more broken

The incredible winds and recent rains have demolished and shredded much of my garden but no large trees or damage to our house. Thank goodness! Sorry no photo - bit sad.

Compared to the shocking experiences of many others in Queensland and Northern New South Wales, we have absolutely nothing to complain about. The devastation of Bunbaberg is just too horrible to contemplate and also the thousands who were just recovering from the cyclone 2 years ago. We sure do live in a land of great contrasts but I can't help feeling that the extremes are getting more frequent. The one in a hundred is now 3 or 4 in a hundred, for some at least. Most of the time we have weather most of my overseas friends dream about.

My garden will grow back and after the rain at great speed in what is left of our summer. The "Indoor days" gave me a chance to play with more little books. For inspiration I visited the blog of my recent book friend Helen Malone http://biblio-tout.blogspot.com.au/. I remembered she had made a beautiful folded book based on a square book inspired by a Japanese card structure.
http://biblio-tout.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/the-square-and-semicircle-book.html

This was meant to be a little trial attempt and then a more "serious" one later.

front cover

opening

As you can see the book is about maps (so why didn't I use the Turkish Map Fold ?) A copy of an old 1596 Venetian map while inside, a map of part of Kakadu national park and also a part of an old forestry map that shows all the different types of trees in this area. I was trying to make some sort of connection between the age of the old European map the old australian map and point to the almost agelessly old area of a part of the country of our indiginous Aborigines. Of course they didn't use maps to get around from one part of our land to the next - they were/are part of the land as encompassed in the difficult (for us) concept of Tjukurpa.

personal map flap

old forestry map

detail NP map

detail National Park map

detail forestry map

My personal drawings are appropriately on the inside of the side flaps and are linked to the other maps visually as well using stamps, images and notes.
























































































The little book hasn't got a name yet so any suggestions would be very welcome. I'm not sure if I can modify this one off to make multiples. Maybe the whole lot on heavier stock and forget about using card for the covers??? Thanks to my mentor Helen, I have made a" little triangular  patchwork book" that works reasonably well.

back cover

kew

"kew" a present for George

Sorry I've been" unblogged" for a little while. This is the first post for a couple of months and the last post for the year. A very happy festive season to all my blog watchers, especially those who are not on my mailing list for a card this year. Thank you all for checking in now and again and all your supportive comments during the year. Let's hope that 2013 is a very healthy, happy year for all of us.

I was about to throw out last years  calendar from Kew Gardens but the beautiful botanical illustrations cried out for a better fate. I've been trying other folds and formats for my little books and here was a perfect opportunity to practise some new ideas.

When we were in London a few years ago, George took us for a  picnic at Kew Gardens and a great tour of the wonderful gardens.
He sends us a calendar every year for Christmas and last year it was the Kew Gardens one. Every month as we turned to a new page, we were reminded of our special time with George in London.

To help keep these memories alive a little longer I've made this little book to send to George.

The book is folded as a star accordion fold with covers of covered  mount board. The little box, which holds the book too, is made from mountboard covered with japanese paper and work from the calendar. The white ribbon stops the whole lot from spilling out and looks rather festive.

Now that the rush of Christmas is over, I'll post this little boxed book and hope it survives it's journey overseas and gives George the same good memories it gave me whilst making it.