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.

Eco-dyed monoprints

Great day spent experimenting with eco-dyed monoprints under the guidance of two printmaking book artist friends. Finished the afternoon with over sixty prints, some of which will be worked into future projects. The prints were produced in two batches, each batch a multi-layer tied 'sandwich' of sheets of Hahnemuhle 300gsm mould-made watercolour paper alternated with assemblies of gathered leaves, flowers and shredded vegetables. One batch was boiled for two hours in a solution of water, vinegar and rusty nails; the other was steamed for two hours over a solution of water and vinegar. The results were stunning but somewhat unpredictable and certainly not repeatable, which I guess is the delight of monoprints. For anyone interested in the process, details can be found here.

Bad Gallery v Good Gallery

Bad Gallery: I once sent a book off for exhibition and heard nothing more of it until it was returned at the end of the exhibition with a fresh grease stain on the front cover and missing most of the purpose designed packaging materials that were designed to protect the book in transit.
Good Gallery: One of my recent works is currently included in the 2013 Libris Awards exhibition at Artspace Mackay. This gallery's dealings with me (and I presume the other exhibiting artists) have been impeccable. I was advised that my work had arrived, invited to the exhibition opening, provided with details of the exhibition awards almost as soon as they were announced and, last week, forwarded links to photographs of the opening, general shots of the works as displayed and individual shots of each of the works in the exhibition (the latter can be checked out here). As well as all that, I'm delighted that my piece has been displayed to advantage (above). Well done Artspace!

Bind Date Update

At last some progress! My Bind Challenge container is complete (apart from a fastener), as is the first of its books, Riders on the Storm. The original four compartment box has been lined with Suedex and fitted with a Geltex covered bi-fold case.
The design decisions I've made for the first of the books - binding style, text paper, digital image formats, cover paper, fonts, leather spine piece - will now impose a discipline on the rest of the project. I'm reasonably confident that I've left myself enough flexibility to cope with whatever the instructions for parts 3,4 and 5 of the challenge throw up. Famous last words?

Franzbanding

This week's image was taken part way through  last weekend's workshop (Franzband Part 1) - my book is the one with the red headbands. The Franzband is a very exacting technical binding with the boards laced-in before any covering materials are applied so that any errors or blemishes are difficult to remedy or disguise. I made things doubly difficult for myself by choosing a smooth leather for the spine and a plain paper for the covers that show any faults for all to see. After completing Franzband Part 2 this weekend, I'm a little disappointed with what I've produced but will plug away at the leather onlays that are part of the cover design in the hope that I can make some of the more obvious flaws less apparent.

Playing with gold

Lots happening but frustratingly little to show for it, hence my lack of recent posts. In the last couple of weeks, I have started a new edition; made some progress on my Bind Challenge; completed two of the four days of my Franzband refresher; run a few sessions of an eight week master class with four book artists who are spending time in BEMBindery working on their own projects; and wound up the first part of a short course on illuminated lettering that will hopefully improve my very rudimentary gold leaf skills. None of this has yet generated anything of interest to share and my feeble A (above) is the best I can offer at the moment, I'm afraid.