Peter Blake Alphabets. Finished.

Peter Blake Alphabets.

Starting with the back board and after collecting many, many letters.

Colour is the key.

Once the back board was taking shape I could start on the front board. All lino cuts have been hand coloured.

I feel that it can be important to link the various elements of the book design, that the front works with the back, the back with the spine etc.

Blake is known for his liking of Elvis Presley (The King) Hence the gold E.

Covered in 23½ C gold and distressed.

A hand dyed Scrabble board for the double hollow.

Now the hunt for the Y.

SIMON BRETT An Engraver/s Progress. Binding finished.

I really, really like this.

Rubbish books.

For the last few weeks I have been working with rubbish. I do not mean the content of some books that cross my bench, more the concept of making standard books from recycled materials.

Living and working in London has many benefits if one is looking for rubbish. The streets are no longer paved with gold. Pizza boxes and delivery boxes from a well river in South America, crunch underfoot like beige snow.

I am as much of a fan of recycling as the next person. We sort out the plastic from the paper, the metal from the glass, wait for the dilly cart to take it away to be pulped, mashed, sorted and made into new plastics, new bottles, new cans and new paper. All good stuff.

However, it is in my nature to think, to ask why?

Why pulp corrugated packing boxes?

Having immersed the side of a packing box in a vat of water for 15 minutes I was able to de-laminate the corrugations leaving, me with a number of sheets of paper. Simple stuff. No mashing, no pulping etc.

While the new sheets were drying sections were folded and pressed. 

Sections sewn.

After the end papers were tipped on rounding and backing.

After secondary sewing, spine linings, bonnet (both with paper from the de-laminated corrugated board) and a bit of this and that we end up with......

Welcome to my Rubbish Books. I love the graphics and they appear to be very popular with my friends.

SIMON BRETT An Engraver's Progress. Barbarian Press MMXII

Waiting for the doublers to dry on the Alphabet book.

Sanding down the doublers for Blake's Alphabet.

Endpapers for Peter Blake's Alphabet book.

Lino cut with hand coloured paper. The back end paper is slightly different, being the other half, or there a-bouts of the alphabet. The Leather has gone onto the spine and is drying. After ages I have managed to come up with a design that will be fun (I hope)

Up - date on things in the studio soon.

New book on the block.

My next binding will be for the truly magnificent...  PETER BLAKE ALPHABETS.
Limited edition of 600, signed by Peter Blake and Mel Gooding.

To say that I am a fan of Peter Blake would be a true understatement.

I am going to enjoy every moment.

The final result.

Man Booker, We need New Names. Final stages.

Binding details.

A double board Bradel Binding with a double hollow. All leather hand dyed with the back board covered in a delaminated pizza box. Sewn silk end bands with full edge decoration. Hand printed end papers with a coat hanger and lino cut.

Design concept.

The novel  concentrates on the life of Darling, a young girl living in a shanty town, Darling and her friends create new worlds from the detritus around them. Witnessing the often violent struggle of survival in Zimbabwe, families destroyed by AIDS and corruption in all levels of society, she lives with the dream of escaping to another place. When her dream is realised, culminating in her arrival and life in North America, Darling realises that the dream is not all she had hoped for.

A African mask to the spine of the book is a stylised representation of a screaming mask that Darling and her friends find in the ransacked home of a white African. The front board with its draught board like squares, tears and arrow indicate the struggle of everyday living in Darling's life. The Pop Art inspired back board with its' pizza box is intended to show the conspicuous consumption and waste in her new life.

Man Booker, We Need New Names. Spine is finished.

After the work on the text block I began to work on the binding. I have chosen to use the Bradel format as it offers great variations and is very flexible in what one can do with it. The spine will be a Double Hollow construction with the boards being a laminate of two.

With the edging leather applied and dyed the double hollow is fashioned. Having read the book some 4 times I kept coming back to the description of a mask in a trashed house, "In the sitting room, we stand before the large mask on the wall and stare at the black face, the eyes gouged out. It is a long thin face.....the mouth is open like it is letting out a howl"

Leather paring for the front board.

Hand colouring the front board, first stage.

Mann Booker, We Need New Names.

The text block has been rounded and backed and the first lining of Fraynot has been applied to the spine. The sewing multi coloured sewing to the spine is the secondary sewing that reinforces the attachment of the Fraynot to the text block. 

This done, the edge decoration and end banding followed.

Bookbinding workshop in Manila.

Back to Manila in October.

Bookbinding Workshop with Mark Cockram

Mark Cockram is an internationally exhibited contemporary bookbinder, book artist and installation artist based in London. He has ongoing long-term projects which include methods of working with design bindings, print techniques and ways in which the book can be viewed within the context of the exhibition and the public/private collection. All workshops participants will be taught to make two books using a variety of traditional techniques. Date: October 27, 2013 (Sunday) Time: 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm Place: The Forum, 4/L Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street Fee: P4,000 with the complete kit The bookbinding workshop is intended for beginners and introduces the fundamentals in the art and craft of hand book binding. Mark will demonstrate each step, explaining technical points and tips along the way. The participants will be making 2 books from individually prepared kits. Each kit will consist of everything needed to make a Single Section, hard bound book (approximately 12.5 cm x 10 cm) and a non adhesive Zigzag Book (approximately 12 cm x 7 cm) All the hand tools including Bone Folder (specialist paper folding tool), linen thread, quality papers and adhesives are included. Extra decorative papers and an instruction sheet will be included allowing the student to go on to produce more books. The decorative papers have been produced especially for the workshop by Mark Cockram ensuring that every participant will have their own unique books to take home. Inquiries and registration: events@fullybookedonline.com. Limited slots only! 

www.fullybookedonline.com/blog/events 

Man Booker, late sheets.

The sheets (text block folded but not cut or sewn) did not arrive until Friday afternoon, about 3 days late. During the time I Read the reading copy twice and started on the end papers. First some lino cuts.

Then the first pulls, which I thought were ok, getting the effect I wanted first time is a bit of a rare thing for me.

Next came a wire coat hanger, changing from a hanger to a noose.

Final prints for the end papers.

At last I could sew up the text block. The grain direction is all wrong, the paper is the same quality as in a paper back and the margins so narrow that there is no balance...  However, we press on.