Category: Bookarts

Art, Bookarts, Pets, Photography

The Blustery Day

Shelly

It’s cold and snowy and windy today. The weather is supposed to clear up this afternoon, but in the meantime, it’s snowing sideways (30mph wind gusts) and the roads are icy. Yuck.

In arting news, I started on a new book last night. It’s an itty bitty (3/4″ x 7/8″) alphabet book, made out of left-over Cartiera Magnani paper (I just can’t stand to throw any of it away). Lord only knows how I’m going to manage to bind something that small, but I’m sure it’ll be an interesting experience. I’ll post pictures as I finish them.

Elliott_HarrietSM

Oh, and yesterday was Elliott’s 11th birthday. That photo was taken earlier this winter. Harriet, ever the fashion plate, is modelling the latest in Metal-wear for dogs. Elliott, bless his little heart, is standing all penguin-footed. That’s my silly dork!

Art, Bookarts, Journals

Dada Book

Shelly

P004

P033

P006: Faceless P008: Do You Ever Think Before You Speak?

These are a few pages from the Dada book I’ve been working on. It’s made of pages from Real Simple magazine. Some of the images in the magazine are great for collage, but I find the overall tone is pretty insufferable. What better use to put the left-overs to than to rip them up and turn them into a Dada-esque journal?

Cover

I had intended to use it mostly for collage, but I’ve ended up using it for “evening pages.” Some of the folks in one of my art groups are working through The Artist’s Way. I had planned on working on it with them, but I decided that waking up any earlier than I already do–just to journal–would be cruel and unusual punishment–4am is plenty early enough, thankyouverymuch! So, I’ve been doing some very quick pages right before I go to bed. I’m finding that it’s a nice way to cap off the day–sort of like getting in the last word.

This is a crappy picture, taken with my ubercheap digital camera. The book is small and chunky: 5.5 x 4.5″ and about 1″ thick. I used a coptic stitch to bind it, which was a bit of a challenge. The clay-coated magazine pages are weak and brittle, so they crack easily. I had to remove a couple of signatures because the holes ripped open as I was sewing the binding. I ended up with 13 signatures of 20 pages each.

Art, Bookarts, Crankypantsing

Dada Book

Shelly

My poor little car is dead, dead, dead, so I’ve been a little preoccupied, a little freaked out, and generally very cranky about the whole thing. I hate worrying about transportation problems. Last night, I was suffering from extreme grumpiness and thought a book making fix would help improve my mood. There’s something about the smell of beeswax and the rhythm of folding paper and sewing bindings that I find calming.

Since I’ve been playing around with glue books, I’ve been going through stacks of magazines, ripping out images. I decided to make a Dada book out of the left-overs. I took a stack of pages I’d torn out of various lifestyle/interior design magazines and made a little (4.5″ x 5.5″) coptic bound book out of them. It’s 13 signatures of 20 pages each, so the whole book is 260 sheets (520 front/back pages). It’s *cute*.

My plan is to do quick journaling and collage in it, with the emphasis on quick. This isn’t going to be a pretty, carefully crafted altered book sort of project. Since the pages are chock-a-block with ads and fashion/home decor advice, I’m planning on the book being a commentary on those things. I think that will tie in nicely with the overall concepts of Dada–reuse of junk/trash, anti-aesthetic, anti-culture, and silly, obscure references.

I haven’t taken pictures of the book yet, but I’ll post them when I do. I’ll probably also post scans of pages as I finish them.