The Art of Natural Dye + Book Making - Another Finished Book!

Very happy with the end results of this art book.  The pictures are not in order as completion but I will label each.

Stitching on bric brack to fancy up the plain yellow (tumeric dye) cover.  Also added a flower shaped button and a green center bead, along with a chord.  

Finished the hand sewing of the bric brac.  Happy with the results. 

Decided to add some tiny beading for additional jazz!

Finished the beading and decided to add beads to the wrap around chording.

Just so you know, I stitched in four signatures (page groups) of three pages each!  A total of 48 pages to sketch on, write on, paint on, or just leave empty to enjoy the dyed paper appearance!

Here I am showing you a center page that has been sewed and knotted with the Japanese Stab Binding technique.

Here is a side view of the sewing technique.  Hopefully you can see this well. 

Book Making

Below are three pictures of binding used in book binding.  The procedures for each technique can be found on the internet or better yet, take a class with Delaney Smith.  She teaches at the art leagues in and around Houston!

This one is called pamphlet stitch.  Sorry its so hard to see 

 This stitch is the Japanese stab binding.  Your book will not open flat. 

This one is also Japenese stab binding but with more holes to make the pages hold together better. 

The Art of Natural Dying Paper and Fabric + Book Making

Book Binding . . . 

I enrolled in a class at the local art league for a Book Binding class where we dyed our own paper with natural ingredients.  

The course focused on two simple processes:  natural dye on paper and simple book making techniques.  The technique used for binding the book together was Japanese Stab Binding. 

Here are some photos of the dyed paper:

Indigo

Tumeric

Cochineal (flower from a cactus plant) and the right side of the page is indigo again

The following are swatches from fabric:

This is indigo.  I folded the fabric like a fan and then placed three rubber bands of different sizes around the fanned fabric and immersed in the indigo.  

These four fabrics are Tumeric, Indigo, Cochineal and once again the indigo fanned fabric with rubber bands for design.  

We have also used dyes such as avacado skins, rosemary, blueberry, and red and white onion skins.