May 2016 - Small Books- Sandie Maher

Our meeting in May found Sandie Maher, one of our own members, leading a workshop about 'Small Books'.
​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.

Then she showed us a wonderful array of lovely books that she had made.  The books were beautiful and everyone got excited about the day ahead.
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.

To dry the covers a hair dryer was used and then they were left to dry off. When dry, running stitches could be sewn round the edge of the whole cover, so that inside could have material attached or dangles sewn on.
​Covers can also be made with Bondaweb and encaustic wax.

After lunch, during which the raffle was drawn, Sandie showed us examples of cut out pages and lettering made with pelmet Vilene and how to make holes in the edges of pages. Then how to wind thread to make cords to use to secure the books. Barbara showed us a winding machine to make four cords at a time as well.

To finish we learnt how to sew the pages into the cover.
​We were amazed at all the work produced and hope to make plenty more books for our exhibition next year.

While the workshop was going on, the small room was a hive of industry with a large attendance of members 'doing their own thing' but what a happy crowd they were! Some beautiful work was being produced by hand and on machine.

The shop and the library were open as usual, and the travelling books were also displayed.

Thanks to Irene Pugmire for writing this month’s blog.