We were introduced to 3 different book making techniques in today’s workshop; a concertina book with a 2-piece hard cover, a Japanese 4-hole binding (stab stitch) and a single signature pamphlet book.
Concertina
We began by making the concertina book pages. I used 2 strips of cartridge paper, an A3 piece cut in half. I folded it in half and then folded both ends into the middle fold so it created 4 pages and did the same on both. We made a valley fold on the front of the paper and the second mountain fold on the back of the paper and continued with the sequence. With the end page of one of the pieces of paper we cut ¾ of the page off to make a flap ready to stick the other strip of paper to it by cutting the corners off. We then applied glue and stuck them together.
For the book covers I used grey board and measured my book pages over the grey board for size. Once this was done I used a knife to cut out my covers. I decided to use previous unused screen prints from the last project to cover the grey board. I measured they grey board against the paper and cut around making sure there was a flap for each side of the grey board and also making sure there was a 1cm gap between each corner of grey board and the lines of the paper. I glued down the flaps and folded them like a hospital bed fold. Then I was ready to stick my concertina pages to the covers and rest under heavy books to help set.
Japanese 4-hole (stab stitch) Book
A single-sheet exposed spine binding, where approx 1.5cm of the page on the left hand side is lost due to the stitching.
We prepared a pile of the same sized paper, I used A5 size. It had to be no less than 5mm and no more than 20cm thick for a 4-hole binding.
We cut the thread at least 5 times longer that the book block and used wax linen thread. I secured the pages together using paper clips and pierced holes through the block with a strong needle. The top and bottom of the 4 holes needed to be about 1.5cm in from the edges, with the others equidistant from the top and bottom holes.
I used a piece of grey board as the back cover and left cartridge paper as the front cover.
Knotting the thread I pulled it through leaving a 5cm tail for tying off later.
Holding the book firmly in place I slipped the needle between the pages beneath hole 3 and then came up through hole 3. I came round the outside edge and went back into hole 3 from below and passed along the top of the block to hole 2. Going down into hole 2, out the bottom, around the outside of the book block and then back into the top. Then I went under the book block and up through hole 1, round the book block and up through again, then around the top edge of the book block before going into hole 1 again. The next step was to go back down hole 2, along underneath the book block to hole 3 and up, along to 4 and round the spine side, before going round the bottom edge of the book block. Lastly I took my needle and thread back in hole 3, bringing out the thread between the pages I entered first and tied the thread to the starting thread in a double knot.
Single Signature Pamphlet Book
For this book we used 5 A4 bits of paper and folded each piece in half one by one so they didn’t all fold in different places. We then put then put the pieces together one on top of the other.
I measured the centre of the book by folding the pages to opposite way and pinching.
I made a pencil mark in the centre and then 1 cm in from the edge on each side, and then in the middle of the 1cm dots and the central dot. This made 5 holes.
For the cover I used an A4 piece of black card and did the same process as with the book pages and then pierced holes through. I threaded through the central hole which is called the 3rd hole and left a 6cm tail for tying off later. I then went up through the 2nd hole, down through the 1st hole and back up through the 2nd hole. The next step was to down through the 4th hole, up through the 5th hole and back down through the 4th hole. Lastly I went back up through the 3rd hole where I met the original thread and tied off.
To carry this forward I plan to do a concertina booklet to showcase some alcohol ink outcomes using the cymatics set up to portray the responsiveness of matter to sound and illuminate the poetic and philosophical principles of nature.
Some other ideas I had for book art were :
showcasing textures
books inside books
paintings of genres of music
creating a music book
showcasing my own mark making
take inspiration from Kandinsky's sound book
Abstract sound and shapes
showcasing small prints of my cymatic art
An Artist that has caught my eye throughout this project is Pamela Paulsrud, a visual artist that explores energy, vibration, letters and lines in artist's books and handmade paper. She finds inspiration in nature, music and resonance. This artist explores everything I am exploring in this project so I thought she was a good one to speak about.
Some examples of her book art below:
"When the breath and the brush become one, the energy and rhythm become visual language. The alphabet freely and playfully emerging from this union were scanned in Photoshop and imported for layout into InDesign. This is an unlimited and ever-changing edition." (Paulsrud, ca.2020)
I really love the concept behind Pamela's work, how she expresses herself and lets the artist's tools flow and meander throughout both of these books. The use of monochrome and colour in figure 2 is very effective. The abstract lines dance from page to page giving an overall rhythm yet spontaneity. It reminds me of an old map. The shadowing of the inks is an effect I have been able to create within my own work which gives an almost murky, gloomy feel but giving texture and tone to the pages. The organisation of space and composition is excellent, it is exciting yet muted.
Figure 1 shows the alphabet, or rather Pamela's take on the alphabet. It is a really creative way to showcase the alphabet and reminds me of when I did the alphabet challenge back in unit 1 'I am here'. Again her use of colour and monochrome is very effective and the composition of each letter with the contrast in black against white and overlapping in places is classic. Both of these books are concertinas which I feel works well to showcase art work like this, hence why I am choosing to use this book style for my own showcase of imagery.
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