Paper and Threads

I blocked out three days to make new fabrics to use as book cloth for my watercolor journals.  Over the last 20 years I learned many surface design techniques for silks and  cottons and love to play with dyes and resists to create textiles.  In a Manhattan apartment, I need to "schedule" time to play with dyes because I have to get out so many supplies, tools, etc.  And our dining room table is covered in plastic for several days as the fabric cures and dries. 

I purchased 3 new primary color dyes in February and made up new stock solutions.  Then when I was "playing" I decided to see if the stamp process I used recently for paper worked equally well with fabric.  Here are my stock solutions, the secondary colors I mixed and my new stamp.  I used it to stamp a dark blue design over an entire piece of dyed blue-green cotton that will be book cloth.

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I finally finished the book inspired by Gwen Diehn's book on Darwin.  Hers was really small.  The ones that our Journal Study Group made are 3" X 5". 

Here is the cover of mine.

This book has two concertinas, one that makes up the spine and end papers of the book and a second one that makes the pages.  The concertinas are stitched together with a 3 hole pamphlet stitch.  The spine of the book is then held closed with one stick which goes through 3 tabs - two on the front cover and one on the back.

These are the pages that I created using stamps I made from figures I sketched at the Society of Illustrators figure drawing sessions this spring. 

End paper on the left and page 1:

Pages 2 and 3:

Pages 4 and 5:

Pages 6 and 7:

Page 8 and End Paper:

When the stick is removed, the spine can be opened to reveal a hidden image.  This is a stamp that I made from my painting of mother and child - inspired by a Henry Moore sculpture.

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It is time for a little post about my obsession with bookbinding.  I started by recycling books as watercolor journals and then progressed to make 12 watercolor journals creating my own book covers and the book size of my choice.  While dye painting fabric for quilting, I wondered whether I could make my own book cloth from these fabrics and this week finished my 4th watercolor journal using my own dyed fabric as bookcloth.  For anyone reading this blog for the first time, the progression can be seen by clicking on the "Bookbinding" category on the right side of my blog page.

My 4th Dye Painted Watercolor Journal:

 I used Canson Mi Teintes paper for my end papers.  It is available in many colors, is heavy enough so it doesn't stretch during the casing-in process, and is very inexpensive.  Here is the end paper for this book.

Our Monthly Art Group learned how to make adhesive-backed "fun foam stamps" from Pat last month and at the end of the afternoon, we each used our stamps to make everyone a tag from our designs.  Pat does extraordinary work with her stamps and colored ink pads,  We will do this again and I explored making a "pocket artist's book" to keep all of the tags together.  The instructions came from Gwen Diehn's book Books For Kids to Make.

This month we are going to make very small "folded" artist's books (as seen in the link to Pat's blog above) and arrive prepared to "decorate each page."  Then we'll make a small envelope for the book.  Here is a website that demonstrates the folding process.  Our books will be made from a standard size sheet of paper (8.5 X 11"). 

http://myhandboundbooks.blogspot.com/2007/11/secret-fold-notebook.html

I decided to play with the techniques even before our meeting next week and created the following tiny book and envelope.  During the last two months I sketched a pregnant model at the Society of Illustrators figure drawing sessions and decided to feature her in my book.  I reduced the size of each image to fit the page and collaged the printed reduced drawings in place.  I made a fun foam stamp from one of the images and made the cover and the envelope.

Two Pages From the Book:

The Front Cover - with Stamps:

The Envelope for the Artist's Book:

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I made my 3rd watercolor journal with another piece of fabric that I dye-painted - this time striped using corn dextrin resist with procion MX dyes.  This is  a 6 X 8" watercolor journal containing Fabriano Artistico 140 lb Soft Press paper - 6 signatures with 2 folios each.  The bookcloth was prepared by fusing my fabric to Thai mulberry paper using Wonder Under - see more about the method here.

I used color-coordinated MiTientes paper as end papers. 

There is still one more piece of fabric that I made in this first batch, and since I'm now using a big roll of Fabriano Artistico paper, I will make a 4th book to gain more experience handling the big pieces of paper instead of the usual 22 X 30 inch sheets.  There are 48 single pages in each book so will have enough watercolor journals on my shelf to last 5-6 months!

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I just finished making my second watercolor journal using book cloth that I made from dye painted fabric (procion MX dyes and corn dextrin resist).  The first one can be seen here.  This 6 X 8"book is made using 140 lb Fabriano soft press watercolor paper and consists of 6 signatures with two folios in each.  I'm thrilled to complete another one.

The Book Cover - made with blue and purple dyes.

The End Papers

 Australian Reversed Piano Hinge Journal

I made a second watercolor journal this week - using Gwen Diehn's instructions for a sketchbook with removeable pages.  EDM Members can access these instructions in a file on the message board.  This looked like a fun technique to know - even though I like working in journals that can be numbered and stored on a shelf.

Exterior of 5 X 7.5" Book:  Made with Fabriano Artistico (8 folios in 4 signatures) and TexLibris bookcloth.

Open Book - showing the spine:  The watercolor paper was used as end papers to insert the page block into the cover, so only one of the folios in each of those two signatures are removeable.

The Concertina and Flat Hinge: 

There is supposed to be a peper hinge which goes through the concertina tunnels to hold each folio in place.  I just happened to be in the New York Garment District, and saw the perfect size "bones" to use instead.  Here is a photo showing the bone passing through 3 concertina tunnels and fixing the folio.  Each folio makes 4 pages in the book.

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