Exhibition catalogue - making the pages

The rubber stamps of our names and contact details have arrived, so it is high time to be getting on with making the pages for the catalogue of the final show. The team has nicely provided templates for placing the stamp, and is on hand for three days to give individual help.

The book will end up 24cm square, with a fold-out flap that holds only the stamped details; the artwork is on the oblong page beneath.

I was impressed by Di's screenprints, and the 85 cinnamon-filled bags she made to put on the plates.

My own idea is much simpler - and I found some exciting paper in the Paperchase sale. The "simple" idea involves, first of all, cutting each sheet of paper individually (and accurately), and folding; that took three hours -

Next, practice with the stamp, and fiddling about with the template to be able to position the stamp easily. It was ever so slightly (but noticeably) wonky - in the gluing of text to stamp, so needed compensating for. Sometimes I think we can be toooo fussy....

Because I used white paint, brushing it -carefully!- onto the stamp, the stamping took two hours. I took out the ones that were utterly illegible (having cut extras, knowing some of the stamping would need to be discarded). Batches were laid to dry -

Then, three holes punched along the fold - which could be done in batches - and the start of the sewing and gluing. Four hours of that, and about half the pages are finished. The sewing is a pamphlet stitch (but there is no pamphlet, just the stitch) - and the ends of the thread are taken to the edges and carefully, delicately, invisibly glued down. This forms quadrants and the occasional kink and wrinkle that disrupt the shiny black surface suddenly look "interesting" rather than annoyingly ugly.

In progress - about halfway done -

This is sort of what it will look like in the actual catalogue - but probably the previous page will be white, and there won't be red thread on the other folded pages -

 Open the page, and there's nothing much to see -

Make of that what you will......