Bidding closes with an Open House Sun 21st August - UPDATED

Open House

Venue - 10 Garth End, Collingham, Wetherby. LS22 5BH.

Date - Sunday 21st August

Time - 12-4pm

SUNDAY 21ST AUGUST (NOT Saturday 27th August) is the date set for the end of the auction of the 50 books, and at this point I will be able to inform everyone if they have 'won' the book or books they are bidding on. I am holding an Open House in Collingham, 12 - 4pm. You are welcome to come and browse the books, have some refreshments and look through other small items for sale (candle holders and cards).

Tell your friends and family. Tell complete strangers!

Books still awaiting a bid and a good home

I am delighted that as of today the cumulative bidding currently stands at just over £840! A tribute to the generosity of so many people! And some of the books still do not have any bids on them, so if you are interested these books would still like a good home to go to!

Book number 8, Cream and hessian

A generously sized book measuring 20 x 19.5cm with pages made from heavyweight cartridge paper. Simple in its form and look and perhaps not as colourful as others, it has a visible stitched spine with beads attached.

Book number 9, Family hands

One of the more unusual books as each page is formed as a hand and it represents different members of my family. The cover is decorated in decoupage with fragments of colourful papers.
It measures 25 x 20 cm and perhaps needs a family member to take notice!

Book number 17, Borrowers' Turquoise

A tiny version of a book, perfect for borrowers! It measures 3 x 3 cm and has an assortment of quirky pages made from photocopied paper with random printing & marbled fabric.

Book number 19, Inner silence

The simplest of books made to hold this lovely quote from Thich nhat Hanh, "inner silence does not require outer silence". 

It measures 15 x 14 cm.

Book number 33, circular book

Perhaps the most unusual book as it is never-ending. All the pages are stitched together to form a circle so there is no cover to this book. It measures 5.5 x 13 cm.

Book number 39, Coptic marbling

A plain notebook with lilac coloured pages and coptic binding on the spine. It has a soft cover in the same paper as the pages, decorated with paper that is a photocopy of small squares of marbled fabric.

It measures 10.5 x 15 cm.

Only six books needing a bid, hope you enjoy looking at them!

50 books update

Thank you so much to the people on the Miracle of Mindfulness: Being Peace retreat who have generously upped the bidding on many of the books, where they were on display last week.

The current bidding for all books stands at £771! Wow!

And there is still time to make a bid as the auction doesn't close until 27th August.

Please have a look through the previous posts for details of the individual books and you can add a comment to the bottom of the post for a bid or email me, lauribooks@gmail.com

I will let you know how the bids are going and particularly if you are outbid.

At the moment some books don't have a bid on them ... yet!

These are numbers 8, 9, 17, 19, 30, 32, 33, 37, 39 and 42.

Lots of books have a bidding war going on!

Happy bidding! :)

Book number 51, How long does it take?

Current bid for this book stands at £10
This is an addition to the original 50 books as I made this one after someone asking how long it takes to make a book. The book measures 11 x 15.5cm with 92 pages of cartridge paper and a ribbon bookmark with a heart attached.
It is the simplest form of book-making with pages divided into signatures and sewn together then glued down the spine and attached to the covers.

How long does it take to make a book? - part 2

How long does it take to make a book?
How long does it take to grow a tree
to create the wood that can be cut down
to make the pulp to form the paper?
How many years of practising and learning
the art of book-binding to produce
this book I offer to you?

They say it takes
10,000 hours to produce a craftsman
10,000 hours of working it out and
trying it this way or exploring that way
getting it wrong as well as getting it right.
More to learn from the mistakes I make
next time try this
instead of doing it that way, do this.

How many hours of choosing paper and card
of building up stock
so I can look at my shelves and pick
this for the pages
this for the cover?
How many books have I read to learn this art?
How many hours of practising, investigating
of 'what if' and 'maybe'?
How many hours to develop muscle memory
so the hands know what to do without
engaging the brain?
How many hours does it take to make a book?

© 4 May 16

How long does it take to make a book?

 My friend asked this question recently, as she said it might be helpful in giving people an idea of what to bid for a book. I couldn't answer the question at the time as I haven't made one this year so I made one yesterday and today to check. Of course each book is individual but this should give you some idea of the time and processes involved in making each book.

This is the simplest form of book, pages put together in sections called signatures,
sewn together and attached to the cover. 

It starts with sheets of paper and a selection of card.

 The all important bag of accessories - 

from which the various equipment emerges - 

Cutting the paper to the correct size is the first step, 

using a metal ruler to slice the paper and leave lovely rough edges

Now the signatures, 6 double pages per signature, 

are ready for sewing holes in their spines.

Holes are pencil marked ready to be stabbed.

Making the holes

Starting to sew the signatures together

Signatures sewn together, ready for gluing.

At this stage it goes into the book press.

And the scrim that holds the spine together is glued in place.

The signatures are now left in the book press overnight to set.

Meanwhile, the cover can be prepared.

The pages are measured with precise millimetres added to work out the size for each card cover.

The card covers and spine are cut.

A selection of gorgeous papers to choose from to decorate the cover.

The equipment for the cover.

Gluing the corners down

Preparing the triangles for the front cover

The cover is now ready for pressing

with vital kebab sticks to press the spine neatly

As the book press is occupied I use a pile of books to press the cover overnight.

Now everything rests under weights overnight for the glue to set.

It is important to let the glue dry properly before the final stage of assembling

the signatures inside the cover.

And here is the finished book, with a ribbon bookmark and heart attached

 Another view of the finished book.

So how long does it take? 

This took 2 hours 16 minutes without the pressing time overnight.

But bear in mind this is the simplest form of book, with no added text or printing or embellishments!

Bidding is open!

Happy to say that bidding is now open for the books. And the auction will close on Sunday 28th August. Some of the books already have bids on them as I was able to display them on a retreat I was on last week. You can view each of the books on the posts below and I will update each post when a bid is offered or raised. Obviously I am hoping to raise as much money as possible for Plum Village (http://plumvillage.org/ ) so I really hope people will be generous with their bids. I will let you know if you have been outbid and want to raise your bid. Please contact me on lauribooks@gmail.com if you have any questions or queries, or want to make a bid. You can also bid by leaving a comment on the particular post for each book. I will need your name and email address to accept a bid.
The books will be on display at The Miracle of Mindfulness: Being Peace retreat at Stourbridge from 30th May - 3rd June http://www.coiuk.org/events/miracle-of-mindfulness-being-peace/ and hopefully some other places (yet to be decided) before bidding closes. Over the weekend of 27th & 28th August the books will be on display at on open house (my house) which you are welcome to visit. More details coming later.
I'm very excited that this project is coming to fruition and I hope lots of people will be able to get as much joy out of owning a book as I have out of making them.