book models....

I've been up to my nose in research and writing today.... trying to make a start on that difficult first chapter of my exegesis..... I'm not someone who finds writing easy (AT ALL!) it takes me a long, looooooooong time to get anywhere (that's why I need to make a start now!) I don't know if I'm strange, but I always tend to start writing things in the middle then work outwards (and the beginning and ending of my stuff usually comes at the same time - at the very end of my time writing!)

Well, I'm commencing the the writing of my exegesis whack smack in the middle - and I'm presently trying to write a chapter on biblioclasm (and bibliophilia and bibliomania - books books and more books!). After a day spent reading/writing all about the destruction of books and libraries I needed to do something a bit more constructive and loving with books ....

So I finished off the day making a couple of book models from some of the handmade paper created the other day....

this one has a hardcover - with alphabet stamped paste-paper covers (I haven't finished 'decorating' the covers yet....), long stitched over paper-covered tapes with sections created from my handmade paper


Sharp-eyed BAO peeps will notice some familiar hand-marbled and paste papers (yes the model above is covered in leftover paste paper and the one below is wearing hand-marbled paper off-cuts from my 'learning absences' book edition...)

this one is soft cover, long-stitched over paper strips... and is my favourite. It's quite a pleasing structure to hold in the hand - the size is nice and the paper feels soft and inviting....

ahh well - it was nice to be making books after all the talk of destroying them!



** p.s. I've photographed the books on the emerging granite rock retaining wall that my dearest, wonderful-est man is creating here at sams creek..... here's an 'in progress' shot.....

Isn't my FP a clever creature? I'm looking forward to watching the wall grow - I'm sure it will be finished long before my biblio-chapter.....





....

a whole lotta booooooks

Friday morning I got up in the predawn hours, donned my bestest 'kick-ass sale' attire (redback boots, stretchy pants, loose top, manic expression) and headed over the hills and far away (well, over the Brown Mountain to Canberra - around 250km or a 3hr drive away)

It was time for the biannual Lifeline Book Fair

wheeeeeeeee!

Here's (part of) the haul this time......

Ahhh - I love the Book Fair! (ahhh I love the bigger hauling power of my new-old Subaru Forester!)

This time I think I snaffled the entire collection of old Readers Digest atlases..... got a few old bird/plant/shell books, Children's Brittanica, a hardback series on Australian gardening and loads more..... the kiddies were chuffed with a great newish set of childcraft encyclopaedias (with great colourful covers - just the thing for the school holidays that are now upon us at Sams Creek)


I looked longingly at a 1890s set of Encyclopaedia Brittanica...... but it was worth more than my entire haul!


sigh

This bookfair closes today... and the next one is March 2011...... (I'm dreaming new booky dreams already)

how to make your pics do the searching.....

 A few days ago I accidentally stumbled over how to turn a pic on your blog sidebar into a 'search labels' hyperlink..... you know what I mean - a nice feature that folk can click and BINGO up pops all the posts with the selected label......

Now, much as I suspect I'm the last person in the blogosphere to work out this stupidly simple thing - because I searched for months and months (only to find the most convoluted advice on how to add HTML mark-up to your template to make this happen) I'm going to share what I accidentally discovered.... maybe there's one or two others left out there who haven't figured this one out.....
(although I doubt it!!!!!)

How to make a 'search labels' hyperlink for a pic on your blog

1.   If you don't have one already, add a 'labels' gadget to your sidebar - you can edit what is viewed on the label feature or just show them all (PS you can remove the gadget after you make your 'search labels hyperlink pic' if you don't want it permanently on your blog..... it just makes this mighty easy)

here's mine.....

 2. choose what label you want your pic to activate - in this example I'm using a pic of my beloved sams creek to show posts labeled 'sams creek'..... now click that label on your label list/cloud and this is what you'll find in your browser addresss....

3. copy the address (and just put it on the clipboard or like for now)

 4. time to add that picture gadget - here's what it looks like...

select the pic you want and upload or link....... add a 'title' and 'caption' if you want (not essential - the pic is the thing hyperlinked)

 5. (this is the magic bit) in the 'link' box - add the browser address you copied earlier.

here's how my sams creek pic box looks after all the info was added......

 and here's how the feature appears on the sidebar....

 if anyone clicks the pic of sams creek - this is what they will get.....

yep - it's all the posts labeled with 'sams creek' in reverse chronological order.....


WHEEEEEE!


now how stupidly easy is that!



I must admit I got totally carried away with my new found 'skill' and have added ummmmmm a few search-label-hyperlink-pic gadgets to my blog...... I'll no doubt edit this down when the novelty factor wears off for me...


Now if you are the only other person in greater blogland who hasn't worked this (or something similar) out already  - this 'how to' was just for you!


enjoy!




...

paper-making experiments....

Prior to all my 'beginnings' posts - I had begun some first tentative experiments in paper making...... I have in mind a mini project for my MFA/PhD studio research, and wanted to test out the practicalities of making paper from old books....

so this is what I did....

I started with an old funk and wagnall 2 volume dictionary - which I ripped up into pulp-able sized bits.... (my goodness but it takes a loooooong time to munch up a relatively small book....)
and soaked these in a bucket overnight.

then I pulped the soaked bits with a paint-mixer drill attachment.....
(the paint whizzy thing was surprisingly effective in creating a yummy grey sludge)

then it was time to try my hand at making some paper.... here I am plunging my very rough mold and deckle (made from couple of el cheapo canvas frames, with the mold covered in fly screen....) in to the suspended pulp as I attempt to create my first sheets... (you'll notice my studio assistant Boots is refraining from looking... he feels my pitiful efforts are just too embarrassing to acknowledge...)

couching, like forming the sheet is taking time for me to get to grips with.....

but with more practice I became more adept at releasing the sheet from the mold....
but I've got a lifetime of practice to go before I dare call myself a papermaker!!!!!

some of the successful sheets drying on the line

and finally - the first finished stack of papers.....

I was pleased with my first foray into papermaking...... (Sass and EJ likewise had a ball..... creating a couple of sheets of paper for themselves.... and thanks to my Sass for taking the pics of me in action.....) Now that I've got some hands-on experience with the wet stuff, and a clearer understanding of materials and techniques (including the knowledge that home-brand wipes work much better as couching felts than the more expensive 'chux' brand) I'll be able to move on to the next stage in my mini project.....




...

beginnings (coda)

Reliving/ reviewing my arrrty journey (albeit in a very abridged form) as a series of 'beginnings' over this past week has been really cathartic (and exhausting).... Yes I can see some recurring themes and obsessions (text! boooooks!), but mostly I noticed that, until a couple of years ago, there was one thing strangely absent in my arts practice......

My home - Sams Creek.....

 this pic was taken in the drought-breaking flood earlier this year -
it was featured on 'the weather channel', as was my excited report about the longed for RAIN at Sams Creek!

Sams Creek is far more than my postal address.... Sams Creek is my soul's home.....

The Ayliffe family (my parents and grandparents) bought the 365 acre run-down farm at Sams Creek (6kms north of the small township of Cobargo, where we all lived) in the late 1960s. The property was purchased from 2 elderly bachelor brothers (the Elliott 'boys') on the priviso that the men (and their old work horse) could stay on the farm for the rest of their days.

here's me with my stunning mumma and skinny dad (them's some sexy legs daddio!),
just after the family purchased the Sams Creek property.....
I'm the first member of the family to ever LIVE on the farm
this pic was taken about 30m from where the old house - my house still stands -
ps the old shed in the background still (almost) stands!

me and the main men in my life - my dad and my 2 grandfathers -
I'm about 2-3yrs old in this pic. My Poppy T (wearing the hat.... gosh but how I loved that man!)
had a dairy farm about 5kms from here.... he was the 'real' farmer of the bunch...

Every week my family would deliver a load of groceries, and I can vaguely remember the oldest and last of the brothers (Percy), who passed away when I was around 5yrs old. However, I vividly remember the old house - I only got to venture inside after it was vacated (I was about six by then). But by about the age of eight I had decided this old house would one day be My Home....

I took this pic of 'my' funny little house in the mid-1970s when I was 8-9 years old.....
already I was dreaming how I could make it mine....

I was still dreaming and photographing 'my' house a decade later..... this pic is circa 1985...

All good things come to those who wait.... and my wait finally paid off in 1988, for at last the funny, century-old house - with no electricity, no running water, no bathroom, no kitchen, no telephone, no insulation, no floor coverings, no heating, no cooling, (ummm... actually it was missing quite a few window panes and all the interior lining back then also - and I'm not going to start to describe the outside pan toilet....) - was STILL my dream property and at last it was My Home!

yippeee!!!!

It took six months to install running water and a flush toilet (believe me - there is NO romance in an outside dunny), another six months to get a bathroom and bring the electricity some 1.5kms over the paddocks, one year to hook up the telephone, 3 years to gain a rudimentary working kitchen and some replacement glass..... and then another 14 years to actually commence the big fix up (re-pier, re-roof, re-place half the house that was condemned...)

the 'big fix up' was 9 years ago....

We kept all the original house (circa 1870 - with round timber construction, double brick chimney, wide original hardwood floorboards, pressed metal wall and ceiling coverings), and about half of the school house addition (added circa 1920s) but the rest of the school rooms were deemed 'too far gone'. We managed to save the third brick chimney, the handslumped glass window panes and coloured glass inserts... We put the new structure back on the footprint of what we removed (so it's a modest little house) and clad it all in matching weatherboard.

the original double chimney of the old house is still going strong -
and just check out the original unpainted weatherboards... love 'em

I've just started making a small dry herb patch at the chimney base

here's My beautiful Home now.....

My Home, sweet Home - spring 2010

I know it's terribly self-indulgent to be rattling on and on about my arrrty background and the makings of my little home here Sams Creek as I have this week - so I do so appreciate all of your coming along for the ride. Right now, my arty making and our life at Sams Creek is poised on the brink of a massive change (that you've heard me hint of repeatedly), so looking back on the series of 'beginnings' has reminded me of all that I am grateful for and given me greater confidence to face the challenging uncertainty of the hard work ahead....



* ps next time I share 'beginnings' I will be looking forward, not backwards.... I've got lots to share in the next while....



...

beginnings (part four)

my arty beginnings... 
a story in four parts starts with part one,   ---  part two,   ---  part three 

and now - here's part four....

In August 2006 I received shocking news - Gareth Long, my dear high school friend, classmate and fellow BHS prefect, had been killed in a freak tractor accident. Gareth was a spectacular person - funny, personable, compassionate, brilliant - As teens we shared a similar confidence, clarity and intensity about our future path.... Gareth was destined to be a doctor, and me - well I was going to be An Artist of course. Gareth became a highly respected orthopaedic surgeon and passionate advocate for local (and global) health issues - mostly though, I remember him as a genuine and beautiful person. Gareth and I were 2 of only 4 people from our high school graduating year to gain tertiary qualifications and remain/return to the Bega Valley... His death was devastating news.

Just as the birth of our children had been a life-altering event, Gareth's death caused something of a personal crisis: for the first time I fully sensed my own mortality..... and from that sensation came the renewed urge to live to the fullest.... with as much honesty, integrity, kindness, humility, compassion, generosity and authenticity as I could muster.

The week following Gareth's death, I sent off an application to enroll in a Master of Visual Arts (by distance... of course!).... Sass was just entering Kindy, EJ was a toddler, we were in the grips of what became the worst drought in recorded history, my mother was very ill then diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.... basically it was absolutely insane to be considering a Masters at that moment.... but..... there was no time to lose....

I had little idea what I was about to take on so it was with tremendous nervousness that I accepted the offer of a place with Monash University.

Wow! what a roller-coaster ride the 3 year part-time course was..... in the first year I played with textiles (and took out 2nd prize in the Meroogal Women's Art Prize with a textile piece.... much to my amazement!) I played with installations and calligraphy (I was guest artist for Coffs Caligraphers exhibition 'botanical rhythms' so I created a whole banksia-inspired body of work....)

weight of words

mixed media on canvas - 10 panels

2007

and of course I experimented with boooooooks.....

'herstory' (detail)

reclaimed history text book, cotton backing, cotton and polyester thread, acetone transfer image

2007

(see more of this piece on the EGAG website....)

I commenced this blog at the beginning of the second year of my MVA (2008).... (indeed you can blame Monash Uni for all my blogginess).... so if you trawl back through the archives you'll catch up with the story to this point.

Last year I finished off the Masters (wheeeeeee! happy dance!)....

'scientia inflammatus'

ephemeral sculpture/photography

2009

(reproduced in Artlink magazine, shortlisted for Basil Sellers Art Prize TBA in Oct.)

Rather than take a breather, I immediately applied for the Higher Degree Research program with Monash.....

Soooooooooo - right now I'm in the thick of things with the MFA/PhD booky arrrrrt project - the first chapter of the exegesis is due in Nov and there's much arrrrrtyness to make! (but then if you've had a peek at anything this year you'd know this already)....

....and that means I think we're all caught up!


PHEW!

being An Artist can be tiring - this four-part arrrrty tale certainly has taken its toll!

I think I need a little lie down......

"A beginning is only the start of a journey to another beginning"

(Anon)

.....

beginnings (part three)

My arty beginnings
part one
part two


and now part three...


May 2006, with our 15-month-old girlie EJ on my hip and our preschool-aged Sass running around madly (as only a preschooler can), my second solo exhibition - 'Forty Weeks' - opened at Spiral Gallery in Bega...

'Forty Weeks' was in essence and actuality a celebration of pregnancy and motherhood (heck, that's what had been occupying my body, mind and spirit over the previous 4+ years!), as I embraced my inner earth-mother and domestic goddess....

and discovered TEXTILES!

'Ovum'

mixed media (with buttons) on canvas

'Spermatozoa'

mixed media (with buttons) on canvas

As well as being a celebration of motherhood, 'Forty weeks' also dealt with my bodily immersion in the ethical, moral and practical problems that go with the territory of pregnancy, childbirth and mothering..... as an older first-time mother, I came face-to-face with the pressure to undergo invasive testing: my vague ideas about abortion, fetal v/s maternal rights, IVF, breastfeeding,  et al. were no longer distanced theoretical dilemmas -they were real issues to be dealt with on a personal level..... so a significant selection of work in the exhibition gave space to these ideas .....

'RU486'

quilted and beaded stretched satin

(honorable mention - 'in the beginning' religious art award)

'When'

12 panels - quilted and beaded stretched satin

(click for larger view)

'love' from the 'wishes and dreams' series

stumpwork embroidery and collage

'Forty weeks' marked a significant shift in my practice. Prior to my pregnancies I had given little thought to what artists materials (in particular paint) was made from let alone consider the manufacturing..... (I admit it - I was an ignoramous) but in the first stages of my second pregnancy I happened to read the label on the tube of cadmium red oil paint I was about to squeeze out..... 

EEEEEK!!!!!!

"heavy metal"....."may cause birth defects".....

WTF!!!!!!!

Never had there been a better time for a solid rethink about materials in my arts practice, and as such most of my familiar methods and materials (whether containing toxic materials, unethical manufacturing, environmental degradation etc etc) were banished..... (I'm still on the journey of how to reconcile my arty and creative impulses with my health and environmental concerns) Needless to say - the changes in my practice mirrored the radical overhaul of my life that only 2 squirmly little miracles can render!

  'you are'
mixed media concertina booklet

2005

also exhibited at red/read book arts exhibition - Artisan Books

'Forty Weeks' was a physically and emotionally exhausting creative journey.....  it represented over 2 years non-stop work (and I do mean non-stop...... only 3 hours before EJ was born I was still working on my bits..... I went back to studio work 2 days after her birth....). 

As the show ended, I thought NOW...

NOW... I can rest for a bit....





but no.... for unbeknown to me,  just around the corner a monster was lying in wait.....

(to be continued)

***more images from '40 weeks' and lots of my past calligraphic works are on a gallery hosted by the ever generous cecilia - at cecilia-letteringart***

....

beginnings (part two)

 My arty background starts with - part one... now here's the second installment....

Quick quiz..... How many of my aussie arty friends have had a stab an Australia Council or NAVA or alternative art grant?....

'Yes'

mixed media collage

1999

In 1996, feeling full of moxie after staging my first solo exhibition, collecting my Diploma of Western Calligraphy, ASC Guild Membership, and some international calligraphic kudos (not to mention an impending divorce), I thought I'd have a looksee at some of them there grant thing-a-me-jigs.....

wow - talk about a grounding experience!

I took one look at the paperwork and thought 'well at least this will make nice kindling'..... Despite a cursory inclusion of 'crafts' in one grant category, the reality was, if you had a traditional, artisanal, non-academic arts/craft training it seemed it you had less than a snowball's chance in hell of ever getting a grant. I figured there was only one solution: get a more letters after my name.

And that's how, at the end of 1996, I found myself thumbing through an Open University booklet trying to figure out how I could get a degree without leaving my beloved Sams Creek..... fast forward three years (and a lot of blood, sweat and tears!) and I had a Bachelor of Arts (Art History)...

but wait there's more

Part way through my BA via Open Learning I was alerted to a disturbing idea..... if I completed a Graduate Diploma of Education I could become... (wait for it)... A Teacher...... yes... I could have a Real Job and become Really Useful for the first time in my life (yes I can still hear the wonderous encouragement from my dear parents ringing in my ears!)

sooooo almost by accident, and just a bit before I actually graduated with my BA, I found myself enrolled in a Grad. Dip. Ed. (by distance of course....) and one whole year later there I was fronting a high school class.....

who'd a thunk that woulda happened!

'Alas my beautiful country'

mixed media and collage on TH Saunders

2001

from my stint as guest artist at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery for 'southscribes'

Now, you've no doubt noticed that I've said nothing at all about arrrrrty things so far - and for good reason.... although I still kept my hand in making and playing in the studio (and participating in some group shows etc, heck in 1999 I curated the first official exhibition of calligraphy in a regional gallery.... and even had work published in Craft Arts Magazine...) the reality was I was making less and less in the studio and working more and more in the schools.... flushed with new funds I began rebuilding my old house and reworking my neglected garden. I also fell madly in love with my long-term neighbour (and old primary school class-mate.... my Farmer Phil) and before long we were setting up home and having the babies....

But

My life as An Artist seemed to be slipping further and further away....

In 2004, and pregnant with our second baby, I signed on for a solo exhibition with Spiral Gallery... yes I had a toddler underfoot, yes I was about to have a newborn, yes I was still working in schools, yes it was totally and utterly INSANE to be lining up at that moment for my second solo show.....

But, as I keep telling my long-suffering Farmer Phil - I may be a farmer, a gardener, a teacher and a mother.... but I've GOT to find the space and time to be An Artist....

Maternal Instinct 3

Mixed media collage on canvas board

2004

(to be continued)

***more images of my past calligraphic works are on a gallery - at cecilia-letteringart***

...

spring cleaning..... (beginnings - part one)

Don't you just love spring!?

The days are getting longer, there's a decided 'something' in the air (my aching sinuses tell me it's probably pollen.....), and this year in particular I'm revving up to do a solid spring clean in view of the MASSIVE changes that I feel are about to overtake us (or rather - me... but more about that another time....).

As it's a season of new beginnings (and BOY this season is going to be one of BIG new beginnings..... oops I'm off topic again!) I thought it's the very best time for me to blog about my arrrrty beginnings..... so this week, in a series of posts I'm going to go back (waaaaay back) and share a little of where I come from (artistically speaking)......

'In the Beginning' by Rhonda (Davies) Ayliffe

gouache, watercolour, collage on TH Saunders

Can you remember the first moment you just KNEW what you were going to do with your life? Well I might not remember the exact moment, but I do know that when I was around 6 or 7 years old I knew that I was going to be An Artist. Now I couldn't tell you exactly what I thought An Artist did or was... (nothing much has changed!) only that I was going to Be One.

Fast forward to adult-hood (which is a good thing - as my childhood arrrrrty tendencies were not always appreciated by my peers, and I spent most of my youth painting and drawing and winning art prizes and being persecuted!) It's now 1988 - I've just moved back to my dear hometown with my new (now ex-) husband in tow to set up house and studio at Sams Creek. My ex-husband, Mark Davies, (a wonderful, talented, kind-hearted and lovely person) was a fantastic woodworker, and together we established a large studio/gallery in Cobargo (in the same building my grandparents once had a general store).... It was then that my enduring love affair with the craft of calligraphy began... and whilst running our busy craft business (7 days a week working in 'the shop'- ahhhhhh those were the days... no wonder our poor marriage couldn't survive!) I devoted myself to mastering the craft. Mark D and I eventually began making work that combined our skills....

like in these exhibition pieces from the woodworkers assoc of NSW large exhibition 'For Tomorrow' shown at the State Library of NSW in 1993...

'Forest' platter

redgum turned by Mark Davies,

hand forged iron stand by Peter Hillard, calligraphy by Rhonda Ayliffe

'Popul Vuh' - (sacred Mayan text)

Redgum turned platter by Mark Davies,

handforged iron stand by Peter Hillard, calligraphy by Rhonda Ayliffe

I think it's probably worth telling you about the unusual manner by which I learned calligraphy - Given that it was the very late 1980s, and I was living in the sticks (aka by the creek), I had to undertake my study by distance... and back then there was very little by way of quality distance calligraphy courses - so I undertook a certificate correspondence course with then THE place to study calligraphy - the Roehampton Institute in London.... and I also convinced Margaret Layson, esteemed calligraphy teacher and Guild Member of the ASC, to convert her certificate course (a 3 year TAFE course) into a distance offering.... which she did initially just for me (I was what you'd call very keen and rather persuasive!). I augmented this study with workshops in Sydney with any passing internationally renown calligraphic master (Thomas Ingmire, Ann Hechle, Susan Hufton are amongst the most memorable).... this culminated in study with Irish calligraphic phenomenon - Denis Brown - when he stopped by for an extended stay in 1995 (Denis was actually the very first calligrapher I met 'in-the-flesh' - in a Sydney workshop 1991)

1995 was a pivotal time in my calligraphic/arrrty journey....

'Cuyahoga' study.... 1995

gouache on Arches

(I still remember the afternoon that I worked on this piece... it was a light bulb moment...)

I must have absorbed something valuable in the few weeks I spent immersed in rigorous study with that Irish taskmaster (just kidding Denis! anyone who has ever attended a workshop with the Denis will attest he has a wicked sense of humour and generous teaching spirit)..... as a couple of months later I became a Guild Member of the ASC - (the highest form of peer-acknowledgment in Australian calligraphy). At that time I was the first Guild Member from a regional area, the first (and still the only one I think) to achieve Guild Member status whilst still in my twenties, and even now - 15 years after becoming a Guild Member, I'm still the youngest in the bunch..... scheeez......

Anyway - back in the mid-1990s I was on fire with all manner of calligraphic work - exploring a vast range of materials and techniques....

'Boxed' 1995

mixed media/ assemblage

'Mixed Emotions'

assemblage

1995

(selected for Letter Arts Review annual review 1996/97 and exhibited
at 'Confluence' international calligraphy exhibition - University of Illinois)

In 1996 I travelled weekly to Sydney to complete various units (like simple bookbinding) to acquire a Diploma of Western Calligraphy (I told you I was KEEEEEEN! - I would get up at 3am - set off for the 4.5 hr journey home and get to work at 8.30am back down the coast)

In November that year I held my first solo exhibition - 'Beyond Tilba' - where I played with ideas about land and identity (primarily using the words of my favourite aussie poet - Les Murray as a jumping off point) as well as ideas about what could be done with and to calligraphy!

'The Incendiary Method'
mixed media on TH Saunders

1996

In 1996 I figured I was well on my way.....

little did I know that my arrrrty journey was only beginning.....

***more images of my past calligraphic works are on a gallery - at cecilia-letteringart***

...

lets make a circle....

Over the past 10 days I've been madly making yet more circular bookforms made from pages from an old atlas - today I took a series pics whilst I finished my latest flowery book so I could share my construction process... hope you enjoy my firstest ever bloggy 'how to'...

How to make a circular 'flower' bookform

1. prepare paper strips...

the length and width of the strips doesn't particularly matter - just make sure that the strip proportions allow for a comfortable 'looping'....


2. select 2 paper strips and place back to back - take the ends together to make a loop (make sure you don't press down on the loop! eeeek a paper crease would just ruin the whole effect) and fold up a small section up on the end

I allow about 2cm folded section - this makes it easy to handle in the next stages.... (if you want an even circle when finished, make sure you cut the strips all the same length and fold them identically)


3. prepare the sewing holes

I use a paper guide to ensure that the sewing holes are the same for each section - and you can see that I use a small pin vice to make the holes..... of course it's possible to simply use a milliners needle without the little vice - but I'm used to doing it this way and I find the vice makes the holes neater and more accurate

4. thread a single piece of waxed linen thread with 2 needles (I'm using 2ply thread for this book and milliners or straw needles.... not specialty coptic or leather-working needles which are rounded.... it's just what I 'm used to...) and commence the sewing..

righto - now if you've never done any binding (and especially any coptic binding) any explanation now will sound like gobbly-gook (and if you have done coptic binding - I really don't need to describe what happens next.... because basically the initial sewing bit is identical to any coptic binding) soooooooo for now I suggest you check out a good simple instruction book ... like Esther K Smith's 'How to make books' .... because I'm going to call it as though you've got a vague idea of what is about to happen.....

take needles from inside section 1 to outside, add section 2 (needles outside to inside, crossover, inside to outside), add section 3 (repeat the same crossover sewing as for section 2).... now its time for the first kettle (aka coptic) stitch on the spine ..... add section 4 .... now it's just a case of repeat of what was happening for section 3 until you come to the final section.....

ahhhh that wasn't so bad (and not terribly clear either eh? well one day I'll do a quickie 'how-to' coptic bind..... this 'how-to' I must admit assumes SOME prior experience with binding......)


5. continue adding sections and binding as you would any coptic bookform...

I hold the growing structure in one hand with my index and thumb keeping the spine aligned quite straight really.... (um this is NOT how I hold the piece whilst I'm sewing btw.... this is my 'posing for the camera' hold!) It's important that the stitching is firm but not over-tightened (just the same as any coptic binding really!)

at this stage the piece can start to get unwieldy - and if I were to add any more sections I would start to use a bulldog clip to help to keep the sections together, aligned and tight... but for this little structure I'm close to the end...

as soon as the book is set down it naturally wants to form a circle.....

so finishing it off is quite simple really -

6. sew the last section to the first section (but don't tie off just yet!) depending on how tight the inner circle is, I usually ensure that I continue the spine coptic stitch even at this stage (yes it is almost impossible to attempt to do a kettle stitch with straight needles in a tight inner circle but it does make for a more successful neat, tight infinite circle so it's worth the swearing and the effort!)

7. to complete the sewing, take the needles back to the 2nd section (yep - you read correctly, after the circle has been closed by sewing the last section to the first, and whether or not another kettle stitch was possible - this structure is tied off inside the 2nd section)

its almost finished now.... but there's one last thing to do...


8. trim the stub ends of the pages

after making a few of these structures I noticed that if the stub ends of the sections were cut at an angle the final result was a more elegant inner circle - of course this trimming can be done before the sewing starts.... but I find it makes it much easy to bind if the stubs are trimmed after the sections are bound

and....


there you have it - one circular 'flower' bookform.....

oceans and lands flower bookform

wheeee!


and after you've made one...welllll it can be hard to stop.....

map labels mini flower bookform

constellations flower bookform

bird migration mini flower bookform

map key maxi flower bookform

......