For the first time in a long time, I am excited about a simple lesson that caught the attention of all but maybe two of my students. If I had to ask myself why, it was the process and the end results. A very professional looking book made by the student themselves. In the past we have used simple folders with pockets, folders punched with holes, then held together with yarn. Not long ago one of my teachers had her advanced students do something different. I was excited about the process of making the sketchbooks/journals and got all of the teachers involved with the process. As we each began using it with one class, we all decided to use it for all classes. That only lead to each of us perfecting the process in our own ways. It really became a small contest to see which teacher was able to do better than the others. I must say, my students sketchbooks RULE!!!! Below are the steps we took, finished products will be displayed on my .mac.com website by Jan. 22, 2003. I promise.

Materials

Cover – thin charcoal paper white ( we found a huge stack in a closet when a teacher retired last year)

Book support – Tagboard for Art I, Advanced students used Crescent Board, some students tried cardboard ( I feel this is too thick myself but it will work)

Pages – 11 x 17 copy paper, Sulphite Paper, Black Charcoal Paper, my goal next year, handmade paper Inside Front/Back Inside to attach pages to book cover. – Sulphite paper, construction paper, wallpaper, colored Charcoal paper , endless things you can use here

Various art media – tissue paper, concentrated watercolor, tempera, watercolor, Acrylic Paint, magazines, markers, glue (pure and diluted) glue sticks, brushes, colored ink, gel pens, Gloss Medium (Mod Podge) you will see almost anything can work. In the photos I will show a variety of items used.

1. Each student given one sheet of 13” by 20.5” of thin white charcoal paper. On this paper the students were to take any art supplies (media) and freely create a design on the paper for their cover.

• Tissue paper added with water only to stain paper
• Tissue paper added with glue for textured effect
• Paint splattered
• Concentrated watercolors applied then removed with bleach
• Markers used for doodling over the entire page
• Collage from photos
• Collage from textured paper

Combination of any of the above plus.

2. Each student was given two sheets of 9 X 11 (tagboard matboard, cardboard) and cut a 1/2 strip x 11 inch from scrap board.

Tape the pieces together leaving at least 1/8 of inch between pieces, this helps to book to close properly , DO NOT PUSH UP NEXT TO EACH OTHER.

3.

Take your cover that you designed and flip it over. Using thin downed glue, brush onto the back side of the cover, make sure you cover the entire thing, edge to edge. I had some students use glue sticks, it does not make the paper buckle as much, so far they are holding up.

4.

Center the book support onto the back of the cover of book. Make sure you press down firmly so that you do not get any wrinkles on the outside of book.

Clip the cover at the corners. Some students saved these for later use. Fold the sides down onto the book support , as if you were wrapping a gift. Students saved the corners placed them back on the corners to cover any of the tagboard showing. See left corner below.

5. Each student was given 30 sheets of 11 x 17 paper. This is where the directions become somewhat up to the individual student. If folded in half, you have 8.5 x 11. This makes the paper the same height as the book cover but less then book width. Some students left this, some cut the 11 to 10.5 (B). See diagram below for visual. The dotted line represents the paper inside book.

6. Use the instructions on this web site to sew the pages together before they are put into the book.

http://www.sff.net/people/Brook.West/bind/bindit.html

The only thing I did different was more holes in the paper. Make sure the names are size you would use to put up paneling, I am not a nail expert here. Trust me, experiment.

7. After you have completed the above, we used 11 x 17 paper to attach pages to book. If student cut height to 10.5 in step 5, they will need to do the same here. The paper could be any of those listed above under front/back inside. It usually takes two people to do this. Align pages up on book cover as shown below.

Using a glue stick, cover the right side of paper with glue . Make sure you carry to outside edges. Flip over and glue to pages on right side only. I have both side and flat view showing.

This is the other half of paper, fold book up as shown, beginning at center of the book, press against the left side of book cover and cover the inside front, repeat for the back. Glue down , I actually put the glue on the left side first as shown.

7. The finished photos should help some, the best way is to study an actual book.

If I can be of any assistance, let me know, I will even go so far as to take pictures of each step and post. I tried my best to draw the illustrations.

Jackie Brewer
Ja1997@bryanisd.org