7/52 'yellow language' .....

Sometimes the photographs we take of the 'thing' we make are far more interesting than the actual book or object.  That is the case here.  I love some of the photographs but the little books was one made whilst away as a 'must do' rather than I wish to make a book about this or for this.

The small yellow etchings are cut down from an etching I printed for part of the series I worked on called 'the art of language'.  I was experimenting with colour, which I very rarely do.  The beautiful marbled paper was bought in New Zealand and I have been waiting to use it in some manner.  The main reason I made this book was that I had just finished a large project designing and making a wedding album/artists' book and had sewn it with this single section coptic binding.  It had been ages since I had sewn a book this way - especially using ten needles, and half the way through I realised that I was not going to have enough thread to finish the binding.  Frustrating.  For those who know this binding, you will remember that there is nowhere to add in any thread.  Not so with this smaller version where I made absolutely sure I had enough thread and I was only using five needles with a small book so it was not nearly as complicated.  

6/52 'snow on the mountains' .....

This is the smallest of the books I have made thus far , only about 8 x 10cms.  I have had a fairly busy week but as I have committed to making a book a week I am allowing myself latitude with complexity, or lack thereof, when I only have time to do something simple.  So this little concertina book was born, made from a pen and ink drawing of mine from a few years back which has just been sitting around in one of my many 'desk piles'.  You can see a few 'snow' marks here on the page above.  I think I stopped at that page envisioning that I would do an overlay of snow fall though never did.  One day I may include that in the book but I am already having to think about a book for next week!

Nothing precious about this little book other than I think it works quite neatly folded and only revealing snippets of the drawing at a time.  That quintessential element we love about the book format where only a little is revealed with any one glimpse.

5/52 'hard to read' .....

I had fun with this book - my fifth for the year.  It is a very simple concertina book where I have sewn into the valleys on both sides.  What makes it special for me is that I am using the letraset which my father had used when he practised architecture.  Long before the time of computers.  Many pages in the bundle I have are stuck together, many of the letters have been used and only their rubout marks are left on the papers - all this making it 'hard to read'.

Here you can see more easily how I have sewn into the valleys.  I particularly like the few pages I found with the large block script though not much of it was in the bundle.  It adds weight to the design of the book I think.

Where I joined papers to give  myself a longer concertina, I have used some of  the letraset as a spine.

Sometimes I think the simplest books can be the most interesting.  I am not making a cover for this though I will make a perspex slip case for it at some stage.