Small Accordion Book No. 2

I had so much fun making the first one, I decided to do another accordion (or concertina) book. I guess I will have to come up with names for them at some point. This one is the same size as the first, each page measuring about 6 by 3 3/4 inches, containing 8 pages on each side. The paper is Rives BFK.

I like doing these because it's fun to consider how make the images connect, even as they're changing from page to page. They may be connected by color, shape and form of design elements, or theme; this uses all three of those, though not necessarily the same ones on every page. The shifting and changes of this format remind me of meandering down a river or creek, where some features remain the same while others differ gradually as you move along. While most artistic forms contain movement (leading the eye from one place to the next), the movement generally leads to some sort of focal point. This is not necessarily true of the concertina book, where each page may be as important as the next.  It's a different thought process, and I like the challenge.

Accordion Book 2, side 1

ingredients: acrylic ink, relief print on rice paper, vintage book pages, magazine cut-outs, joss paper, decorative paper, image transfer, vintage stamp, vintage dress pattern, map fragment, stitching

pages 1-3

pages 4-6

pages 7-8

Accordion Book 2, side 2

ingredients: acrylic ink, relief print on rice paper, vintage book pages, vintage ephemera,  magazine cut-outs, joss paper, decorative paper, image transfers, vintage stamps, vintage maps, stitching

pages 1-3

pages 4-6

pages 7-8

I used everything in this but the kitchen sink, as they say. Really more of an experiment than anything, making this was lots of fun!

Another Little Book

I have made another little mixed media book about my emotions and thoughts as I go through this time.  This one has fewer words, only the embroidered words "endure", "hope", "gratitude" and "peace". I'm not sure what this book format is called, but it's basically an accordion book in which you glue every two pages together, thereby making more traditional "book" format; this one has only 8 pages total.  I then made a cover and glued that on, making each page 2 papers thick. It is constructed of Rives BFK.

 front cover (page 1)

 pages 2 and 3

pages 4 and 5

pages 6 and 7

back cover (page 8)

Look! it's a book!

Well, it's been a while.  With school back in session, life has resumed a pace somewhat reminiscent of a meteor hurtling towards the earth.  Besides that, my daughter is about to get married, and I have been working on the guest book, which is the first book I've made completely "from scratch".  I was very nervous that I would mess it up- which I did, early on- so I still had time to start over. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, if I do say so myself.

Here are all the pieces, ready to be sewn together.  I got stuck at this stage for a while because I was looking at the directions for the stitching order, and found them confusing.  I couldn't figure out the best way to knot the thread at the end, and there were about six different ways of doing it- mainly due to the fact that Japanese stab binding wasn't originally used with hard covers, I guess. 

 Here it is, all sewn together...

 detail

 I'm not really happy with the appearance of the linen thread, and it's not terribly tight; I pulled it as tight as I could while sewing, so I think it must be the knot on the inside, which may not be as close to the spine as I had intended.

 I left the rest of the decoration until after the stitching, so as not ruin it.

I may sew over the stitches with a very thin black ribbon, which might look better than the linen thread, but all in all, not too bad.

In case you're wondering why it's called "Guest gallery", it's because Caitlin and Wes are getting married in an art gallery.  I stamped gold frames on the black pages for people to write in.

I want to again thank Mo of the fantastic blog, "It's Crow Time", who is always willing to patiently answer my unending book-binding questions.  You should really look at her beautiful drawings, especially if you like crows, which we all do, it seems.


In other news, Roxanne Evans Stout, an accomplished artist and teacher (and one of the sweetest people I know) of Rivergarden Studio has included my answer to the question, "What is the thread that runs through your work?" in her post, "Of Golden Threads, part 3".  This is her third post featuring the responses of various artists to this intriguing question, and the answers range from emotionally revealing to surprising to inspirational. If you haven't already, please check it out.


My dear friend Donna Iona Drozda recently did a guest post for the Series "Artist as Collector" on artist Nanci Hersh's wonderful blog, and to my surprise, she honored me by choosing to feature me as her 'collected' artist'.  The post is titled, "Empty and Full with a Fresh Eye" and I hope you'll take a few minutes to read it.  Also, you'll no doubt want to check out Donna's work; not only is she an enormously talented artist, but she shares her "Luna See" spiritual insight through her "Following the Moon" blog, she somehow finds time to work on public art projects such as "Life in Transit", teach workshops for children and adults, and so much more.


Thanks to Roxanne, Donna, Mo, and all my sweet blogger friends- I love you all!

Spread #3 of Book of Dreams

I have finished the third, and last, spread for the Book of Dreams!  (You can see earlier stages here, here, here, and here.)  This page is almost purely a monotype, with just some added watercolor pencil here and there to darken or blend the different areas of color.

 I'm still not sure that it doesn't need to be darkened a bit more, but I think I'll let it rest for a while until I can decide.

Here are few close-up details:

Unfortunately, I haven't quite solved my binding issues.  The structure of the book is actually similar to a child's board book, which I believe, in bookbinding parlance, is called a drum leaf binding. 

 Because mine was not done in the proper order, it is a bit wonky, but "live and learn", as they say. Thanks to Mo Crow for the link, and for all the other instructions and suggestions. 

 When I got all of the pages glued together, I discovered that the spine of the original book was only a tiny bit too small.  So, since the spine doesn't serve a structural function in this case (the end pages are glued onto the covers, not the spine), I think I may be able to do a cosmetic fix by just sewing on a strip of something(?) to hold the edges together and make it look better.

And then, I'll need to do something with the back cover, so stay tuned for more disasters and discoveries!

Interconnections

Handmade Artist's Book

I thought I'd share a few pages of my handmade book, since few people have seen it. The book measures 8 x 12.5 inches and contains 20 pages. All pages are transparent acetate, so the pages beneath can be seen through them, creating a multi-layered effect. The cover is basically a folded "box", also made of acetate, and closed with a shell and gold braided cord. Thanks to Colin for doing a great job on the photos. (Really, I was just teasing about the praying mantis thing.) Also, I just learned something- the photos appear opposite the order in which they were downloaded, so the cover is at the bottom. Oh, well...