Round 3 - Debrina's Contribution to Lisa J's book

I've chosen to play with Lisa's title, "Roots Beneath the Layers" to explore the shamanistic beliefs of my European ancestors.  I've chosen Yggdrasil - the World Tree - as my focus for this round.  I first learned about this cosmological structure in Brian Bate's "The Real Middle Earth". 

My pages fold up into a nice neat signature of 12 pieces (see above illustration).  3 is a universally magic number and Yggdrasil comprises of 3 parts.  I want to concentrate on each part separately, so with some witchery stitchery, I have constructed a 3 part layout to my segment of pages.

The first part is the upperworld - Asgard - where light, elvish beings, the gods, goddesses and the deities reside.  If this sounds reminiscent of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, you'd be correct.  Tolkien was fascinated by Saxon mythology and drew his inspiration from their cosmological and mythological constructs.

The book unfolds to reveal the rest of the tree...the underworld (the lower part of the tree is hinted at with the quote above - this is not stuck down yet; nor are these white pages finished...much more layering to do...).

The middle part of Yggdrasil is revealed.  Midgard is the real middle earth, the spiritual world of living beings, such as animals, plants and human beings.  I will be using the pages to the left of the tree to illustrate these realms as I am describing them here.

Finally, Yggdrasil is revealed in its entirety - Niflheim (Hel) are the roots of the tree.  Here is the Underworld, where Nidhogg the dragon sleeps and the dead reside.  Hel (Christian root word for Hell- scuse the pun) is the powerhouse of the subconscious; inhabited by underworld entities that we may fear but where we may also obtain our greatest source of potency.

Lisa's Labyrinth Book

Update 7, Nov 2.
Well here they are, 2 completed spreads in my book. I am not planning on doing any more than that or there won't be room for you guys! lol. I still have to do my last signature which will hold some swap pieces.In between each signature is a piece of paper which I have glued in which will act as each persons VD page/Notes/Sign area or what ever else you want to use it for. Also, just because I have done a page to interpate the definition of Labyrinth dosn't mean you have too...just what ever comes to mind when you think of Labyrinth!

Update 6. October 27.

My finished cover. Its not perfect but over all I am happy with the result. I used wax to fill the niche and set the circuit board into it. It's settled a bit flatter than what it looks here. Sure hope my book dosn't encounter any hot places on it's way around the globe though!

Update 5
Ok, so here's the cover nearly finished. The foam board was covered with pva glue and gold tissue paper and then it underwent a treatment of indian ink and watered down gesso until I was happy with the look. The copper foil was eventually found and bought and as you can see it looks great around the niche! Great advice:) The book cover itself was red so I rubbed indian ink onto it using make-up pads. I still need to stick the circuit board in proparly...

The pic above makes my book look reallly fat and I am only posting it here because I love it:)

The photo below shows how the foam has gone and bowed on me BUT I think I've taken care of that with a liberal does of glue and the use of my flower press! (Bottom pic.)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update 4
Ok, so here's what I am playing with at the moment. My son is a 'pull it apart to see what it's inside' kinda boy. He's after the motors and lights from things and I occasionally inherit bits of copper wire and circuit boards. I stopped getting them from him because I wasn't using them, I just like them coz the look pretty! Anyway, today one of them got put to good use and I cut a niche from foam board to put it in for my books cover. Isn't it beautiful and jewel like? and the maze pattern is just perfect for labyrinth! As you can see I've cut the niche a bit crooked (!!) so I will need to figure out how to fix that...maybe I am going to have to cut the whole thing bigger now and then some how fill in the 3mm gap I will have? Doh!
Also, I am going to fix this foam board to the cover of my book, am thinking of using PVA but not sure if it is durable enough? Any suggestions of what glue to use? I have also done a bit more inside my book but that will be another post as the kids need to be picked up from school very soon!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Post 3.
This book is in my mind, thoughts and dreams 24/7 lately so I am so pleased to have had 3 whole hours to play today and an hour yesterday! I am loving the way it's coming out so far. I've done most of my 'title' page too (not photographed yet) and you can see a teeny peak of it in the top photo. The weaving thing had the last minute addition of the beads which slide along the cotton a bit like a abacus but in a different direction. I love the rythmn of them as you slide them along. The word 'entanglement' became quite literal at several points today but this has been such a labour of love it's hard to put down! I am sure you all know the feeling!

_____________________________________________________

Post 2.
I am being bad,very bad. I should not be here doing this post or playing with books but the urge was to strong...I just finished tying the last kebab stick to my page, they will form the framework for a weaving of threads and papery things. The back of it is the photo below. I left the thread tails long so they'd tangle but I may tie things on to them as well...my thoughts are still thinking!

_____________________________________________________

Post 1

It's not much compared to the trillion and one ideas I have for this book in my head but here's a sneak peek at my books begininngs! My theme is Labyrinth. Not as in David Bowie Labyrinth but as in the dictionary definition of the word "intricate and tangled, windings, entanglement" which to me describes anything from a nest (suprise! suprise!) to intiricate celtic work and old vintage letters....in the days of sloped and curly handwriting not computer fonts!Anything that is interwoven, bound or maze like... I look forward to seeing how everyone else translates it when this book moves around each player!

What you see here is my book (an old novel) divded into signatures for each player (my husband is drilling the cover for me later so I can add another) and a sneaky glimps of 2 of my bound pages.