Dear Everyone ~
In the final fortnight of 2018, I offered four-and-twenty blank books I had made and covered with Serizawa calendar pages from the 1960s and 70s. The buttonhole-stitch books measured 5.75 x 7.75, the largest size I could cover with a single calendar page. The pages, which measure 11-ish x 14.5-ish, were luxe leftovers from the years when I purchased my annual calendar at Aiko’s, my paper home away from home. My two Year of Serizawa series sold out before New Year’s. I had become somewhat mesmerized by the tiny triangular scraps, all of which I’d saved without knowing exactly why. I made a mosaic collage in one of my sketchbooks, and a very limited-edition series of “blooming Serizawa” cards.
Recently a very dear friend decanted in my direction part of his treasure trove of Serizawa calendars from 1962, a particularly lovely vintage. The mulberry paper that the calendars were printed on, one saturated colour at a time, has a cockled texture, yet is incredibly strong as well as tactile.
I’ve been musing on what this incarnation of Serizawa’s could become...and thought how great it would be for students to get to make their own Serizawa-covered book. Then, when I was selecting materials for a private Zoom soft-cover Coptic stitch workshop, I wondered how the calendar pages would look with this style of binding.
It occurred to me that because I had duplicates, I could use two pages to make one book and have the covers mirror each other. I was so smitten with the way it turned out that I've decided to offer twelve private soft-cover Coptic-stitch workshops via Zoom. Now, students can choose their workshop by the month of book they want to make, either for themselves, or for a very nearest or dearest.
Delirium-inspiring bonus: I’ve discovered that making the covers this way, versus with the buttonhole-stitch, yields scraps that are a very different shape! A couple of them can be actual bookmarks (and, yes, the mulberry paper takes ink beautifully, for personalizing).
NEW Workshop: Serizawa soft-cover Coptic stitch via Zoom
All around the mulberry bush, Bari