Tag Archive for: wood

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Blizzard Book

I have a book that is part of the International Printmaking Conference in Dundee, Scotland. My book Equations is near the bottom of the table on the right edge. This is a book I made for an international exchange. One never knows where our books may show up! This is exciting and thanks to my friend Ellen for bringing it to my attention. I used a gelatin plate and printing inks to print plants from Humboldt County, California. These images were then enhanced using Photoshop. The wooden covers are made from recycled Bubinga and the pages were inserted into a Blizzard structure.

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I will be using this structure as a model for an OLLI class on this fun book.
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Book Art Object International Exchange

I joined an international exchange in January 2012 because a friend suggested that I do so….you see…one of the topics was “Equations”. I was placed in Group #4 with about 8 other artists, each with a different title. The idea was to make enough editions for everyone else in the group, plus one for Sarah Bodman whose book of short stories An Exercise for Kurt Johannessen
provided 100 titles for our editions. I know this sounds like old news but I still haven’t received several books so “the file i still open”. AND I’m still playing catch-up with my blog.

It took months for the ideas to come together and several more to experiment with my ideas and find an appropriate structure; with the serendipitous gift of some wonderful pieces of wood samples, i was on my way.

I wanted, somehow, to illustrate the interdependence of mathematics and nature. Since these books were going to be mailed to several countries, I wanted to feature the redwood forests where I live. Picking through my gelatin prints of local plants, I scanned several, thinking I would play with these and then go hiking and find other material to print. I started with not-so-nice colored prints and used Photoshop to alter the colors. Remarkably, the newer colors were so beautiful that I decided there was no need to make more gelatin prints. Lesson learned: don’t give up on things I’ve made. They can be altered! Cut them up, crop them, alter the colors, paint over them.

The pages for the Blizzard Book structure were made from a single sheet of paper made from a collage. The collage was created from torn pages of a vintage mathematics textbook, then scanned, and finally Photoshop was used to adjust the colors and add semi-transparent texture.

A redwood tree printed (heat transfer) on bands of handmade paper served as the closure for the book. The books were very small (2.5 in x 4 in) and easy to mail.

The books I have received so far are beautiful, skillfully constructed, and very creative. One of my favorite exchanges. One of the photos shows a gelatin print of redwood needles and the other shows the entire set as they were ready to be mailed (you can also see the Bubinga wooden covers).

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Daniel Essig Workshop

My two children live in San Diego and I’m always looking for an excuse to go down to visit. I have loved Daniel Essig’s books for years and the idea that I could actually see and handle his books was reason enough to book a flight. Even better, he was offering a three day workshop to make a sewn book with wooden covers. I’ve done little sewing so I knew this was going to be a bit of a challenge. It was. However, I loved working with wood and all of the tools: drill press, power tools, hand drills, and my personal favorite, the industrial lathe tool we used to create metal posts. I enjoyed sewing the caterpillar but the stitches along the edges drove me batty (and I’m sure Daniel too). But. Now I know I can actually sew these stitches and maybe even begin to understand Keith Smith’s instructions on the same.

The covers were created using wood covered with handmade crumpled flax paper made by Bookmakers Inc.. Covers were painted with layers of milk paint, sanded to reveal the layers, and then waxed with shoe polish to add luster.

One of my favorite students in the class was the high school woodshop teacher who volunteered his beautiful and well equipped classroom for our workshop. He had no bookmaking experience and created a wonderful book with patience and good humor.

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Coptic Stitch Practice

I had a three day workshop coming up with Daniel Essig so I thought it might be a good idea to assemble another book using the coptic stitch—hoping my fingers would remember what to do. I used scrap wood from my recycled wood stash (from my husband and his woodworking friends) and thought I would sew the book with one type of stitch, then cut those out and try another type of stitch. As usually happens, I got way more involved with the project than intended and ended up with a nice little book. The sunflower is a heat transfer with color smudged into the wood. The little metal frame is glued on with scientific jargon underneath. I am sending the book to a dear friend and her name and mine is burned into the inside back cover. I can always find more wood….

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