And A Ribbon Ran Through It 3

And A Ribbon Ran Through It 3

“The Orange”

Pages created of  single folded sheets called “bifolia“.

Meditative pose..

Folded arms.

Ribbon slipped under stitches.

Each bifolium stitched to spine, and covers and spine stitched to felt, which hinged covers to spine and allows book to open.

Covers are textured with crumpled repurposed tissue that once separated metallic leaves, and Mod Podge.

Layered textures, patterns and colors. Ribbon used as a visual accent inside as well.

Ribbon “gesture” changes the look and feel of the piece.  Above, serious, sober, quiet.

Here, flirty…coquettish…ready for anything!

Ribbons folded into interior, slipped under inside stitch.

Gold leaf…shock top…juxtaposed verbiage creates text tension.

“Unfolding”

“Old World Art” metallic leaf packing repurposed into folded pages stitched together like multiple signatures.

The orange of the repurposed tissue and strips of ribbon sang together.

Pages unfold and create sculptural spaces.

Flattened…

Bound back…open spine.

The ribbon eventually was adhered…the color was fun to play with.

“Open Book 1”

“Arms outstretched”…

Polka dots…

And more polka dots…

“Open Book 2”

Inside

Outside

Dots in a row…

And a Robbin Ran Through It.

And A Ribbon Ran Through It 2

And A Ribbon Ran Through It 2

The ribbon is a line, a shape, an adornment, utilitarian, a communicator of color, a texture…and strangely, emotional. Ribbons can even become anthropomorphic…(more on that in a subsequent post).

The following are all “signature” bindings.

Ribbon becomes closure and design element.

Ribbon integrated into book structure: held between cover boards and that which covers them.

Tied and untied. Tried and untried?

Closed, open and seen from the back..

Openness, step by step.

The colors and patterns of the ribbon become integral to the design of the whole.

use of ribbon can engage the viewer, user, handler, of the piece…tying and untying, opening and closing, and where does the ribbon go when reading, writing or drawing in the book, or even “just” perusing it?

Something so deceptively simple becomes a source of mystery that continually changes.

Like Life.

That Ribbon of…3

That Ribbon of…3

It is fascinating to explore ways of integrating ribbon and tying mechanisms into book structures. An integrated tie mechanism encourages the user to engage with the object…opening and closing, tying and untying.

In an ongoing process of attempting to meld bookmaking, decorative painting, conceptual, and “fine” art into the mysterious form of the “artist’s book“, I am exploring the use of tissue paper and the like combined with adhesives to create a textured, tactile surface, and incorporating the ribbon or tie as an integral part of the piece.

Simple cardboard is covered with crinkled tissue once used to separate sheets of metallic leaf. This tissue, for lack of a better term, is thin, fine, ultra flexible, crushable, porous, adherable and absorbent. Perfect for texturing, and when combined with adhesive, becomes almost like a glue itself. The textured surface can create a compelling, intriguing, and in some instances, incredibly satisfying object to gaze upon, to touch, to hold, and to use.

Here the actual packing of the metallic leaf become folded book pages, each one unfolded, then refolded into a signature, (technically a “section”).  These signatures are then sewn together with hemp cord using  the pamphlet stitch  to create a “multi-signature” binding.  Half of the first and last pages are then glued to the inside of the front and back covers so that the pages unfold.

Thus each folded page opens up into four two-sided sections. many possibilities here…both for developing the book by adding content to the pages, and for user engagement with the pages…unfolding and folding them.

The pages can become sculptural and create different shapes. One of the magical things about the form of “the book”, is that it can be nearly flat or two-dimensional, or three-dimensional. Books are transformational…in many ways.

The exposed points of contact where the signatures are sewn together become the spine of the book.

Eventually, I integrated this brilliant orange ribbon into the design of the book. it adds a bit of shimmer, dimension, and contrasting texture, and a tone-on-tone quality that I find irresistible.

I will have to get some images of the finished piece. It is fun to play with, opening and closing the book,  folding and unfolding the pages, seeing how many shapes can be created. The user has to engage with this book, if they don’t want to miss out!

 

 

 

 

That Ribbon of…2

That Ribbon of…2It is fascinating to explore ways of integrating ribbon and tying mechanisms into book structures. An integrated tie mechanism encourages the user to engage with the object…opening and closing, tying and untying.

In an ongoing process of attempting to meld bookmaking, decorative painting, conceptual, and “fine” art into the mysterious form of the “artist’s book“, I am exploring the use of tissue paper and the like combined with adhesives to create a textured, tactile surface, and incorporating the ribbon or tie as an integral part of the piece. Simple cardboard is covered with crinkled tissue once used to separate sheets of metallic leaf.

This tissue, for lack of a better term, is thin, fine, ultra flexible, crushable, porous, adherable and absorbent. Perfect for texturing, and when combined with adhesive, becomes almost like a glue itself.

The textured surface combined with the ribbon or tie, can create a compelling, intriguing, and in some instances, incredibly satisfying object to gaze upon, to touch, to hold, and to use. Here the brown gauze ribbon and found object sewn to the front cover complete the piece.

The ribbon is slipped under the signature stitches, and one of a line of stitches keeping the strip of cloth (in this case brown felt) to which the signatures are sewn, in place.

The polka-dotted ribbon adds an element of pattern and lightness and creates a striped effect when laid down next to the brown felt.

Oranges and browns are set off by the brilliant, saturated colors of the pages.

  The ribbon add sensuality and languidness, and has a life of its own. Depending on how it lays, the completed book can look demure, like an attentive, obedient student,

  or, even like a Buddha.

 We have to turn each page…in turn…if we don’t want to miss the in-between. Which might be the most interesting part of the story…

T.B.C.

That Ribbon of…1

That Ribbon of…1

It is fascinating to explore ways of integrating ribbon and tying mechanisms into book structures. An integrated tie mechanism encourages the user to engage with the object…opening and closing, tying and untying.

In an ongoing process of attempting to meld bookmaking, decorative painting, conceptual, and “fine” art into the mysterious form known as the “artist’s book“, I am exploring the use of tissue paper and the like combined with adhesives to create a tactile, textured surface, and incorporating the ribbon or tie as an integral part of the piece.

The textured surface combined with the ribbon or tie, can create a compelling, intriguing, and , incredibly satisfying object to gaze upon, to touch, to hold, and to use.

Here simple cardboard is covered with crinkled tissue once used to separate sheets of metallic leaf.

This tissue, for lack of a better term, is thin, fine, ultra flexible, crushable, porous, adherable and absorbent. Perfect for texturing, which, when combined with adhesive, becomes almost like a glue itself.

Here, one ribbon defines the spine of the structure, while another is embedded between layers of tissue and glue, with tieable ends emerging.

Here gold cord is sandwiched between layers of adhesive-saturated tissue, connecting the two covers and creating a built-in tying mechanism.

The thin tissue takes on the shape of the cord underneath it, creating a sculptural relief  or raised effect.

A similar technique was used for this piece, with the ribbon is adhered to the surface, creating a strong graphic element.

Ends are left loose to tie the book closed.

What will go inside?

One step at a time.  We have to turn each page…in turn…if we don’t want to miss the in-between.

Which might be the most interesting part of the story…

T.B.C.