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.