Sail the Seven Seas Book Constructed of Wood

A couple weeks ago, I took a class at the Focus on Book Arts Conference from Susan Collard, an architect and book artist. She makes one of a kind books out of wood. I first saw her books at the 23 Sandy Gallery. The construction and creativity in her books really caught my eye.

Over two days, we sawed, drilled, and glued wood to build our books. Check out an overview of our workshop HERE and HERE on Elissa Campbell's blog- Blue Roof Designs.

We completed the basic construction of our books in the workshop. I just finished mine yesterday. This photo is of the book cover and text block. The back spine and inside covers are made of painted tyvek. I used my Dremel tool to carve the book title, Sail the Seven Seas on the painted covers. I learned how to use my Dremel and all of its attachments in Jill Timm's workshop at the book conference.

Here is the book with the text block open.

On the first page, I used a wood burner to draw the schooner.

The next pages include a map on one side and a shadow box with the ship's wheel, porthole and binnacle drawing.

The next pages snap together with a built in magnet with portholes and a drop down compartment.

Here the drop down mirror is open. I want to find something to put inside this compartment.

The last page has another map. This book was simple to make with my new woodshop skills. It gave me a whole new appreciation for how much work Susan puts into her art books.