dyed paper

trying out some organic dye materials – love it so far!!

Islamic bindings

I am really happy with how these turned out – a few pictures… notes to follow

leather covers – my first try at leather work

the inside of the leather covered binding – beautiful paste paper from Blowfish Binders

 

the other inside view

my hand painted lacquer-style book

 

back cover of the lacquer binding

super shiny!

headbands

So I have never sewn a headband – today I learned how. Don’t judge!

intense

So much is happening here at PBI it is a bit hard to process. Everything is intense. Bookbinding in the mornings and making paper in the afternoon. Hardly time to think, so much to learn. I am not sure I will ever be a great paper maker – but I have enjoyed learning and trying, but the sewing – oh the sewing. I am in love.

All the models in the binding class are (loosely) based on historic examples from the manuscript collection at the Uppsala University Library. The originals have held up well over the last 600 years. It has been amazing to see the images of the collection. I hope one day I’ll be able to see the books in person!

Tuesday we learned this binding – a long stitch with weaving.

here’s the spine..

and the cover

Wednesday night we were working late into the night in the studio when Adam Larsson showed me this image from the collection at the library at Uppsala. Well, that was it, I had to figure out how that long forgotten anonymous seamstress had mended that book, and yep, I had to fix the hole in my parchment too. I am so happy. Here’s the result.

a close up of my attempt

One of the images we saw had a split spine, so I decided I wanted to try that as well, so here’s the whole book. It has some issues, but as a trial it is not so bad.

and the whole book

Session 1 is over, and today everyone is catching up on laundry, and I imagine like me scribbling down ideas and dreaming about the work they will do when they get home to their own studios. It has been an incredible experience so far – how lucky I am to be here! Can’t wait to dive into the next session…

love for sale

less talk, more sewing

trying a new stitch

I guess I am not feeling very chatty lately. The college where I teach is cutting the number of hours adjuncts are allowed to teach, so I am trying to decide how I should move forward. I continue to apply for full time positions but the competition is steep. I have started some PhD applications, but in light of available employment just can’t seem to commit.  I did learn this week that I have been accepted to PBI this year, which is super exciting, so I am furiously looking for additional grants to help me get there! My studio work is really beginning to take on a new shape and direction and I keep hoping to find a way to maintain it in the face of ever tighter finances. Ah balance… do we ever find it?

work in progress love the grey thread

snow day – time found

liking the red!

This morning I got up earlier than usual expecting a wicked commute – we had a lot of snow last night and with sub zero temperatures I wasn’t looking forward to cleaning off my car or shoveling my way out of the driveway… then my phone buzzed with a text message – school was closed for the day. Like most colleges we hardly EVER close due to weather so it was a wonderful surprise to suddenly have the day open up in front of me. I’d like to be able to tell you I did something super productive – but mostly I just got caught up. I rewrote a couple of lectures on the Italian Renaissance to make them more focused, and added in some more supplementary readings and videos links to all my classes that I just hadn’t managed to get around to loading onto Angel. I did a TON of laundry and ran the dishwasher twice (!!) Then I nipped down the rad for a cuppa with Jen who lured me out in the cold with a late birthday present  – the book “steal like an artist”. Looking forward to reading it.

my poor long suffering family!

By this time it was late afternoon. I decided to dye some paper for an upcoming project and then after dripping it over the kitchen sink, hung it all on the clothes horse to dry. I am making a “correspondence” book, full of pockets and envelopes for an upcoming love themed show at the Studio Hart so I whiled away a pleasant few hours sorting through boxes of paper and “stuff” looking for things that might work. Not exactly rocket science – but FUN! While I was at it I also pulled out a pile of things to add into a sketchbook I am making for Ashley to take back to Brockport with her as she has signed up for an art class this semester.

not finished – but liking it so far

By this point is seemed unlikely I was going to get down to any serious work, especially any sewing as my eyes are still so tired from all the traveling/late nights recently… so I decided just to work on my smash journal for a bit before calling it a day.

What a gift it was to have that unexpected time. I probably should have used it to work on my flip book for animation class, but that definitely felt too much like work. I did rough out some ideas, I guess I will iron them out tomorrow on a real work day. Procrastinating like a true art student!!

turkey land cove – day 1

The first day of my residency is almost over. It is quite lovely here – almost too lovely – and VERY clean and tidy. It is a little strange to be working in someone else’s space, and it took me a bit to settle in to some work. I felt a bit awkward putting my tools and materials out in such a pristine space – while my studio isn’t always a complete mess it is lived in. This house is so pretty, like being in a magazine. After setting up, I began the day with yoga, and then a quick journal page to warm up.

a quick warm up journal page

I worked on a new binding design for most of the day, with a break for a gourmet lunch and some background reading. This binding is actually very sturdy, less difficult than some of the others and quite quick to execute in comparison to some of the previous designs. (see the posts here and here for other examples) I struggled a bit trying to work this out at first, I had to change my orientation before I found this solution. I think I will try and diagram this one and share it.

the binding with its inspiration embroidery

I was surprised when my hubby rang to discover it was already 9 o’clock!! After a quick dinner I settled in to some more research reading, and the hours are just flying by. It is such a luxury to be able to just work, but I already realize that the demands of my own home and family are really deeply embedded in my process – like so many women through the centuries I am just used to making do around my other obligations, although I certainly have made good use of this first day. It’s a bit like being in a fairy tale or someone else’s life. It will be interesting to see if I feel differently as the week goes on. And so off to bed!

guest book gift

the finished book

 

A friend of mine got married this Saturday – as a gift I created her a guest book for the reception. The wedding was black & white with touches of red so I used the last of that fabulous fish paper I bought while I was in Stockholm. Can I admit I was a tiny bit mad/sad to be actually using it all – now it is mostly gone except for a few scraps… how silly I am! I used 80lb paper torn to give the illusion of a deckle, and one of my simpler blackwork bindings. I had some issues with the tension on this one, if the diagonal stitches are too tight it pulls the spine out of alignment, but I think it is passable. I also used some of the beautiful textured mulberry from Sweden for the fly leaf pages. I hope it will serve as a lasting memory of their special day.

love the texture of torn paper

such pretty paper…

a simple cable binding from the blackwork series

 

don’t bleed on the paper! and other detours in the studio

All the craziness of the summer has begun to settle a little (still packing two kids off to college and working all day most days at the print shop). I have been able to finally get back into the studio, but  am finding it hard to get down to work. I wonder how many of you experience this – longing to get to your studio, making everyone nuts because you aren’t creating and then suddenly you get there and – nada.

This is not to say I have no ideas, I am just finding it hard to focus on things I should be doing, like tonight for example. I went up to the studio diligently, intending to finish a guest book I am working on for a wedding which I would have finished yesterday except for an incident involving a temperamental cat assistant and a very sharp scalpel – shooing her off the expensive, beautiful paper I accidentally impaled myself on the scalpel in my hand. My first thought was that I had better not bleed on the paper! The cut was deep but clean – and I guess by the start of classes this fall I will have a great battle scar and an excellent “runs with scissors” story for my students. (Do as I say, not as I do!!!) But it did bleed for quite a while and by the time it stopped I opted for bed not more work.

pretty excited about the future of these envelopes too

Tonight I toyed with using the lingering discomfort as an excuse not to even attempt any work in the studio, I had to drag myself upstairs with great reluctance, but some repetitive cutting – these (100) envelopes for another project – settled me down and I thought I would get that guest book done. Can you tell there’s a BUT coming?

Here’s what happened next… instead of cutting the paper for the book – I started fiddling around with the little strips of envelope on the bench.

Did you ever make one of those candy wrapper bracelets or baskets? I remembered seeing a binding in one of Alisa Golden’s book that was based on a similar idea, the folded loop locks together the pages and serves as a binding. Since I had all these strips cut already I decided just to give it a try. 100 folded envelope strips later I had created a cute little circular binding but it wasn’t very tight.

I wondered if I put a card into the little pocket created by the folded envelope strip I could create enough tension to keep everything nice and tight. Well there’s only one way to find out – so I cut a whole ton of catalog cards down to the right size and put them into the pocket pages! By the end I was cutting cards as fast as I could racing to see how this crazy little thing would turn out. I LOVE it!

I LOVE it!!

I am so in love with circular books right now and this has so much potential for development. Really it needs more pages to get the “binding” even and tight, but even so I am pleased with it! I am sure I can’t possibly be the first person to have done this, but I can already see that it would make a fun class.

 

 

 

 

Lastly before I close I just want to give a great big thank you to Seth over at The Altered Page for everything he does to promote a sense of camaraderie and connection, including his long running series “The Pulse”. Currently he is featuring still life photographs and this Sunday he will be including my still life – so if you want to know what I took a picture of – head over to his blog and find out – I’ll see you there! (I took that picture so long ago I don’t even remember what it looked like!!!)