Medieval books and Spring Blossoms

My friend Karen asked me to create book covers for fabric Gothic Arch pages that were created for an art group swap. She commissioned me to create front and back covers and the binding for the book. I am finding that I am having great fun with personal projects like this one as they are all unique, I am given creative license and I know that my work will be appreciated.

Here are the front (left) and back(right) covers of Karen's book.

The background of these covers is fabric/paper covering Timtex interfacing. The central medallions are pieces fo tortured felt that has been stamped and embossed in gold and then sewn with beads to the fabric/paper covers. On the fron the lower section is silk (from a men's tie purchased at Goodwil) and then gold trim and more beads and tyvek pieces sewn on with brass flowers were added to embellish the silk. The covers were edged with bias red crushed velvet and attached with beading thread and tiny seed pearls. The center medallion on the back is highlighted with a rhinestone and pearl vintage earring.

The inside covers are much more subdued!!

Now for the binding of the book!!

Each page had a leather hinge attached that I glued on to both sides of the page. Once the glue was dry I stitched thru the leather and the page and added some decorative gold seed beads to be sure that the hinge was secure. Thru each leather piece I added an eyelet that was used to string leather cord.thru. The pages were thus held together by the leather cord traveling thru the eyelets that were in each leather hinge. For the covers I added an extra eyelet and strung the two covers together using some wonderful silk ribbons from my stash. I am very happy with how this turned out and I think that I was able to give it a very medieval styling. I must also say that this whole project wias inspired by Beryl Taylor's wonderful work. If you do not know of her fabulous book Mixed Media Explorations, you can check it out here!

Here is a side view of the binding.

The silk ribbons attaching the covers serve as a nice covering for all of the hinges that connect the individual pages.

I must tell you that Karen was thrilled with her book! I had to be careful about where I presented it to her as she has a habit of getting extremely excited and vocal in her enthusiasm, which is great if you know what is going on!!!

More of my favorite flowers are opening up to their true glories in my garden. The air is perfumed with Lily-of-the-Valley, one of my most favorite flowers. It was such a treat to discover that it had been planted by the previous owners. I am in the process of moving it all over the property! All of the iris that I moved with us from Oklahma are really getting settled in very well. They say taht after three years perennial plants really are comfy in their surroundings and take off. Well ,the iris are spectacular this year and they are just starting to bloom.

Here you can also see the old fashinedcolumbine that are blooming in every shade ot white pink and purple imaginable! I sprinked seeds collected from my friend Rebecca's garden, two years ago. It takes awhile for the plants to grow to a size when they will bloom. This is the year!!! the yard looks like it is full of hovering pink butterflys, as from a distance one cannot see the delicate stems that hold the flower heads up high above the foliage.

Today I noticed that the pink iris will probably begin their display tomorrow morning! I hope that you will not grow tired of seeing these blooms as I never tire of watching the garden unfurl!!

Happy Spring everyone!!