tura marrang now showing...

 I have loved bringing some of my booky works (old and new)

to the opening of the beautiful new Tura Marrang Library and Community Centre
in Tura Beach - far couth coast NSW

(ie just down the road a bit from my creek home) 

The new space is featuring some of my book-boat images

 

and little book boats I've made
as well as a book boat building site
for library patrons to make some little paper book-boats
to add to the display

I've cheekily popped a few boats in odd places... 

my video work looked FAB in the AV meeting room for opening day ceremonies...

but without a doubt my favourite thing
is how my 2 loooooooooooong books look
in the funny little wedge shaped display cabinet...

the looooooooooong books and boat installation
will be on display for a couple of months

( I think they like hanging out in this space...)

I love it when a plan that seems good in theory
actually comes together as hoped in practice

...

"To build up a library is to create a life.
It’s never just a random collection of books."
Carlos María Domínguez

...

long weekend... looooooong book

This June long weekend in little aussieland

 

and the end of my MFA is nigh(ish)

so I am hunkered down

 busy binding and filming and writing and reading

(and binding... and binding... and binding... and binding) 

Here's hoping your weekend
 

(long or short)

is looooooooong on happy moments

 

....

TAG - 7...

one loooooooooong coptic bound book

laid on a wallaby track

between Sams Creek and the Kooraban National Park

....

some bookiness...

three variations on a theme...

coptic binding...

 with leather covered boards

long stitch over exposed fabric 'tapes'...

with black bookcloth covers

and long stitch binding over exposed leather 'tapes'...

with decorative paper covers 

(looking rather reptilian don't you think?)

the contents are quite similar in each

with small variations...

(but I'm not disclosing too much of that right now

a girl has to keep a few secrets eh?)

...

 

the day after news years day...

New Years's Day

(between milking times)

we dropped by a local beach ...

ooo what a glorious summer beach day it was! 

on a beautiful beach, watching delighted kidlets catch waves, 

its easy to feel gratitude for all the good things in our lives

With a renewed sense of energy and enthusiasm,
I popped into the studio to create a small journal.

 Rather than make it with blank pages
(which, let's be frank, can be mighty intimidating) 

I rummaged through my paper drawers for odd bits of used paper and ephemera...

old bits of my work (that didn't quite 'work' if you know what I mean)

maps, fold outs, gleaned pages, grubby paper...

from these I cut up pages and had fun making arrangements...

which I bound into a small fat book

 

inside...

not quite empty pages waiting for work

and some rather full pages waiting for 'modification'...

my intention is to create a small drawing/collage/note inside the journal each day for 2013

not necessarily a page a day -- but 'something' added daily

as its a little project just for me 

just for fun

for distraction

for release and relief from 

the solid research & artiness I'm facing in the days/months ahead

 I'm not sure yet how much (if anything) I will post here from the unfolding project

(but you never know!) 

oooo I think this will be acres of fun 

for an overly-stressed creek arteest

I hope your new year also brings you acres of fun & all the good things

xxx

snakes alive...

found

 beside the chook pen

a reminder to always keep your eyes open

safe inside the house a less deadly creature also keeps growing and growing....

(its now nudging just over 4m in length...) 

the long slow work passing in a purple haze....

....

into the red...

currently binding my favourite colour

into the very looooooong book

hey - is that the word 'immigrants' poking out on the spine?

how strangely serendipitous...


** ps on a break from all the stitching I stumbled over
 a FANTASTIC art essay by John Kelly

run don't walk - read it now!

 

....

the long haul....

It is cold and drizzly here at the creek 

 perfect weather for inside work by the fire...

my very long book is growing longer and longer 

as the days are getting shorter and shorter

 the long book is currently over 4m in length -

 it still fits in my mother's little suitcase from the 1960s

(but not for much longer) 

 

In two days time I will be taking this suitcase 

(along with my other cases of clothes and books and work)

on my annual loooooooooooooong road trip to university

 

its a long haul 

 in every sense

...

reconnect...

I'm currently preparing body, mind and spirit for a heavy duty year of making....

out came my long book

and I spent some quiet time stitching sections together.... 

thinking of work ahead...

digesting things read....

imagining new garden bits and more studio renovations....

I've been aware for a while now 

that quiet binding is an important part of my process

or as I've previously said - 'I bind therefore I think'

(time to go stitch/think/make some more...)

...

slow growing...

my slow book is slowly growing...

in the evening,
the fire is glowing,
our kidlins have started dreaming their dreams
(we are early-to-bed, early-to-rise farm folk, so kidlins are usually fast asleep by 8pm)

I get out my booky bundles and start stitching... 

the book creature spills from my lap and along the lounge chair

it's almost 2m 'long' already (how did that happen?)

often one of the beastie cats curls itself inside the book coils...
careful not to tread on the pages - good cats!

I pat the cat and the book 

and go back to stitching

With hands engaged, my mind can wander

I am thinking about my forthcoming BIG road trip to Byron Bay Writers Festival

for my stint as the Festival's first ever artist-in-residence

(gulp)

 I've decided to take this emerging book creature with me

(I'm sure it would appreciate a good road trip -
just as I would appreciate the comforting presence
of a book to stitch...)

so keep a look out for us both at the festival 

(august 5-7)

....

piercing... binding... starting...

 Today I started piercing some of that massive pile of cut, folded and bundled book sections.....

I made a little project-specific book piercing cradle (with thanks to this wonderful 'how-to' post by paper chipmunk)

I thought that it might make the job quicker and easier - although I love the way this simple book cradle works, for this fiddly job, my old way of working (with a piercing template aligned inside the section and a board on my lap, I pierce through the template and the section at a 45 degree angle with my pin awl) seems to be more comfortable.....

I AM going to make a larger version of that cradle one day though!

At last this big project is really underway.....

I have lots and lots (and lots) more encyclopaedia pages to cut and fold and bundle and sort (and pierce) before I can really dig my teeth into this baby - but I've got enough white sections sorted out from the bunch to make a start (and that means when I head off to uni in a couple of weeks time I'll have a project to occupy my fingers....)


ahhhh its good to add piercing and binding to my list of slow winter work....


(yes anna - this is going to be a very very very VERY 'long' serpent book - I'm expecting it will exceed 5m ... but the end is months away... anyone want to put in a guesstimate for the final length and finishing date? I might take bets!)




...

back to the books....

As you'd expect, with my solo show rapidly approaching (eeeeeek - it's less than three weeks now! its time to hit the panic/manic button!) I've been trying to finalise a few things - but not everything occupying my fingers and mind is high-falluting arty-farty stuff.....

 Before Christmas I completed a small collection of coptic bound blank journals...

(this is part of the collection - they are a few more tucked away! )

These new books came about after the discovery of a really unusual set of old books (yet another rotary book sale treasure).  I didn't think much of the weird collection (they sport titles like 'physics', 'human relations', 'medicine' and 'mechanisation'). They had dusty, daggy, ripped old dust jackets and most of the pages were WAY past their best - but when I removed one old yucky jacket I couldn't believe what was underneath .... simply the most glorious cloth cover (in exquisite condition) - so I unwrapped another and another and another  - WOW what divine cloth covers in a rainbow of different colours!

look at the funny gold impressed diagrams gracing each cover.....

 (I think this one was from a book on 'space'?)

('our natural world'?)

To create new from old - on each book cover I added paper strips from an old atlas - you can see I had a lot of fun picking just the right atlas page for each unusually coloured book - and then even more fun choosing the right thread for the binding.....

(this is my favourite combination of book cloth, impressed design, atlas and thread selection....)

Inside, the pages are a mix of different drawing/ printmaking papers (like Hahnelmule)... all are a soft cream colour.

I suspect some might think it is unusual that I will have a collection of handcrafted books in an arty-farty exhibition.... but from the planning stage, I had every intention of including a variety of simple, people-friendly hand bound books as an integral part of my low-key (definitely not high-falluting) show.  I thought that some simple hand crafted books may play off some of my more esoteric and ephemeral 'book' works in the show, and pragmatically, I hope that the hand bound books might give the show something vaguely saleable... (I really don't have the funds for a solo show right now!)

As well as the books shown above, I've also made a small collection of blank concertina booklets and a few long stitch booklets (I'll show pics of all these soon) all of which I'll be taking to Spiral Gallery and offering as a 'cash and carry' collection. Anything that fails to find a new home during the show (and no - I'm not expecting a mobbing) I will stockpile for the opening of sams creek bookworks in May... a win-win situation I think (I just wish there were a few more hours in the day, and days in the week....)

now - back to binding!

....

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

......