Leather Bound book workshop

I'm not sure what is more fun, making books or teaching book binding. Although this book is a lot of work to make it's well worth the effort and my students this week did an amazing job.

Laurie

Louise

Maggie

Sharon

Sheila

I don't make books all that often and this sure makes me want to see what other kinds I can try.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Leather Bound Book workshop

After promising a few of my students that I would have some fun colours for the Leather Bound book workshop, I was disappointed to find that my usual local leather source no longer had a good supply of scraps to chose from. So the Tin Man and I searched high and low for other sources of leather locally. The Tin Man had us searching second hand stores for previously loved leather clothes. After a few stores I found a few jackets and a pair of red pants that would work. I also had a few friends donate old jackets that they no longer used. Thanks you Lucie and Olive. And I found a wonderful local leather store Zelikovitz Leathers which had, along with other supplies, a great selection of scrap leather as well as some amazing larger pieces for good prices. So, from looking for a few small pieces for books I seem to have accumulated a good selection of leather and possible a new addiction interest in leather. My mind is a spinning with things to do with leather now. Of course teaching this great group of women yesterday just got the gears going more.

Ruth

Sharon

Cindy

Karen

My book started in class.

I even managed to work on a book while demoing in class and finished it this morning. Unfortunately I missed taking a picture of one students book. Sometimes things just get busy!

If you have any interesting things you like to do with leather please share(like I don't have enough ideas flouting around in my head).

Keep Creating!

Wendy

Just part of the journey...and my first tutorial!

For the most part I'm a self taught Artist. I have no formal training other than taking a few workshops here and there. I love to explore and teach myself a variety of techniques.

So when I decided I wanted to combine metal and leather, I just went ahead and got started. It all went well until it was time to attach the copper to the leather. I had seen a few examples of this kind of think on line and my first impression was that the metal had been attached with wire.  After some time fighting with the wire, copper and leather, I discovered that this was not going to be as easy as my brain had led me to believe it would be, as is so often the case. When I get stuck on an idea my best solution is to start doing some google searches. This usually delivers endless suggestions for how something should or could be done. But in this case I came up with next to nothing. Not one tutorial or video to be found. Etsy as usual was a great inspirational source but I could only guess at how some of the lovely leather and metal cuffs had been combined. So it was back to the drawing board. I started to think about any conceivable method of attaching these two elements. It wasn't long before I had a number of methods to try. So I went ahead and tried them all

With this first one I attached it with waxed linen. Something I had handy from doing some book binding. Once the holes were made in the leather and copper I sewed it together. For fun I added some rivets to the leather band with my Crop-a-dile.

The next one I decided to try some mini nuts and screws. I had bought these earlier this year but hadn't tried them yet. Although they are very small to work with they proved to be very easy to use. I was able to cut the extra length of the screw off with my wire cutters and just give the ends a little sanding with my metal file. I will definitely be using these more in some upcoming projects.

On these last two I used rivets and my Crop-a-dile. I was able to use the Crop-a-dile to make the holes in the metal and the leather and then set the rivets. On the tan one I added flowers with more rivets to the band.

I started out thinking if I try lots of different methods for attaching metal to leather, I would at least find one that worked well or that I like. But in the end I discovered three methods that are quite easy to accomplish and I really love the look of.

So what do you think? Which method is your favourite?

And let me know how my first tutorial went. Did I give you enough information or too much? I can take it, let me know how I can improve.

Also if you know of any other methods for this I'd love to hear about them.

Wendy

My week...

Again I've been busy getting ready for an upcoming show this weekend. I'll be at the Uniquely Goulbourn Arts and Crafts show this Sunday from 1-4pm. This is a wonderful little local show that I've been doing for a few years and I really enjoy it. Check out some of the vendors for this year on their blog here.

I bought a bag of leather remnants from a local leather store a few months ago and finally got around to playing with it. Here is a sneak peek at one of the cuffs I will have at the show on Sunday. I've got 4 done so far and they're all different. I'm really loving the leather and have so many ideas for it! 

 This is a card that I was inspired to make after my metal workshop last week. The leaf is a piece I made while demoing for the class. Of course the fall theme emanates right now.

If you didn't get a chance to do my workshops so far this fall, I've add 2 more dates in November. You can check them out on my Workshops page.

Have a wonderful weekend. Hope to see you at the Museum on Sunday.