In lieu of Studio Saturday - blizzard books

Another book from the very short book making course at Morley - this time it's a blizzard book, a structure invented by Hedi Kyle one day when snow kept her from going out to her job.

This - made by Hedi herself - was our model, with lovely envelope interiors tucked into the "pockets", and cover made of painted tyvek (I think) -

 A biggish one and a too-small one, which looked a bit like a fierce bird with a ghostly body -

By the end of the evening I'd made a few more, and cases for them -  and happened to have my "blizzard box" with me to add to book-storm -

Making a book

Last week I missed the first class in the three-evening course at Morley, but did my homework and cut some simple stamps from erasers, having decided that those already on hand were too fussy -

The task for this class was to print a page for each other person to incorporate in their book. I tried out a layers-of-colour idea, and decided it would take too long; it involved about 20 stampings on each of six pages...

 ... so I cut a larger eraser into wavy shapes in order to work faster -

 Butting up the papers allowed tops and bottoms to be printed at the same time -

Each page varied subtly  in its colours, thanks to a bit of overprinting with colours available in the stamp pads. As for the white space - perhaps there could have been more of that?

Then it was time for swapping, and for putting our pages into a sequence -

 ... and making covers. And gluing the pages into a concertina ... and gluing the concertina between the covers.

Everyone made a variety of pages with the stamps they'd carved, which led to a linked set of individual books -

 Finished!  on time! -

Yesterday's search for "the right paper" for making folded books was somewhat successful, and one book was produced, following the detailed and excellent instructions - the medium-sized one that didn't want to stay closed for its photo -

Today, enthusiasm continued and now there are three -

Finding things to insert into the pockets took a while. Usually you'd make this sort of book because you already had some things that you wanted to keep together, rather than the other way round. I like the way the book shows matching blank cards as inserts, but some old postcards were lying around so I used those in the first instance.

The largest book (about 5" tall) is made from an A3 sized sheet of "letter weight" paper, and the smallest started life as a colour-catcher (its cover is yet to come).

The way is clear...

I'm very excited that this book has come to live with me. So many exciting "blizzards" and "accordions" - and other structures - and cases and wrappers ... I want to make them all!

 First some Space must be Cleared -

 and at the end of the day, Space has been Cleared - goodness, what one finds along the way, but that's another story -

Now, the right paper must be Found. It's here somewhere... lots of paper has been gathered and kept, over the years, for just this moment.

Production lines - seasonal making

"When in doubt, make a book" - or a dozen!

Cut and folded

They are a dos-a-dos format, using a small section of some paper painted (on both sides) at a workshop at Committed to Cloth several years ago -

Punched and ready for sewing with red and yellow linen threads
 (the extra bit of cover will be trimmed later)

The paper bands hold the books closed, but elastic bands are more practical when the books are in use -

The remnants of the paper were used to make gift tags, embroidering a gold star over a red dot -

And a one-off - wreath made from discarded pine (or fir? spruce?) branches - without a firm base to attach the branches to, it was flopping about, so I started again...

 Not much firmer - more of a catherine-wheel than a typical xmas wreath!

Given that someone keeps stealing plants from the pots outside the front door at Rathcoole Gardens, it doesn't seem wise to put anything portable on the door...but it's too warm inside, really.

Studio Saturday - open studio prep

The week has been one of deep cleaning, much tidying, and rearrangements as we prepare for the Open Studio - which happens today, Saturday 24 November!

For the first day of the cleanup everything was taken off the shelves and moved into the centre of the room

 The kiln room got a thorough going-over  and sorting out -

I started to build my temporary shelving -

 he second day, things started to move away from the centre of the room, as if by magic -

 and it became possible to set up work in our spaces -

 I added quite a few fabric pots to the ceramic ones -

 and made sure the mirrored shelf was securely wedged -

 Others' work seemed less inconvenient to display -

 At the end of the day, things looked more or less ready -

 with a few quirky corners -

Here there be monsters!

(not really)

and a kiln room that's rapidly filling up with tools and furniture that needs to be kept out of the way -

It was a pleasure to see my pots in the window -

Next day, further cleaning of studio and refinement of arrangements. Arrival of ingredients for mulled wine and bags of nibbles. Decisions about pricing if work is for sale.

I gilded some more of the broken pots - but have no photos. Something that needs doing immediately on arrival at the studio this morning. I'd found other pots at home to bring to the studio, like this set of five tinies (max 2") -

In the quiet of the late afternoon, a chance take unhurried photos...

On the way home I toyed with the idea of making some books to be sold at under a fiver, and by 11pm a dozen dos-a-dos books were ready. They have an extra page of double-sided images cut from art magazines - finding these and cutting them carefully to size is what took the longest in the process. Time-wise, there's a lot of work gone into these -

Telephone directory as impromptu punching cradle

Final task for the morning would have been to print some business cards - but the printer has decided not to allow this.

Woodblock Wednesday

The production so far - using my old "passing planets" blocks, and a block carved this term, based on my inky zen circles -

A session of printing, between classes - 

before

after - more circles and some overprinting

 The plan is to join those together. But first, laying them out in different ways ("playing" - !), pushing the ideas along -

Limited palette -

Back in class, demonstration of sharpening tools -

 Carol also teaches on a course that combines woodblock printing with book making. Possible formats include a cloth-covered dos-a-dos book with many-layered pages, and a coptic stitched book with prints inside and the blocks used as the covers.Wow.