A Taste For Texture III
I have a passion for texture…don’t you? Ideally texture you can actually touch and feel, but visual texture too. Texture, the quality of the tactile, “HAPTIC“…these inspired this body of work.
Working with the “Haptic“…hungry for texture, and working in layers, in Book Form.
The messaging, or text on these Flag Books was added later, and will be featured in another post.
In this flag book, the covers surfaced with soft, crumpled paper (rice paper? Don’t know- the paper was given to me-) and adhesive. Hemp cord was sewn through awl-prepared holes, then knotted to create another layer of texture over the initial resurfacing. The back and inside covers are stitched with no knotting, creating a flatter layer of texture over the surface.
The flags are textile remnants glued onto the accordion spine embellished with raffia, a bead, a tiny ribbon and stitching with linen thread and hemp cord. The spine is an accordion-folded piece of heavy drawing paper designed for pastels.
Crumpled tissue paper fragments were adhered to these covers, which then painted and varnished. Sewing thread was used to create the stitching through holes punched with an awl, creating the pattern and texture layered over the surface. The single strip of cloth and button were sewn on with the same thread.
The accordion spine, made from folded tagboard, was textures with tissue and adhesive like the covers, and the fabric remnant flags were adhered with adhesive.
These cover boards were textured with crumpled brown paper, and adhesive, then primed, painted and varnished to achieve a sense of solidity. The repurposed envelopes were added before the painting process, their flaps punctured with a sewing needle, with hemp cord tied through each flap. Stitched and tied bands of texture were created through stitching and knotting hemp cord through holes prepared with an awl.
The reverse side of the knotted stitching, and an a pieces of ribbon add layers of texture to the inside covers. Flags are textile fragments that look like sample swatches, and are stitched to the accordion spine with linen thread and hemp cord at stress points.
These books become “standing” sculptures. Small in scale, but emanating meaning, feeling, and the “Haptic“…I hope. The feeling of feeling. We so need to feel, I think.
I mean, I feel.
The front and back covers had windows cut out of them that correlated with the windows cut out of the flag pocket pages.
May we all have…Joy…in the morning, in the night…all the time.
Wallace Berman
Nancy Jo Haselbacher
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