Volume 7, Number 3 $8.50 ARTISTS BOOKS BOOKBINDING PAPERCRAFT CALLIGRAPHY

Transcription

1 Volume 7, Number 3 $8.50 ARTISTS BOOKS BOOKBINDING PAPERCRAFT CALLIGRAPHY

2 Volume 7, Number 3, February Pat Gill Gallery Accordion Poetry Book by Paula Beardell Krieg Circles & Spirals by W.J. (Bill) Waddington Fresh Impressions by Inge Bruggeman & Heather Watkins David Drum Burning Books Nina Judin Gallery Bookmaking with Recycled Materials by Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord Center-Spine Book by Monica Leaning Raised Gilding Under the Microscope by Jerry Tresser NakhaChitra: The Art of Fingernail Embossing Contributors / credits Subscription information Bound & Lettered Winter 09 1

3 ACCORDION POETRY BOOK TO MAKE WITH UPPER ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS BY PAULA BEARDELL KRIEG Accordion Poetry Book with computer generated pages. Granite paper, elephant-hide spine, cover weight paper, and rawhide tie. 8½" x 5½" x 14". At school, students have the opportunity to learn about poetry and then to write their own poems. Transforming their disparate verses into personal anthologies can result in books that are keepers. The book design offered here initially appears ordinary. A little tug to the covers, however, reveals a delightful surprise: the accordion spine, with its tipped-on pages, expands to expose the names of the literary devises which are used on each page. The idea here is to help the young scribes connect terms, such as haiku, acrostic, cinquain, onomatopoeia, free verse, alliteration, and concrete, to examples of poetry which show the usage of these techniques. I have found this book is most successful when the actual definitions of the poetry techniques are included on their own separate page. These, I ve decided, belong on the opening page. The directions I provide here are written with the classroom teacher in mind. I have designed this project around the paper that most teachers have ample access to: white 8½" x 11" copy paper. I offer the step-by-step instructions in the way that I would present them to a classroom of twelve year olds who will be writing out their poems by hand, rather than on a computer. Generally, I have observed there is at least one child in each class who seems to have hopelessly illegible handwriting. As ironic as it seems, students who are challenged by handwriting are often gifted as poets. For these students, it would be worthwhile to either type their poems or farm out the handwriting to willing classmates. 6 Bound & Lettered Winter 09

4 Figure 1. CIRCLES & SPIRALS BY W.J. (BILL) WADDINGTON Since beginning my study of calligraphy in 1986, I have been fascinated with circle and spiral layouts. I was unable to locate how-to instructions to create such layouts, so I began experimenting. The information shared in this article is based on my efforts. There may be easier or better ways to accomplish these tasks, but I have not found any. The Circle Layout The circle layouts work best for me when using alphabets with vertical letters, such as Blackletter, rather than letters usually sloped, such as Italic. For this reason, Romans, both formal and monoline, Blackletter, Foundational, and Neuland work well in both the circle and spiral layouts. Letterforms that are normally written with a slope, such as Italic, require some extra effort to be consistent in maintaining the proper slope of the vertical (as shown in Figure 1). Materials Basic pen staff, nib, and pigment. Compass. (The dime store school variety is adequate.) Protractor. (The dime store school variety is adequate.) Right triangle, 10" to 12" in length. Ruler, or other straight edge, 12" in length. Use of the geometry formula C= d. C equals circumference; (pi) equals 3.14*; and d equals diameter of the circle. Instructions Write out the line of text in a straight line. In the example in Figure 2, a simple Blackletter alphabet is used, with the text measuring 25.12" in length, which becomes the circumference of the circle. Using the formula cited above, divide the circumference by (the quantity 3.14) to determine the diameter of the circle. The diameter should equal 8". The text used for this project is: As your day goes round, color it happy. Use the following steps to create the circle layout. 1. With the straight edge, draw a line 8" in length, labeling the opposite ends of the line as points A and B. Add a point at the center of the line at the 4" mark and label that mark as C. This point becomes the radius of the circle (half the length 12 Bound & Lettered Winter 09

5 DAVID DRUM BURNING BOOKS PHOTOS BY JOHN HOPPER 1 2 Bad Blood. 10" x 12". Poem by Arther Rimbaud. English translation by David Drum. 1. Interior page. Black paper cutout images photocopied onto 8½" x 11" card stock, then individually attached to extensions with linen tape, and extensions sewn side bound to backing. 2. Bad Blood Binding. Six sewing points hold exterior paper strip to linen tape binding cover support, tape distressed with blue marker. Nine to twenty long black strings are attached to binding thread, some strung with black beads, bits of lapis lazuli, and small crosses to give a creepy, spiderweb-like Gothic feel to the hand as you pick up Rimbaud s dark, fantastic poem. merican book artist David Drum has worked as a Hollywood prop assistant, a Las Vegas croupier, a funeral director in the South, a fry cook in the Midwest, a San Joaquin Valley ranch foreman, and an encyclopedia salesman and hot tamale vendor in New Orleans. David founded Burning Book Press of Los Angeles in Venice, California, in The Press produces colorful, collectible artists books in limited editions of both David Drum s poetry and that of Hugo, Yeats, Rimbaud, Marvell & Frost. An edition usually means that each book is the same. In Burning Book Editions, each book is unique. Archival papers and other materials are hand-cut or torn and the books individually assembled. The look and feel of each book is varied during production, making each book of the edition different and rhythmically distinct. Artists books from Burning Book Press are in several private and public collections, and the books have been shown in exhibitions in the United States and abroad. Dancing Around the Golden Calf. 6" x 9". Idolatry in pagan Egypt. Graphics text, that is, the graphic images are the text. There are no words. Canson paper cutouts made with pinking shears pasted onto Canson paper pages, after sewn center binding. 22 Bound & Lettered Winter 09

6 Potential (2002). Approximately 1½" x 1". A miniature artist book with reflective covers and text on one opening spread. NINA JUDIN GALLERY (above right) Gollum Fish (2005). Approximately 2½" x 1½". (above left) Gollum Horn (2005). Approximately 2½" x 1½". Catharijne Press printed the miniature book Tolkien s Gollum and asked me to make three very special design bindings for them. Gladly! Here are two of the results. Gollum Horn is bound in horn covers, housed in its very own drop back box lined with suede. Gollum Fish is bound in calf leather and fish leather with a fish leather jacket and a parchment case. 26 Bound & Lettered Winter 09