Denim

I have been wanting to make some denim covered books for a while now, the idea has been percolating until last night when I found an old denim skirt and got out my embroidery cotton.

Turned out that hand stitching the cover was rather time consuming! 

But after a few hours of solid sewing, and some now very sensitive fingertips, the cover was complete! 

All I had to do was add in the text block and a tie closure, a matter of minutes, and simple stitching.

I like the contrast of the rough edges on the inside, it makes it feel more usable to me, the journal isn't perfect, so the notes, thoughts, sketches etc... don't need to be perfect either. It takes the pressure off! 

A couple of gifts...

Before I left Verona I wanted to make a couple of little books to give to my teacher and flatmate. 

I had a bit of black bookcloth that I'd brought with me from England, but wanted to make them a bit more personal.  I had been searching Verona for a cartoleria which sold nice papers, but never found one, maybe there are some further out from the centre. I got some paper from an art shop for the text block, but had no decorative paper for the end papers, so I decided to get a little creative... To me the symbol for Verona has got to be a heart, it is the city of love after all!  I embroidered a little heart onto the bookcloth, and kept the end papers plain... Nice and simple. 

And these are the two finished books,  they're about 5"x 4". 

I had a fun time trying to gather enough heavy things to weigh them down over night while the glue dried! We ended up with every book in the house stacked up on top of these little notebooks!

Biblioteca diocesana del seminario

While i was in Verona I was lucky enough to meet someone who works in the Library at the Seminary, and was able to visit their beautiful library.

The building itself is stunning, with a portico over the main entrance. 

The frescoes are stunning, with zodiac signs on the ceiling, and images of famous philosophers along the walls. 

The Portico terrace over the main entrance

Then we came to the library....

Full of gorgeous books of varying ages. We looked at one of the first encyclopaedias to be printed, a book about Verona and the surrounding area, and the book below, which is a multilingual Bible. All introductions are written in the universal language if the day - Latin, and then there is parallel text in Hebrew, Greek, Persian, Ethiopian, French and more languages. It is such a beautiful book and treasure. 

Some more of the books on display.