Category: Artist Books

Art, Artist Books, Bookarts, Collage, Doodles, Paintings

Little Boats

Shelly

Little Boats 1

Little Boats 2

Little Boats 3

Little Boats 4

Little Boats
collage, gel pen, and acrylic on 140lb Cartiera Magnani hot press watercolor paper
3 x 7 1/2 inches

I wanted a change from bottles and vases and plain old doodling, so I thought I’d work on something else for awhile. I bound this miniature book, using left over scraps of paper and book board I’d pre-painted with acrylics, about a year ago, as a demo for a book binding tutorial I wrote. Because of the sea foam greens used on many of the pages, my intention was to eventually do something water-themed with it.

Little Boats (open)

Little Boats (spine)

Little Boats (top view)
Little Boats
3 3/8 x 3 15/16 inches, 11 signatures of 2 pages each (22 pages total)
140lb Cartiera Magnani hot press watercolor pages, pre-painted with acrylics, bound with waxed linen thread

Art, Artist Books, Bookarts, Journals

Endings and Beginnings

Shelly

Hemp Bound Journal, finished (finally!). I started it in July of 2005 and quickly got sidetracked. I picked it up a couple of times, but didn’t get serious about finishing it until a couple of weeks ago. I still have to do a table of contents, and will post that when I’ve completed it, but for all intents and purposes, it’s done, done, done.

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100_3930

This, of course, means I am in need of a new journal. I’ve been trying to decide what paper I want to use. I’ve got some really nice 140lb Cartiera Magnani hot press left (God, I love that stuff!), but I decided to go with the black 90lb Stonehenge for now. I may regret that decision, though. It doesn’t take kindly to water. Not at all. But it’ll be fun to play with gel pens again. (Oooh! Shiny!)

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100_2936
Stonehenge Journal
7 1/2 x 5 5/8 inches, 11 signatures of 4 pages each (44 pages total)
Coptic stitch with linen thread, 90lb black Stonehenge paper

If you aren’t familiar with exposed spine bindings, and would like to try making your own books for writing or art, there’s an illustrated tutorial for how to do this binding on my website. It’s really not complicated. Tearing down and folding the paper to the size I wanted took about 30 minutes. The binding itself, including setting grommets into the holes on the front and back covers, took about an hour. I did the entire thing while watching television.

Speaking of television, I’m in the middle of watching the first season of Rome. Oh my. If you enjoyed I, Claudius (or I, CLAVDIVS, as I like to call it), then you’ll like Rome. It’s set during Julius Caesar’s reign, so it directly precedes I, Claudius. In fact, I’m going to rewatch I, Claudius as soon as I’m finished with Rome. I could use a good dose of Derek Jacobi.

Side note: While Googling for links for the above shows, I came across the Wikipedia entry for the Robert Graves book that I, Claudius was based on. And it contained a spoiler warning. Honestly, does a book about Roman history–even if it’s heavily novelized–really need a spoiler warning? The mind wobbles!

Art, Artist Books, Collage, Poetry

One Desert Crossed

Shelly

Hemp Bound Journal: One Desert Crossed
One Desert Crossed
collage (altered Polaroid photo, sandpaper, newsprint, magazine clipping, filmstrip, leaf, fragment of old lace curtain) and oil pastel
8 3/4 x 11 1/2 inches

The title comes from an Emily Dickinson poem, I did not reach thee.

I did not reach thee,
But my feet slip nearer every day;
Three Rivers and a Hill to cross,
One Desert and a Sea—
I shall not count the journey one
When I am telling thee.

Two deserts—but the year is cold
So that will help the sand—
One desert crossed, the second one
Will feel as cool as land.
Sahara is too little price
To pay for thy Right hand!

The sea comes last. Step merry, feet!
So short have we to go
To play together we are prone,
But we must labor now,
The last shall be the lightest load
That we have had to draw.

The Sun goes crooked—that is night—
Before he makes the bend
We must have passed the middle sea,
Almost we wish the end
Were further off—too great it seems
So near the Whole to stand.

We step like plush, we stand like snow—
The waters murmur now,
Three rivers and the hill are passed,
Two deserts and the sea!
Now Death usurps my premium
And gets the look at Thee.