This is my second bookbinding effort, and this post includes images of the book in various stages of construction, but firstly the final results:







I used the book “More making Books by Hand” by Donna and Peter Thomas as a guide to the basic construction. Ok, so now some of the different stages and components of my book, to give you and idea how it was created:

Text block: 6 signatures, 192 blank pages.


Hand sewn headband


Cross stitch skull for cover:


Nearly there:


Spine covers attached:


Hope you guys like:)  for a few more pics check out:
http://richmadethis.wordpress.com/2009/05/24/skull-journal/

I have worked at the National Library of New Zealand for nearly three years, and I it is rubbing off on me. A part of my job includes mending books from the general lending collections, and through this I have become more familiar with the construction of books.

I decided it would be good to make a book at home, and this my first attempt. I used two tutorials to work from: the book, The Crafter Culture Handbook by Amy Spencer which helped with the stitching and a video tutorial on Youtube which I can’t find at the moment (there is so many about bookbinding there).

It is made up of four signatures of four leaves, of nice textured paper, so it will make a great sketchbook/travel book as it is A6. I actually used material from a pair of trousers to cover the boards. The corners and spine have been covered in binding tape stuff to hopefully make it more durable. I had an old bat stencil, and that ended up working well for the cover.

What do you guys think?

Ok, so I'm no Cross Stitch Ninja  but I love retro game designs, and me being a New Zealander who was pretty excited to play game called 'New Zealand Story' as a young kid (even if it is pretty stretched in it's interpretation of New Zealand), I decided to cross stitch Tiki the kiwi. Hope you like:)



For a look at the game history etc:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Zealand_Story

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8859

http://www.mobygames.com/game/new-zealand-story

I'm a big film geek, and thought I would make a stencil for the Lost Highway film, by David Lynch. Put together from two promotional images, and filtered in Photoshop. It took a long time to cut out, a painfully long time, but the end result is pretty cool...

This:


+ this


=



Sorry the photos are pretty bad, just using a video camera.
Thanks for looking,
Rich

These I made over the past year, some of them have been sold around craft markets in Wellington, New Zealand. They take anywhere between 5mins and 40mins to make:) enjoy!

something more than a machine!

Hi everyone, this is my first attempt at creating a soft toy, and I'm incredibly happy with the results! I started by sketching my designs on graph paper, and it quickly became apparent this guy wasn't going to be easy to make, as I wanted quite a 3d shape to him. I actually made a small prototype out of paper just to make sure all the folds connected in the right place. It is put together out of four main bits of felt and a lot of hand stitching(I probably spent twenty hours on him!) then adding the extra details like buttons and facial features.

I hope you enjoy! plus please do suggest a name for my robot, as I'm yet to name him.