Bookbinding at Sitka: Part 2

Class photos: Ann Kresge’s Creative Bookbinding at Sitka June 22-24, 2009

Ann talking about some of her books.

Ann showing books 1

Her Mt. Olympus book was created using block prints. Each image was hand sewn into the accordion folded pages. The images describe to the viewer her hike up Mt. Olympus in Greece with school children. Notice how the image starts with a level horizon and then starts growing to a very steep peak.  Love the color usage and story telling of the block prints.

Ann showing books 2

Another one of her books. Handmade paper & letterpress. Was it a concertina spine? Not certain.

Ann showing book 3

Ann demonstrating a wearable book created by another artist. Headdress book front. Ron, one of the students is standing next to her.

Ann n Ron w headdress

Back of Headdress book.

Ann w headdress back

Ann talking about her collagraph book. The definition of a collagraph from The Complete Printmaker, 1990 edition, is a “print made from a collage of various materials glued together on a cardboard, metal, or hardboard plate.” Actual plate is attached in the book (it’s the black spiral she is pointing to) The prints are what she is holding.  They were printed on some sort of velum, sewn to a dowel and hang between the two side flaps of the book. The right, left and back covers are made from veneer wood and also printed with same collagraph plate.

Collagraph book

Tunnel book she created from her printed paper.

tunnell 1

Another of her tunnel books. This book appeared on a Print Arts Northwest card for her show about 4 years ago.  This is what drew me to take her class.

tunnel 2

A two way tunnel book.  One side uses warm colors in the printing…

tunnel 3 front

The other side uses cooler colors.

tunnel 3 back

Images of students at work and the books they created in the past…

Suzanne hard at work on the concertina card book.

suzanne working

The amazing Daryl (wish I had the correct spelling!) She is a recent retiree from the Sitka board of 20yrs. Wow! Half Sitka’s life. She now devotes her summers to taking classes and creating lots of art. She is working on an altered childrens book. Wish I could see the finished product.

Daryl working Ron photo

One of two examples of Daryl’s work. This is a tunnel book created from two watercolors she tore apart and repositioned into this beautiful sea scape.

Daryls tunnel watercolor

Another book she created in Julie Chen workshop up at Oregon College of Arts and Crafts (possibly back in 2008). French door design.  “Is it a word?”

daryls chen book outside

Interior of book has different letters on each page. Do they all mesh to create a real word?

daryls chen book inside

So many incredible books brought in by the different students. Not enough time to photograph each one so a group shot will have to suffice.

assorted student books

Notice the “Girl Detective” book on back  rt side. Its covered in some type of tape used to wrap heating ducts  (yes, a duct tape!) … but the cool thing is the foil exterior that can be stamped, dyed and written on with anything. Nice look without the weight of metal. Much better looking than standard Duct Tape.

assorted student books 2

Bookbinding at Sitka with Ann Kresge- Part 1

Back to reality from 3 glorious days at Sitka. What a wonderful place to go. I highly recommend taking a workshop there. Great staff, incredible location, good facilities and wonderful instructors.

I took a workshop from print/bookmaker Ann Kresge on the basics of bookbinding. I needed this workshop a couple of years ago, but I’m happy to have finally connected with the basics.

Introduction to books: The workshop started out by learning important basics; tools, terminology of book parts, book types (there are many!),  adhesives and paper/board information (grain etc) . I had not a clue about paper grain/cross grain and its effects on warping after gluing. No wonder my pieces get a bit funky! Your grain needs to run from head to tail ( book cover board too). Adhesives are also important. We used a 50/50 mix of PVA (polyvinyl acetate)  glue and Methyl Cellulose paste. This adds more flexibility in the end product. Another “ah HA” moment!

Day 1 book focus:  Accordion and how to cover the boards, miter corners etc…

Hard cover 2 section accordion

2sect accord

Triangle Accordion

triangle accordian 1

triangle accordian 2

Flower Book

Flower book 1

Flower book open

Day 2:  Japanese Stab Binding

3 holed pamphlet “figure 8” sewn binding

figure 8 pamphlet

Japanese 4 hole binding “Yotsumi Toji” with corners

japanese 4 hole stab

Hemp-Leaf Stab Binding “Asa no-ha Toji” with corners

japanese hemp stitch

hemp stitch closeup

japanese open album

Day 3: Concertina, Tunnel & Composite Bindings

Hard Covered Concertina : Very fun!

concertina spine

open card concertina

open card view 2

Tunnel Book w/ Concertina Spine paper : didn’t finish but folded sides and collected cardstock

French Doors : produced 2 books

frenchdoor closed 1

frenchdoor open 1

frenchdoor closed 2

frenchdoor open 2

frenchdoor back 2

All the books together.

all books

House 4E Project 2009

The pass along projects are in swing again. Some  members will not be participating this year so I thought it might be nice for them to have a visual taste. Fortunately, most of them will be participating in OurFest in August. Carol- here is a peek at my crazy group tunnel book. It really would have been nice to have taken the book workshop before now… oh well! The concept is prehistoric cave art. You choose your favorite image and create a page for the book. The nice thing about cave art is that the original artists would often overlap images.  The initial pages are done in chalk pastels and charcoal. Accordion sides were ink washed because the white was too much. There is also a full cover for the book for protection. Book cover images to be added later on.

In progress

back pagealmost there

Finished pages with out accordion sides.

finished pages

This is the start of Joanne’s Goddess Project. She created a Garden Goddess.

IMG_0019

I’ve started a Garage Goddess created from old stuff that should have been tossed years ago. More images to come later!

Off to a workshop…

I’m heading out Saturday to Sitka Center for Art and Ecology (Lincoln City) for a new workshop. Artist Ann Kresge is offering a 3 day class titled “Creative Bookbinding: Books, Albums, Alternative & Sculptural Bindings.” I enrolled back in March thinking Mocha would no longer be with us by late June. Ha! Fat chance! Poor Dave will have to contend with her. I’ll also be meeting up with my best friend visiting from Durango. It’s been a couple of years since our last visit. A couple of days at the coast with her, staying in another friends house, playing with art, walking on the beach, what could be better?!

Of course, it would have been nice to have taken this class a couple of months ago. My new 4E house project is a “Cave Art Tunnel Book” . Just sort of finished up my section and almost ready to pack it off to Lauren O’s house. I’m sure there is an easier way to put this book style together. Certainly had my run of problems with it today! C’est la vie! That will be the next posting.

Sitka link: www.sitkacenter.org

Another Leaf Garment?

Since the leaf coat was so well accepted by the general public and artist community, I’ve decided to do another garment using the remaining Oregon Ash leaves.  This time smaller and using a different splash of interest, lichens! Yes, those primordial cleaners of the air, grey green,  symbiotic relationship with trees & not making much of a statement (Ramalina farinacea,  Evernia prunastri and some Usnea hirta aka Old man’s beard). They are an indicator species for air quality. Some lichens are used to dye fabric and other textiles often showing up in traditional NW Native basketry (a yellow variety, possibly Letharia vulpina) . When pressed flat they remind me of chrysanthemums or pieces of lace. Should be interesting to intersperse them with the leaves if it works at all.

New Look

It felt like time for an appearance change. The rock cabbage image was taken while sketching along the Brittany coastline in France. The month of  June always brings back trip memories to France. Just like October makes me think of Oaxaca Mexico, Paris France, Scotland and Amsterdam. December is India/Thailand/Nepal. So many more countries to visit…

Gyotaku with Rubber Fish

On Saturday night after going out for dinner and a movie with friends,  Tracie took me to her car and passed off a big grocery bag full of rubber fish. WOW! I was so excited! Tracie teaches 4th grade at an elementary school here in Albany. She is gearing up to change schools so everything had to leave her room. Fish included! A huge thanks to Tracie for such a generous gift!!!!!

Fish printing without the smell or slime will be so much fun and a great project for both kids and adults.  Granted, I truly gained much bliss from standing on the banks of Carol’s pond and wish to do so again soon. I already have some interested adults ready to come experience non-fishy fish and I’ll do a test run on my neighbors kids in a couple of weeks when they start to get bored by summer break.

Here are a couple of images of the assorted fish and prints taken using stamp pads to ink up the little devils!

fish assort

bluegill 1

Tracie fish

Textbook Test Coat

Textbooks. You might have a couple still hanging around your garage or basement, collecting dust and mildew. Some of you might have been proactive in turning them in for cash prior to the end of finals. Unfortunately some are never returnable.You can spend$40 plus for one book. So what have I done with my extras? Years ago they headed out to the garage waiting to be recycled  once I cut the binding off with the band saw. However, I think I’ve found a new project.

I’ve discovered the joy of my old shredder. It’s not a cross-cut model, just the old straight strips. It doesn’t fit comfortably over a wast bucket. Broken plastic rattles around inside if you pick it up, but it creates even strips perfect for weaving. A friend, Marianna M.,  introduced this concept with a shredded/reassembled map of the US. The map showed a recent car trip with her mother back to the Great Lakes area. The piece was displayed several years ago so it’s not as clear in my mind, but the concept of shredding and weaving has stuck. Weaving shredded pages from a textbook.

Here are images of the first test coat produced 2 months ago.  It has yet to get past the frilly stage,but that’s ok because there is another coat in production…

front

back

Now coat#2. Larger, started the process a bit differently. Completed the front & back before moving onto the sides.  Tucked the ends back up into the weave rather than using tape or glue. Had to use glue to secure the sides prior to weaving. Interesting process and I’m not certain if it will continue. Seems to be another way to procrastinate from tackling more substantial projects.

textcoat2front

textcoat2back

Still working out the kinks w/ sides and sleeves. Neck and front could stand some changes as well. It’s been a fun one to play around with while watching movies (no subtitles!) or the tube. I’ll be getting back to it in a week or so after a few “must complete” tasks are finished.

Why textile -like forms? I really don’t understand it at this time. I’m not a fashion oriented sort of person. I’ve been dreaming of creating another Kimono (first one was in clay & anagama fired) and woven paper might be the next try. It will probably remain a dream for quite a while.

Basic Tunnel Book Tutorial

This is for you Wendy Y-H. Hope you take a peek!

For this seasons 4E house project I’ve decided to create a tunnel book. Each artist has to respond to the previous artist’s page, there is no real subject (well, not at this point because I’m still creating the back ground). Tunnel books are assembled with a solid back and accordion pleated sides. Each interior page is cut away.  This is a basic tutorial for the creation and will accompany the project.

Accordion pleats

To start with , I picked a dark green 80lb cover stock for the accordion pleated sides. One sheet (8.5″x11″) folded long-ways and divided (4.25″x11″) was enough for this small book. I then folded one section in half (5.5″x4.25″) and marked it every .75 inches. A straight edge  and bone folder were used to create the folds.  After the folds were creased, I marked basic points to punch small holes for attaching the pages. One could certainly just use glue to attach the pages and in hindsight, its a much easier process.

1 accordion

Pages:

Created from a quartered section of 80lb cover paper(8.5″x11″), I made the book 6 pages deep including the back and front window.

I had a simple image in my mind incorporating hills, trees and a house. I started from the back and worked forward in design, so tallest mountains reside on back page, hill with house on next, lower hills w/ trees, lower and lower hills towards the front and the final frame.

2 pages

3 drawing

I used an exacto blade to remove the negative space on each page.

4.5 cutting

5 all cut

Once all the pages were cut to my liking, I sanded them w/ 220 grit to create a surface for the pastels to adhere. One could also just spray fixative to help adhesion. This was only the 4th time ever using chalk pastels. After multiple layering of pastels and fixative it could move on to the next step. Attaching pages to the accordion sides.

6 basic assembly

6.5 sewing

6.6 clamp

7.2 attach

7 attachment

This was more time consuming than I originally thought. I decided to stitch the pages into place using embroidery floss and hot pink was the only color to be found. The floss was then tied around bamboo skewer sticks. The bamboo did have the problem of slipping out so a small amount of PVA glue was applied at each knot.

8.2 side lit

8.3 full

8.4 top

8.5 back

Sigh of Relief

I’ll be attending a marketing workshop both Saturday and Sunday in Corvallis.  Initially I signed up for one of the “prime spots” to be evaluated by Marty Rudolph. Heather emailed me about needing to bring in 3 works in the same media for the event. Yikes! That froze me! First, the thought of wrangeling the leaf coat back there for the weekend was not enjoyable. The other piece that could fit the textile category was the postcard quilt, not quite as painful to transport but there is no where to hang it (photography show still going). What would I do for a third textile? I don’t have any! Granted, a miniature woven coat of paper could be produced over the next two days but would it really be something I would feel good about showing? Hard to say. It’s still experimental. Maybe I’ll give it a go anyway just for the heck of it. Anyway, I opted to back out and allow another artist w/ a larger body of work take my place. I’ll still be there to watch and take notes. Quite a few of my art friends are in the top 8. Should be fun.