A Flag Book: The Cookie Project

It was that time of year again, the significant other's bithday. So this year I decided, I'm going to bake cookies, slap on fondant or icing on it, and write short messages from friends and family with edible ink pen on each one, record it, and compile into a book for keeps as cookies gets eaten.

When I started receiving the quotes, greetings and memories I realised there was no way they'd fit on a cookie unless they're huge! Because I don't think I could write that small and still be legible to read.

Scratch cookies, straight to the book.

Chi guarding daddy's birthday book

I chose the flag book structure, invented by Hedi Kyle in 1979, as construction was easy and I don't have to worry about the layout of the images and text. Each page is treated as a singular.

The book when closed is about 3 inches by 6 inches, and 18 inches by 6 inches long when fully stretched open.

The black ribbon slides off with the title to open the book. The title is to signify his age and there are 37 stories and wishes inside.

Turning the pages

The wonders of this flag book structure is that it allows the pages to be open flat and be read like a book...

The criss crossing of the pages when opened

And when extended it creates a sculptural form, and the way the pages are arranged are more noticable.

On the inside of the front cover end sheet I wrote an explanation of the project, and on the back cover is the 37th story which was mine, long and epic, hehe...

With the covers overlapping

I had an interesting time making this book, lots of factors to deal with, content mainly, if it weren't for the messages the book wouldn't work so well, structurally it'll be fine, but content plays a part too. I had to deal with contacting people, setting deadlines, the logistics of layouts, printing, construction... On the morning of his birthday I was still hunting for images of cookies I was hoping to find in magazines to tie the whole theme together to be used for the front cover.

But it worked out the way it should in the end. I like the white of the cover contrast with the black band, I'm not sure if you could see it from the picture but the white is a textured white, I'm not too fond of a totally flat surface.

So, this is one of my rare Artist Book moment. Thank you to my darling husband for being the inspiration. Now my sister in law wants one too for her birthday! Oh dear...