Over the last two Saturdays, I was lucky enough to take part in a bookmaking workshop with Jenny Black, a retired art teacher and current artist who creates beautiful work.
We started with plain white paper - 90 gsm and 200 gsm, for different parts of the book - and ended up with handmade, beautifully bound books.
I loved the way that we coloured our paper using procion dyes. By painting, dropping dye on the paper, splattering, and mixing colours the papers took on different personalities. Mine were coloured with green, blue, teal and purple, and just a hint of pink, all the jewel tones that I adore. Other ladies used autumn tones creating books that tone beautifully with the colours of the Australian bush.
In addition to the colours of the dye, Jenny taught us how to "trap" objects on the paper and use these to create patterns. I think her favourite things to trap are leaves, and we all used a variety of leaves from our gardens to create patterns. We also used things like bubble wrap and the net bags that onions are packed in! Cling wrap also makes beautiful patterns on the paper.
Once the paper had dried, we planned the layout of our books and cut the papers to fit. (We had already cut the white pages for our books.) Then it was time to assemble and learn how to sew the papers in their signatures into our books.
Mine is a small portrait journal, in A5 size, and I love it! I haven't written in it yet so it still has its pristine "newness". The other ladies in the workshop made such beautiful books too, some in A4 portrait and one in A4 landscape. I can't wait to make more books!
We started with plain white paper - 90 gsm and 200 gsm, for different parts of the book - and ended up with handmade, beautifully bound books.
I loved the way that we coloured our paper using procion dyes. By painting, dropping dye on the paper, splattering, and mixing colours the papers took on different personalities. Mine were coloured with green, blue, teal and purple, and just a hint of pink, all the jewel tones that I adore. Other ladies used autumn tones creating books that tone beautifully with the colours of the Australian bush.
In addition to the colours of the dye, Jenny taught us how to "trap" objects on the paper and use these to create patterns. I think her favourite things to trap are leaves, and we all used a variety of leaves from our gardens to create patterns. We also used things like bubble wrap and the net bags that onions are packed in! Cling wrap also makes beautiful patterns on the paper.
Once the paper had dried, we planned the layout of our books and cut the papers to fit. (We had already cut the white pages for our books.) Then it was time to assemble and learn how to sew the papers in their signatures into our books.
Mine is a small portrait journal, in A5 size, and I love it! I haven't written in it yet so it still has its pristine "newness". The other ladies in the workshop made such beautiful books too, some in A4 portrait and one in A4 landscape. I can't wait to make more books!