Le Papier IV

Le Papier IV

When a discarded placemat just screams “book”

Single signature binding

Side bound book made from packing material, twisty ties and jute.

Making Our Own Books: Together!

Making Our Own Books: Together!

I had the wonderful experience of teaching “MAKE YOUR OWN BOOKS’, an enrichment class offered at Franklin Elementary School in Santa Monica by the CREST Enrichment program.

The sweet and talented students ranged from first to fourth grade, and had a blast making books of different sizes, structures and materials.

They first bound together their portfolios, made of hanging file folders, then designed and developed the outside covers of these,

getting acquainted with each other, their materials, myself, and their own creativity and imagination.

Then we began our book projects…which included accordion fold books, flag books, fan books,

single signature bindings, and side “stab” bindings.

To celebrate our achievements, learning and fun, we had a “last class” family event.

Family and CREST staff were invited to Make Books Together!

Did we have fun making “double” single signature books, learning the pamphlet stitch, and embellishing up a storm!

Moms,

Nannies,

and Dads got into the act,

along with our delightful students…

and CREST staffers who got to take a creative break!

i will miss this class, and the open, fluid creativity of the students. I hope to have the opportunity to work with them again!

 Wishing everyone a creative and healthful New Year…and a celebration of the positive power of the Imagination. Let us imagine a better world…and Make It, Together.

The Sheltering Book Chapter 5

The Sheltering Book Chapter 5

I am honored to have been one of 17 artists who received an inaugural ‘The WORD Grant 2016: The Bruce Geller Memorial Prize” from the Institute for Jewish Creativity, a project of American Jewish University, to create, “The Sheltering Book“.

Open to the world.

“The Sheltering Book will be a life-sized book structure which will become the backdrop for community bookmaking workshops drawing parallels between the meaning and architecture of the book, and that of the Sukkah. The project also explores the relationship between the public sphere and private space, whether that space be our personal creativity, where we create, or what we create.” —Debra Disman

A “Sheltering Book” program was held at the , of the Santa Monica Public Library. The program was attended by participants from preschool to post school who created books,  and shared them in the shelter of The Sheltering Book.

This kind patron helped Montana Branch Library Manager Stephanie Archer and I carry The Sheltering Book into the Community Room.

Covers and pages were prepped, and participants bound them together into a single signature book which they then added to with writing, drawing and collage materials.

A whole wonderful family of three generations…grandma, mom, and four fantastic, talented and creative daughters!

Reveling in materials.

Creative use of papert strips too create waving grasses, behind which cat’s eyes glimmer…

Sharing with little sis looking on…

Use of magazine images.

She has a beautiful sense of design.

Grandma gets into the act!

Creating with Grandma…pretty in Pink!

Sharing…

A children’s book illustrator…

shares her creation…lovely color choices!

This wonderful teaching artist claimed the time to create a piece about her own identity…

employing buttons, collage, mixed media,

to great effect…  and sharing.

Beautiful use of leaves…

outside,

and inside, her book!

She strolled into the Community Room during a break, and jumped right in!

  A natural presenter!

This lovely couple go right into the expressive spirit…

creating about music,

and other visions.

Photogenic too!

This maker truly committed…

using inspiration from the natural

and the man-made worlds…

and fully developing ideas

within her book.

Sharing…

This spirited artist used to be a casting agent…

and she has truly found a new medium within which to epxress herself…and vision.

The Sheltering Book becomes a synergistic process and experience for the community at-large, offering shelter, safe space, and creative inspiration for all who engage with it. 

Let us hold the vision!

The Sheltering Book Chapter 4

The Sheltering Book Chapter 4

I am honored to have been one of 17 artists who received an inaugural ‘The WORD Grant 2016: The Bruce Geller Memorial Prize” from the Institute for Jewish Creativity, a project of American Jewish University, to create, “The Sheltering Book“.

“The Sheltering Book will be a life-sized book structure which will become the backdrop for community bookmaking workshops drawing parallels between the meaning and architecture of the book, and that of the Sukkah. The project also explores the relationship between the public sphere and private space, whether that space be our personal creativity, where we create, or what we create.” —Debra Disman

A “Sheltering Book” workshop was held at 430 Pico in Santa Monica, a building owned by the Community Corporation of Santa Monica (CCSM), who rents out apartments to families and others, and provides a range of programming to them. Our workshop was part of that programming, and was attended by families with children from preschool to high school. A group of volunteers provided a lovely buffet and supported the participants, who created books,  and shared them in the shelter of The Sheltering Book.

Covers and pages were prepped, and participants bound them together into a single signature book which they then added to with writing, drawing and collage materials!

I taught the pamphlet stitch, but this young maker jumped right in, and wrote his book before it was bound!

Working with images cut from magazines…

Adding letters to create words…

Developing the interior…

Creating meaning…

Using the drawing materials…

A future “Women in the Arts”…

Sharing our books in the shelter of The Sheltering Book.

Room for creative work here!

He worked long and hard with a devoted volunteer to spell out his name in letters culled from magazines.

Celebration! Showing our books within the pages and open “walls” of The Sheltering Book”…supported within its loving “arms”.

The participants become the content and the characters of The Sheltering Book. Through their presence and their creations they people its pages, add meaning to its presence, and add life to its structure.Their story becomes its story, and vice versa.

The Sheltering Book becomes a synergistic process and experience for the community at-large, offering shelter, safe space, and creative inspiration for all who engage with it. 

Let us hold the vision!

A Taste For Texture I

A Taste For Texture I

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.

Why do we have a craving for the tactile? It must be primal…the sense of touch that nurtured, warned, indicated and comforted as we evolved through our lives, and the eons.

“Singed Pages”, Front cover. Repurposed journal, tissue paper and adhesive used to create the texture, transformed with layers of paint and varnish, metal fleur-de-lis, gold thread for binding.

“Burnt Edges”, Interior / text block. Paper pages singed, bound as a single signature with gold thread.

“Mariposa Series 1”, Front cover,  Found board, tissue paper and adhesive used to create the texture, transformed with layers of paint and varnish,gold string, metal butterfly sewn with gold thread.

“Mariposa Series 1”, Interior / text block. Butterfly punched shapes, pastel paper pages bound as multiple, connected signatures with gold thread.

“Mariposa Series 2”, Front cover. Repurposed board, tissue paper and adhesive used to create the texture, ribbon, transformed with layers of paint and varnish, metal butterfly sewn with gold thread.

“Mariposa Series 2”, Interior / text block. Unfolding pages created from gold leaf packing, butterfly punched shapes, open spine, multiple signature binding, hemp cord.

“Mariposa Series 3”, Back cover. Repurposed journal, tissue paper and adhesive used to create the texture, transformed with layers of paint and varnish, metal butterfly sewn with gold thread, multiple signature binding sewn with gold thread.

“Mariposa Series 3”, Interior/ text block. Butterfly punched shapes, rice-style paper pages cut into repeated butterfly shapes,  bound in  multiple signatures with gold thread.

“Mariposa Series 3”, “Spinal view” with front and back covers. Multiple signatures with gold thread.

“RedJewel”, Front cover.  Repurposed journal, tissue paper and adhesive used to create the texture, transformed with layers of paint and varnish, Antique button and multiple signatures sewn with gold thread.

“RedJewel”. Interior / text block.  Rice-style paper pages cut into repeated heart shapes, bound in  multiple signatures with gold thread.

Prepping repurposed journals, using torn, crumpled tissue paper adhered with layers of adhesive to create texture.

Slowly re-purposing gutted journals, adhering pieces of torn tissue paper over the surfaces of the inside covers, revealing fragments of writing beneath.

This work, with all of its patient processes, is a labor of love.

It has to be!

 

MemoryMaking Books

MemoryMaking Books

In celebration of the 125th Anniversary of the Santa Monica Public Library, I had the opportunity to lead a bookmaking program at the  Montana Avenue Library, my home branch of the SMPL

“Making Memory Books” was requested… a single signature style book, embellished with fabric.

Leather, denim, beads, as well as decorative papers and fabric scrap were some of the goodies laid out for participants to use.

The signatures were already prepared, with holes punched. Once bound with the three-hole pamphlet stitch, the first and last pages were glued to the inside of the front and back covers, and the book was formed.

Then, the fun could really begin!  let the embellishment commence!

Paper, “eco-fi” felt, cloth, lace and leather transformed the book structures into unique works of art.

Upon request, a square shape was used, instead of the more common vertical  rectangle.

A mother daughter duo enjoyed adorning their book covers with butterflies.

Is this a pink planet, surrounded by butteries?

The inspiration for the project was a series of fabric covered sewn book models,

with cloth pieces applied patchwork style.

The colors, patterns, shapes and tactile quality of cloth and textiles can evoke powerful memories.

The effect can be pleasing visually, as well as tracing remnants of life stories barely remembered but held in the body, memory and emotions through the sense of touch.

These books, that may hold memories barely discernible to the maker, can now become the repository of new memories, as scrapbooks, photo albums, journals, or sketchbooks.

What a beautiful gift.

Happy Holidays, and peace and blessings for the New Year.

Behind the Mask 1

Behind the Mask 1

It has been fun integrating my Mom, Judy Disman’s “mini-masks” into a series of my handmade books.

The series is comprised of small (approximately 4.5 x 6 x1-1.5″), single and multiple signature books,

made of repurposed board, paper, jewelry parts, and raffia,

as well as hemp cord, linen thread, and Eco-fi felt (made of recycled plastic bottles.)

The bound edges are inspired by

medieval clothing and lacing,

and of course…color.

The books tie together, and the pages are blank…all the better of stashing secrets!

Books: unZIPPED

Books: unZIPPED

It can be fascinating, fun…and sometimes startling  to add elements to books that compel, or at least encourage engagement by giving the viewer, or, “handler”, (peruser?)  something to do. Books by their nature are most often opened and closed…but in what other ways can they move, or be moved?

This humble structure is informed by the Japanese concept of “Wabi-sabi“, an aesthetic of imperfection, impermanence, and even incompleteness. Repurposed cloth is sewn to thin, repurposed cardboard with jute cord, with other strips glued on inside. Repurposed paper passed to me by a colleague is sewn with jute to the cardboard spine in a single signature with a five-hole pamphlet stitch, to create the pages.

Inspired by the cheesecake box from which it’s covers and spine are made, this piece was covered first in hand-me-down newsprint strips, then repurposed muslin fragments, then appliquéd (in the strict sense of the term) with repurposed lace and a zipper. It’s pages are five single folded sheet signatures, or bifolium , sewn to the spine with unwaxed linen thread.

This multiple signature (technically “section“) book is made from repurposed cardboard, acid-free drawing paper, hemp cord, a zipper, and Eco-fi felt. The signatures technically bifolium, are sewn onto a strip of the “felt”, which is then centered and glued over the spine. The book is covered, or “wrapped” in Eco-fi felt, which is used to decorative effect, and gives it a “cozy” feel. The zipper is glued to the spine.

This book is constructed in the same way as the one above, except that the pages are created from a  single signature, and three zippers are applied, making sound effects when engaged.

Participation encouraged. Books are made to interact with.

Spring Suite: Red Green Blue

Spring Suite: Red Green Blue

A series of single and multiple signature books….bound with the pamphlet stitch, and wrapped with “Eco-fi“, a felt-feeling cloth made from recycled plastic bottles. Sewn with hemp cord. Pages made of acid-free drawing paper. Each made with a person or people in mind. Embellished with repurposed jewelry parts, charms, Eco-fi scrap,  and ribbon.

RED, Fire in the Belly (for Jane)

 

Green, The Right of Spring (For Mom)

  

Blue, Thinking About You, (For D and V)

Pure Joy.

Winter Suite: Engaging the Warm Fuzzie, Again

 Winter Suite: Engaging the Warm Fuzzie, Again

Fascinated by the use of cloth, fabric, and textiles in the built environment, as well as a tactile material to use in bookmaking, I started using Eco-Fi “felt’, a fiber made out of recycled plastic “PET” bottles. In addition to reducing the amount of waste going into landfills, Eco-fi felt can be found in a range of colors, takes glue well, and can be a satisfying and even addictive material to work with.  The following comprise a series called “WinterSuite“, which to my mind, brings the “warm fuzzie” back to bookmaking. Did it ever leave? Books have always been our bedfellows, our constant companions, our friends. Now they can double as a security blanket, as well.

WinterSuite: Gray, multiple signature sewn book, recycled board, Eco-fi felt, hemp cord, pastel drawing paper, UHU glue. Diamonds made from corners cut from felt covers.

 WinterSuite: Blue, Single signature sewn book, recycled board, Eco-fi felt, hemp cord, pastel drawing paper, UHU glue. Diamonds made from corners cut from felt covers.

WinterSuite: Gold, multiple signature sewn book, recycled board, Eco-fi felt, hemp cord, pastel drawing paper, UHU glue. Diamonds made from corners cut from felt covers, blue appliqué made from repurposed felt scrap left over from WinterSuite: Blue.

WinterSuite:BlueBlack1, multiple signature sewn book, recycled board, Eco-fi felt, hemp cord, pastel drawing paper,  zipper, UHU glue. Diamonds made from corners cut from felt covers.

WinterSuite: BlueBlack2,  Single signature sewn book, recycled board, Eco-fi felt, hemp cord, pastel drawing paper, zippers,  UHU glue. Diamonds made from corners cut from felt covers.

WinterSuite: Pink,  Single signature sewn book, recycled board, Eco-fi felt, hemp cord,  UHU glue. Diamonds made from corners cut from felt covers. pages made from felt!

Comfort Object; “…an item used to provide psychological comfort, especially in unusual or unique situations, or at bedtime for small children.”  Let’s hear it for Linus!