Artist Book Workshop- Accordion Play

Here are some photos of the works produced by the very talented participants of the workshop held in the heat of last weekend. The workshop was organised by the Leongatha Arts and Crafts Society as a stimulus for Liberated Books their forthcoming Artist Book Competition and Exhibition celebrating their 40th Anniversary. See the website http://leongathagallery.org.au/ for details on how to apply.

more workshop samples

The plan is to start the class ( Accordion Play at Meeniyan 24 Feb) with a straight accordion but I worked on this one by adding some popups, the covers are some paste paper on brown paper, Last time I made paste paper I did it on brown paper then at the end of the day spread the paste all over and combed it. It makes really good book covers.

This one isn't for the workshop, it is one of my standard Celtic Bindings, the grey thread is hemp, the black is knitting cotton and the paper is some I made for another project but it's recycled silver paper and black card double dipped.

Another workshop sample, this one is playing with different ways of adding extra paper. I had the straight concertina already, a sample from another workshop, the cover is Kenaf and dyed gingerlily paper pulp painting and the pages are hahnemuhle, the extra bits are cover paper. This one has the coloured bits threaded through vertical slits in the concertina, the two concertinas are the same width.

This one has horizontal slits cut to make popups and the coloured bits fit into the valleys of the popups. This was described in Peter and Donna Thomas' Book More Making Books by Hand, quarry Books 2004

workshop prep

I am making some mock ups for the workshop that I'm teaching at Meeniyan on creating artists books based around the Concertina. We'll start with a straight concertina then do another book or two that incorporate a concertina of some sort. I'm giving everyone a set of photos to make a flag book so thought I'd better make a sample. I selected a group of photos taken at the same time of rocky beach and cliffs, I loved the light in these images.

The white backs of the photos looked a bit dull so I made up a haiku to fit (seven backs and seven words in the haiku, perfect!)

Seaside walk,

One summer's night,

shadows play

These pictures are of a very painful experiment, many hours cutting through photo and watercolour paper, ouch! When I was in Hobart last year I saw an exhibition where there were a series of tunnel books but they were just concertinas so I thought I'd try it with a couple of photos and here are the results. To view them properly you need to be on the same level as the book, but they sort of work.

weekend activities

I had a pretty good weekend, very social but with a bit of creativity and a bit of oohing and ahhing. First up Saturday was the first Papermakers of Victoria meeting for the year and Dineke is putting together an occasional publication by pulling out all the instructions that have been in the Deckle Edge over the years and we were trialling some of the decorative techniques on different papers.

Cold wax and dye on sewn plant fibre paper

Rust on kozo, handmade recycled and commercial papers

fold and dip in paper dyes on plant fibre and recycled papers

wax rubbing and dye

These four were recycled paper with hercon sizing that had previously had cyanotype then sewing following the lines of the cyanotype, top left rust and tea, right cold wax and dye, bottom left untouched, bottom right folded and dipped (because of the hercon the dye didn't really get taken up).

Sunday was the first 'T'arts' gathering for the year and several of the group had been to India last year and brought along with them some books they'd purchased plus photos of the trip. Ruth also brought along the outfit worn by her Indian daughter-in-law at the Hindu wedding ceremony. The skirt alone weighs 15 kg it is so heavily beaded.

The top

the skirt

the shawl

the hem of the skirt.

Just beautiful!

I also came home with four bags of fabric, mostly furnishings to donate to the group tight knit world who make things for underprivileged children and adults.

Exciting news

I just found out that my book 'Childs Play' that is in the IAPMA exhibition 'Faszination Papier' in Germany has been purchased for a museum in Turkey. So I'm off to the postoffice to send another copy for the rest of the exhibition, it is touring to France and other venues in Germany.