Every year I make a birthday book for a longtime friend, usually choosing materials, images, and words that relate to whatever she and I have been interested in. Last year it was a little quilt posted here. This year it was palm leaf books/wood, New Mexico/pueblo storytelling ceramics, and dreams. We had some silk (that Dianne had dyed) that we didn't use for Letters of Transit, so I co-opted it and sewed a little bag, embroidering a matching image with blue silk thread.
The book is made from Paperwood paper (from Hiromi Paper), which I used for Tree, and the darker one is for upcoming, Birds of the Bible: Raven.
The bag is made from one piece of silk, folded in half.
Stitched wrong sides together, then stitched right sides together.
Top folded down and hemmed twice to accommodate the ribbon.
Careful slits on right and left sides, front and back, only cutting one layer.
Tiny sharp embroidery scissors was perfect for this.
Threaded one ribbon one way, tied.
The other ribbon the other way, tied.
Funny how some things you learn as a kid come back.
From my mom, upon threading new elastic into something, I learned to use a safety pin to guide it along and through.
The structure is the Linked Hinge Binding, the one I dreamed this year.
You can see the Paperwood really is wood backed with paper. It folds okay.
I used Aleene's Tacky Glue to hold down the tabs.
And FW acrylic black ink with a tiny brush for the words and image.
Book in a Bag.
In the dream
the wikipedia pages
are sentient
and Rapunzel protests
she is on
the wrong page.
I am glad
we are on
the same page.
-Alisa Golden
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