Sandie had learnt about these when she attended a summer school at Alston Hall led by Frances Pickering. Sandie advised us to consult two books written by Frances-'Page after Page' and 'Under the Cover' as well as others.
Sandie told us that the books were cheap to make using wallpaper lining and pelmet Vilene. She showed us some of her books which were about many different subjects: sheep, Normandy, London, sunflowers and diaries to name but a few. There was even a tiny A-Z.
She set to work to make a book: the pages were made first with wallpaper lining. The size was chosen and a double page was laid out, the edges torn and then it was painted haphazardly with water based dyes (3 colours are enough for this) making any sort of pattern. We all set to work to do this and all sorts of shapes and colours began to appear. | After painting, the pages were laid over each other diagonally and wrapped in a black plastic bag, making sure that the bottom of the bag was wrinkled. This was left to dry for half an hour. |
Next we gathered round to learn how to make the cover of the book. The pelmet Vilene was used for this and cut to size by measuring with the torn pages inside the cover. The cover would be slightly larger than the pages. | Silk paints were used to paint the cover thickly, making sure all the edges were covered and then two coats of acrylic wax painted over this. |
Covers can also be made with Bondaweb and encaustic wax.
We were amazed at all the work produced and hope to make plenty more books for our exhibition next year.