Making Books With Children

As I try to anchor myself in the chaos that we are living in, I want to be able to be useful in some way. I started to think back to my days of teaching bookmaking to children and have decided to share some of the material I developed.

I became involved with making books with children after my first child was born. My involvement in the schools began when he was in pre-school and became a full-time career as I traveled from school to school sharing simple bookmaking with children, teachers, and families for over twenty years. The focus was on integrating bookmaking into the curriculum and making learning fun. Since 1999 I have freely shared information and inspiration on my makingbooks.com website. 

I'll be sharing projects and ideas in the coming days. The book above is a slat book based on forms from ancient China. I used recycled materials: cereal box pages covered with a variety of paper pieces from my collage box. I braided yarn and tape from old cassette for the ties.

Bookmaking Poem Project

I recently posted another project from my Keepsake Books series of videos on youtube. You'll learn how to make a simple book for a favorite poem or song. All you need are two sheets of paper, ribbon, yarn, or string, a hole punch, a pair of scissors, and a paper clip. I chose the poem "Praying" by Mary Oliver from her book Thirst.

Click here to view on Youtube

https://bit.ly/3dlY5RM

Trailer for a New Video Series

I have a new video series in the works. It's called Keepsake Books To Celebrate and Commemorate. It is a response to the times we are in. I really enjoyed making the samples and hope you will enjoy making the books. Watch the trailer to see what's coming.

New Video Series Coming: Keepsake Books

I have a logo and 2 sample books. That's enough to announce that I will be making a new series of bookmaking videos–Keepsake Books To Celebrate and Commemorate. Simple construction, recycled materials, easy bookmaking for all ages. Made in response to these times but based on my philosophy of bookmaking from the beginning.

I wrote this in 1989: "She feels that we are surrendering an important part of ourselves when we are only consumers of art and entertainment. She feels strongly that the books she makes as gifts and remembrances for family and friends are as important as those she makes as a professional artist."

Poetry Month-Walking Haiku by Ann McCrea

I have done several books of haiku with poet friends related to a workshop I teach, Keepsake Books: DIY Bookmaking for Writers, Poets, and Graphic Novelists. The binding—punched holes, small sticks, and crochet cotton—was straightforward,

but the layout was complicated. I started by hand-lettering the words

and then scanned in the images. The book was made from two sheets of copy paper. Because we were printing on a color copier, I needed to leave a 1/4" border all around and cut the paper after. I worked in indesign and put the poem on the verso (left ) page with a pale reverse version of the collage as a background and the collage image on the recto (right) page. I always make paper mock-ups of the books. There is no way I could keep track of the placement in indesign.

Here are the pages:

Ann assembled some friends for a binding party and we bound 100 copies in a morning. I believe Ann still has some copies for sale. If you are interested in purchasing one, contact Ann McCrea.

This is the last post for Poetry Month. Studio Sunday will be on vacation for a few weeks and return on May 21. You'll hear from me before then. I have some event info to share.

Poetry Month-Spring Slat Book

Here's a slat book with a spring acrostic poem. It's one of the projects in my Homes for Poems pdf ($5. for download in my etsy shop). There are eight projects, each for a different kind of poem. I created this material as part of my Making Books With Children series, but it works for adults as well.

Homes for Poems on etsy

Lowell Women's Week Book Project

Today's post leading up to the Women's March is about a project I did for Lowell Women's Week in 2012. The theme for the week was All Our Voices. About 250 women and girls made simple books with the prompt of "I am" which were displayed on a clothesline at the Pollard Memorial Library.

You can read about the project here.

You can see images of the books here.

You can learn how to make the basic book here.

May Day Book to Make and Share

We celebrate May Day every year starting early in the morning at a gathering on the banks of the Charles River in Cambridge, MA. We dance and sing from song books are distributed and collected throughout the morning. My favorite is the Padstow May Song which is traditionally sung on May Day in Padstow, Cornwall. Here's a little accordion book for you to print, fold, and color. Part of the refrain is the centerpiece of the accordion and the complete lyrics (at least what we sing in Cambridge) are on the reverse side.

1. Print the pdf. If you want to color in the flowers, I think it is easiest to do that before you fold.

2. Fold the paper in half so it is long and skinny like a hot dog with the writing on the outside.

3. Fold the folded piece in half so that the calligraphy verse is on the outside.

4. Take one layer, flip the edge back to meet the fold, and crease.

5. Turn the paper over and do the same on the other side.

6. Your book is complete. Happy May!

Print the pdf here.

Here's a fan book project using the same verse from from 2012.

A Book to Make for Earth Day

A lot of the book samples I made when I was working with children don't translate into books for adults to make for themselves. I think this one does. The accordion is made from a front or back panel of a brown grocery bag folded in half like a hot dog. There are directions for folding a four page accordion book at makingbooks.com. Because the folded paper gave it thickness, I didn't bother adding a cover. Lately I prefer reading paperbacks (larger format not the smaller mass market size) and am appreciating handmade books without hard covers as well. The book was inspired by the children's book (again not just for children), Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message by Chief Jake Swamp.

Book Arts Tuesday-Women's History Month

Looking back to earlier blog posts, here are two bookmaking projects that relate to Women's History Month.

Grocery Bag Hot Dog Booklet Book about Margaret Knight, the inventor of the flat-bottomed grocery bag. (above)
http://bit.ly/1pn17Lb

Who Am I? Book about Bessie Coleman, the first licensed black aviator in the US.
http://bit.ly/1nhuZHl (below)

Book Arts Tuesday-Making New Year Books

Book Arts Tuesday has been delayed a day because I wanted to share photos and how-to information from last night's New Year Book workshop at the Newburyport Public Library. We used 2015 calendars to say farewell to the old and bring in the new year. The accordion books were what Kojiro Ikegami calls a Double Leaved Album in Japanese Bookbinding. Our books were soft rather than hard cover. All my workshops now fall under the umbrella of what I call "Book-Play." I try to make everything as simple as possible to encourage spontaneity and a playful spirit.

Directions to make a small book from one sheet of paper follow as well as two pdfs that you can download, one with quotes for the new year and one with words I wrote of things we might wish for in the coming year. In the workshop, we made the small sample book and then created books from calendar pages. 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut the paper so that you have eight pieces of paper. We folded the paper in half and cut it to make two pieces. We put those 2 pieces together, folded them in half the long way, and cut them to make 4 pieces. We folded those 4 pieces in half and cut them to make 8 pieces. You will use 6 or 7 of them.

2. Fold 7 pieces in half. If you used recycled paper with writing on one side, the writing on the outside. 

3. Set them up as they will be assembled to make the pages of the book. The two outer pages of the book will be one layer; the rest will be 2 layers and be held together by glue. We used glue sticks.

4. If you have used recycled paper, you will be gluing writing side to writing side. When you start to glue them, you may find yourself getting confused. If you remember that edges always get glued to folds, it will help. 

5. When the 5 pieces have all been glued together, it's time to finish the book by making the outer two pages into covers. You can use one of the folded pieces for each end to make a covers with 3 layers of paper. 

It will be easiest if you glue the front and back separately rather than cover the whole piece with glue and then try to attach it. I like the thicker cover and it works fine for the sample book. However, you may not like this method when it comes to making a book with calendar pages as the cover will also cover the first page. If that doesn't make sense now, it will when you start to work.

The alternative is to cut one of the folded pieces in half, and glue one layer to reach end to make front and back covers.

Your book can be any length you choose. If you use an odd number of folded sections, you will have a clear front and back cover. We cut our calendar pages to make our book pages the same way as the sample. Cut in half, cut those pieces in half, and continue to we had the sizes we wanted. Some people made smaller books, others larger, some tall, some wide. It was fun to have that variety right from the start. In addition to the calendars, I had on hand papers from my collage box, some dried hydrangea and small greens with packing tape to adhere it, and markers.

New Year Quotes PDF

2016 Words PDF

You can see more photos from the workshop on flickr.

More Skull Books

Here's what I love about the internet. I posted a link to Tuesday's post on making Day of the Dead Skull Books on the Book Arts List. Edith forward the link to Laura. Here's what she wrote to me about her eight-year-old daughter Hadley:

My daughter Hadley has been making Day of the Dead booklets for her friends, her teacher, her dance teacher, a friend’s mom, her sister—anyone she can think of! She taught her friend to make one yesterday during our pre-Halloween craft extravaganza. She has been designing the fronts and leaving the rest of the pages open for the recipient to use as a notebook or to add his/her own designs. Thanks for bringing this joy into our lives. Edith kicked off our interest in making books with a personal workshop last spring, and Hadley was very insistent on folding each of these with her bone folder, and getting the corners right.  

I love the simplicity of Hadley's books. I felt the need to cover every skull with pattern and am impressed that she didn't. I know the recipients of her books will have fun with the rest of the pages. Thank you Edith, Laura, and Hadley for sharing.

You can see all the pages of my book on flickr.

Book Arts Tuesday-Garden Fan Book

After a hot day in the garden the most I can muster for a post is a link to a fan book made from garden tags that was published in Rhythm of the Home.

Garden Tag Fan Book

A Book for St. George's Day

St. George's Day is April 23rd. He is the patron saint of several countries including Catalonia in Spain, England, Portugal, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Macedonia. St. George's Day in Catalonia is especially rich as it celebrates three things: St. George who fought and slayed the dragon and the day of the deaths of Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare (April 23, 1616). Boys and men give their girlfriends and wives roses; girls and women give their boyfriends and husbands books.

Here's a simple book to make and share:

You'll need two pieces of paper (it's okay if they have writing on one side), a piece of ribbon or yarn (mine was left over from an chocolate Easter bunny package), a glue stick, a piece of scrap paper, and assorted decorative paper scraps for collage. A piece of candy wrapper foil or a bead for the end of the bookmark is an optional extra.

Follow the directions to make two hot dog booklets.



Insert a piece of scrap paper under the first page of one booklet. Cover the entire surface with glue. Place a piece of ribbon on the top of the book near the spine with the ribbon extending up beyond the book. This will be the bookmark.

Place the other booklet on top lining up the spines. Rub your hand over the surface to help the glue adhere.

Glue assorted pieces of cut and torn paper to the front and the back to make covers. Start with a not too small piece and wrap it around the spine.

Continue gluing on pieces until the front and back are covered.

As an extra touch, wrap a piece of foil from candy around the end of the ribbon or tie a bead to the end. It is helpful but not necessary to place the book under a heavy book or other weight for a few hours.