Finally Finished...

"Our Family" is a one-of-a-kind artist book that has loomed over me for a year or two, and I'm happy it is finally done,  The time-consuming part of this project was the repair/restoration/alteration of an old, disintegrating Victorian photo album.  The original celluloid covers remain intact, but the bindings, endpapers and photo display pages had to be repaired, replaced and altered.  AND, then when I was near completion about a year ago, I managed to drop it and tear some of the fragile cloth interior bindings.  So, I backtracked, re-bound, reinforced, and pretty much re-whatevered the rest of it. I stripped the photo display pages to the original cardboard and covered them with inkjet images of various old decorative photo album pages and vintage illustration.  Endpapers and the backs of the photo pages are covered with Nepalese Lokta paper in various lovely designs.  Mounted on the display pages are twelve collaged antique cabinet cards depicting some of my stranger relatives, including Fannie with her orange squid tentacles and two unusual librarians (see below).  It has turned out well and I hope to be able to avoid dropping it in future...