The Round Robin Book is Bound!

It’s done and I’m so happy. I finally got the last page and the back cover finished this morning, so I spent the rest of this afternoon binding the book together.

The book is stitched together with small wooden beads between the pages and then a decorative string of beads running from cover to cover. I originally wanted to do a variation on a coptic bound journal, but my covers were too hard to run the needle up the ‘spine’ so I opted for this binding method instead. I’m quite happy with it as the thickness of the little wooden beads make the spine and open edges sit at the exact same thickness — a sheer fluke rather than planning, but I’ll take it anyway.

The next photo is the whole book together as seen from the front, showing the cover and undercover. The details of how I made the front cover can be found here. I’m amused by the difference in colour between the photos. The original photos were taken mid day in the summer when we have 20 hours of sunlight a day. The current set of photos were taken today in the dead of winter when we have 6 hours of sunlight and the sun doesn’t actually rise above the buildings. But I digress.

Next we have the first spread of the book which shows the back of the cover and the entire undercover. Details on how I printed the fabric on the back of the cover can be found here and details on how I did the undercover can be found here.

The sign-in page follows. The bookmarks are from left to right: Myself, Sylvia, Connie, Dianne, and Becky. Details on how I fashioned my own bookmark can be found here, while details on how I made the page itself can be found here.

The third spread comprises my petroglyphs page (on the left), details of which can be found here and the front of Becky’s (on the right). The flap on Becky’s page opens and shows a stamped image of writing which is framed with trim with netting over top.

Fourth Spread: The left page is the back of Becky’s page showing a table of heiroglyphics. The table is covered in a sheer fabric and stitched with various threads and stitches. The right page is Dianne’s which is paper fabric made up of various script papers, covered in organza and with a secondary Mona Lisa theme (art being a form of communication in itself).

Fifth spread: The left page is the back of Dianne’s page which features a sun and words describing summer done in stitch. The right page is Sylvia’s and is a page of chinese characters and images over which is a layer of sheer glittered red organza. The page is adorned with a fabric bead.

Sixth spread: The left page is the back of Sylvia’s page. She included a quote in each book she worked in. Mine reads “May your cheerful thoughts always overcome the evil one then all willbe sunshine in your life always”. This is covered in a sheer fabric with a script print and decorated with a fabric bead. The right page is Connie’s page which is a tartan with script and other stamped fabrics. The binding also has spript on it, with a bead treatment around the inside edge of the binding.

Seventh spread: The left page is the back of Connie’s page with ‘hello’ in various languages stitched onto the page, hello spelled out in alpha beads along the top and further beading along the inside edge of the binding. The right page is by myself and is a replica of the page I did for Connie’s book. The theme fit both books (mythology and written communication) and I really liked the idea. Details on how I did the Futhark page can be found here.

The following photo is the interior back cover comprising the back undercover and the inside of the back cover. These were done in the same manner as the front cover as mentioned above.

And the last photo is of the back of the bound book.

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my round robin book. I would like to say big thanks to the girls who worked on my book — Connie, Dianne, Becky and Sylvia. And thank you as well to Johoanna who organized this round robin. I really enjoyed it.