Using the paper to make books.  FB.

Image of a miniature book below.
Made in Nov 2000.
Plus a book made in March 2001

Miniature Book
This is the very first book I made using my own hand-made paper.
It's a miniature at about 3 and a half inches wide and 5 inches tall.  I used a polystyrene former with an oval cut out of it. A dark red piece of silk was stuck to the board where it would show through the oval.  Then the paper was stuck to the surface of the polystyrene cut to fit the oval and stuck underneath it, then the former was stuck to the board, and lastly the edges of the paper were curled around the board thus covering both former and board in one go.

Tricky that bit, but the final effect was worth the fiddle.  Continued below:

Making a miniature book cont'

Lastly the cord was stuck down around the oval and then the shells were fixed inside the oval. then the back cover was made - but without using a former - a skeleton leaf was placed artistically on the back and then the pages were cut and holes drilled using a bradawl with bluetack behind to protect my table!

Then came another fiddley bit threading the string through the holes and around the pealed and sanded stick used as a "spine".

The flecks of red onion skin in the paper show up rather nicely I think.  FB

Here is the Ivy Book that failed.  A nice idea and I am going to try again - but this time with leaves soaked in glycerin.  This first effort, while it doesn't look too bad in the image on the right was only just beginning to deteriorate.  The crocosmia leaves (used for the strip down the left edge) have only a few little slits here but now there are many more.  

The ivy leaves have shrunk - despite my painting them with varnish in an attempt to preserve them.  In shrinking they have exposed the polystyrene former beneath - it shows around the leaf edges and in a couple of places the leaves have actually cracked right across the middle.  

Lastly and by far the worst in my opinion, the barely visible dark brown stains have spread and darkened.

Here on the right is a close up of the new crack - beastly isn't it?

There's more damage on the left, both cracks in the crocosmia, and showing the shrinkage of the ivy.  I could cry!

On a happier note here, on the right is a later front cover this time covered with newer red paper.  This just finished drying only a few days before this picture was taken.

I have used both this red and the earlier pale buff paper with the red onion skins in it - you can see this down the spine edge.  

Inside the oval is edged with gold paper (no, I didn't make this, I bought it, sorry!) and inset is a dried poppy seed head from 2000's crop in my garden.

The dark purple skeleton leaves look good against the lighter red, don't you think?  FB

This is the newest hand-made book I've made, and is made almost entirely of natural items, the leaf skeletons (from Thailand) the stick, (from my garden) the miniature pine cones are from the lane (before the foot & mouth problem cut off our access to lanes and footpaths) the shells are from the local beach (still accessible, thank goodness!).
    The paper covering was made from white paper pulp and a small piece of black denim - cut into about 1 inch squares before being wizzed up in the goblet of my blender.
    So the only unnatural item is the piece of russet coloured satin that I "borrowed" from my eldest daughter's scrap cloth box.
    Oh - and the polystyrene former that allowed me to inset the oval "picture" - but you can't see that, only its effect, so we won't mention it, eh?