A Book And An Art Project

I LOVE doing paper craft projects. I have boxes of origami, paper models and pop up projects that I’ve made over the years. When I started working as a props artisan I got to take this to another level. I developed not only my hand skills but learned quickly how to problem solve and anticipate potential problems. Theatrical paper items often require creative solutions for their function on stage to be successful and long lasting. Looking back, this was one of things that led me to traditional bookbinding. Learning how a book is “properly” constructed helped me make more durable prop books by combining it with the materials knowledge I learning from making props.

An aspect of my business I’d like to develop more are making unique book projects. For me, it’s a lot like building a prop book but these objects will likely have a way better life with their new owners than a prop book would onstage. It’s a post for a different time but let’s just say bad things usually befall books on a stage. :) What I really love about projects is the collaboration aspect and coming up with a fun ideas for the request at hand.

So when I opened up my email one day and saw a request for a baby shower book workshop I was intrigued. I never would have put these two ideas together.

What ended up growing out of our conversations was not a workshop but a unique album style storybook binding instead. I’m quite happy with how it all turned out and thought it would make for an interesting post on how it all came together.

It started as a request for a book making/crafting project for a baby shower. The initial idea was to have a baby shower project where everyone would get together and make slip covers for story books. Her friends and family were crafters and artists and she thought this might be a fun group project. That being said, she was also open to ideas on how to actually achieve this as she had never made a book and didn’t really know what it might entail to do something like this.

After taking some time to think over the request I proposed a few different options.

1. Downloading a pdf version of multiple story books that they liked and I would format and print them so the group could learn to bind a simple chapbook style book. They could then decorate the covers of each book.

2. I would teach everyone how to build a simple folded, blank page, book. Think pamphlet style or like a folded program with multiple pages stitched together. Each person would be provided a prompt or lines of nursery rhyme text that could be glued into the new book and the crafting and drawing could begin. All the books could then be left separate or collected into a larger edition at the end.

3. Take a favourite storybook. Digitize it, or buy a digital copy, and create a black and white drawing version of the story. The pages would be removable and each person could decorate a page as they chose. The pages would then be collected back together and rebound into the original story format.

After a little thought the client came back really liking the idea of option #3. I was excited for this choice as it was my favourite option of the three.

Once a book was chosen we refined the idea a bit further. We decided there would be no need for a workshop as I would make the book easy to take apart and be reassemble by my client. The baby shower dates were changing and this allowed for the “decorating” to happen over a longer time span as the client could take the book to multiple gatherings and remove and add pages back in as they liked.

The book chosen was Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram. At this point I feel I should mention that normally I wouldn’t reproduce and make these kind of extreme changes to a book. Not only is the book as the author, illustrator and book company intend it to be presented but there is the matter of copyright and reproduction. The reason I’m ok with doing this is because its for a private collection and for use by this individual and their family only. They own a physical copy of the book and there was absolutely no intention of this book ever being used in a public way to misrepresent the original work.

The choice to be made was how far to go with the black and white version. Do I turn the colourful pages into a grey scale or do I go further and have black line work only. The client thought that the black line work would be a great option as it would allow the family to chose whatever medium they like. Paint. Collage. Stitching. Marker work. Anything really.

A physical book was provided and I scanned the pages on my home scanner and began to digitally edit each spread with Affinity Photo. This work was easily accomplished which meant I only had to do a few touch ups here and there to return bits that had disappeared with the macro editing features. I both love and hate that it’s this easy to modify and edit artwork. Hopefully the traditional illustration gods won’t be too upset with me for doing this.

Next was cutting all the paper down to size and printing the individual spreads out. To keep costs reasonably low I opted to print on my Epson photo printer with archival inks instead of sending the images out to be printed. Also copyright. Not sure if a print shop would be ok with reproducing these modified pages. Plus, I wanted to control the weight and type of paper within a reasonable price point as well. The size of each sheet was roughly 8 x 16 and I could cut each sheet to the finished size and print on it. This saved me time trimming later. The fun part is the making and assembly after all.

The paper chosen was a robust mixed media paper by Fabriano weighing 270 gsm that would be able to handle a variety of media choices from wet, to dry, to stitching if so desired.

The front and back cover were digitized and reproduced exactly as they appear on the original book. I like the idea of this book being a strange twin book. I wanted to retain any scuffs or marks that were unique to the original book. Again, these were printed on my Epson printer but this time onto a thin Japanese paper that would be mounted onto the cover boards of the book. I have done this before for custom cover images and it works wonderfully.

For the book structure I had the idea to use a type of accordion album structure where the spine would allow for pages to be removed and then be added back in via a spine strip. The spine of a book is the most important part. It’s the work horse and the first to wear out. The spine needed to be thin, flexible, durable and preferably white to match the interior pages. I opted for using tyvek. I knew this material was strong and would resist any accidentally aggressive pushing and pulling that might come with the pages being reinserted. It was also the perfect shade of white to match the interior pages.

The connective spine strips were a whole other matter. I went back and forth on what it should be. Another piece of tyvek, heavy card, or something else? I finally landed on a folded piece of polyester film that was rigid, wouldn’t tear and would allow for the decorated illustration to be viewed across the fold . The illustrations also wouldn’t be visually broken up all the way down the spine by an opaque piece of material.

Finally, I added a pasted in paper label with a pale blue border to the back of each spread so the family member or friend artist could sign their name and leave some well wishes for the family and new baby. I thought the blue was a nice nod to blue sky on the book cover and linked it to the rest of the book.

Folding and inserting all the pages of the book came together fairly easy. The final product looked great and was ready to be personalized by my clients and their family and friends. I love the idea of years from now when their child is older they will, not only, have these memories of the being read this story but it’s a lovely time capsule. Each page will have individualized artwork from an important person to the couple along with handwritten well wishes. Hopefully this will stay a cherished family keepsake for years to come.

I truly adored working on this project. My client was gracious with their trust in me and suggestions and I can tell when I delivered it that the two of them will were super excited to have the book and fill it up.

To end off here’s a quick time lapse of the album being assembled.

If you have an idea for a fun project. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I would love to get to know you and make you something fun!

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