Studio Sunday-Making a Eulogy Book

I'm just back from my aunt's funeral in Florida where I delivered the eulogy. It was as much a celebration of her life as a mourning of her passing. She was ninety-five and content when she passed.

"An expression of hers lives on in our house: "Well I'll tell ya." If you had visited Trudy any time in the last ten or fifteen years, the one thing she would have been sure to tell you is what a good life she had had."

Today I spent time in the studio putting into a book. For the text, I used US Letter size paper that was folded into fourths. Using what is called a French fold (paper folded in half like a hamburger—as opposed to long and skinny like a hot dog—and then in half again) meant that the paper only needed to be printed on one side.

The book used two sheets of paper. To start, I French folded 2 sheets of paper, wrote out the numerical order, and then opened the papers. It looked like this.

I used the information to lay out the pages in indesign, where I also laid out the cover. I got two covers from each sheet of Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Paper. The flower is a camellia that I had photographed in my aunt's garden. If you don't do a lot of printing, be aware that the quality of the paper has a big effect on the quality of the image. I trimmed the folded and assembled pages on the right side and bottom to make so that they would be a little smaller than the cover.

Then I was ready to assemble the book: pages, cover, a piece of paper marked with pencil to mark where the holes should be, clips to hold the book together, ribbon, and a needle. Traditionally, the holes are made with an awl and the stitching done with a blunt needle, but I was into speed for this project. I still did keep with practice making the holes first and stitching after.

Making the holes:

Starting the stitching (on the outside of the book because I wanted to tie a bow on the outside.):

Ending the stitching:

I share this with the message that is the doing and sharing that is important. My first impulse was to plan a more complicated book that I might never find the time to do. Instead, I chose something simple that can go out in the mail tomorrow.