Bind Date - 3

The instructions for Part 3 of the Bind Challenge have arrived: 'We now know what music you thought was GOOD when you were 21 but what were you wearing when you listened to this music? ... Now make a book/object for the second of your four containers.'
My response is 'Paisley World' a hymn of praise to that ubiquitous 1970s fashion statement - a fashion statement that must rank close to the top of those that only ever felt good at the time.

On paper marbling

Until now, I've always been a little bit ambivalent about paper marbling - admiring the skills of those who do it well and loving the exoticism of materials such as carragheen moss and ox gall but, frankly, feeling that many of the finest of designs have been just a little too 'combed to death'. Apart from that, it always seems that about twice as much time is taken with setting up and cleaning down as is taken with marbling.
I say 'until now' because I had the opportunity to spend yesterday as a bit of an imposter in an advanced marbling workshop run by renowned Australian marbler Joan Ajala and discovered that it's all a lot more fun than I had remembered. It was great to work with people who knew what they were doing and although my own papers have plenty of flaws they are big, bold and, dare I say it, unfussy. It will give me a lot of pleasure to work with the good bits of the sheets that are now draped drying around BEMBindery.

7POEMS

Finished an edition of five a couple of days ago. The work is a collection of seven poems by the US poet Maxwell Bodenheim, presented as a set of loose leaf accordion folds housed in a drop-side box. Set up the studio lights, backdrop, tripod and camera this morning to photograph the work and managed a couple of shots before the camera battery died. The image at left is a detail of an inlaid panel in the box lid. The beaten and inked aluminium panel seemed to fit the gritty, urban character of the poems and I'm pleased with the result. I'll post more about the work when my camera is back in action.