Feathers Folder

I made this little file folder for a friend who produces beautiful bird art.  Some of these tiny feathers, collected over a number of years, have finally found their way into one of my projects.

Wallpaper lining, painted and printed with acrylics
(approx. 4.5" x 4") .....

.... with four internal pockets

A selection of tiny feathers encased in paper and cellophane  packets

One page fold book

Some months ago I made this little fold book out of an A3 sheet of cartridge paper.  Originally I had intended it to have a Christmassy theme, printed with holly and ivy leaves with berries, but it wasn't a success so ended up in my scraps folder.  Recently, at a loose end for ideas, I decided to glaze over it with completely different acrylic colours and added more printed patterns with white gesso.  With no plan in mind, I have picked it up in spare moments and randomly added more painted and printed scraps from my oddments stash.  (Finished size approx. 4" x 6 )

A couple of other artists using this style of folded booklet are Helen Wells and Sue Brown which you might find interesting.

More "Collage up your Journal" pages

 A couple more pages from my collage journal.

I liked the colour of this magazine image of a bowl and tied it in
with a background of some of my painted papers

A couple of sliced up/re-arranged lino prints on book pages

The Collage Journal continued

 

Book pages, printed tissue and old sketches

Another five pages to fill in this handmade sketchbook.

Another Collage Journal page

 

I tried using wallpaper paste as suggested by Lydia Rink - much easier to spread on thin/tissue papers than PVA, also allows a certain amount of re-positioning.  However, with several layers of collaged paper my pages became completely saturated and took an age to dry and flatten.  I now mix the paste with some PVA which provides a less watery consistency, but retaining the advantages of the wallpaper paste.

World Book Night 2021

I have submitted a small piece for the exhibition and exchange organised for World Book Night 2021, entitled The Herbarium.

The subject - a flower (related to a poem, book or text) - could be made with paper, fabric, collage, drawn, printed or photographic, but measure no more than 8 x 8 cm (just over 3" square).  I used a cut-down version of the paper cast which decorated my artist's book about our local Snakes Head Fritillary Nature Reserve.  Fortunately, I still had a piece of the painted paper used on the cover of that book; this was glued to mount board to provide a sturdy base, plus the required means of hanging.

More details about the original artist's book can be seen here and here (scroll down in my Book Binding page).

Sketchbook experiments

Another spread almost complete.  Again, repurposed earlier work, with figures vaguely based on the type of traditional design used for playing cards. 

For the background I used a purchased stencil, the Queen and the four symbols are lino prints, the King and the Knave are mono printed using oil-based ink (with some added pencil details).  As my attempts at mono printing the Jester did not come out well, I used my Sharpie drawing instead, with colour pencil.

Sketchbook challenge continued ...

Adding more to pages already started.

This spread utilises past sketches, scanned and enlarged to fit within the paint-scraped border.  On the right I have used a fine liner pen to reinforce the inkjet print.  Underneath the tracing paper insert on the left, I have collaged a piece of cover paper from my original handmade book to mimic the colour of the snakeshead fritillaries.

A saved Austrian Christmas card image has been added here and I have used pencil (and imagination) to extend the scene.

Inktober 11th - 14th

 Catching up on posting my Inktober sketches.

Inktober fold book

I am not quite sure where the last couple of weeks have disappeared to - I've certainly not been very productive with my art.

A mention online about Inktober has prompted me to make a one page fold book in which to make some small sketches.  I used an A3 sheet of drawing paper which I have painted with acrylic inks on both sides just to provide a loose background.  The sheet was folded and cut to provide 32 sides measuring 4" x 6" - let's hope I can keep the momentum going and fill the book by the end of the month.

Fold books with pockets

September's challenge for the group "Crafting Handmade Books" - a book with pockets.
These two were made some time ago, but I don't think I have posted them here before.  Both are made with my hand-printed and painted papers and I have used these structures in various guises for special cards.

4" x 6"

3½" x 4"

Hungarian Map Fold

I'm not sure how much this differs from the Turkish map fold, but for some time I've been meaning to design an image that would fit the structure.

I had intended to do a lino cut, but in the end opted to scan my drawing and and print it on the computer, that way I hoped there would be less chance of misalignment.

Printed on cream paper with added accents of gold gel pen,
attached to a brown card blank

For the second one, I left one quadrant blank for a handwritten message.
Embellished with coloured and gold gel pens.  

I also added a close fitting cover and band utilising
one of my hand-painted papers
Closed size 3" x 4.5"

Care Mail and handmade books

Our local council is asking for notes or cards which can be forwarded to care home residents to help cheer them up during this lengthy period of isolation.

As well as some of my printed cards, I am sending a couple of artists' booklets.

This one is a little wild - a while ago, I had the urge to completely fill an A3 sheet of black paper with my handmade floral foam stamps, then wasn't sure what to do with it.  Hopefully it will brighten someone's day.

Cover - 4" x 6"

Gesso, acrylic and metallic ink

The other was a prototype for my garden pop-up book (final version here) - this just needed some coloured pencil added to the pen illustrations to finish it off.

You can find my cutting guide for the booklet in this post.

3" x 5" folded from one sheet of A4 paper

Collaged concertina

Crafting Handmade Books Facebook Group - May's challenge - a book which incorporates collage.

Encouraged by the bold colours of my recent lino prints, I decided to use several of my collection of home made stamps and lino cuts printed onto black paper, then enhanced these with acrylic inks, coloured pencils and gel pens. These were then cut out and collaged onto the background sheet (135 gsm Frisk black paper). I had planned for a simple concertina structure, but some areas were now 3 layers of paper thick, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to fold it successfully.  My alternative plan was either a scroll or cutting it into four and remounting the sections on another background.  In the end I managed the folds with only a couple of areas to be re-glued where the collaged elements had lifted.  

Frisk black paper (135 gsm)
Closed size 4" x 4.5"

Glued spine instructions

Someone was asking me about the glued spine book I posted a few days ago.  Although it is quite a simple structure, it is not so easy to explain.  I have made a short video which I hope will help.  It is preferable to make up pairs of pages then go on to glue the pairs together to complete your book. Here I have used some scrapbooking paper.

With your first page make a fold on the lefthand edge (I have allowed 3/4" or 20 mm), turn it towards the back.    On the second page, using the same allowance, make your fold and turn to the front.  Tuck your second page into the fold of the first, only glueing the fold of page 2 to the body of page 1, i.e. leaving the 3/4" fold of page 1 free.

Once all your page pairs are completed, they can be joined by glueing the free flap of the first set to the front of the next pair, and so on.  All clear so far?

In the video below, I have used paper clips in place of glue.

Glued spine book

This one is from quite some time ago but I have posted it on the Crafting Handmade Books Facebook page in response to April's challenge - " to use something that's been in your craft closet for more than ONE YEAR!"

Certainly when I made this book most of the papers and sketches, etc. were at least that old.

A friend had made me a a small watercolour book with a glued spine, plus instructions on how to make it. I had quite a few strips of painted papers left over from a longstanding project and decided to use them to test out this construction. I also added some discarded lino and foam prints, tiny sketchbook doodles, pockets and papercasts. The finished book measures approx. 5” x 4”.

I have had to cut the video (below) by half a dozen pages
as the file was bigger than allowed on the blog

A little blue book

A Facebook group I subscribe to - Crafting Handmade Books - sets a monthly challenge.  For March the suggestion was a Blue Book.

I started this with a strip of paper approx. 16" x 3.5", but the final closed booklet is only 1.5" high. I used a strip of 100 gsm A3 computer paper, painted and printed with acrylic and gesso which makes it reasonably sturdy, but still easy to fold.

The Art of the Fold - November

I never did find out what happened to the October challenge so I missed that one, but I enjoyed trying out this triangular book (Section 19 of "The Art of the Fold" book).

For my version I used a previously painted and lino-printed sheet of copy paper, cut down to approx. 12" square.  The lino-print wasn't very successful so I overlaid and patterned it with iridescent pink paste paint.  As the back of the paper was painted gold, I reversed the top and bottom folds of the cover to provide a bit of contrast and added a band to hold it closed.

The finished book measures just over 2" x 4".

Birthday fold book

With a dear friend's birthday coming up, I had to make room for a bit of time in the studio for this fold book (my current favourite structure).

Handprinted using ink, acrylic and gesso on both sides of
an A4 sheet of printer paper (finished size approx. 4" x 5")

Mini collages

A couple of years ago I made a book of mini-collages using pages from some tiny sample pads sent to me by Hahnemuehle.  That book can be seen here.

Winding down after framing three paintings for my local art group's exhibition later this month, I wanted to play around with another set of small collages, using up some painted paper scraps, sketchbook scribblings and left over lino prints.  It was a conscious decision to start with a floral theme, but I hadn't particularly planned the pink colour scheme which seems to have taken over!

The pages are 3" x 4", cartridge/drawing paper I think, which I have primed with gesso on both sides to make them a bit sturdier.  Once I have enough pages I will probably make another little book to display them in.