We went to Norfolk for Easter and I took some A5 300gsm khadi paper and some little A6 Fabriano books, a rainbow set of 7, each with a different paper in it. I decided to experiment and practise my book binding.
By the end of the weekend I'd made 5 little books which I was very pleased about!
I took an instruction book with me (More Making Books by Hand by Peter & Donna Thomas). As I wanted to try a couple of types of binding that were new to me. I made a Japanese stab binding book and a button hole spine book both of which I'd made before but I wanted to practise. The new ones were a chain link binding and a concertina stab binding.
I'm doing the craft fair at Wisley over the early May bank holiday so I will have an opportunity to sell these which is motivating me to just play and try things out as I know I also have Super Seconds for any that go slightly wrong. I find it useful to have destinations for these things otherwise I would be worried about 'wasting' the materials and not having anything to do with the things I make.
The most exciting thing was making the concertina stab binding as this is what I think I want to use to make a 'log' to go with my tree for the final show.
I was really inspired by the little book I saw at the Chelsea collection after the low residency and an idea began percolating about using this to make a book to represent a log. I wanted to figure out how to make it and how sturdy it might be etc before making the prints that will form the final piece. It's going to need rather a long concertina in the centre and each page has to be individually bound into the concertina. The concertina needs to be made of a thick strong paper, but something that can stand being folded and moved a lot. I think a thick Japanese paper might work best due to the long fibers. I worry that over time a western short-fibered paper would become very weak at the folds and rip.
Every other valley fold gets a page inserted and the paper and both sides of the valley fold are stab bound together. I bound 3 pages into each fold. I also popped a spine and covers onto this (my own design rather than following any instruction) as I wanted to be able to sell it. There was no glue used, it's all stitched.
The example I saw in Chelsea had a slightly different way of attaching the pages which allowed them to sit open. I think I need to have another go and make something little like this using some of my little prints as I think this would work better for my tree log project.
The one thing I really like about both of these is that although neatly trimmed the ends of the thread are left long enough that you can see them. You can see how the object is made which I like.
While we were away my larger etching plates also arrived so I feel like progress has begun on my pieces for the final show now, the only hiccup is that the tusche I ordered has a manufacturing problem so I don't think I'm going to get it in time. I think I might have to try to get to CSM if I want to use that technique as I don't really want to risk using the less effective tusche on the bigger expensive plate.
I have also bought some spray on varnish so I need to test it on my newsprint mud-prints to see whether it will hold the mud on, if it will I would like to incorporate some of this into the tree trunk.
The next thing I need to figure out is what sort of imagery to use for the log prints. I think I want to use monochrome images of the forest, a mixture of etchings and , possibly with a linocut or two, probably repeated over the pages, I think it would be interesting to make these plates and offer them as an edition but use several of each of the edition in a concertina book form.