Book Arts and Photography

Short video for casing-in your book block.

The video has no audio beside the ambient sound of ruffled paper. I can add some comments if you need to hear what we did. Otherwise, watch carefully as Sophie cases in her book block. We did not add any mull or book clock for the hinge. The cloth often levels out the bumps created by the tapes on the inside of the cover. Sophie cut out a few layers of the board to nest the tapes inside of the boards. Once the adhesive dried, we opened the book to show you how it looks. I will add a new video once she pastes down an end sheet to cover the board and hinge. Stay turned. Listen carefully for sound from the shop. You might hear the board sheer and the ruffling of waste paper

Short review of sewing on tapes demo.

Watch an edited video of the demo from class. It is not a complete taping, but it does cover the first part of the lesson on sewing on tapes.

Short tips video posted on coptic binding

The key points for making the coptic binding easier, are in this video. You have seen the other videos which illustrate how to start and finish the binding. This one simply show four key tips that make the binding session go smoother. You watch a larger version of this video by clicking on the YouTube logo on the bottom right of the video window.

Round sheets of corn husks paper

My current project is making round sheets of paper from corn husks. When the sheets dry they look very much like tortillas de maize or corn tortillas. Soon more images of the project will be shared.

How to Make Paper from Corn Husks

People often want to know how to make paper from a plant fiber. Many different fibers can be used. For this demonstrations, I used fibers that were donated by Bill Tracy, Professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Agronomy Department. He manages a large sweet corn research program. In the paper lab we have Lilian Bell’s classic book Plant Fibers for Papermaking. Her book is a great book to start your own investigation. This link will display the location of the book in the class bookshelf.Others exist and additionally, one of the best resources for all kinds of information is the website for Hand Papermaking Organization. This link will play the video How to Make Paper from Corn Husks in HD on YouTube.

 

 

Project 1 – Single Sheet Books

 

Wonderful examples presented today for ideas when approaching a book using a single sheet of paper. Start with a simple idea, build a structure and then match it with content and imagery. The above photo is linked to a small gallery of photos on Flickr. Or click on this link. See you Tuesday.

Student move out day.

Move out day for many apartments in Madison, Wisconsin is today, August 15th. It reminded me that some years ago I grabbed these wheels from a broken desk chair on West Washington Avenue. I knew I could make something out of the star shaped wheels. Then my son Will returned home from school with a few milk crates. Dad’s always have zip ties. Above is my mobile studio flash lighting cart, with a battery power supply! It has a much smaller foot print than regular studio light stands.