Boustrophedon. It's a Greek word that describes the movement of an ox plowing a field: plow one row, turn, plow a row back, turn, plow another row...
This book structure is sometimes called a boustrophedon; it is folded in rows, back and forth. It's a bit hard to explain, but there's a good article here, in an online facsimile of one of my favorite books about making books: Unique Handmade Books, by Alisa Golden. I whole-heartedly recommend all of her books, and her website.
So this is a small "ox plow" book, with attached covers. You can probably see in the picture that there are places where the folds go a little wonky. That's where the ox turns and heads back where she came from. (Or are oxen all male? I don't know.) Those wonky folds can be glued together at some of their edges to create pockets to hide things in: secret messages and such. I think this will make a good birthday card for someone special -- filled with little things he/she likes.
That's it for today. Tomorrow I will be very late posting, maybe not until Sunday. We're having our last Christmas with people out of town, and it'll be a long day and evening. See you.
4 comments:
Well......I'm sitting here waiting.
This book is just so wonderful...I am really hopeless at following diagrams and instructions and I have tried to do something similar, but just don't have the knack.
I also really enjoyed the explanation of the origins of the name.
Looks like it depends on the type of ox and/or how you use the word.
Go to http://www.muskoxfarm.org/ to see musk ox...and omg, the cutest pics.
Dictionary.com says: noun
1. an adult castrated bull of the genus Bos; especially Bos taurus
2. any of various wild bovines especially of the genera Bos or closely related Bibos
Boss Taurus! That cracks me up.
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