V-Pockets Book Cover

Click on this image to enlarge and to get to page for printing!

        Last Sunday morning  I was trying out different ways of folding 11″ x 17″ paper to make a folded book cover.  When the structure that I’ve drawn out in the document above appeared in my hands I was so excited that I kept making one right after the other, and, thus began my Off To South Africa day of bookmaking.

When I wrote the post about sending off the V-Pockets books that I had made I wondered if anyone would notice and ask about the folding method. I wondered if anyone would ask how to make it, and how long it would take for that inquiry, if ever, to come.

After posting it took me three hours to get back to the computer to look over the post. Bronwyn, who is literally half the world away from me, had already noticed and asked. I was so pleased that I immediately got to work on some sketches and sent them out to her. Here’s an excerpt of her response, which might be helpful to people who work with A3 rather than 11″ x 17″:

“….those instructions – they work perfectly!! I…. got an A3 piece of paper (which is 29.7cm x 42cm) …. and cut it to 22cm x 34 cm – not the same size as yours, but the same proportional dimensions.  I’ve ended up with an 11cm square, so you probably end up with an 5 1/2 inch square.”

So, there you have it, the metric measurements! Roughly, a proportion to keep in mind is that the starting paper proportions should be 1:1.5,  so if your paper is 10 units wide, is should be about 15 units long.

Thank yous to Bronwyn and to the others who asked for instructions on this structure. I hope you enjoy making books (or folders) with these directions.

Off to South Africa

    This past Christmas I received a card from my pal Nancy, celebrating that, in lieu of a gift, she had donated a bicycle, in my name, to a charity which refurbishes and distributes bikes to people whose lives will be enhanced by the acquisition of two-wheeled transportation.

Handmade books bound for Pretoria

    One good turn deserves another: now that Nancy’s birthday is coming up, it has occurred to me to donate some handmade books to students in South Africa whose learning may be enhanced having some new notebooks. Given in Nancy’s name, of course.

 

A Wallpaper Sample Book: these pages are good to use as book covers because they are durable and vinyl-like

 

    These books will be sent to a young man who, as a fourth grader, used to come the book arts classes that I taught at our local library. Back then, this little boy made a real connection to the mechanics and magic of paper-folding Now a college graduate, he is spending two years as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in Africa.

These books cover are made from 11" x 17" , folded in such a way that a both the front and back covers have a V-shaped inside pocket.

 

This young man, James Higby, is a lone American teaching in a rural South African school, having committed to teaching for two years. Honestly, I can’t  relate to what it would be like to be so far from home, for so long,  to have to learn a new language and to make all new social connections. Each one of these challenges in isolation seems managable and exciting, but, all together all at once is something I can not image.  Since I have often seen how little blank books encourage children to write (much like water encourages fish to swim) the books I am sending are my modest way of supporting the work that James is doing.

 

V-pocket book cover, without pages

From what I understand, James gets his mail only on the rare occasion that he visits his mailbox in Pretoria. It takes him a full day of travel to get to his mailbox.

 

The book block is a combination of blank pages, and pages I "harvested" from a thrift store book, which I disassembled

From what I’ve been told,  James visits his mailbox just about once a month.  This leave me feeling nervous about both the time and distance that separates my gift from its destination.  To allay my own discomfort, I am going to affix post-it notes to the books:  my plan is to write quadratic equations and area formulas on to these post-its,  as I imagine, donned with math facts,  my books will be cloaked with a protective aura.

I slid cover weight papers into the pockets, to give the book a more substantial feel

I haven’t yet told Nancy that I am sending these books in lieu of her birthday present.  However, since James is her son, I am confident that she will approve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susan Share at Kenai Peninsula College

By Susan Joy Share, detail

I just received an exquisite postcard from Susan Share, announcing an upcoming show of her recent book work. Here’s the note that came with the postcard:

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to announce my upcoming solo show in Soldotna, Alaska. If you find yourself in the vicinity, please stop in.

This is a show I would love to see. I hope that there will be some on-line coverage of this event. I am green with envy over the luck of the people in Soldotna, Alaska who get to see this show.

How to make a Pipe Cleaner Bound Notebook/Scrapbook

Creating a binding for single sheets of notebook paper elevates groups of papers into something more precious.  I’ve recently written some posts on my current favorite way of binding loose papers. The printable hand-out above goes into detail with the steps of  using a pipe-cleaner binding to make a handsome folder.  When I made this with Indian Lake students we used colored papers for the covers; when the students I worked with in Saratoga Springs made it, we used black covers. Either way,  they looked great.

Click on the image on the left for a black & white version of the above hand-out.

Pipe-Cleaner Bound Notebook

The students have been filling these folder with their collections of pictures and facts. Good, solid, serious stuff. Personally, I have been enjoying just decorating them.