Book du jour - reading rooms

One idea for my books for the al-Mutanabbi Street Project was to use double-fold accordion to make "a street of rooms" - and finally I sewed together the papers I'd assembled for a try-out of the concept.

The sewing was very awkward! The origami papers were joined with tape, which made things worse - so I cut them apart and tipped them in once the fold had been sewn. The yellow paper looks smaller because it is - I wanted to see what happens with smaller and smaller "rooms" - how does this affect what you might be able to put on the inside of the outer paper, or even on the other side of the wall of the room?

On checking the instructions for the book with just one layer of paper, I saw that you're meant to fold the two strips of (white, in this case) paper together for sewing at each fold - then reverse the fold on one of the strips of paper to make  the structure. Well, I'll try that next time - it definitely sounds more straightforward, more do-able, than my current attempt.

Dyeing and inking of paper continues - I've rigged up a line with clips to hold the paper while drying -

These are for a single-layer double accordion fold book - the inside of the pages has a bit of collage and a bit of frottage. I thought the collage would make the paper (re-used photocopies) more substantial, but it doesn't really. And the ink seeps through the thin paper. One discovery is that the black areas of the photocopy resist the dye and ink - the areas with graphite frottage make quite a rich surface.

Inside these "rooms" will be patterns made from rubbings of the edges of pages -

Without the cover at either end, this is one maquette for "street of reading rooms" (a longer one awaits sewing) -

It can also become a star shape; what is an optimum number of cells? -

The collage is unnecessary - one coloured "wall" will tint the others, as with the red at bottom left.

Another observation: The ink seeps through the paper; the dye doesn't penetrate, but will run underneath and stain the reverse if you're not careful.

Still experimenting ... still slushing it all around in my subconscious ....