Commissioned work

I'm lucky to have picked up a few commissions this summer. So far I enjoy that way of working: I know the individual is excited to have the piece (or pieces), they understand the work and time that goes into the box or book so the price is fair and it's a great motivator for me.
A friend brought her daughter over a few weeks ago to see my Penland work and she asked me to make two boxes: one for her daughter and one for her daughter's best friend. They chose paper that has the same pattern but two different colors and wanted the box structure with the "secret page." For the secret part of the box, she sent me an absolutely adorable picture of the two girls, totally best friends! It was so fun to make (her daughter loved it) and it gave me a chance to work on the secret page structure a bit more and improve the hinge.

She also asked for a journal for her husband to celebrate their anniversary. We went into my paper stock and she chose some great lokta paper for the cover and a print of bugs for the fly leaves (the book block is a lined paper). I'm not sure I ever would have thought of that combination, but I really love how it turned out (another fun thing about doing commissioned work!). The structure is a Belgian Secret Binding. Since the book is quite tall (8" high) I increased the number of times that the cover threads ran through the book block threads (the "secret" in the Belgian Secret Binding) to increase the book's overall stability.

A small but important detail: A few weeks ago I was teaching at MCBA and one of my students used the beautiful deckle edge of her lokta paper as a design element in her work. In my mind that deckle edge is one of the loveliest parts of the paper but I usually cut it off when I'm working (generally to get a "square" edge). For this book, I used the deckle on the front and back covers and gave a mental thanks to my student for reminding me how much I love that part of the paper.