A bit of a giveaway....updated

I've mentioned before some of the magazines that I subscribe to or like to buy. If you don't know it already let me introduce you to 'Bound and Lettered' which is published in Canada by John Neal Booksellers. It started out life as 'Tabellae Ansatae' and was the brainchild of book artist Shereen La Plantz before changing its name a couple of years ago. If you're interested in book arts, paper arts or calligraphy this is a great magazine to look through. I used to buy it for many years from a small bookshop in London, its only UK distributor, but they retired and I now just purchase quarterly online. Due to a mix -up with my current order I have been sent a recent copy as a goodwill gesture, but it's a copy I already have, so I have told them I will pass it on to someone who is interested in the same sort of things as me. So, if anyone reading this wants my free copy please e mail me or leave a comment. Should there be more than one request I'll put the names in the hat at the end of the week .



This is not so much of a giveaway, more of a 'pay it forward' type of thing I suppose but a project I've been playing about with this week is definitely the product of a 'giveaway'. The 'giveaway' in question is a paint chart from Farrow and Ball, a left over from some recent decorating we have done.

It struck me how good a quality the paper was and that it was evenly and crisply folded - the great base for an accordion book and no measuring and cutting to do! First thing I did was collage some old book pages onto the front and back. They came from an old gardening encyclopaedia which had lots of fern pictures so I made sure they were postioned on the mountain folds.

Once the collaging was done I took some bracken from the garden - there is a surfeit of it after all - and made up some green printing ink which I then rollered onto the fronds before pressing them on the pages. I only did a small amount of type stamping on it before adding some hard covers and making a slip case to hold it together. The extra paper gave the paint chart a bit of 'spring' and it works better within some sort of enclosure. The slip cover was a discarded monoprint using the bracken. I painted acrylic wax onto the print but because I had used water based printing ink originally it all smeared! Not to be daunted I covered my tracks with some more bracken prints using a gold stamp pad. The print was a trifle short in length but I am not bothered. It performs the function I need it to do!

It's not a brilliant work of art but it does show you that the means to make books is within your grasp if you look around. This sort of paint chart could be cut in half or cut shorter so it lends itself to other structures. It is also the perfect shape to make a flag book with. I think I'll do that example next as I have another paint chart I can use. Please note I am not advocating a wholesale rampage through the DIY store grabbing charts you don't need but I am encouraging you to look at things you already have and that you may be going to discard with new eyes and if you want to try making books and read that magazine... just let me know!

Thanks everyone who e mailed or left a comment. I put the names in a bag this morning and my assistant (aka my better half) pulled Dan's name from it. There's obviously a keen interest in making books and lettering out there and I'm sorry that I've only got the one magazine. I shall look forward to seeing what creations it might inspire Dan to produce!