Month: August 2017

For more than 35 years I had been lugging an oversized watercolor paper pad from house to house (16 of them), country to country (3 of them) and continent to continent (3 of them).   I had painted on only two of the pages.  One painting was a not entirely convincing portrait of Ian Rush, a legend at Liverpool Football club in the early ’80s, and the second a copy of a cover of a Pink Floyd album.  Both made my kids laugh out loud.

So I decided it was time to ditch the paintings and incorporate the paper into a book.  By now the paper has softened up beautifully – the edges a little worn and dented.  I decided on a larger format book, case bound with multiple signatures.  I’d also make a slip case and use some lovely Japanese paper I’d been saving for something special.

The result is a really satisfyingly tactile book with a lovely weight to it.  The Japanese paper worked perfectly, though I didn’t waste it on the inside of the slip case.