a slow one...

handmade books are a wonderful thing to hold in your hands...

especially ones that are slightly imperfect

books that are filled with that beautiful Japanese sensibility called wabi sabi

as I've said before, I have a hankering to make such books, books inspired by water, wood and stone 

 and along with that a desire to make bespoke boxes to keep those books in

something special, evocative of what might be found within

before I dove deeply into designing pairings of books and boxes, I wanted first to gain an understanding of the construction and workings of these boxes - there are three varieties in my Japanese book-making book and true to form, my first attempt was with the most complicated

a four-sided box with an inner and outer lid

I started it last summer, carefully planning the size (one that would hold three small books side by side

I found fabric scraps in the desired palette, pieced them on a fine muslin base, added simple embroidery, selected lining papers, and mused about closures - traditional Japanese book boxes have purpose-designed closures but I wanted something different

initially I wanted driftwood but after trialling a few small pieces I realized it was just too fragile in nature to be reliable so I finally settled on broken twigs gathered on the shores of our little lake in the midst of town

today I finished it

many of you will remember me working on the featherstitching, trying to get it to look fragmented and achieving that by stitching the rows and then cutting into the embroidery and unpicking

 

below, the outer lid with a little leaf-stitching and kantha to the right

I left most of the fabrics free of stitching, as always, striving for simplicity

the inner lid, with the featherstitching wrapping onto it along with  little more kantha

and finally the inside

I learned a lot and am making notes of all the things I will try doing differently next time around though I'm still rather pleased with this first effort even though some of the joins are a bit clunky

next up is try a simple wrap-around book box - I've already selected the fabric and cut the board, and as before, I'm making the box before the book

as for the contents of this box... the wheels are turning