Lundy Island

A lovely little commission for a gorgeous wee lass.  The covers are made using an old ordnance survey map of the Barnstaple area – with Lundy Island given pride of place, as that’s where the couple got engaged.

It was a really nice book to work on, but one thing I did discover was that my desk is not really big enough for some things…

…yeah, I did struggle a bit there, but got there in the end and the finished result was well worth the swearing!

 

The names of the bride and groom, together with the wedding date, were added to the front of the book by hand (imitating the fonts which were used on the invitations).  The book measures approximately 21cm x 15cm, and contains 36 pages (72 sides) of 220gsm cartridge paper; the coptic binding has been done using 100% linen thread.

I still have quite a lot of the map left over, so there may yet be a second installment to this post!

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Carcassonne

A few months ago I was tracked down by a very determined man.  He’d received one of my notebooks from his fiancée, but as I’d not stamped my details in back he had to find me the hard way.  Top marks though, he did manage it, and once he’d found me he had a commission for me!

He wanted a special book made which he could fill with bits and bobs and then give to his bride-to-be as a wedding gift.  They have a shared love of games, so he decided he wanted some tiles from Carcassonne used on the cover.  It took two attempts to send the tiles to me (thanks to some unscrupulous so-and-so at Royal Mail who opened the first envelope…), but they did eventually arrive and the book was made.

Emily and Pete tied the knot this weekend just gone, so congratulations to them!

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Howling Hill House

I’ve done a lot of wedding commissions, but this has to have been my favourite so far.  Not only was it a lot of fun, the venue that the reception is being held at is a place for which I have a huge soft spot: Howling Hill House.

The couple’s very vague brief was this: they wanted the invites to be small notebooks with just a few pages (and a map), if possible the cover should feature the lyrics from a song they love, and it should be vintagey or countryside in theme.  There were only five invites to be made, and each one would be personalised to include the name of the room at Hill House which the guest had been allocated.

After much pondering I came up with the idea to make it sort of scrapbooky/vintagey in style, and here’s the final result.

Because each book only contains six pages I opted for a wrap-around style as experiments showed that binding so few pages in any other style looked a bit odd.  I chose a gorgeous paper by 7Gypsies for the covers, and added the lyrics from their chosen song by hand.

I also added the date of the wedding

The inside of the covers were lined with brown parcel paper, to add to the scrapbook feel.

The pages are a lovely 200gsm cartridge paper, and the couple chose a typewriter style font for the text.

The invites contain two maps.  One is the very pretty map from the Hill House website (pretty, but not actually that accurate), and the other is a little map printed from Google (not so pretty, but a far better aid to navigation).

As an extra touch I made some little envelopes and filled them with heart-shaped confetti that I punched from vintage pages of Romeo & Juliet.  These have been tucked into the back of each invite.

Finally, the invites were fastened with some lovely coarse twine and a button (a different style button for each invitation).

So there we have it, five very unique invitations.

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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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Take an old cigar box…

… strip it down completely, and then rebuild it using vibrant murano papers and the invites and thank you cards from a wedding…

… and what you end up with is a unique and very colourful keepsake box.  A friend sent me her wedding invitation and thank you cards last year together with a note saying that if I could make an item using both cards she’d buy it (and, let’s face it, she’d have to really wouldn’t she? ).  It’s taken me some time to get round to it (it was their 1st anniversary a couple of weeks ago…) but ’tis now done, and I’m mightily chuffed with the result.

Happy anniversary Jen & Sean!

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Crazy for Cuba

I’ve been busy the past week, but not just with my gardening work.  I’ve been burning the candle at both ends to get a wedding commission finished.

My friend Carla approached me about Save the Date cards, and the brief she gave me was this:

I love the style of the buildings and the colours and the whole time-warp feel. Walking down the streets there was Spanish in the air, bird markets and cigar smoke. It was hot, colourful and laid back, salsa beats heard on nearly every corner and a cold mojitos waiting for you in the cool bars. There was also carnivals that seemed to have impromptu parades though the streets.

Instead of making individual cards, I suggested that I create a painting which she could then use to have cards printed – which also meant that she would have the original piece of art to keep forever.

I really enjoyed working on this.  The research was interesting, and I had a great time finding out about Cuba (having never been I was starting from a complete blank!).  I finished the inkwork first, and then took a scan which I sent to the bride-to-be for approval before I started adding the colour (please click on the image to view a larger version):

I have to say that I do rather like the monochrome version!  Colour was desired though, and that was fun too (although a little scary – I was terrified I’d ruin several days work in a second).  The finished version is this:

I’m really pleased with this piece.  I tried to capture the evocative essence of Cuba, but without falling back on too many clichés (so, no Che Guevara or cigars!).  I knew that Carla wanted something vibrant, but I was hoping to achieve that whilst still maintaining a certain subtlety – and I think I’ve managed it.

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Shades of grey

I do enjoy doing commissions for weddings, particularly when I know the bride well.  Joan asked me to create a small guestbook for her wedding, to match her colour scheme of grey and white.  The front cover has been hand inked in silver with the design from her wedding invitations together with text in a soft, flowing script.  The pages alternate between grey and white, and the coptic stitching has been done using a silver embroidery thread.

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Treble word score?

A set of four medium sized Scrabble tile cushions, commissioned as a wedding present.  The smaller cushions pictured are the size I normally do, but this client wanted something a bit bigger (the small ones measure approximately 10cm x 10cm, the larger ones measure approximately 20cm x 20cm).

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Green and gold

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Birds of a feather

A customer commissioned this small book as a belated wedding present. The birds were originally featured on the wedding invites.

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