Thursday 15 January 2009

Boxes, photo albums and tea breaks.

The box making continued at a pace. I had made a small press from a car jack and some wood in the studio. It worked! the wood made it light enough to put in my case and did not send the security people at the air ports in to a state of panic. Pressing blocks were made so that the boxes could be pressed.

The fine looking man on the left is David Penton. David is a good friend and studio 5 member. He is also the person who after 2 or 3 glasses (it may have been more) of wine induced me to go to Anandwan ( I would have gone anyway I just wanted the wine, please do not tell him that though!) He is also the guy who has taken many, if not all of the images for this and our previous trip to Anandwan.




As the box project neared completion the students were able to realise that they could make boxes, and with a little more practice, good boxes at that. The aim was to use what we had on site, to make the boxes for a purpose... not just an empty exercise. It is intended that the boxes will be used to protect and display the units greetings cards. With further development who knows what else they will find to box... books... linens who knows.



The next project was to make simple photo albums. The construction was a basic self guarding ( self compensating ) fold and glue method.



If you remember the previous blog where we made book cloth? well here it was used to make the case for one of the styles of photo album. I think it looks good and it was top to to be able to see the students work coming together in this way... again no empty exercise but projects with results.



We also worked on 1/4 leather albums as we thought it a good practise and important for the students to be able to work with different materials, to be able to extend the product range.



Tea break. Enough said I think.



The next blog will dwell on the finishing of the leather bound albums, tooling with gold foil. Great fun in a hot climate.



Just one more image. As Anandwan is well known we were at times besieged with visitors. Imagine learning with hundreds of eyes following your every move, it is bad enough having me as the teacher.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since I made my New Year's resolution to give up pocket protectors, I've already lost a shirt to a large ink stain on the chest pocket. Following your directions from the last blog, I cut out a section of the shirt and backed it with Japanese paper. I used it for covering a single section pamphlet and it worked great! It had a tendency to unravel a bit at the edge, but a little PVA took care of that. Thanks for the lesson.

Paul

Anonymous said...

I am happy that it worked for you. Does tis mean that your book has a pocket ?

Anonymous said...

I am happy that it worked for you. Does tis mean that your book has a pocket ?

Anonymous said...

No, but as I recall, you once made a book with a zipper on it!

It turned out interesting because my shirt was striped, which meant that when I brushed water on to force it flat, the lines started to get wavy because I didn't think about brushing straight with the lines. Probably I just should have used the spray bottle instead, then patted it down with the brush.

The more bookbinding I do, the more it seems to be a process of discovery. There is very little pure "activity" to it at my stage of development. Every time I do something I seem to learn more, even with the things I consider to be basic. At what point does this stop and I can simply do something the way I imagine it?

Paul

Anonymous said...

Paul.

There is always something to learn, I am always amazed how little I know.

I find it best to concentrate on one technique, become comfortable with it. Then you have more control.

The three Ps Practice Patience Perfection.

Good luck.

Anonymous said...

Ooooh, avocado smoothies! I can't get them here. I'm still not sold on durian though. :P


Wu Yi

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the nice stuff. It is just pure amazing.


Wu Yi