Tiny Mini Japanese Boro Fabric Snippet Book: The Destiny of Things, Story 566
These tiny boro fabric snippet books are a labor of love!
I need to make more of these! I think the next ones will be my fourth or fifth batch! The upcoming new batch will have a laundry label with it, since I've stocked up on them, not sure if I'll have time to stitch a wee teeny tiny flower from my Garden of WeEden series. My third batch of these were a customer request and she had a birthday deadline to meet, so this listed batch may not, mostly not have laundry labels or flowers from the Garden of WeEden in them, but there is a video, so you can see what might be inside your book! Tiny mini boro books, like these, available at Hoarder Rehab
here and Mending Ways
here.
Someone loved this book so much, they ordered it to make their own! Story from France below:
amazing ! i just admire and love those tiny tiny pièces of art, so
charming and evocative ! thank you so much, it is perfect to dream about
pièces of boro, to make my own artist book ...
I totally know what she means! If I had more time, I'd make more of these with other items for mixed media art kits. For example, these books could hold favorite postage stamps, favorite stickers, little favorite scraps of wall paper and other ephemera, even the pages can be used after your all done with it! And they are small enough to fit in your sewing basket or mixed media art tool kit.
Here is a photo to help show the tiny size of them, available at Hoarder Rehab
here and Mending Ways
here. Photo via Hoarder Rehab
These take a long time to make and usually I take a month of so and work on them off and on at a leisurely pace. Warning! There are a lot of steps to making these, so you might not want to read them all!
First I make empty books by hand ripping the paper to size, then I make sure all the pages are right side up, then I fold all the page edges and lastly stitch all the pages together. Each book has 16 to 28 pages with at least 20 Japanese boro scraps inside them.
Then the fun part begins, when I gather at least 20- 25 different fabrics and the laundry labels. All kinds, at last on of each of mainly different types of Japanese boro cloth, like kasuri/ikat, katazome, indigo blue solids, shibori, striped, plaid, yukata, and some of my favorites to work with that are silk, rayon and synthetics. The others are cotton. And of course, my favorite of all favorites, time worn boro that is fraying and very thin, so when they get laundered, they start to morph and can be mended over! Then I cut all the pieces to size.
Then comes the part that is most fun to me, I choose one fabric from 20-25 piles and arrange them on each page of each book and use the folds to hold them in. Then I count to double check I used at least 20 fabrics. Lastly I tie them closed. Then it's time for a photo shoot and listing them!
Some time between all the steps, I gather the cloth and the threads to make the wee tiny Garden of WeEden flower patches. I usually add the laundry label on the first page and the floral patch on the last.
Below is a photo of some of the supplies I used to make the last batch of each book....
The pages are from a children's book or at least I think it's one, not sure, but the writing is in the traditional way of Japanese writing from left to right and up and down and I used hand spun and hand dyed sashiko thread from Thealese on Etsy.
The fabrics before they get cut into 20-25 piles.
My third batch of these were a customer request and she had a birthday
deadline to meet, so this listed batch may not have laundry labels or
flowers from the Garden of WeEden in them, but there is a video, so you
can see the inside of each page! Tiny mini boro books, like
these, available at Hoarder Rehab
here and Mending Ways
here.
What I love about these books is they can hold very tiny scraps and strips, so nothing is wasted. I use the tiny scraps as accents on patches or under the time worn boro cloth, so after it morphs I know the tiny scrap will start showing though it.
Here is an example of using the teeny tiny scraps as an accent and pop of color. This patch has sold out. More like this available
here. Photo via
Mending Ways.
As a matter of fact, the teeny tiny scraps are some of my favorites and usually have great meaning to me, for example, the maple leaf is a sign of endurance and strength to continue all kinds of growth, as
growth takes us into limitless possibilities to places our hearts and
minds may never dream of, just like the maple leaf, we never know what
color it may be, but it doesn't matter because each one is magical.
Another example of using a teeny tiny scrap for an accent or pop of color with meaning for me. Just as St Patrick used the 3 leafed shamrock as a symbol of faith, hope and love, it also provides a good reminder for those of religion or not! The wee red pieces with shamrocks are silk, very worn silk.
One also has the maple leaf, I think it's sold. Available
here. Photo via
Mending Ways.
Oopsy, getting off topic again... Here are all the Japanese boro scraps sorted, cut and sitting in piles ready to be arranged in mini books!
All the books basically have all the same fabrics in them. I did try and arrange each page differently because that's my favorite part, I hope you add your stash to it and arrange them how you love!
My third batch of these were a customer request and she had a birthday
deadline to meet, so this listed batch may not have laundry labels or
flowers from the Garden of WeEden in them, but there is a video, so you
can see what's inside! Tiny mini boro books, like
these, available at Hoarder Rehab
here and Mending Ways
here.
What I Learned:
1. These books take more time than I thought to make, on the custom order batch, she wanted 2 books for twins for their birthday, I forget how many books I made that time, but I do remember each book took over 2 hours to make! I do know it's a whole lot easier to make a batch of these books, rather than one at a time. It's so fun to scrap patch some of the covers!
These have sold out, but my fourth or fifth batch of books, I hope I have time to scrap patch some of the covers. My third batch of these were a customer request and she had a birthday
deadline to meet, so this listed batch may not have laundry labels or
flowers from the Garden of WeEden in them, but there is a video, so you
can see what might be inside your book! Tiny mini boro books, like
these, available at Hoarder Rehab here and Mending Ways here.
2. I'm still exercising to rid myself of extra Covid pounds! Yipee!!! It's not easy staying motivated and inspired during the California heat waves, but I'm still doing something daily! I do rest on Sundays because my old bones creak if I don't!
3. Blog land has changed their settings and formats again and I'm
challenged with how to use the center and left alignments, which
doesn't always seem to work for me! I was hoping to shorten my time in
Blogland since Etsyland has gotten so busy, but it looks like I'm in for
another lesson in patience!
4. The blog stories are piling up and I have many with photo updates, so I hope to write at least an hour 3x a week, until a post is ready to publish! Lately my mind has been either fogged or scattered, so things take longer to get done. Slowly but surely!
5. Let me know if there are issues with any of the links because with all the new changes in blogland, I'm crossing my fingers that I did everything correctly! Also, I keep clicking on post preview but nothing comes up, so I'm publishing blind! hoarderrehab@gmail.com
Anyone out there have any remedies for foggy or scatter brains? I think mine might be from the last food parade with too much of my favorite fried foods and wheat binging on bread and noodles! Due to allergies, I usually eat mostly organic vegan, no sugar, no carbs and juice and broth fast 3x a week with meat once or twice a month, but that went out the window a month ago!
Here is a page example from one of the books from Mending Ways. If you click on the link below and go to the listing page, there a 15 second video showing the book pages. My third batch of these were a customer request and she had a birthday
deadline to meet, so this listed batch may not have laundry labels or
flowers from the Garden of WeEden in them, but there is a video, so you
can see what might be inside your book! Tiny mini boro books, like
these, available at Hoarder Rehab
here and Mending Ways
here.
Thank you Etsy buyer from Paris, France for leaving your kind inspirational words! I am so happy you are going to use my book as an example to make your own! I'd love to see yours! Especially if it was made with French vintage paper ephemera and filled with time worn scraps, like solid and striped linens, chambray and florals! Don't get me started! My little hoarder head is already thinking about finding and ordering French paper and scraps now!
First I must sort through what I have and organize it all! Which looks like an impossible task! Baby steps!
Here is a page example from one of the books from Hoarder Rehab. If you
click on the link below and go to the listing page, there a 15 second
video showing one of the books pages being turned. My third batch of these were a customer
request and she had a birthday
deadline to meet, so this listed batch may not have laundry labels or
flowers from the Garden of WeEden in them, but there is a video, so you
can see what might be inside your book! Tiny mini boro books, like
these, available at Hoarder Rehab
here and Mending Ways
here.
Sales
are still crazy sky high! and I'm sure it will be another busy weekend since we have joined the Etsy Labor Day weekend sale. Enjoy! The sale has started today and ends on Monday.
I
am adding new items weekly, but since sales are way up, some days I'm
too busy just packaging for our shipping days! We ship out every Mon,
Wed and Fri and get packages ready the day before, if payment has
cleared, but lately I need to package everyday to keep up with all the orders!
I just listed several new things at each shop this week! It was nice to have the time to get it done!
Click on the shop names to visit my hoard: HoarderRehab with 178 items, The Destiny of Things- 170 items, VintageToGoEasy - 156 items and JunkDrawerAndMore - 175 items. And now, Mending Ways with 51 items!
Many of my textile art patches have found new "forever" homes, so I need
to make some more. I am so grateful, thank you all who are supporting
my alternative to hoarding!
Maybe you'll find something and give it new life and a new home! All pleasant lookieloos are appreciated! Some of the scraps used on this one are from my mini boro book! Another fun labor of love, this is my latest patch this took me 3 weekends to finish and I could keep stitching on it! Hopefully you will!
"During these uncertain times, there is one commitment we all need to make: always be part of the solution and not part of the problem."
Stay safe, stay well and stitch on! Thank you readers from all over the world who continue to support my Hoarder Rehab and The Destiny of Things by taking part with your visits! 
