Two full days spent at the weekend making a Drop Sided Presentation Box under the expert tutelage of John and Joy Tonkin. It has cloth backing and beautiful little leather details. Both tutors were very patient. I have made my box to hold my mother's Bible. It is very old and was much loved.
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No. 1 Eucalyptus Leaves Dos Rapporté binding Leather binding, eco printed cartridge paper. Eco printed end papers. 210 mm x 155 mm x 30 mm No. 2 Leaf Prints Drum leaf binding Hand printed handmade paper 195 mm x 145 mm x 10 mm No. 3 Bind Challenge 2013 Artist Book Recycled paper - one star book, two concertinaed books and a scroll Dimensions variable After spending a great deal of time with my mother-in-law, who needs a lot of attention having ended up in the hospital with a leg broken in three places, I had the pleasure of a lovely afternoon with Vicki and Chris making a Drum Leaf Bound Book. I was able to put all my cares away for the afternoon.
First up we played with spray paint to make the covers. These due in some part to the texture on the paper made beautiful covers. Then, under the expert tutoring of Vicki we made our Drum Leaf Book. It is only a small book measuring approx 11.5cm by 16cm. This type of binding can be found documented in an article by Timothy Ely in Bonefolder Magazine. Alisa Golden also has a great step by step article in her blog from 2007. I love this structure it is just great for calligraphy. I had the best time at my first Summer School in Winter. It was superbly run by the Victorian Calligraphy Society. So well organised. It was also lovely to meet up with other calligraphers for a whole week.
I was fortunate enough to be able to spend the week with my friend Ann. Many thanks to Ann for having me to stay and spoiling me rotten. I spent the entire week with my favourite tutor, Olive Bull. We immersed ourselves in Romans. I would love to say that I am now GREAT at Roman lettering but sadly that is not the case. We also learnt about the Golden Rule (for both Roman lettering and page layout.) When I got home I dug out a Bound and Lettered magazine from 2012 and made myself my own Fibonacci Gauge Pattern from matt board. It certainly makes measuring the Golden Rule proportions easier. The Golden Rule or the Golden Mean, or simply phi is the Greek term for the ratio of 1 to 1.618. Now I just need to work out how to use it to good effect! Just when I thought that I had come to the end with the Eco Prints! I spent the last couple of days inside working on the Jacob's Ladder Box or Karakuri Bako or Trick Box. I first read up on it in 'All Things Paper: 20 Unique Projects from Leading Paper Crafters, Artists, and Designers' by Ann Martin. Cecelia Louie contributed her take on the Trick Box in Ann's book. Cecelia calls it the 'Mysterious Stationery Box'. Cecelia's directions are very good. This box is fascinating and such fun too. Well, it might not be very visible from these photos but when I put the papers on to make the box into a Jacob's Ladder box, I stuck them on the wrong way so that although the trick box works the papers are covering up the wrong compartments.
So, then only thing to do was modify the box into a ordinary box with three compartments - with lovely eco printed covers and linings. One thing about this exercise is that it is a good reminder that not everything goes smoothly or perfectly but that the results can be lovely nevertheless. I am looking forward to attempting this box again. I had thought that I had exhausted all the uses for my gum leaf eco prints but apparently that is not the case. This is the first time that I have made tiny books so although it was a challenge it was also great fun to have succeeded. The books measure 3.5 x 4 cm (or 1.25 x 1.5 inches) approximately. The covers and the end papers are made from my eco monoprints. The book block is one page (not much of a block) with a greeting on it. If I finish them all there will be 60 tiny books. Had a lovely day (again) with Vicki and Bev. Vicki generously shared her knowledge, showing us both how to bind a book using the Drum Leaf Binding method. These books turn out similar to the ABC cardboard books that we all have known as children. They open pretty flat which makes them great for artists books and have no stitching. As usual grain is very important to ensure that the book ends up nice and straight. We folded and pressed the pages (in my case I was using heavy water colour paper that I had eco printed - that would be a surprise!) Pressing the pages was a very important part of this binding especially as my pages were not totally flat. We then pasted the spine leaving it to dry. Putting a piece of scrap paper to cover the front and middle pages we applied about a 25 cm stripe of glue at the spine edge, then another stripe of glue to the fore edge. The glued pages are then smoothed with a bone folder, put under weights at each gluing as well as at the end of the process. Leaving the book block under weights we turned our attention to the cover. The cover for mine was a bit problematic as the heavy weight paper I had chosen seemed a bit small for the book. Luckily with a bit of stretching we managed to wrap it around the book block and glue it into place. Unlike a child's book I left the deckle pages of my water colour paper as I rather liked that look of it. Next time (to consolidate my learning) I intend to photograph the entire process. It was great fun and I learned heaps again! Thanks Vicki. Well, it has been a while but I have been working hard on my Neuland Script exemplar book inspired by Olive Bull. It has taken longer than I expected but I think that the effort has been worthwhile. I still have several more pages that I want to add to it. Here is a small sample of the pages I have completed. I have left room at the side to make the pages into a simple Japanese binding (I think). That is the plan at the moment. Still more pages to complete before that. The excitement of it all! Bound and Lettered Vol. 11 No. 2 features an article on the exhibition Fiona Dempster coordinated and curated last year. The exhibition was called 'A Letter a Week - Artistic journey Through the Alphabet'.
I was lucky enough to have my 'Book of Letters' chosen as one of the images to support the article. Many thanks to Fiona and to Anastasia Karyofillidis who took all the lovely photos used throughout the article. I guess we all know that works of art don't just happen. There has to be a beginning somewhere. I have just started on two projects. One is an illuminated M commissioned by the person who bought the illuminated E. Here is the start with an eco printed page and the start of the illuminated letter M. And the second project is a hand made art journal for a friend. It will have coptic binding, eco printed covers and some eco printed pages interspersed with plain drawing paper. |
LYNDELL DOBBS
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