3 Books in a Boxed Set

My spouse is a writer who recently produced a memoir of ancestry, childhood and adolescence. The intent was to capture important information and memories that will be available to our children and grandchildren when the time comes for them to show an interest in such things. I offered to put the memoir into book form.
Because of its length it presented planning and design challenges. What resulted was not one book, but 3 volumes for which I created a display/storage box.



The books were inkjet printed on hand torn 90 lb Bienfang Aquademic watercolour paper. This has a nice texture and opacity. Each volume comprised 10-12 signatures bound onto tinted needlepoint canvas using wax coated embroidery thread.



Endpapers and covers were photocollaged using images from family albums and scrapbooks.



The box was lined and covered with photocollaged images reflecting significant events and cultural icons of the time period covered in the memoir. Being the 1950's -1970's the effect is decidedly retro!


Sorry I don't have a good photo of the insides.

Models and experiments

It's always a good idea to try out new ideas, materials and techniques by creating a model before embarking on a project. That way the limitations and possibilities of different materials and approaches can be explored and refined. It helps to avoid making expensive mistakes down the road! And it offers a creative way of recycling prints and paintings that haven't worked out well enough for display or sale.




This is a basic codex with 3 signatures sewn together at the spine and protected by a hard cover at front, back and spine. There is some text inside, but what's special about this is the cover. It was cut from a "failed" watercolour monoprint and although the surface is smooth it takes on the appearance of a textured leather. The cover is protected with spray-on workable fixative.



These two models were prepared to test a binding technique for the "Wanderer" project. They are blank books each with 10 signatures of cream premium bond paper sewn onto a needlepoint canvas spine. The smaller book is bound with a weaving warp yarn, while the larger is bound with embroidery thread coated with beeswax. Covers were created from mat board covered with "failed" collagraph prints. As the prints were created using etching inks I thought it would be safe to seal the covers with some kind of varnish. I tried water based varathane on these models with good results so far....