I collect postcards. I am an artist. This blog showcases both hobbies.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Book Arts

My obsession for art is book arts. I took a class geez.....12 or so years ago? It was my favorite art class because...

work/disaster in progress, waiting for the glue to dry
hence the plastic bags so things that should not
stick, do not. See the "lovely" sewn binding?
a) it unites books and art. Sure I have an e-reader (makes reading in bed while feeding my newborn so much easier) but I love a good old fashioned book, the almost zen ritual of turning paper pages. I love book arts as in pretty books like those with illuminated letters and golden pages and illustrations, leather bindings and the like. Let's just say the rare book store in Las Vegas is a must-visit destination for me to ooh and awe at. And well duh...I love art

b) Most art classes were things like "painting landscapes" "lithography, animal prints" or whatever...too specific.  I tire of just one media and enjoy mixed media or at least "hmm I just painted two portraits but I really feel like making a sculpture" - my mentality- can be brought about in book arts

c) When I took the class it was all 100% new to me. And I only cut my finger with the box cutter...well...every time until I invested in a thimble.

tape binding, I used ribbon
d) no boundaries!

So anyways the one part I hate? Structure and procedure. Sure the art part is total freedom- yes! But the construction part is wrought with potential for error.

I should have remembered that. It's like a golden rule of book arts. plan, procedure, plan, don't screw up, plan.

Alas, I forgot and one day recently I  found some water color card stock and thought, hmm I can do something with this. I had read a book on sleep training kids (my co-sleeper toddler.....well he still struggles, we both do) and it said to have a bedtime routine, and a bedime book.

Bed time book! (light bulb idea, on!)
dont try and sew a binding without practice,
at  6am, without coffee.

So I got what craft supplies I had- very little- oil pastels, a muddied 99 cent watercolor palette of my son's, and q tips.... and painted a book. I did not want to wait for supplies as I am a "I have inspiration RIGHT NOW! USE IT OR LOSE IT!" kind of gal.

I made a bedtime book of my own, with our bedtime routine right in the pages itself.

a page in the book
Everything went wrong.

1. I had the card stock which were card shaped so think V shaped if the card is open just a little. Logic says you decorate all 4 sides of the V. You put all the Vs together to make a chunky signature of Vs so its like....well iv you could look at a V with quadruple vison, the Vs all stacked and nestled together. Sure. What did I do? Layed out the Vs  V V V V and painted just the insides. Oops.

2. I used crappy supplies. oops.

3. I sewed it together and screwed up the kettle stitc each time.

4. I used the wrong thread

5


a page in the book
. I did not sew tight enough

6. I did not...gosh what's the word when you bang a stack of paper so they all line up? I did not do that

7. I sewed it and then glues the outside V V V together to make a regular looking book. Really. this book is so doomed that I don't know if I should have glued then sewn, or done what I did, or skipped wither gluin or sewing all together because I did it ALL WRONG

8. I still have a cover to make so I must use a box cutter and ruler, measure twice, cut once, bleed once, to cup the chip board. Hopefully successfully. I then don't have book cloth so I get to experiment with smoothing on nori paste onto non wrinkled fabric (ha ha non wrinkled??!!??!!) and pressing on tissue paper, non wrnkled, then wrapping and gliung without wrinkles onto the board

9. I still don't know if I am leaving the paper and swen ugly spine showing or if I am figuring out somehow...how to make a spine that covers the paper.


wish me luck.


No comments:

Post a Comment