Lace Stories

I've been terrible about the updates, really, I have, but important life things, like moving and finishing with the semester got in the way. Now I'm spending the summer with family, doing more spinning than is probably healthy, and working on a new batch of blank journals.

But I finally forced myself to take some photographs of the book I labored over all semester. Since January, I've been making moack-ups, writing and re-writing text, making loads of paper, knitting, in-designing, and printing. And I'm not even near finished. Of the 30 books in my edition I have exactly one bound. And it doesn't even have the right pastedown paper. Nevertheless, I'm one proud Mama, because Lace Stories is my best book yet. Okay, so it's only my second, but it feels like I've made a lot more ...

Without further delay, here she is:



I knit the lace panel on the front cover from impossibly fine linen I found at habu textiles (their yarns are nothing short of amazing). Nearly the entire book is composed of linen and wool if you don't count the book board and book cloth, and those cute little copper weatherstripp=-09ing nails I found to keep the lace tacked in place. I wanted the materials to refelect the subject matter, and in New England (as well as many, many other places), way back in ye olden days, linsey woolsey was the yarn of choice.



I'm really proud of how my linocuts turned out for this book. At first, I was planning to do all kinds of intricate three-color reductions, but obviously, I changed my mind. I'm glad I did, because in simplifying my imagery, it's more suggestive and it looks a bit more rustic. Also, since I'd alread printed a faint lace background on all the paper (including a lovely rainbow roll that these photos do not do justice), too many colors would have quickly turned this piece from a controlled exploration of color and pattern to a cacophony. I'd already done that with my first book, and I was ready for something else.



The one-color lace linocut is my favorite; I wanted the finished print to look like a woodcut, and I think I succeeded.

Once I actually finish a few to my liking I'll borrow the parents' nikon and make more deserving photographs, but for now all I've got is my sad little outdated, negligible megapixel camera to do the job. In fairness, she didn't do too terribly.

This week I'll be working on enclosures and embroidered title plaquettes, which I'm sure will be lovely. Oh, and I'll be spinning and finishing those blank journals. I'm such a busy girl ...