Cutom-Made Book

This is a book that I made for Pratik Chaudhari. A friend of his was leaving India and this was his present to her. It was a very tight time frame, and alot of effort had to be put into the book before its actual construction. Alot of thinking went into it, with regard to content, placement of content, the use of the book, and everything it would contain.
Here is the final result.

The Process

Pre-cutting the cover for pasting. Didn't want to make any mistakes with this one! The picture has already been mounted at this point, and sits behind a cut-out of the letter E.(Pratik's idea!)

The cover after pasting

Detail of the mount.

Constructing the docket. Alot of trial-and-error. But it worked out fine in the end!

Making the envelopes. This took the longest. I had to make them a few times before I got them to score and fold at right angles.

The pen holder.

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The Book


The front face of the book. A photograph mounted beneath the letter E. The paper used is Neem Impression - A beautiful handmade sheet from Tara DA. The paper for the spine is a thick mill-made forest green. The signatures have been sewn using Maroon and Green waxed linen that has been tipped off with coordinating glass beads.



A detail of the spine.



The book open to its front few 'pages'. Printed flags cover the first few folds of the spine.



The next three folds contain three signatures. Two in Olive Green, and one in a textured creme handmade paper, again from Tara DA. The Green signatures both begin with a collection of printed images. The purpose of these two signatures is journal-ling. The creme signatures are filled with writing for the eventual owner of the book by her friends.



The signatures and envelopes.



Every page of the green signatures is hand block-printed with dull gold fish. (The recipient of the book is a Pisces.)



The last two folds of the book, contain the envelopes. One of them has a small picture pasted on it. They are meant to keep any memorabilia or precious things that need safe-keeping.



The docket - containing two letters that were written at the time of making the book, and the pen.

A bookmark was made especially for the book. It has been made using the same paper I used for the cover. The waxed linen has been tipped off using the same beads used for the signatures.

The back of the book contains a mounted picture of Pratik himself.


The front and back of the book, after last minute additions and final touches. (Photo by Pratik)



The entire book, open. (Photo by Pratik)