Sunday 8 February 2009

Day 26- The Iznik Book Series

IZNIK is the theme for today. Inspired by Kim's Moroccan tables, I had wanted to make minis out of these Iznik ceramic plates I hand carried home all the way from Istanbul 9 years ago.

These plates are so beautiful I have decided that if I can indeed make minis out of them, I will devote an entire room to showcasing my Iznik ceramics.

Since I do not own a convection oven yet and cannot start on my polymer project, I decided I would make reference books on Iznik plates instead and perhaps try my hand on the pottery later.

Making my 9 books on Iznik plates took me 5 days, 4 of which was spent on research and "adobe-ing" the pages of my books. This is the production process:

I had earlier bought a set of antique book templates or cut outs from paperminis. The book covers (which are gorgeous) are from paperminis but I had to create the pages as the antique books came with blank ones. After about 2 days of research, I amassed over 100 designs of Iznik plates. Many of them are museum pieces or Sotheby's collectors' items. I created 12 titles:



Each page has a picture of the plate and a short description. For the museum series, I have also listed the date, style, museum and city. All the books are readable as I will only collect or make readable books.

This is what I did today:
To create the antique look for the pages, I used a tea-bag to sponge the page . I then sipped the tea I made with the "sponge" (before, of course!) while I waited for the paper to dry into a nice, crisp, crinkly brown. Using the craft knife which I love to death, I then cut the "strips" of pages and place them into my Iznik bowl for viewing pleasure.

I used 2 types of glue, Chemitex Gum which cost S$2 for 1.3kg (excellent for gluing the inside pages but pretty useless for glossy photo paper) and PVA Craft Glue for bonding the covers with the pages. I used pretty much the same method I did for making my 1st mini book on Day 19 EXCEPT this time, NO headbands. ALSO, I found a really good material for making the outer page- foil paper commonly found in cigarette boxes. The foil backing feels really similar to the back of a real book!

Below are pictures of the various stages.



If you look at the 1st pic which is of the various glue-drying stages, you can see the book with the 2 golden strips of ribbons. That was my "brilliant" attempt to substitute the "headache inducing headband" in Day 19. After I made 2 books with this method, I discovered the beauty of foil paper and promptly abandoned the ribbons.

12 hours later, yes, it was 1pm-1am, I finished 9 books (1 1/2 "-1" height & width ) and here they are together with "Indian Miniature Paintings" from Day 19 (my camera conked out on me after this shot. Will post better ones when camera recovers).

Taken from a much better camera than my Sony Cybershot, the last pic is of my books on a miniature handwoven carpet that Win gave me.

13 comments:

Sumaiya Mehreen said...

I applaud your unlimited patience ... and wish I lived near you so that I could hold the mini books closer to see the wonderful photos! :)

Sans! said...

Oh Sumaiya, I just posted another 3 far better pics of the books and 2 of them shows the inside. If you live near me, I will be bugging you ever so frequently cos I am quite alone in my passion.. by the way, I am going to make a "coffee table book" of your dolls..and if it is good, I will make an extra copy for you..I still need more practice.

Unknown said...

One of my favourite things about your posts are the colours - everything is so delightfully rich and vibrant! It's such a spectacular project!

Sans! said...

Thanks for popping by J! I am in my "colourful" phase..to think that a long time ago, I only liked blue. I wear only blue, furnished my hostel room blue and just about everything I owned was blue. I went on like that for 5 years!!

Meli Abellán said...

Great work San, what a patience, but the results is extraordinary. I'm glad that now you can understand my blog.
Congratulations for such a well done job, its great.
Kind regards,
Meli

Sans! said...

Thank you Meli for your kind words! I have a long long way to go..

Mercedes Spencer @ Liberty Biberty said...

Your little books are amazing and absolutely beautiful. You have such patience!
Mercedes

Sans! said...

Thank you Mercedes :). I love your summer house too as you already know :). Thank you for coming by and leaving a comment. Really appreciate that.

Mercedes Spencer @ Liberty Biberty said...

Hi San! Thanks for your little blurb about me on Day 20. I really like the way you've done it. The blogosphere is proving a wonderful way to meet lovely people and share ideas.
Thanks so much!
Mercedes

Anonymous said...

I love your books. I also like to have readable books in my dollhouse although they are not all readable, most of them are. Thanks for visiting my blog and I will let you know how the frige and stove come out. I too love wood furniture and that is why I bought that kitchen set as I loved the counters and cupboards but not the frige and stove.

Sans! said...

Hi Doreen, I look forward to reading your post on your books :)

Pubdoll said...

The books are so gorgeous!
I would have loved to be able to see them in real life!
I'm impressed too by your patience and skill!

Sans! said...

Helene, do you think one day you will drop by Singapore? If you do, be sure to email me. I will host you :)!

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