Book #067 - Leftovers

This started out as a way to use the scraps from yesterday, and blossomed into something somewhat bigger. As it ended up, it's a 4-panel accordion with additional pages in the "valleys" on one side. (One side has two valleys and one peak, and the other side has two peaks and one valley; that's the nature of accordions.) So, the two-valley side has pages, and the one-valley side has a layered collage made of yesterday's leftovers. The layers are fastened at their outer edges only, and each is a little narrower than the one behind it, giving the illusion of depth. For now the covers are plain white, but I'll certainly do something about that.

Book #064 - Double-Accordion with Color

Double accordion...just what it sounds like: two accordions combined in one book. Slit them all from one horizontal edge straight to the center (no farther!) then turn half of them 180 degrees and slide the slits together. We've all done this at some time or other (usually around 4th grade) to make two flat pieces of paper stand up in a more or less 3-D fashion. The covers are flat panels at each end. So the whole thing really does seem accordion-like.

I ws going through old Dan Smith catalogs today, ripping out some stuff to save - product information and so on - and I just couldn't pass up the wonderful colorful pages of paint samples. So that's what the covers are covered with, and maybe I'll glue some more of them inside the book...make it a color palette sampler.

Yes, the top picture background is weird. Isn't Photoshop fun?

Book #062 - Pink

This is the kind of book that happens when you are sitting around in the studio visiting with friends. It's made from some of the nifty paint samples that have four different shades of a color separated by nicely perforated lines that fold very well. It's a concertina (accordion) of sorts, but the pages have been glued shut so they are more "page-like." Did I mention that the different colors are also different widths - thus the different sized pages. It needed a little something, and besides, the two cards had to be joined somehow, so I punched holes and wound telephone wire through them with a bunch of pink and pink-friendly beads and buttons.

Do you know how many things the word "pink" means? Neither did I. It is: a color, a flower, a pointy edge, a poke, a hunting jacket, a pair of pants, a boat, perfection, a town in Iowa, a Communist sympathizer, a fish, to pierce with tiny holes...and a few more that are obsolete words. I suppose that is what this book should be about someday. Or maybe about places and/or people named Pink.

Book #057 - Matchbox Doll

A little book in a matchbox, a matchbox covered with origami paper and with a little doll inside. I cannot tell a lie -- I didn't make the doll today, I already had it. I had made the book in the box and that reminded me that years ago I made little dolls in matchboxes for Valentine's Day; I scoured around and found a few.

There is a book/doll set...

OK. I went off to double check the title of the book/doll set that I had in mind. It used to be for sale through the Metropolitan Museum catalog, but that's not important. What's important is that I ended up at the official website of Dare Wright, the author and photographer who created The Lonely Doll. I was blown away by the story of her life, and you might be, too. Here.

So long until tomorrow.

Book #052 - Yellow Question With Music

The book (cover) is yellow. The book (pages) are music.


The question, which occurred to me as I was getting ready to cut the cover down to size, is: Is there any reason a book cover can't be larger than the pages? Are there any reasons why you might like a book cover to be larger than the pages?

I'm going to sleep on it.

Book #051 - Untitled

I can't seem to stop making dolls, even when I'm making books - or collages. So here's a book of collages of doll-like objects. I did it at the studio last night; it was Third Friday and there were some other folks there and a lot of cutting and pasting going on.

I do have fun with these particular paint samples. They're about 5x6 inches, a good size to work on. The color names add a special something. When there are 5 or so individual collages I fasten them to an accordion-folded spine and add covers. There's some extra spine at the top of these pages, so I may add another row of skinny collages (or text, maybe) there.

Book #047 - Tags and More Tags

Here's an assortment of little books made from shipping tags. From the top, going clockwise:

1. three tags taped together to make an accordion (or a screen?)
2. two tags with a paper spine glued on the short end, a small signature stapled in last
3. three tags tied together with one string - about as simple as it gets
4. the pages are stapled in the fold at the left, the other end of the tag makes a flap, and theres a button holding it shut through the hole
5. just like #2 but with the spine on a long side

center - tag folded in half, pages stapled in at left fold and the whole thing tied shut with the ends of the string

The strings can be used in a lot of ways: to hold the things shut, to attach embellishments or just to hang there and make it look tag-like.

Happy Presidents' Day.

Book #046 - Market Accordion

We were cleaning the basement today and I found this old poster of the Pike Place Market - not in the best shape, pretty wrinkled and somewhat faded. It wasn't worth keeping, but it seemed a shame to throw it away, partly because it was printed on some really nice, heavy watercolor-type paper. So, despite my intention to revisit the longstitch book again today, I decided instead to make a book out of the poster. You know what was the most fun thing about this book? It's bigger than usual. I'm starting to get tired of making 4.25 x 5.5 inch books, which is what you tend to come up with when you use standard size paper and card stock. The poster was a nice big 20 x 28 inches and I ended up with 7 x 10 inch pages - eight of them. (I cut the poster horizontally, folded each piece in fourths and then sewed the two pieces together.) It had a nice feel to it. The covers are cut from corrugated cardboard and painted a splotchy pale blue/gray/white - Seattle colors, you know. They're glued onto the two end panels. I like the way the stitching looks on the thick textured paper; I think when the day comes I'll add some more stitching to enhance - or maybe interrupt - the image. Or maybe I'll embroider the text. What text? Well, I'll think about it.

This might end up being a good gift for an ex-pat Seattleite.

Book #040 Kiss-A-Me

I never get tired of paint samples, especially the names. The best names are the ones that have nothing to do with color; the very very best thing is a whole strip of colors - with no name having anything to do with color. The samples here are all colors of love, romance, kissing, sighing...

The construction of the book is probably obvious: a heart-shaped accordion with glued on covers. The ovals are punched out of paint chips - names included. They are slipped into slits in the pages and then embellished with more color names and shapes. The edges of the pages are brushed with iridescent watercolor...it looks much more shimmery and subtle in person.

Book #037 - Red Envelopes for the New Year

I had some of these Red Envelopes left from the Lunar New Year. Happy Year of the Ox, by the way. They were the perfect size for a small book cover, and I thought I could just slip a piece of cardboard inside to stiffen things a little, and then glue them to the ends of an accordion-folded page block. As it turned out I decided instead to slit the back of the envelope and slip the end panel of the accordion inside the envelope. It stays nicely with no gluing - always a plus in my book. (Ooh, no pun intended , really.) The accordion is cut from a big sheet of watercolor paper that folded up just right to make 12 perfect size panels. So...you've probably guessed that it's going to be a book about the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. I already have some faux postage from New Years past...so that's a start.

The envelopes are not only very RED, but the paper has a velvety surface that is just a bugger to photograph - reflects light all over the place. And all that gold! Actually the gold turned out surprisingly well in this scan; metallics are normally impossible. Anyhow, it looks better in the blow-up so please click.

Gung hei fat choi!

Book #033: Heart-shaped Windows

Today's book is a small, windowed accordion. It's made of three strips of slightly different lengths, each folded in fourths; when they are put together the difference in length translates into three layers with a little bit of space between. I'll probably add something to the back layer to show through the heart shaped windows. On the reverse side, in the center fold, there is one signature of three sheets (12 pages). I think this will be a good place for a story or poem.

In case you're wondering, it's leaning up against an old pincushion. A Finnish friend, Leo, gave me his mother's sewing basket, including a pincushion full of threaded needles. So this book was sewn together with a needle threaded by Jenny Utter in - I don't know - a long time ago. Jenny would be well over 100 years old now. Little did she know.

Book #027

I'm getting Valentine Fever. We'll probably be seeing a lot of red and pink and flowers and maybe some not-so-flowery books over the next week or two. This one starts with a big square for the pages. (The 12" square sheets of paper that are 16 cents each at JoAnne's this week are great if you happen to have some on hand.) Fold it crosswise both directions, and diagonally both directions. Unfold it each time - you are trying for nice crisp and precise folds. Then open it up and smooth it out. Cut from one corner just to the center. Now, fold it back and forth on the creases you've already made, starting at one of the cut edges, like you would fold a fan . It's another version of the accordion fold. You'll end up with a triangular block of pages. Cut two covers (you can use your pages as a pattern, or measure) from something heavier than the pages, embellish as you please, and glue one to each end panel of your pages. This will make sense when you see it. You can leave it as is or glue some strips of paper across the spine to make a hinge. This makes your book a little stronger. (Glue only to the front and back covers, don't get glue into the folds or the book might not open properly.)

As you can see, you end up with six triangular pages (plus the inside covers) to embellish or fill as the spirit moves you, and they open up into a big inner area for...something else. Now, this is where you might want to throw away that idea of the paper from JoAnne's, because you can choose your page paper with an eye toward that inner area. How about a map? Or a page from an old book? Or some special wrapping paper, an old Grateful Dead poster (like you'd cut that up), a collage of your own, or a photocopy of...something. Collage up an 11 x 17 inch wonder and then make color copies. Yes, you'll only need 11 x 11, so fill the other six inches with something else. Then there are paper bags, wallpaper, sheet music, magazine pages or covers...what can't you use?

Book #024 A, B, and C

I almost didn't post these, I was so disappointed in the quality of the pictures. But I guess they at least show the construction of today's book(s). I started out playing around with the idea of making books out of old calendars, and I had three likable samples by the time I was done. At the top is a boustrophedon, cut along the grid lines - one page to a day. Next is a long accordion with a closed spine cover; I cut along the horizontal lines of the calendar and glued the weeks end to end to make one long strip of a month. Last is a French fold using a 2 x 4 cell (day) grid cut from a calendar page. Only the long accordion has all the days right side up, the other folds result in some topsy-turvey weeks. Don't we all have those from time to time.

What these books might be good for: Make a set of 12 little books and a box to put them in. Make them out of last year's calendar and use them as tiny diaries or souvenirs, or use next year's calendar and have a set of datebooks. Copy the appropriate calendar page and make invitations to a party - put the guest of honor's picture on the front. Make a vacation journal.

Book #020

OK, again with the accordion books.

Is it a bit of a stretch to call this a book? I'm not sure myself...maybe one benefit of making books for a year is that I will zero in on a definition of my own. For now, let it suffice that this structure is included in many books about books, and I like it. This is absolutely without a doubt my favorite design for a fancy one-off greeting card.

My original plan was to show the three big presidential memorials in Washington DC: Jefferson, Lincoln and Washington. And for text I would insert Elizabeth Alexander's poem from the inauguration. But the monuments turned out to be way too hard to cut out at this small scale (working in my lap in front of the TV anyway!) so I went for an easy little scene out of my head, with a tiny Washington Monument on the horizon - my nod to the festivities and the day on which this book was made.

I hope you can tell from the pictures how this goes together. Just fold the paper in eighths, cut three-fourths of the way lengthwise and fold up as shown. Working out the scene takes some experimentation - you might want to cut a plain rectangular window in the three front panels and then tape your house, trees or whatever back on to make a pattern. Then trace it onto a fresh sheet of paper and fold and cut.

If the folds on the flat half of the page (not the scene) look a little wonky, it's because I fiddled with them after the rest of the work was done. In this example I used a pretty heavy card stock, and the long, wrap-around cover couldn't handle the thickness of the folded up scene. So I re-creased the folds where they really needed to be. You can see how much adjustment was needed by the shortness of the final lap - the part that tucks under the tab in the second picture. It would have been smart to leave the folding of that side of the paper for last, and to have then wrapped and creased it as needed to neatly wrap around the insides.

Book #019

I have a supply of Seattle newspapers circa 1933; they come in handy for a million things, including the covers of Book 18. The covers are heavy card stock covered with paper and glued to the end panels of the accordion. Some people think accordion books aren't really books, maybe because they are so easy to make and a favorite project of grade school teachers. But actually it's a venerable old format - the next generation of books after scrolls. In essence they are scrolls that are folded instead of rolled, enabling a reader to open the book anywhere along its length without having to roll and unroll and reroll. I think that must have been a pretty radical development at the time.

Book #018

This is a tiny accordion book with wrapped covers. It's a traditional Japanese binding that uses no adhesives or sewing or anything but paper and some heavy card stock. Very nifty.

Unfortunately, it was the most difficult thing to photograph that I have ever encountered. Whether it was something about the book, the materials I used, the camera or the phases of the moon - I don't know. This was the only picture that turned out at all (out of about 20!) so I can't show you any more details than this. I'll make a bigger one sometime this year, maybe it will take a better picture. Meanwhile, the Library of Congress has some good directions, with illustrations, for making a book like this. Go take a look.

Book #013

I couldn't get to the studio today because my car battery is toast, so here's another whatever's-at-hand book. (Well, they are just about my favorite kind anyway.) It's a somewhat more successful version of Book #002: an accordion spine with pages attached to the fronts of the pleats, in this case some weird cut down envelopes that I had. The accordion folded spine is heavy off-white paper and the covers were cut from a soon-to-be recycled Priority Mail box. I like the printing on the inside surface of the box, and turned it outward for the cover. On the back, which you can't see here, the printing was arranged such that it says "prior" over and over. Maybe I should have made that the front, it might have suggested a good theme for the contents of the book. And incidentally, it took longer to photograph this book than it took to make it, truly.

Book #011

Hey, it isn't even 10PM and today's book is already done and posted! This accordion-fold book has pages with pockets for flat treasures: pictures, tags, gift cards, tickets, cool ephemera - use your imagination. I'll fill it with recipient-appropriate stuff sometime when I need a small gift or memento.

The pages are one piece of paper folded in fourths, then folded up from the bottom to make the pocket. The pocket tops were torn as shown, because I think angled pockets are more interesting and they reveal more of the cool stuff in them. The two end pockets were closed by scraps of paper glued over the loose outer edges. The orange paper was wrapped around the folded up pages and trimmed to fit. Finally the last page of the accordion was glued to the inside of the cover. The cover wraps around but doesn't hold itself shut - the accordion is too springy. Generally I want my books to stay shut without help, but I think that's past hoping for here. so it will need to be tied or buttoned or something. It won't be tied shut with gold ribbon, that was just handy. Of course all that plain paper is in need of some color or texture, maybe some sponge painting or printed patterns. Whatever it is will complement the contents of the pockets when the time comes. I'll let you know how it goes.

Book #006

Well, I had an interesting evening in the studio. Today being the first Tuesday of the month, I was prepared for drop in company, then about 6:30 the power went off. (It was windy in Seattle today.) I thought about going home but it was quiet and peaceful, and I had a good flashlight, so I decided to wait it out. I hung the flashlight on the coat tree next to the table and made this little book in the semi-dark. The lights came on after about an hour or so, and I was a little disappointed. I'd been having a good time.



The book is fashioned like a matchbook, but a little bigger, about 3" square. The cover is a piece of a collage that I received in a raw materials swap a few years ago. I don't remember anymore who sent it to me, but it worked out great -- so Thank You to whoever.(If you recognize it please let me know who you are!) It is sewn together at the bottom, where a matchbook would be stapled, and embellished with a pink glass button. The pages unfold to either side -- I think it would be a good place to print or write or collage a poem.

Book #002

Here's the second book of the year. It's a Braille abecedarium, with holes for the dots. It wasn't a great success, in fact, I chose not to use the covers I'd made for it...seemed like a waste. Still, I really like this particular structure - sometimes called a "flag" book. The pages are individual sheets attached to the folds of a long accordion spine. In this case the spine is over 50" long and one continuous strip of heavy paper. (If you've ever made a long accordion out of several glued-together pieces of paper you know how very cool continuous is!) I had salvaged it from a fashion photographer friend who gets the blue-grey paper for backdrops.

Anyhow, I had a bunch of reject 4x6 inch photos handy, and thought they'd make good pages. I punched the big holes and then got this wild idea to add a raised image to each page: "A is for Anchor" and so on. So I drew (hah!) them with hot glue. It's been a long time since I used hot glue and I had forgotten how awful it smells and how it gets runny and bubbly when it overheats. Things went alright up until about "H is for Hat" and then it was all downhill from there. Plus, I felt sick. Ugh!

The book did have its interesting and worthwhile aspects (besides just doing it on schedule). One was seeing how the holes lined up, or didn't, and what intriguing views there were through the pages...especially from the original photo side. It was a little hard to capture in pictures but I think you'll get the idea from the images above. The other was the undulating snakiness of it. I've made these kinds of books before but never this long...it was sort of like playing with a Slinky.