A Family Affair, cont. Five books finished

Working on a collaboration with other artists sounds like a potentially hazardous situation doesn't it? But when you have a common vision and you are working with people that respect each other, in this case, my brother and mom, it can be a fun and rewarding experience. I had just finished my new workbench, and immediately got started on new books, and now with five times the space I can work with other people.

Mom and Brother helping out.

When it was all said and done we got quite a bit done. Five books were finished, photos were taken, mistakes were definitely made and lessons were learned.

At one point after we finished sewing up all five books I realized that there was a flaw in the engineering creating a weak point on the binding. I got to sew five books twice this day!

 Anyway, you are here for books. You want to see books? I got your books right here.

The first two books finished!

So these books are made using the secret Belgian binding, covered with different cloths as the cover and spines, (except for that black white and red one in the picture there, that's leather). Most of the books have a sewn design that my mom did and a couple for now, (maybe more to come) have some painted artwork on the covers.

About the artwork:

My brother is a phenomenal artist and I asked him what he thought about doing some artwork on the cover and this is what he came up with. I am in the process of putting these up on Etsy, but if you message me ahead of time I'll give you five dollars off. I will be selling these for $30 on Etsy.

Hand painted pelican

Hand painted parrot

Complementary decorative endpapers

Sewing design by Maggie Lightfoot

Notice how the binding allows the book to stay open for an easy journaling/sketching session?

That's it for now, you can see all of these pictures and more at my flickr page. Like and follow me on Facebook if you want (link to the left). Or just say hi here below.