Not many folks would want to share their first adventures (misadventures) on a project like this, but I learned so much in the process, that I felt it could be a learning experience for lots of others too.
During this same time, we were having a conversation online (in the New Idea Exchange Yahoo Group) about the value of showing the mistakes as well as successes in projects.
So, here was a good place to start doing just that. This was a very complicated project, but it does break down into manageable parts - each of which contains some interesting discoveries about the mediums and techniques involved. There were several “headaches” along the way, but finding the “aspirin” to cure them led me in some valuable new directions.
So even if you aren’t interested in making a Match Book, the structures may be useful for books on other themes. And if you don’t want to make books at all, these techniques may be useful in any number of projects.
Supplies and materials will be listed in the section in which they are used.
This project was done for a Book Challenge Show sponsored by the Handmade Books Group on Yahoo. (See the Show).
The challenge was to interpret the theme “Match Book” in whatever way you wished as long as the resulting art was a handmade book of some kind. My first thought was the obvious one - making a book that closed like a match book cover - maybe with pages that depicted things or colors that matched.
However, I was soon carried away with the whole thing and had come up with a much more elaborate idea - what about a whole collection of matchbooks, each dealing with some well known “match” phrases?
In my first visualization, the matchbook covers were translucent, and you could see a brilliant primary color though each one - on the inside pages. So the collection would look like a rainbow.
I wanted to use Sheer Heaven for the translucent covers, but quickly found out, by folding some samples, that it did not have enough “body”. This was my first lesson - there had to be a real stiffness to the cover in order for it to tuck inside the strikeplate flap and close correctly.
So I searched the studio for a more suitable material - which could still give me bright rainbow color on the outside. I found a large pad of artist oil painting paper that seemed to be just right - and my Match Book adventure began:
