Lately I've become super-involved with bookbinding, or more correctly, bookmaking. Since learning a medieval technique called cross-structure binding, I've been practicing by making a stack of little A6-sized leatherbound books. These are the first three books I made, each showing a different variation of the cross-structure technique:
To make them I used some leather samples I had lying around, and I cut out the letters from the scrap pieces left over from the covers. The brown-leather book (in the foreground) has a companion notepad ('Note' and 'Book'). The cream-coloured book is titled 'Notes to self', while the black book refers to my favourite system for prioritising projects: 'Now, soon, later'. Because I was just 'practicing' the technique, I only used plain old copy paper for the blank pages inside.
The next lot of books I did became a little more experimental with both the papers used inside, and the material used for the covers. This photo shows all the cross-structure books I've made to date (semi-constructed ones not shown here), some leather, some fabric + card, some made from a heavy rubbery material I found at Reverse Garbage:
As a beginner bookbinder, I've found this cross-structure technique really easy to pick up, and I can see its potential to transfer creatively into other materials + methods. Already I've played with exposing parts of the spine to allow the coloured page-sections to show through, and I've been incorporating all sorts of papers as pages inside (coloured translucent paper, sewing pattern tissue paper, pages cut up from old novels, sheet music, kraft paper...). Lots of fun.
The recent bookbinding phase can be attributed to a combination of 2 things. Firstly the Queensland Bookbinders' Guild, a club I joined about a year ago now, where the cross-structure binding technique was demonstrated during the first monthly meeting I went along to. And the second reason, the impetus for actually sitting oneself down to construct books, was that I needed a marketable product to sell on the market stall a few friends and I are planning to put together shortly. Well, at least I hope they'll be marketable...
And if you're interested, the Queensland Bookbinders' Guild (QBG) meets the third Wednesday of every month at Junction Park school at Annerley. Click on the link above to get to their website which has all the information you'd be after.
Being the enthusiastic newish member I am, I've been helping the QBG try to find new (younger) members to join. Recently JD and I helped-out by designing and putting together the backdrop for QBG's stand at the recent Craft Show at the Brisbane Convention Centre. Here's us looking happy at the end of installation night:
Most of the photographs (on the wall behind us) I took at the Artists' Books exhibition at the Noosa Regional Gallery, and what an incredible exhibition (I went to see it twice), although it finishes at the end of this month. It's amazing how massively popular artists' books are becoming - it seems to be quite a movement now. I only discovered it last year when I went along to a weekend course the QBG were running where we were taught a whole array of methods for creating "arty" books (as opposed to the traditional methods of proper bookbinding). When the instructor brought out a big box of artist book samples she'd collected over the years, it opened up a whole new world for me! I found out about 'artists books' and 'bookswaps', and it renewed my interest in using books as an artistic medium. I've participated in 3 bookswaps since then (currently making books for the third one right now), and I made Mini Majellen based on a 'fold and cut' technique learnt in that course. And since seeing the exhibition at the Noosa Regional Gallery, I'm really sparked to make more and more books. The sky's the limit really...
1. Did you know that Ben's mum is the director of the Noosa regional gallery?
Joseph Mark BEn...This may be a good tid bit of info for future fledgling exhibiitons?
2. I know Jay Dee is beautiful and talented and lovely and all that. Well you are Jay Dee! But why is she the ONLY one of your friends to ahve made it onto the blog so far? Picture wise I mean...This is a dissapointment to me as you know how much I fancey myself in photos!
Posted by: Georgi(e) | November 25, 2006 at 06:01 PM