Smaller...

I like nothing more than a bit of a personal challenge.

 

 

So when I asked in my last post about making books "I wonder if I can go smaller", the answer is yes I can. Quite a bit smaller...

 

Can you guess how small?

 

Small enough to hide in my palm...

 

In fact as small as a matchbox.(Less than 3 cm square)

 

It has been a while since I made a book in a matchbox and I think of all the dozens I made last year this was definitely the trickiest.

 

I think I might keep this one but I fancy making some more miniatures for my shop. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed making them.

 

Although I'm definitely not going any smaller!

Times Flies

I feel as though the days are flying past this week and already we are hurtling torwards another weekend. So I've been trying to get some jobs done... with mixed degrees of sucess.

 

 

1. Fruit successfully soaked in plenty of brandy (feeling very smug and pleased with myself)... then I went and left the cake in too long last night and it is looking decidedly dark around the edges. (Well, burnt if you must ask). Made the house smell good though.

 

2. Completed a special matchbox book commission in plenty of time for a January wedding and the recipient was delighted... happy about that!

 

3. Made a dozen lavender bags with a seasonal twist in time for a Christmas Fair. Pleased with the results but know I can never charge enough to cover the amount of effort involved so wonder if my time might be better spent!

 

4. Made four pots of Chilli Jam but played about with the recipe and now I think it is far too sweet... why?... why, when I have a perfectly good recipe that everyone in the house likes??? Stupid... that's why!

 

5. Made a beetroot chocolate cake today... still awaiting the verdict on this... yet to be tried! (But I'm keeping quiet about the beetroot bit!).

 

How's your week so far?

Christmas Shopping

I'll be honest... I'm not sorry to see the end of last week, which felt like an entire week of back to back teaching (it wasn't quite but that is how it felt). And much as I love teaching there is a limit to how much packing and unpacking of bags and lugging a sewing machine from venue to venue that I can take. But that said, I've met some lovely people, re-aquainted with others and have seen some amazing work produced by students which is always a joy.

 

 

Another benefit of working with lots of different groups of people is that it sparks ideas and I find myself working in ways I hadn't previously considered, trying out things I hadn't thought about before. Whilst demonstrating and stitching poinsettas for a Christmas garland at Bee Crafty on Thursday... I started to wonder just how small I could make them?

 

Quite small as it happens... this one is barely 3 cm across.

 

And then I got to thinking it might be fun to put one of these on a tiny matchbox which could house a miniature book... because it has been quite a while since I've made any miniature books.

 

And then before I knew it I had made five miniature books each with their own little matchbox case and so my rather empty Etsy shop suddenly has some stock!

 

Five little Christmas themed books...

 

 

which would make perfect little unique stocking fillers.

 

 

And I even made another Christmas Garland.... which may also end up in my shop if we ever get enough light for me to take some decent photos. But meanwhile my mind is still racing with new ideas of how I might use these flowers... but you'll have to wait before I reveal what they might be.

 

***

On a completely different note there is a little game going on... The Compound Word Project devised by Ali... do pay a visit and play along. You can find out how to play here. I'm already stumped!

Rites of Passage

To celebrate the end of my "Fifty Miniature Books" project... I made another book!

This time I used the online sevice Blurb to make a  hardback book about the project with photographs of every single one of the limited edition books from  book number one, "Be my Valentine"

all the way through to book number fifty "Write On".

I've never used this service before but I am delighted with the quality and ease of use. It's also wonderful to have this lasting memento of each of the books I have created.

Of course there have been others as well as this fifty... twenty Jubilee books and eight extra Japanese books (the last remaining few are still available in my Etsy shop and could well be the last ever). And in addition I've had requests for books that came after the original fifty were already spoken for. And that is what I've been doing this week... finishing off the few remaining orders.

A rather delicate little book on the theme of "Hand Stitching"

One of my favourites I think, although it would be hard to pick an absolute favourite. If you are reading Sue... I'll bring to our meeting in September to save the postage!

I really enjoyed creating all the little pages of hand stitches.

There has been another Pisces book, the third one I've made.

This time with fish made with foils (saved from Easter eggs!)

A book about Crows

And finally a book about the Bard...

Filled with favourite quotes... which is another of my favourites.

And now I have only four more to make... and that is it! So if you are waiting, it shouldn't be too long.

In total I will have made eighty six tiny books in matchboxes since February, which is an awful lot of books. I did think I might try to get to one hundred, and I still might, but for now I'm thinking it really is time to move on to something new. I'm mulling about some new ideas concerning "Rites of Passage" but as yet nothing concrete. I'm hoping by closing a door on these books, another one will open... in itself a passage of sorts.

Fifty Shades of...

...Matchbox books.

I've finished! I've reached my target to make fifty miniature books in matchboxes. And before you email me to say "hang on a minute, what about mine..." yes, I know, I still have some to make. But when I first embarked on this project my aim was to make a limited edition of fifty books and those are now complete. In addition I've made some Jubilee books and Japanese books (some of which are still available in my shop) and I've had another dozen or so requests for books which I still have to finish.

But it feels good to have done that fifty! The last few have included another book for a Piscean... decorated with tiny sequins.

One designed to show that moment that dandelions release their seeds which I've named "Make a Wish"

Number 49 was a real challenge with a theme of "Hobbits" - a subject I know nothing about!

 But I'm hoping a box decorated with Hobbit doorways and a book with excerpts from "The Hobbit" will fit the bill.

And the final book was on a theme of "Writing"

With a little origami flutter book of alphabet letters.

And if you are still waiting for your book... I promise they are on their way. I've enjoyed making them so much I think after I have finished the special orders I may well continue to add new books to my Etsy shop as I think of new themes... I'll be sure to let you know if I do!

And the Winners are...

Just popped by to let you know that I've picked some winners...

of the little bag...

the corsage...

and the Japanese book.

I seemed to spend all afternoon copying out names, some of them up to four times depending on the various ways you happen to network with me. I then got my trusty assistant (Stewart) to pick out three names... and so in the order they were picked out... Dotty Cookie has won the bag, Indigo blue has won the corsage and Dandelion Dreamer has won the Japanese Book.

Well done to all three and sorry you couldn't all win something. However, taking a leaf out of Vivienne's book I have decided there will be more stuff given away over the next few months but I will pick people from random from those who happen to comment on a regular basis as I rather like the idea of surprising someone. And I thought I would start with Vivienne who is a loyal follower and regular commenter on my blog... who will also receive one of my corsages.

And should you really be disappointed to have missed out on the Japanese book I have just added the final three to my Etsy shop.

I made a series of 8 Japanese books for my Open Studios, sold four, have given away one and so these are the last three remaining. Japanese stab bound books covered in screen printed papers with origami butterflies on the matchboxes.

I've also dropped the price of the three remaining Jubilee books... when these are gone there will be no more Japanese or Jubilee miniature books... well, not from me at least!