The past week or so has seen me working on a hand-made guestbook for my friend Theresa's upcoming wedding. As one of her bridesmaids, she asked if I would make her a guestbook like the one at my own wedding, which was made with love and care by marionv:



The cover was made with a beautiful shiny red fabric, and the spine was stitched by hand. All the interiors were printed up like you see above, so our guests could draw their self-portraits and write little notes beneath them.

I asked Marion to help me make another book for Theresa, and she graciously typed up a list of everything I'd need to buy at the art and bookbinding supply stores, and then came over to help me measure and cut and glue and fold stuff. I am TERRIBLE when it comes to working with my hands--even though I am pretty proficient with a pencil or a brush, things like origami and sewing and yes, bookbinding, are best left to the deft and dexterous.

Still, I was set up with needle and thread and instructions, and over the past 4 days I managed to bind 60 pages together with only a few small blunders. The hardest part for me was actually threading the needle, which had a very small opening in comparison to the large, sturdy thread I was using. I used a lot of beeswax and a lot of bad words. I don't think I'll ever be able to do this on any sort of regular basis!

I'll show pictures of the new book once the wedding is over, in case the bride-to-be happens across this post! It'll be more fun to give her the finished book if she hasn't seen it yet, I think!

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