Shakespeare & Sunflowers March 4, 2026

📗 🌻 📗 🌻 📗 🌻

 

After completing the thirty day watercolour painting challenge, I had a leftover pad almost full of large papers.  They were a size that I would not be painting individual projects on.  For now I thought just put the pad in the basement and deal with it later.  Well, as I was placing the pad on a basement shelf, the books above caught my eye.  Hmmm!  I have four of these books. They are the Comedies and Tragedies by William Shakespeare with a published date of 1944.  They belonged to my Mom. They were taking up space on the shelf.  Hmmm, how about they take up space in my heart!  This is the front of one of the books. The circle in the centre has the letters W and S with his portrait between them.  

This is the inside of the book.  I removed the pages from the book binding.

After cutting all the pages from the large watercolour pad to the size of the Shakespeare book, I glued them inside the covers.  Next came attaching contact paper to the inside cover and the first page.  I also did this to the back.  I glued a ribbon to the back of the book to use as a tie. 

This is the backside and front side of the first and second pages.  I used a page from the book along with sunflower stickers.I wanted a nature theme so went with these flowers and the green leafy contact paper. 

side view of the finished watercolour sketchbook I made

This is the back view of the book.  

It was now that I realized I made the sketchbook backwards.  

That emblem is on the front of the book. 

This is the front view!

Once the sketchbook was complete, I placed a few heavy objects on top and let it set and dry for a few hours.  Then time came to christian it with a first water-colour painting. I thought a sunflower would be the most fitting painting to do.  

A few decades ago,  I took a bookbinding course.  I remember enjoying the process but not having the time later to invest in carrying on with the craft.  Now the time is right!  I learned lots while putting together this "Shakespeare & Sunflowers" sketchbook.  My many mistakes are very obvious to me and I know I can do better and I want to do better.  There were many more steps along this process that I have not included in the above photos.  There are also additional steps that I can add to make the sketchbook more like a sketchbook.  I have three more of these Shakespeare books that I could use to make sketchbooks, yet I think I want to search for an old book of another size and colour and title.