A Long Hot Summer

It's been a brutal few months in this part of the world with daily maximum temperatures hovering between the high-30s and mid-40s for weeks on end. Too unpleasant to work in the bindery so I've done other bookish things such as demonstrate how to make lidded boxes; organise a master class for a visiting French fine binder; and bring to Canberra an exhibition that ran at the NSW Writers' Centre at the beginning of the year. With cooler weather, enthusiasm is building for my 'real' work. I've started with a bit of a tidy-up, in the course of which I came across a fish skin I bought towards the end of last year. Unfortunately I cannot remember what I intended to do with it!

The Barwon Ballads Project - 5

Project realised and ready to send off in the new year. Received news a couple of days ago about the plans for this and its nineteen companions. First up will be an exhibition at the Writers' Centre in Sydney from late January to late February, then a flying visit to Melbourne in early March for an appearance at the CODEX Australia symposium, on to Canberra for three weeks in March-April at the Civic Library Exhibition Space, back to Sydney for a second showing and then finally to Geelong. All that remains to be done in 2013 is to tidy the bindery in preparation for new projects once Christmas and New Year are out of the way.

The Barwon Ballads Project - 4

The slim volume I referred to in my last post has been completed along with the 'plinth' in which the volume sits. Also completed are trays to house this plinth and the text block plinth. The fit of the block and book has been checked as has the fit of the two trays when stacked. All that remains is the box lid. This is my first attempt at making stacked trays and the result has, I feel, been a success. This success has given me an idea for a new project featuring multiple stacked trays as storage containers for some found objects that have been sitting around the bindery for years just waiting for the right use. Something else to add to the list for 2014.

The Barwon Ballads Project - 3

The focus now is on preparing an account of my 'treatment' of the Cuthbertson block. It will be a slim, slightly-smaller-than-A5 volume of seven four-leaf sections, bound in the French Simplified style. It's advanced enough for me to be able to start working on the plinth in which it will be housed. The plinth (left) is of similar dimensions to the text block plinth. The semi-circular cut-out on the spine edge of the plinth recess is to make it easy to lift the book from the plinth. This is not a detail that I've used before and I'm hoping that it won't prove too difficult to mould the felt lining around the tight curve of the cut-out.

The Barwon Ballads Project - 2

The base plinth of the box has now been shaped and lined with felt. My preferred lining material is usually Suedex, which is much less vulnerable to adhesive bleed than felt. In this case, I've elected to use felt because it is much better for stretching and shaping around corners and into recesses. In this case an added complication has been the need for the bottom of the recess to be raked (with a different depth in each corner). This will allow the top surface of the text block to appear level rather than tilted. Next step will be to check the fit of the block and start writing an account of the project.

The Barwon Ballads Project

It's taken a few days but I feel that I have a way forward for what I'm now thinking of as the Barwon Ballads Project. I won't bind the text block that was the subject of my most recent post but will, instead, write and bind an account of the rationale for this decision. The bound account and the unbound block will together be housed in a tiered presentation box. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll try and post every few days with updates on my progress. The image above is of the first step in the construction of the base of the presentation box, secured to a purpose-made bench hook with a couple of G-clamps and held in place while it dries with some angle irons (offcuts from the scraps bin of a local steel fabricator) and spring clamps.

Barwon Ballads and Bush Verses

Earlier this year, twenty Australian bookbinders were each invited to  prepare an unbound text block from the 1912 edition of James Lister Cuthbertson's Barwon Verses and Bush Ballads for exhibitions to be staged in Sydney and Canberra in early 2014. Doing something with my copy is the last project I need to get out of the way before the end of the year. The block itself is fairly uninspiring - musty, foxed, poorly folded, of awkward proportions and with the paper grain running in the wrong direction. Working out what to do with it has caused more than a little angst and I have little enthusiasm for starting. My first step has been simply to 'bind' the block with coarse jute cord and let it sit for a bit.

Bind Date - 5

After a fortnight away from the bindery, it's now time to wrap up a couple of unfinished projects so that I can start 2014 with nothing hanging over my head. First up is the last part of the Bind Challenge. The task has been to make a book that draws on something I was passionate about in my early twenties and about which I remain passionate today. The result is a drum leaf binding of a series of extracts from Le Corbusier's Le Poëme de l'Angle Droit that capture my enduring fascination with things French, inspiring architecture and the works of Euclid. This and my other three Challenge books (Riders on the Storm, Paisley World and Letters from Alice) are now wrapped in plain paper, ready to be handed over anonymously for 'blind judging' next week.

ABE16

Travelled to Sydney last week for the opening of the 16th annual Australian Bookbinders' Exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW. The focus is again contemporary design bindings with readable content and this year's exhibition features the work of 31 Australian and international bookbinders. Two of my works are included in the exhibition. The first is a Franzband rebinding of a copy of Charlotte Smith's Dreaming of Dior (cover detail left) with leather spine and paper covered boards with leather and paper onlays and gold foiling. The second is a French simplified rebinding of a copy of Alfred Wainwright's A Third Lakeland Sketchbook. The exhibition runs until 13 December and more details, including opening hours can be found here.

BookArtObject Exhibition

Slack, slack, slack! There's no other way to describe the paucity of posts. Sure there's been lots of busyness but that's no excuse. I'll try and do a bit of a catch up over the next few days, starting with the BookArtObject exhibition that opened a few weeks ago at UNSW Canberra. Co-curated this one with Ampersand Duck who has written about it here with lots of photos here.
The exhibition's 'poster child' (left) is Making Bread (not bombs), a fabulous flag book by Canadian artist Tara Bryan. The exhibition runs until 28 November.

Doings

It's been a frantic few weeks - so much so that posting to BEMBindery hasn't even been an option. The busyness is book arts related but unfortunately not all that much to do with time at the binding bench working on current projects. The Guild 13 exhibition has happened; there's been a trip to Sydney to deliver some books for an exhibition that opens at the Art Gallery of NSW in early November; a trip to Melbourne to take part in the Australian Bookbinding Symposium; four days at a workshop on making a traditional French chemise and slipcase (above); preparation for a two day workshop next week on the Dos Rapporte spine structure; and bumping-in an exhibition at UNSW Canberra with co-curator Ampersand Duck that opens this Thursday. More about some of these things in coming posts.

Bind Challenge - 4

The Bind Challenge rolls on and the third of my four books has now been completed. It's a response to the query "What were you doing in the year of your 21st birthday and where did you live, work and play?"
The book Letters from Alice draws on memories of time spent as a vacation student in the Australian outback town of Alice Springs. What was intended to be a grand adventure turned out to be a lonely excursion into a racist world where difference was despised and where changing the status quo was never an option.
Like books one and two, it's a drum leaf binding. It will be the smallest of the project's four books, measuring just 65mm x 65mm.

For Martin ...

This week's image of is for Martin, who was taken by a detail of 7POEMS that featured in an earlier post and asked for some more information.
Completed in an edition of five, it's a simple work consisting of a clam shell box that houses eight accordion fold loose leaves (the seven Maxwell Bodenheim poems plus a title-index-colophon).
7POEMS grew from frustration at being unable to secure a 'licence to use' for part of the text of a planned work and a subsequent on-line search for 'poets-who-died-in-1953'. For those unfamiliar with Australian copyright law, the 2004 US-Australia Free Trade Agreement extended the 'copyright-after-death-of-the-creator' period from 50 to 70 years, meaning that new 'out-of-copyright' material will be not become available in Australia until 2024.
7POEMS is currently part of an exhibition at Artisan Books that runs until 12 October.

Guild 13

This week sees the opening of Guild 13 in the Mezzanine Gallery of Canberra's Civic Library. It's an exhibition of recent works by members of the Canberra Craft Bookbinders' Guild and features thirty six works (including three of my own) by nineteen bookbinders and book artists. The exhibition marks my debut as a curator and I've also taken on responsibility for catalogue design and preparation and exhibition graphics. It's been a busy (but satisfying) time and, fortunately, the pace is starting to ease now that the bump-in has happened. For anyone who might be interested a copy of the exhibition catalogue can be viewed or downloaded here.

A Third Lakeland Sketchbook - 2

After a couple of weeks in the doldrums, things have really taken off. A Third Lakeland Sketchbook - a French simplified binding that's headed for an exhibition in Sydney in November - has gone from go-to-whoa in just a couple of days (at right is a detail of the spine and cover boards). Its completion has marked the start of frantic times with two stalled projects wrapped up, a new project started and finished, and the beginnings of another book drying under weights while I work on this post. More on these in coming weeks. All this activity has been overlain with preparations for an exhibition that opens in Canberra in a few days. I'll have three pieces in the exhibition but, more importantly for me, it will mark my 'debut' as a curator. The deadline for entries was a few days ago and last week saw a steady stream of binders and book artists delivering their work. It felt like Christmas!

A Third Lakeland Sketchbook

The second step in dealing with binder's block is to take yourself off to your binding bench and start working on something mundane that doesn't require too much agonising about design or detail. I've set myself some forwarding tasks on the rebinding of a copy of Arthur Wainwright's A Third Lakeland Sketchbook and it seems to be doing the trick. My enthusiasm is returning and I'm feeling about ready to deal with a backlog of exhibition and other commitments and even starting to think about ideas for new projects.

Books ... beyond words

Over the years I've developed what, so far, has been a sure-fire way of working through binder's block. It's a two stage process, the first step of which involves just getting out and looking at what others are doing - not as a potential source of inspiration but simply a way of getting excited again. Step 1 is now complete with last weekend spent in Bairnsdale for the opening of East Gippsland Art Gallery's Books ... beyond words exhibition. The exhibition (which runs until 4 September) features over eighty artists' books from Australia and overseas and is a treat. There was a real buzz around the opening on Saturday evening and I was thrilled that my entry Cartographica (detail above) was awarded a Judges' commendation. The fun continued on Sunday morning with an opportunity to present my work as part of a series of floor talks by local book artists. More information on the exhibition can be found here.

Binder's block

Back from a month's walking on the Arnhem Land Plateau and suffering from a bad case of binder's block. Usually I'd come back all inspired and ready to go but this trip was physically more demanding than most and I fear that I'm just worn out. There's no enthusiasm to get back to work in the bindery, despite opportunities to take part in interesting projects, a new bunch of students looming and lots of work to do curating an exhibition that opens in Canberra next month. I took the photo above (a local rock platform detail) a few days ago in the hope that it will provide the inspiration for the cover board design for a landscape format book of sketches that I'm intending to submit for a fine binding exhibition scheduled for Sydney in November.

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.