It was a beautiful day here in Pittsburgh today, filled with sunshine that now, as evening approaches has given way to clouds and wind. I'm sitting on my front porch using my toy computer. Carol complained I haven't been writing; I'm trying to do better.

I've begun working on my Japan book. I spent too much time on the China book; Japan seems very far away. I'm trying to work on the cover at the same time I layout the contents. I plan to use photo transfer and stitchery again, putting it all on a piece of the beautiful gray obi. I'll be going to NYC soon and I can take the cover with me. 

This is the picture I will probably use, stitching the tree, the bits of grass lower right and a bit of the red leaves in the background. I am also considering the following two pictures.

BTW, I wasn't sure what the obi fabric was. My stitchery teacher pronounced it silk without a moments hesitation, but having  paid only ten dollars for it, I was not so certain. I took a small sample with me when I went to San Francisco and asked one of the sales people in Britex what she thought. She first guessed cotton, but then did a flame test on it and proclaimed it silk. I read about flame tests but don't think I would have determined anything if I had done it.

I'm reading a book about a woman traveling alone in Japan in 1878: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan by Isabella Bird. It actually tells more about British prejudices of the time than it does about Japan. Of course, she didn't travel alone: she had a young Japanese man as her companion. That's obviously what I need if I go again.

Everything is completed except for drilling five holes and sewing the Japanese style binding. My page layout was done in Adobe InDesign. I copied all of the posts, comments and pertinent emails, along with the photos I originally posted and some additional materials. Here is a sample page with comments on the side:

This page has emails in the sidebar:

Page with additional material. Most of these materials were linked in the blog.

The book has 144 pages, printed on both sides. I am trying to maintain a Japanese spirit in it. Here I have used binder clamps to hold the pages together, then created paper clamps at the top and bottom of the left hand side of the stack. The piece of white paper is shielding the pages from the binder clamps. The paper clamps, which are decorative only, are made of Japanese paper I bought years ago at Aiko’s Art Materials in Chicago.

Using more of this paper, I created endpapers that will go under the covers.

I cut boards for the covers about one-half inch larger than the inside papers. I then cut one-half inch off of what would become the left, binding side, of the boards, and glued this piece about a quarter inch away from the board. Holes will be drilled in that space, allowing the pages to open more easily. I’m sorry I forgot to photograph the boards so you could see the placement of the extra space. This type of binding is usually finished with soft covers that would not require the extra space.

Here is the finished cover, a truly global effort. The picture is actually a quilt (3 layers) made of fabrics I brought back from Japan with the addition of a few bits of silk I had from others sources. I sewed it down to the handmade paper from Japan, using thread I bought in Paris, many years ago. The little beads are probably from India and merit a post of their own; someday I’ll write it.

I am almost finished laying out the book: 143 pages. I added some extra pictures and all of the pertinent emails and chats I had in Japan. I want to check out all of the pages; add a few more pictures in some of the blank spaces; add an afterword that I will also post on the website; then print out the whole thing. Then comes the fun part: binding. I bought a small plastic bag filled with tiny fabric scraps at the flea market in Kyoto. I plan to use some of those fabrics with handmade paper I bought at Itoya in Tokyo. I’ll post pictures when I’m finished.