The 4 Gospels, the boards, leather and collage. Progress.. perhaps.

The 4 Gospels, the boards, leather and collage. St Matthew.

Progress on the first set of boards ( St Matthew) the initial guide lines have been worked out and the collage has begun to take shape over both boards. The theme is the birth of Christ, pretty obvious with the Madonna and Child. We begin to see the three wise men from the east.


Detail of one of the wise men. There is still more to do but things are taking shape, fun.

The 4 Gospels, the boards, leather and collage.

The boards have been covered in fair goat skin with the key lines for the design being worked on to all 8 boards.


Using a variety of techniques the design begins to take shape.


Detail of the front board of Matthew.


Detail of the hand traversing both front and back boards.

The 4 Gospels, leather jointed end papers and doublers, first design of the 4 done.

Now that the turn-ins have been done the first design is complete. The text carries on from the first doubler to the last and reads as follows... IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD AND THE WORD WAS GOD
All the words are imperfect apart from the last GOD as nothing is perfect but God!


With a normal book the doubler is usually applied towards the end of the binding and finishing. In this case the doublers are in place half way through.... the phase is to attach a second set of boards.


This second set of boards will support a third set of boards, sounds complicated? Yes I think it will be.

The 4 Gospels, leather jointed end papers and doublers.

Leather jointed end papers and full wrap round doublers. The leather joints have been inserted and the boards in-filled to create a smooth finish (no lumps or bumps) The doublers have been cut to size, allowing for a healthy turn-in at the head, tail and fore edge and the spine edge has been edge pared. Using a small paint roller with a short pile roller the adhesive, a 50/50 mix of paste and PVA was then applied to the back of the doubler.
I prefer to use a roller for this sort of job as there are no hairs and one can work quickly giving you more time to position the work.


Pitching the doubler in place. Patience and a keen eye. As the doublers and the endpapers had been printed and there is only one of each, this was not the time to make a cock-up!


Once in the correct position the whole surface was rubbed over with a Teflon folder to ensure that all air bubbles and wrinkles were eliminated. Then tins in and pressed. The turn-ins will be done later when the doublers are dry.

Buried Book.

The 4 Gospels, leather dyeing, leather on the spines.

The leather (fair goat) is cut to size and pared down to 0.5 mm with the turn ins to 0.4-0.3 mm.
The dye stuff is then applied, in this case a spirit dye. The paring is done first as it can stiffen the leather.


The spirit dye is allowed to dry (evaporate) for 24hrs.


The leather on the spines of the $ Gospels. I used a mixture of PVA and paste (50 % of each)


Spine detail.

Wax Tablet Diptych.

Q and A The 4 Gospels.

Hi Paul,

I hope these answers to your comment about the 4 gospels may be of interest to you....

The end papers were printed some time ago, standard leather jointed etc. The end paper design is derived from the text. There will be direct links to the outside of the book and the endpapers.
I hope that each book will stand on its own... as a single design binding and within the group of 4. It will not be easy but life would be boring if I did the easy all the time.

The construction is the key to the whole project (as you have pointed out) I hope that the construction will be flexible enough to cope with the various differences in the board thickness from one book to the next, from one board to the other.

One of the problems of doing a design binding is the fact that it is seen from a distance and close up, when one is reading the book you are very close. I feel the design must be not just the image the creation of a 'Texture' for the eye but also it can have a physical texture.

The nature of the book is complex, in a recent lecture I said that the book is an amalgamation of so many different materials, rationalisations, methods of production, history etc etc..... I just seem to be doing most of it on the 4 Gospels!

Mark

Meditations Interrupted 3

Two better images of Meditations Interrupted 3. Ta C.

A busy time time, on Thursday a talk at the Art Workers Guild and today (Saturday) a talk at the Chelsea Arts Club. I hope to be able to take this book assemblage with me.

News of the 4 Gospels will be posted soon. I am excited with how the 4 Gospels is progressing.....

Meditations Interrupted 3

The final work in this series. I hope it will be on exhibition in April at the Flow Gallery in London..........

Brilliant Creatures.

As part of the Brilliant Creatures exhibition at the Chapel Row Gallery (Bath) Some recent work will be on exhibition.

www.chapelrowgallery.com

The Eaten, Buried Books....

The Four Gospels. Collage and paint.

A little rough and the collage images not right but like the way this is developing.
Perhaps a combination of the previous ideas and this.... only one way to find out.... Do it.

The Four Gospels. Working 4 ways.

One of the design ideals is that the Four Gospels has a design that works in 4 ways. First is that the design works in a pictorial form with the four becoming one. Perhaps fragments of individual faces forming one coherent image.



Second is the four to work in the round.


Third is that the four work in a panorama.
Finally, that the end papers work in the linear (more on this later)



The design is fluid at the moment but am very much thinking about collage and using paint. The texture and colour....... we will see what develops.

The Four Gospels. Boards on and designing.

Both boards are on the maquette and the book structure looks as if it is going to work. Now comes the design process. With this sort of work I tend to work directly on the boards. First I pencil in the lines, notes on colour and the like.



Then I paint the black lines in. I have chosen to use a quick dry, cold enamel paint. I like the way the line works, the tension of the thick and thin. I some ways I am beginning to treat this book in much the same way as Icons. The more I work this way the more my interest is heightened in mixing media.


Next is the white ares. This is in acrylic with these areas being made ready for the collage work. The way the brush leaves small lines catches the eye, this exercise is fun.



Finally, for the time being that is, the red is applied. Again acrylic and again with a brush. I am hoping to create a stained glass effect. The image will be of a stylised arch with biblical middle and back grounds glimpsed through the arch (back board) with a winged man (sign of St Mark) with an Icon like image of part of St Mark's face. I am quite excited,

The Four Gospels. Design and materials.... head work.

I have spent the last week looking at folded pieces of paper. Working out the design for the Big 4 (The Four Gospels)

There is so much to go for, the lives of the saints, the colours and various clues in Icons. The materials of the time... now and in the past.



It is my intention that the Big 4 works in four design parameters, one has been sorted out with the end papers and doublers. The other three will be visible when the books are displayed. Some serious head work !



During the research I have looked at treasure bindings, books of hours, Icons, statues... the list goes on. The more I think, the more I am leaning towards a combination of past and now. Leather and mixed media. One thing I am sure of is that no two boards will be the same, even to the point were the two boards on the same binding will be of different sizes. This will create a silhouette that is not regular, breaking the square or rectangular format of the book.

Next is to put into practise on the maquette the various techniques I hope to use.

The Four Gospels. Overlapping boards to the spine.

With the leather on the spine, leather joint in place and the doubler wrapped around the inner boards it was time to work on the outer boards. The aim is to have the boards meet in the middle of the spine. This will provide a large flat surface for the art work and stuff.



View of the book laying down with one of the outer boards in place. The work looks a bit rough because this is the maquette, all the practice and working out is down on this before I go on to the real books.


View of the board (blue leather) overlapping the spine (green leather) Don't worry this is not the finished colour scheme.

The Four Gospels. Board lamination and beveling.

With any new technique or variations of method I work everything out on a maquette (a practise book) The boards are a series of laminated water colour paper and manila. As this is a going to be a double board binding I have beveled the inner squre to reduce the bulk and give a more delicate edge to the finished book.



By chance the resulting edge looks cool, the various layers of the water colour paper and manila offer an unusual decorative element , this will be covered with the doubler but is well worth remembering for future projects.



How the edges look with the book standing.