I took some time over Christmas to finish binding a guest book from my own wedding. (My partner and I got married nearly two years ago!) I can't remember the last time I made something this epic for myself and it fills my heart with joy when I look through it.
We didn't have a guest book for written messages... instead we asked the Quick Draw Sketch Gang if they could come and draw live portraits of all our family and friends. Artists Rebecca ter Borg, Toby Morris, Jason Hong and Ant Sang joined us for the evening and diligently, beautifully drew almost every single person there.....Some more than once!
The outcome.... a beautiful book filled with the faces of our loved ones from the day they all came along to support us in our marriage. There is a fold out page in the back showing each sketch and who they are and it's lovely to fold it out and remember them all standing around and yelling "YES!" when asked if they support this marriage.
I took it around to my Grandma's house recently and we had an inspiring conversation about the book and my new years mojo for my job.....it went something like this:
"It's about the feel, the look and the smell of this handmade object. It's about the quality and the workmanship that a true artisan can apply to their craft. It's about putting the value into the memories this book holds, the significance of the content and it's part in our lives.. and how the look, feel, smell, weight, quality…. all lends itself to that feeling.
You can’t put a price on that. The hours I spent hand sewing the end bands to match the bunting I had made for the wedding, paring the leather, making the raised bands, rounding the spine, creating the fold out page, embossing the cover…… this on top of the content itself. The hand sketched portraits of our family and friends, that I individually scanned so that they have a copy themselves. The laying out of the wedding ceremony and picking appropriate photos to illustrate our vows. Designing the end papers and creating a pocket in the back that holds a disc. (The disc has a movie I made for my husband with heartfelt messages from his friends and family overseas that couldn’t make it to our wedding.)
This is a book full of love and memories and good things. It needed to be bound with love and respect and passion."
I think I did it justice. My Granny thinks so too.
