Author: Cherry Hirsch

I had another session steam printing paper with plant material and decided to make a book from them.  First I followed a suggestion by the author of the website dipandstain.blogspot to dip my sheets in a bath of washing soda – one cup hot water in which to disolve one teaspoon of soda, plus one cup of cold water. This brightens the colour a little.  When they were dry I determined the order, glued each pair of pages together using a narrow piece of thin khadi paper along the spines and PVA glue.  In my second dyeing session I had folded a couple of A4 sheets rather than tear them to fit in my steamer, so these obviously needed no further treatment.  I used each pair as a separate signature and stitched them to form the book.  I glued a strip of abaca paper along the spines and then glued on the cover.  This had been pounded with flowers – dahlias, tagetes, using the stems as well from the miniature ones, cosmos.  (You use a soft mallet, protecting the surface with another piece of paper over your work).  I used the same method on some of the pages where I felt it enhanced the page.  I am not sure how long the colour will last, but the effect is lovely.  Finally I added a coat of acrylic wax to give some protection. View the Post