Silver & Purple

It’s been a busy week for commissions hasn’t it?!  This is the third and last one for this week, and we’re back to the more usual theme of weddings.

The lady who commissioned this one took a fancy to the metallic fabric that I’ve used for two previous books (Vanilla & Gold, and Pink & Silver) and asked me to create a purple and silver themed book using that.

Which was a simple enough request, but boy did it lead to a rollercoaster of emotion.  I went to the shop where I had originally bought the fabric a couple of years ago, only to find that they no longer had any.  I then rummaged through my studio and thought I had found a sheet of it… which turned out to be a half sheet, not big enough to do both the front and back covers.  Despair set in.  Then, when all seemed lost, I found two (yes, TWO) whole sheets tucked away inside a roll of pink paper.  JOY!

The boards for the covers were covered with a handmade light purple paper, then the silvery fabric, and the inside of the covers was lined with the handmade paper.  The client wants to stick photographs and other things into the book, scrapbook-style, so I went with a loose binding which would allow the book to expand as more contents were added.  Thus I added eyelets to the cover  through which ribbons are threaded, holding the pages in.

The book also closes with ribbon ties which have been threaded through eyelets.  The pages are 220gsm cartridge paper, and there are pages of lilac paper acting as dividers (and to add a little extra interest).  It’s a pretty book, quite elegant in its way but (with the casual ribbon binding) still scrapbookish enough to meet the brief.

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Moonlighting as a personal shopper…

…a slight twist to my usual crafty antics, but a fun challenge!

A friend of mine is currently living overseas, and won’t be home until after Christmas.  She contacted me with a view to getting something for both her sister and her mother.

Her sister’s gift was pretty straightforward.  She wanted a photo album, something “a little bit chintsy, but antique chintsy rather than Cath Kidston.”  This was a bit of a challenge actually, as it’s such a subjective thing!  So we looked at different papers for the cover (all done online, you have to love the internet) and eventually one was chosen and the album was made.  Here it is, antique chintsy covers, red coptic binding, with a gorgeous red lining to complement it.

I’m really pleased with this, as the flowers are red – the images of the paper on the website it was purchased from made it look very pink, so the red was a big relief!

The second commission was something a little bit different.  Her mother had recently started taking art classes, so she wanted me to put together a package of sketching materials (“just basics, but nice basics”) together with a sketchbook.

I happened to have an artist’s box that I wasn’t going to use (brand new, but sadly unloved by me as I keep my bits and pieces all over the place in a very disorganised manner!).  So I checked, and a re-bound Moleskin sketchbook fitted very nicely in the bottom compartment.  So the finished kit comprises a one-of-a-kind sketchbook (made with a recycled Moleskin cover, revamped with a strip of gorgeous fuchsia leather along the spine), three Caran Dache pencils, two drawing pens, eight sheets of pastel paper (two each of four different colours), and two watercolour postcards.  A nice yet simple mixture of materials and tools to play with, and a lovely box to keep them in:

I have to say that I really enjoyed putting this package together, and had a lovely time in the art shop today trying to decide which five pens/pencils I would put in the box (there’s so much choice, and I’m like a child in a sweetshop when I go into an art supply shop).

Of course, as these items will be sent directly to their recipients I’m also in charge of the gift wrapping and cards.  The giftwrap I’ve chosen is a silver, white and black one with snowflakes on it.  Pretty, festive, and elegant.  The cards are handmade, although not by me, and I chose some snowflake cards from gooseberrymoon.

These will be wrapped up and then posted out next week so that they arrive in plenty of time for Christmas.

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