Book making.

Hi again, yes I'm still here and I know I said that I would try and post once a week and it's May now. All I can do is say sorry once again and thank those of you who are still visiting my blog.

I have a big love of book making so I thought that you might like to take a peek at the work of Adele Outeridge, she has been a big inspiration to me for years.

 

 

Fantastic aren't they, sculptural, inventive and stretching the bounderies of what it means to be a book.

To see more take a look at google images or visit studiowestend.com

I really enjoy making books especially junk books there's something satisfying about upcycling bits and pieces and ending up with something completely different and unique, give it a whirl you know you want to!

This little beauty is from www.dneese.blogspot.com 

There is nothing like returning
to a place that remains unchanged
to find ways in which
you yourself have altered.

--- Nelson Mandela

Have a great weekend

So much fun.

My new poster, just thought I would show you, hope you think it does the job!

Well last Friday saw the last session of the contemporary bookmaking workshops, I can't believe it's passed so quickly, I have to say they were a great bunch. Teaching and learning is such fun when your working with creative, open minded folk eager to learn. A big Thanks to each and every one of them for making my job so pleasurable, and, all so generous and eager to share their knowledge with each other, an absolute delight.

They had all been gradually stretching there skills over the sessions so for the final one we decided to make three books in a box, quite a challenge in the limited time available, did they do it, of course they did. Brilliant! Now a confession from the teacher, I forgot to check that the batteries in my camera were charged, yep you got it they weren't so I can't actually show you much of the student work! However they have promised me that the will either bring it in or email me the pictures, so fingers crossed I can show you soon. Here's what I did get though.

All wrapped up.

The unwrapping.

The unfolding.

Three little books coming out to play.

Japanese stab binding.

Who could resist this handmade book it's just begging to be filled.

An idea that is developed and put into action

is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.

Edward De Bono.

Bookmaking.

Last week the students bought in some of the books that they had made during the previous session. The results are beautiful little books that are personal to each of them, it is really good to see the different interpretations and I thought that you might like to look at them.

Concertina Book with pockets. Heather McClure.

Handmade paper, stitch and insertions.

Another beautiful book from Heather. Flag book,

 constructed from the inside of envelopes. 

Flag book,

sorry I'm not sure which student made this, beautiful decorated papers.

Colour coordinated decoration, a lovely finishing touch. Shelia Russel.

                    Choices, choices! Keeping it natural, concertina book, Paula Allison.

Who wouldn't like to receive these beautiful little books!

This week we learned how to make a exposed spine book with stitched signatures. Signatures are groups of single sections, this means, one folded page is a single section, a signature is a group of sections placed one inside another.

Signatures with varying sized sections.

Don't these handmade paper pages look beautiful grouped together.

I hope that you have enjoyed looking at this work, most of the student have very little experience of bookmaking and have come up with these beautiful books, have a go yourself and I'm sure you will be pleased with the results that you achieve. There are some really good books on the market and plenty of information on the Internet. www.flickr.com/photos/katej/sets/72157625780349723/ www.papercurious.blogspot.com this blog is no longer active but is still available and is a good starting point.  Making your own sketchbooks and journals personalises your work even more and you get just what you want.

I am enough of an artist to draw freely on my imagination.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Knowledge is limited.

Imagination encircles the world.

Albert Einstein. 

Learning and laughing.

Tags or luggage labels, what do you call them?

An Inked up Paper Tray cloth.

This week in the bookmaking class we were making a star tag book, this is relatively easy and a fun book to make. After a basic run through of the techniques we started off by markmaking with coloured inks onto thin absorbent paper. The results were to be loose and easy as they would end up being cut up as part of the construction of the book.                                                                                                   

Experimental Markmaking.

Lovely lively marks.

We coloured up the parcel tags, who would have thought such cheap and simple things could look so interesting. Maybe we should do this for gift tags they are so much more personal than the bought ones!

And, with a bit more work and concentration success was ours-Ta Dah!

Star Tag Book.

For those of you who want to have a go at making this for yourself I will give the instructions in the next post  so keep checking out the blog.

What feelings do your brushmarks, scrapings, scratchings,

drawing, calligraphy, type and other marks lend to your idea?

Margot Voorhies Thompson. 

Handmade books.

I'm thinking about books again as it is the second of the four contemporary bookmaking sessions this week.

 Last week we focused on concertina books and piano hinge books. I have posted images of the ways that artists have interpreted concertina books, so, for today's post I have been looking at the piano hinge.

This picture I found on google images, I think it is the use of the coloured paper and crayons that attracted me to it. It is from a flicker set but I do not know the artist.

CBAS study group, www.theartofthebook.blogspot.com 

The sticks used in the hinge spine have been embellished with beads that have been threaded on to the  binding thread.

'Burn'. Artist Martin Casuso.

 The sticks used are incense sticks and the book is presented in an interesting format, laid flat.

A beautiful book with a rust finish. Artist unknown.

'Push me Pull you'. Artists Karen Baldner and Bjorn Krondorfer.

There is a piano hinge tutorial on http://www.pennybennington.blogspot.com/ July 2010.

These images show just how versatile this simple binding can be if used with a little creative input.

bookmaking

This week my contemporary bookmaking workshops started, I really love books in all their forms but especially handmade books and artists books and altered books and.............well I had better stop as I said I love books! The image below is of a concertina style book, this type of book was  part of the first workshop session, however this one is very old. It is a palm leaf concertina, consisting of woven palm leaves which are then woven into a concertina  structure, beautiful isn't it!

The concertina book is a simple form which lends itself to experimentation, because of its simple construction it gives the maker opportunity to 'mess around' with it and play creatively, to experiment with the structure and stretch the imagination, in short, to engage with a bit of 'what ifing'. So, with that in mind I thought I would post some images of this book form and show the ways that a few artists have approached it.

Dianne Longley's 'Curious and Fantastic Creatures'.

'Quantified Asthetic' Angela Davies.http://www.angeladaviesartist.co.uk/

A beautiful piece made from a double concertina format.

Ed Hutchings 'Book of Stars'. 

Wendy Shortland's 'Bling Book'.

I hope that these wonderful books have inspired you to have a go for yourself. All of the images show books that are standing upright, bend the form back on itself and it forms a star, lay one end  flat and the other upright and you have a different form but that's another story! Have fun and see what you can come up with?

A book must be an ice axe to break

the seas frozen inside our souls.

Franz Kafka.