And the wind had ebbed away
collage (anatomical illustrations, magazine clipping, and altered poem) on Arches cover paper
7 1/2 x 11 inches
And the wind
had ebbed away
and left
the wildest notes
the shame
the darkest waves
the lava tide.
The poem is done, but the artwork is not. That’s on the schedule for tomorrow. Survivor and Lost are on tonight, so I’m going to be gorging on television starting in about five minutes.
How many would have recognized
the world in which they lived?
Their ideas molded by institutions
and the imperial cult
the groundless assertion
of their unique devotion
the progress of the gods
kingdoms and empires acquired and expanded
wars and victories without piety.
The pact
formed by criminals and murderers,
they were sacrilegious masters.
They sided with tradition —
illegal baptism
enslavement to the martyrs
agony endured and born a new —
an order
founded upon divine claims,
and some dared insist
divine right.
I finished the poem and painting part of this months ago, but didn’t like where the collage was going, so I got stuck. It’s been sitting on my coffee table since, um, January. Oops!
collage (leaf, yearbook photo, ribbon, coin, buttons, map legend, and raffle ticket) with watersoluble crayon and found poem in altered book
9 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches
The Story
(a found poem)
The story was a riddle
pointing to a shimmering surface
to hidden depths
to inner experience.
The story
neither sought nor found
like a melody continually improvised
full of blasphemy
for many generations venerated
should not be read simply.
The story
found in the garden
between the infinite and finite
above the abyss that separates
the failed and perfection
depends upon the divine
hidden deep within
as well as outside.
Whenever I make a book, I list what kind of paper I’ve used. I didn’t this time, though, because I used a bunch of odds and ends. There’s some 90lb cream Stonehenge and some 140lb Cartiera Magnani hot press. There is also some buff Arches cover that I’ve been carrying around since school. I trash picked it in one of the printmaking rooms, I think. Some of the Arches had test images printed on it, so there will probably be found art in some of the spreads.
I’d forgotten how much I like the texture of Arches cover. It’s a nice weight for bookbinding, too. I’ll have to pick some up.
Burlap and Bell
four-needle Coptic binding with hemp twine and burlap over Davey board covers
8 x 6 inches, 9 signatures of 2 sheets (36 pages)
5 March 2008
I didn’t take any detail photos before covering it, so I can’t show the horrible stitching. After looking at a different tutorial, I think the problem was either operator error (always a possibility!) or the instructions I used were not clear. Meaning, the problem was not with the binding itself, but that I did it incorrectly.
The burlap cover I added isn’t perfect. The corners are wonky, and I haven’t added end papers yet. That would’ve been easier to do before the fact. I’d also intended on wrapping the spine, to mitigate the vertical fanning, but didn’t like how that looked. I’m sure to be doing a lot of collage work across the page gutters, and hopefully that’ll stabilize things.
It’s all a learning experience, right?
Anyway, to answer Christina’s question, the tutorial I used was from the Volcano Arts website. This two-needle Coptic tutorial from Emma Jane Hogbin seems to be pretty straightforward. I’m going to try it next, though adapted for book board, not wooden covers.
I needed a new journal, so I thought I’d try doing a four-needle Coptic binding. I’m not sure that was a good idea. I used hemp twine, which might have been my first mistake. The stitching pattern isn’t very clear, and the knotting is kind of out of control where the back cover is attached. It was also a pain in the ass to keep track of four needles. Aaack! And time consuming, too. It took about twice as long as doing a single-needle Coptic binding. I guess that’s to be expected, but I am short on patience, so it’s no wonder I was frustrated.
The worst part, though, is that I could not get the spine edge of the first signature even with the spine edge of the front cover. I tried and tried and tried, and even loosened and re-tightened the stitches holding the front cover to the first signature. No dice. It keeps playing peekaboo behind the second signature.
Something else that bugs me is that the back cover wants to drop down from the front, basically fanning the book out vertically. Weird.
So, what I’m planning on doing is covering everything with a piece of burlap (from a basmati rice bag), including the spine. I’m going to attach the burlap to the cover with Heat-n-Bond. Then, I’m going to wind hemp twine between each of the signatures and over the outside of the spine. That should stop the fanning problem as well as hide the ugly spine and the peekaboo signature.
That may sound confusing. I’ll take photos when I’m done. Not that that’s guaranteed to clarify anything.
Pear Journal
90lb Stonehenge paper Coptic bound with waxed linen thread and recycled notebook covers
9 1/2 x 6 inches, 9 signatures of 2 sheets (36 pages)
Bound 22 May 2007
Started 6 November 2007
Finished 13 December 2007
Pear Journal
90lb Stonehenge paper and recycled notebook covers, Coptic bound with waxed linen thread
9 1/2 x 6 inches, 9 signatures of 2 sheets (36 pages)
22 May 2007
I don’t think I ever took photos of this one when I bound it. I recycled the back covers from two old notebooks. The binding is basic one-needle Coptic stitch, with little decorative chicken feet added when I attached the covers.
I did my first tacket binding today. I was inspired to give it a try by Dennis at Cai Lun. He gives a simple, straightforward explanation of how to do the basic stitch and cord packing. It was more time consuming than the Coptic binding I usually do, because I couldn’t just slap together bare board covers. The cord packing takes more time than a simple chain stitch, too, but it’s not at all difficult.
This is a super sturdy binding. It’s stiffer than a Coptic bound book, because there is almost no wiggle room. It opens flat, though, which is an absolute must for me. I really like the end product.
Since this was my first go at this type of binding, I made a few mistakes. Next time, I’ll mark the stitch lines on the outside of the spine with masking tape, to keep them even. I marked the inside, and tried my best to keep the stitches straight, but they’re a little ragged. I’ll also start further in from the cover. My outer two signatures are sewn too close to the edge, so the book wants to fan open. That will change, I think, as it settles and the denim spine relaxes a bit.
I think it would also be best sewn with thread, not twine. Hemp is super strong, and I love it, but I think the unevenness of it makes it a poor choice for packed cords.
Denim Book
tacket bound with hemp cords, denim cover, and star map end papers
8 x 5 3/4 inches
7 signatures of two sheets (28 pages) of 140lb Cartiera Magnani hot press watercolor paper
red paper boat 