slipcase with some stamps on it, then construction of a sample (3" X 3") book.

Steampunk stamps on pink

Tool given to me by one of the boys, it came in very handy this week!

Pieces cut and ready for gluing

It took three attempts, but I finally got a sample I liked

I just love the sculptural aspect

Pop-ups to come

Add a slipcover and you have a lovely little accordion book

I recently bought "Playing with Pop-ups: The Art of Dimensional, Moving Paper Designs" by Helen Hiebert and will use ideas from the book.

Also wanted to list a couple of books that had instructions on slipcases.

Hand Bookbinding: A Manual of Instruction by Aldren A. Watson, page 127
Book Art Studio Handbook by Stacie Dolin and Amy Lapidow, page 94 Chapter 5 Enclosures

Ta da!...

This sequence of photos shows gluing up cardstock to each of the bookcloth sections

Cardstock sliped in and glued between book and bookcloth edges

Once dry, fold over cardstock and glue to sandwich the bookcloth

Dry under weight and wax paper

Two of the three sections done

Covers wrapped and finished

Note to self: Next time make sure the sections are square enough to stand on it's own.  This one leans and falls.

View from the bottom, fit is pretty good

Book fits well in sections.  I used a circle punch to make semicircles for extracting book.

Other notes:  I used glimmer mist for decorating cardstock.  It matched the book cloth well, but rubbed off terribly.  I'll need to coat with medium or more paint like decorations to make it able to be handled without turning fingers pink.  You definitely want your books made first to fit the sections to each book.  I also did a google search on slipcases and looked through my books on more instructions.  I'll post a list of references in next post.

More progress photos on multi-section slipcase

I wrapped my book in wax paper

Because you need your book in the case for glueing with weights, I wrapped and taped it in wax paper.

 Each side to each case has two glue steps.  Unfortunately, I didn't get good photos as it is difficult to tell what is what.  You slip the cardstock between the book cloth tabs and your book, then glue the tabs (two ends first then long side) on top.  The next step has you fold over the cardstock and glue on top so that the bookcloth tabs are sandwiched between cardstock.  Clear as mud?  They went together pretty well although there was a bit of gap with the book wrapped in the case.  I think if the cardstock were a scoasch (couple of millimeters) taller and wider it would be squarer.  As it is, the first side is flush with the cardstock and the other end had a bit of gap.  The cardstock fold needed a bit of give around the edges of the bookcloth too.

Here is the first section (center one) glued up

This is one of the outside sections with the first part glued (both steps above) to the bookcloth

Multi-section Slipcase photos

Marie and I have issued a challenge to the TeaBAG book arts guild to make a multi-section slipcase with five pamphlet books.  The theme is Helen Reddy's song "I am Woman".  I've started a sample three section slipcase for the book in the previous post to work out the bugs and make all the mistakes on.  Here are a couple of photos of the sample in process.

Materials cut

Pieces with book used as pattern

I made bookcloth from a fabric remnant and created a paper pattern to test size for bookcloth strips
(this still ended up a tad short)

One of two jigs (can't figure out what Jig B looks like)

Marked center of bookcloth strip and board to place it in the center

Three bookcloth strips glued with boards and ends turned in and glued.