Chapter 2

Free Standing Books

I like books of any description and enjoyed looking on the internet at what other people do.  I chose the following three books for their distinctive ideas.  Please excuse the colour and my yellow is empty but there is plenty in the blue and red so I am loath to change it yet.

Top left is a triple layer book with cut out pages to look like a building with rooms inside.  The bottom left is a circular book with pockets for pictures and objects.  The book on the right is a double layer with pages torn to interpret the writing on the front and back pages.  This is quite a simple book but very effective.

I started my own samples by doing some Origami Books.  These are pieces of paper folded and cut in certain ways and then refolded in a concertina to make little books.  I used some soft paper that had been in a shoe box and I did some rubbing from some old leaf templates that I had.  The first rubbing was using Inktense sticks which has produced an interesting paper but is very messy and rubs off every time you touch it.  The other two I used oil pastels which were much cleaner but not as interesting.

This is the Inktense model.

These two are the oil pastels.  The bottom one got unfolded and I am not sure, looking at this photo, that I have refolded it right.

I then had a go at the flag book.  I followed the instructions in the course notes as I had never done this one before.  I used some plain card which I covered with papers and pictures. The flags are made from scraps of painted and printed papers from my stash.

I then made a book similar to one I had seen in Shereen LaPlantz book Cover to Cover,  This is constructed from card magazine covers and a printed page from a magazine.  I folded the card into similar sized strips as the one above then cut a rectangle from the middle of each page.  I then cut a strip of paper the same width as the card book and the same height as the opening and folded it in the same way.  I then threaded this strip through the holes and glued the ends to the back of the book.

This is the reverse side of the book and shows the paper folded through the holes and glued at the back.  I was quite pleased that this one worked out  as well as it did.

This little book used up the leftovers from the other two.  I cut the orange strip down its folds to make three folded pieces which I then glued into the yellow folded card down the folds.  They would probably be better stitched if I wanted to use this technique.  I have staggered the positions of the cards to make it more interesting.

For this one I have used some old yellow and pink card  that I had.  I have folde the A4 card into two and machined down the fold leaving a small channel.  I have then cut into the channel at regular intervals then threaded a barbecue stick through them alternating between two cards.  I have done this before with fabric and find that more forgiving if you haven't cut your channels quite evenly. If you carry on adding pages you can make a full circle which makes an interesting book.  The sticks can be trimmed or painted and decorated.

You can go on forever making books.  I love doing it but then end up with piles of them that I am not sure what to do with.  One thing I do need to be aware of - I am not very good at accuracy.  That is why I don't do patchwork.  I need to keep my book fairly simple but with impact.  I will only get into a mess if I try to do complex cutting!

Module 6 Chapter 1

Choosing a theme.

I looked at some of the suggested artists and how they interpret landscapes.  I find Stanley Spencer's work full of detail.  You can look for hours and still find things you missed earlier.

I had two postcards of Hockney's work.  The tall trees is an inkjet printed computer drawing and photo collage which I think is brilliant.  The small postcard of trees is a watercolour and the stitched piece above it is one I did from the postcard for an exhibition.  I chose the other three pieces from the internet as they are the opposite of the Spencer paintings.  To me they are calm depictions of a country lane of which there are many near me.

Choosing my theme was quite difficult and I am still not sure if I have made the right choice.  I went over lots of places I have visited and loved such as Venice, Peru and New York but discarded them because even though I have the photographs, I wouldn't be able to revisit them to check on a detail.  Also, the photographs don't always create the atmosphere that you remember.  So I reduced my choices to two - Scarborough and Forge Valley.   Scarborough is set around two bays that are very different to each other.  The north bay is quiet with Victorian hotels and beach huts and a long sandy beach with rock pools.  The south bay is all amusement arcades, fun fairs, ice cream and fish and chips.  Forge Valley is a deep ravine forged by melt water at the end of the ice age.  It has a road running through it alongside a river and is full of trees and vegetation. I set out my arguments in my sketchbook.

The Scarborough side has such a lot in it.  I would have to choose one of the bays I think and then whittle it down to just a few topics.  Forge Valley could be blended together, it wouldn't matter if things were in the wrong place or even in the wrong season.  Another advantage is that it is only a few minutes walk from my door so I could easily go and check if I had got something right or if the season had changed anything.  So Forge Valley it is.

I have several books as well as some by Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn to help me with this project.

Having decided what I am going to do, I took my camera down into the valley on bank holiday monday when the weather was glorious.

Masses of wild garlic around.

It really is a beautiful place and it is such a shame that you can't photograph birdsong.  A bit further on from where I walked there are bird tables out and you can park there and watch the birds come to feed.  I used to take my daughter there when she was little.  I have found lots of lichens in the woods here and have done some pieces of work for our next exhibition based on them.  In the autumn the ground is just a mass of red and bronze leaves and in the winter it gets very cold down there and snow can last for quite a while.  I sneaked a crayon into my pocket and a couple of pieces of paper and did some of tree rubbings. 

I think these might come in useful. I also have a collection of leaves that I collected last autumn, I need to go and find them.

I don't usually do a lot with flora and fauna but having just worked on lichens, I have got a bit more of an interest in it so I think this topic will be good for me.  The Scarborough one would have been a challenge as I think perspective would have come into it a bit more and that is something I am not very good at. Maybe I will do that when I have got more confidence.