My Booky-Wooks

So here are some books I made for friends of mine. These are a ton of fun to make, I think people like them as gifts, and the more books I make the less likely I am to forget how to do it. (Use the skills or lose 'em, especially if you have a sieve memory like myself.) I try to make these things from salvaged materials as much as possible, because it's cheaper and I don't like a waste. Plus it's fun to find some new source of paper or cloth or something, makes me feel crafty.

Amy's book:

The spine is covered with cloth offcuts I got from some lady who hand-prints her own fabric (one dollar, thank you very much), purple paper for the cover, and the insides are old screenprints of mine (the green and purple houses), letterpressed trees from my internship, and a variety of paper samples from paper companies (nicked those from school).

Sophie's book:

Rainbow in the middle! Everyone loves rainbow. Except when you get to the pages made of red, and then it's hard to write on. But you can skip those.

Liz's book:

Leah's book:

The red and cream cloth for the spine is made from this shirt I got from Goodwill; nice cloth for bookmaking but horrible as an entire large men's shirt. The pages inside are white and cream paper, and there's also some letterpressed pieces left over from my internship - they say 'happy' on them, which I thought was appropriate for a birthday/wedding present, while hopefully not hitting you over the head with it.

Caity's book:

This one has an extra little flap to cover the pages. The edging is some electrical tape I think, I nicked it from my girlfriend because she uses it to secure bar tape on bike handlebars. (And then I borrowed it and used the whole roll. Basically, I am a bad girlfriend.) Anyway, it makes the notebook super durable, but it's flexible so the covers don't warp.

My book:

Made this one for myself to take notes during art history class. This kind of notebook is probably best for taking notes, since I used pretty basic paper. You don't want to use them for drawing, or saving for best. In this one half of it is made out of photocopies of stuff I used for another project. It's architecture, rock formations, and a bunch of other stuff that makes a nice pattern. You can write on the other side.

Plus / Minus

Just got a yummy new CD through the post. It's an EP from one of my new totally fave bands, Buke and Gass. Buke and Gass is pronounced Byook and Gayss, (awkward) - this refers to hybrid instruments, e.g. a bass uke-elele. They are a girl-guy duo, they make their own instruments, they are from Brooklyn, they sound great. The End.

Check out this gorgeously crafted Ep, though. It's called +/-, and all the packaging seems to be hand-printed, which of course I massively appreciate. They also included a free sticker, which is another way to win my heart.






Lovverly! Here's a video of theirs, not of my favourite song maybe, but it is their only vid so far. Here is the Buke and Gass website, also. Check it out. Especially check it out if you enjoy vibrant, vocally awesome, surprisingly, eccentric, rocking rock.