Recycling

I don't know if any of you are like me but whenever I print something I keep every sample of it and put it in a pile on the desk. Sometimes I print on the back of it or scribble over it but the pile stays there... just growing. Throwing it away is a crime but you cannot recycle it all - or can you? Yesterday the pile seemed to dominate the desk so I thought I'd put it into a recycled notebook or sketchbook. For good measure I threw in some old book pages, some old maps, scraps of prints and painted pages that have not worked but that I could never bring myself to dispose of. I cut the pages the same depth but they are not all the same width. That's not important to me. Similarly I'm not worried about the different weights of paper. I can't use wet media on the copy paper but I can draw into the book if I wanted to with pencil, charcoal, pastel or pen or better still, use it as a base for collage ideas. Some of the pages are empty but at least 75% of them are already coloured on or printed. It eliminates the fear of the 'blank page'.

Because I have a lot of paper I made it a chunky 5 inch square and sewed it over some linen tape. If I made it larger I could use leather or felt strips to sew over. I used waxed linen thread but I could also use tough weaving threads or ribbons. The great thing about books like these is that the choice is entirely up to you and after I finished the text block I even rubber stamped a few pages just to break up the white space even more.

Of course all my scrap paper wasn't ready to fold into 5 inch squares for the signatures so I had to chop and crop. I have not wasted the scraps either. I threw them straight into a bucket of water to break down. Tomorrow I'm going to blitz them in the blender and either dry the pulp to later dye it and make sheets of paper or I will make it up into papier mache pulp as I fancy making something figurative with it. Not sure which way I'll go yet.

More pressing than the pulp is what to do for a cover? I should have thought of that before I started but did not. I always say if I had half a brain I'd be dangerous. Choosing the cover has now become difficult and I've made two choices. First up is this piece of felt made long ago and dyed in an experiment that didn't go to plan (plan? I've already admitted I don't plan so why be surprised it did not work!) If I sew this to the tapes it will be a lovely tactile book and I can sew or decorate the cover too.

But I think my preference is to take the recycling element right to the end of the project. These unprepossessing things are two pieces of board cut from an old collagraph plate that I long ago consigned to the back of the cupboard. It was made when I was doing something about St Davids Cathedral so it was all about church windows. I managed to salvage these two 5 inch square bits and I've coated them in shellac this evening to varnish them. If I use these I can keep the binding exposed and I quite like the stitching so wouldn't mind it showing at all. I think that's what I will do. I can finish this then tomorrow. Trouble is I have so much paper I could make many many more, however I won't fill this one in a hurry. I like to recycle but there are times when perhaps throwing things away might be less problematic!