Here are some more books I made. In class we always made a demo book step by step so that we knew what to do for homework on our own. These books were usually blank, so Laurie would call them “gifts” as opposed to “art” or “artists’ books” because there was no content. These books I will use as sketchbooks or notebooks.
The above pictures are of the demo books from the following assignments: Album binding (green), Coptic binding (purple with multicolored paper) and Case binding (Italian paper and blue book cloth). The long purple one is Stab bound with brown butcher’s paper, the sketches are from when I went to Dr. Sketchy’s a live model drawing session at a bar in Baltimore. For some we painted our own paper for the covers.
One assignment I found fun was the Stab binding project. This type of binding is a traditional Japanese binding and is typically made with very long, thin Japanese paper in the inside for flexibility. The paper is cut very long and then folded over and bound on the open side. I thought about the idea of the long, thin paper and what kind of project would lend itself to this type of binding. Finally I decided that I could bind all of my old shopping receipts in a book which I aptly titled “Stuff to Buy” the front and back cover is simply the back of various cardboard food products that were in the apartment. I wrote out my usual shopping list in red colored pencil and bound it with red thread. I wanted to keep the color palette black, white, brown and red. I find it kind of diaristic and somewhat autobiographical in that you can probably tell a lot about my personality through the products I buy (mostly food and art supplies) If you took the time to read you would notice patterns, like the fact that I eat a ton of Mac n’ cheese along with various blueberry products. I don’t eat meat, I prefer to buy more expensive fresh mozzarella and I spend a lot more money on art supplies than clothing. Along with the fact that I’m a pack rat and I have actually saved all of these receipts in the first place!
So I'll be a busy bee this week, which is really good because I spent the last two weeks basically in my room because it was rainy and I was super lazy. My brother just graduated H.S. (congrats Alex!!) and we're planning a duel graduation celebration/family get-together. Also one of my favorite gals, Jasmine, is in from California and there's going to be an amazing Glam Rock themed welcome back party in her honor. I'm throwing a dinner party for some of my guy friends where there will be lots of win, Scene It and Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. And then, hopefully I'll be working on some freelance stuff and working for Aurora again, which is super-awesome (and lucrative!)
That's all for now, I've taken more images, which will be up soon, so hold tight for more book art stuff!
