Flying Bookfish

I was lucky to attend Emily Tinkler’s free Altered Books workshop at S. Walter Stewart Library, where more than a dozen participants eagerly listened to Emily describe how to fold, cut, and poke pages with an awl to turn an old book with a sewn binding into a work of art.

I had been given an out-of-date computer book to use for the workshop, and I soon went to work folding the pages to create an accordion shape. I was inspired by the examples that Emily had brought to show us, especially the one in which wire and ribbon rioted through the pages of a former book.

After the session, I took my unfinished piece home, where it sat on a table mutely calling out for something to spring from the folds of paper. Meanwhile, I continued sewing clumps of paper together with saffron and fern green thread.

A trip to the sticker aisle in an art store supplied me with the missing element. Fish! When I saw the fish collection, they seemed to want to be flying out of a book.

I glued double-images of the fish stickers together, and then I cut twelve skewers into varying sizes before affixing the energetic yet dignified creatures to them. As as penultimate touch, I tied short lengths of the saffron and green thread around each skewer. Finally, I added stickers to the decorated inside covers of the book. And that’s the story of Flying Bookfish!