AUTUMN: 'Bookish' Pumpkins

SO, a funny thing happened as September began...
I had NO IDEAS for new pumpkins. Not a one. Which is entirely unlike me, because y'all KNOW about my love of pumpkins. My muses were still on vacation, I guess. AND THEN... on our delightfully rainy Labor Day Weekend, I stumbled across an idea!

I was re-sorting several boxes of books by size in our garage, and one stack of books suddenly slid sideways onto the floor and formed a half circle. As I bent to pick them up, I saw something... a shape, a whisper of an idea. I sat some similarly hued books aside, kept working on my task, and then brought those books into my studio to try out the idea growing in my head.

Here's a sketch of my idea for a 'bookish' pumpkin:

I had to play around with the books awhile to get it right - after two different iterations, I was finally happy with the result. 

Don't worry, this project is 'temporary decor' - nothing is attached permanently, it's all removable, and no books were harmed in the making of this bookish pumpkin! 😉

Continue reading for my tutorial...
DWK

I chose to make a pumpkin using books with green covers. (Big surprise! LOL) There are 9 books shown, with slight size variations... when I decided how to set them up, I started with the taller books around the back, then worked the slightly smaller books into the front of the circle.

Here's how it came together: (Click on photo strips to enlarge if needed)

I laid two books on their spines to secure their covers together - the front of one book cover secured to the back of the other book cover - using a small binder clip, placed in the middle of the covers. (You won't see them in the finished project, as they will be in the center of the pumpkin.) 

I continued clipping them together until I had four books all together, then I stood them up on their bottom ends. The next four books, clipped together, were set on end across from them, and I secured the first set to the second with another binder clip as I bent them all into a circle shape.

I added the 9th book at the back, clipping each of its covers to the books next to it. This created a circle with a hollow area in the center - which is where the stem will go!

 

To create the stem, I grabbed a tall brown shopping bag with twine handles from my stash and started twisting it lengthwise - with the handles at the top. The folded part of the bag helped the bottom stay thicker and larger, and the top twisted pretty tightly into a smaller size. 

I cut one end of each twine handle loose from the bag, so they would stick out at the end of the stem, like vines. 

The base of the twisted bag stem fits right into that open hole in the center of the circled books, and stood up all on its own. The vines needed a bit more oomph, so I wrapped each one around a pencil to create a smaller spiral.

Every vine needs leaves, so let's make some... using book pages! (I didn't lie... no books were harmed! I have a box full of old book pages for collage work, taken from damaged books.)

I used two book pages, and began by giving them a wash of watery green paint so they looked a bit aged. When they were half dry, I used a brown pencil to sketch out two leaves on each page, all in varied sizes. 

Then I cut the leaf shapes out, and bent them over a glass bottle - so they would finish drying with a curve in them.

Once the leaves were completely dry, I simply tucked them into the twisted brown bag stem: 

The larger leaves are placed at the top of the books / bottom of the stem. A very small leaf is tucked into the end of the stem, near the vines, and a medium sized leaf sits near the finished pumpkin's base to look as if it just floated off the stem. 

(Yes, that book with the apples is upside down... the back of it wasn't as pretty, and I wanted that part of the cover to show up!) I built my pumpkin right on the surface I will keep it on in my studio... but if you wanted, you could build the bookish pumpkin on top of a large wood round or silver tray, to make it easier to move. Just be prepared for it to be wobbly when you move it!

I'm going to create another one using orange books, to put out in our main living area. We are very 'bookish' people around here! I think my Muses really came through this time... and I wonder what ELSE they might have in store for me?! 

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Fall Leaves Made from Book Pages / Sheet Music


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