A textile book, from a book

Helen is exploring an unusual multimedia project that is proving both enjoyable and intriguing, and quite meditative. She’s making a textile book from ordinary, old discarded hard backed books.

Helen brought in the pages in progress,
and explained the process. 

The coloured cloth is the from the deconstructed covers,
 usually linen, from which the glue has been removed 
by soaking in warm water.

The cloth is then soft and ready to be stitched over batting
and backing, forming individual ‘pages’. Embellishments
include oddments of lace and embroidery,
a shard of sheet music ….

… scraps of fabric and a couched piece of cord …

… stitching, fragments of pages from the original book …

… embroidery and a message from the book …

… a little stitching, or a lot. The soft faded colours are
reminiscent of books you might recall from older family
members’ book collections.