vrijdag 13 maart 2015

bound book L.K. Ludwig style


While I was browsing the internet, I found the website of L.K. Ludwig. Although I have all her books I never searched for her on the net, strangely enough. On her site she has a free tutorial for making a book out of leaflets of paint manufacturers. She uses an interesting stitch: pearl seed stitch.

I wanted to experiment with this, because I hadn't made a book for a long time. So I ran (cycled, actually) to the nearest hardware store and stole (it felt that way for me) some paint leaflets (the ones that fold out).
At first you have to gesso the pages and then paint one layer (scraping with an old creditcard or something like that) and when that's dry paint a darker layer on top. Still wet imprint the paint with a foam stamp that is soaked in water. Leave for 15 seconds and scrape the paint of the page. If all reacts well, an interesting image remains on the page. My gesso was not that good, and my acrylic paint probably a bit too runny, but the result is nevertheless rather attractive.
L.K. has an extensive tutorial of all the steps you have to take.

For the covers I used the paper that I painted on. And because I used yellow cord for the binding I embellished the front with a very yellow sunflower. I don't have a plan for the inside of the book but regard it as an experiment.