Books workshop

 My second books workshop is this Friday and I've been making lots of samples for it in an attempt to decide my itinerary. The trouble with me is that one thing always leads to another.... leads to another... etc etc and I suddenly have a list of structures to make that's as long as your arm and requires adding a few hours to the workshop. Remembering the pace of the first workshop and knowing I have the same people attending has helped sort the 'to do' list out and we are going to be focussed on basic accordion structures with a few variants and a few ideas how they can be used. I may make the pocket books seen above but these samples are still works in progress as I refine the way to pull it together so it's more than likely that I'll keep it straightforward (famous last words) and encourage them to think about scale and content. I've made these tiny books as tree ornaments for Christmas instead of cards for some of my friends and they have Jingle Bells printed inside. A simple accordion idea just to give them some ideas. I'm also going to focus on simple decoration like collage and papercutting and making pockets etc but who knows? I have a box full of samples aside from those shown so anything could happen!

In a future workshop I'm thinking of concentrating on books with pockets, folds and hideaways so I made a small sample using a childrens encyclopaedia from the charity shop. It is a lot of faffing about making the envelopes by hand and getting the stitching done before sticking them together but it would take all day and that would mean my lesson plan would be straightforward and would save me spending hours making more of those samples that keep distracting me. I think I'll see how they get on with Friday's tasks before I decide and this time I will remember to take the camera and take photos of their work. I forgot last time and they made some lovely things so my next post will hopefully be the chance to show off their efforts this week.