Rubbish Books, the film.

The Studio 5 Gift Card.

It is the time of year when one wonders what to get the bookbinder/bookartist in their life for Christmas or come to that, a gift at any time of year. How about the Studio 5 Gift Card? For a lesson, class or master class at Studio 5.

New Master Class

An Advertiser's Alphabet.... finished.

From the very beginning I wanted this series of three bindings to have a flow, to belong but for each to be individual.

Booklyn... work in progress and the finished book.

Work on the boards for the Booklyn Project continues. Though the process looks to be hit and miss, and to be frank there is an element of happen-chance, I do work the surface.

Purposely  adding and taking away. Exposing, altering and covering selected areas.

The finished boards attached. From the start I wanted this book to have an urban and gritty feel, to have the quality of a wall covered in posters and stuff, part text and image.

 The box was fun..... who says that the titling has to be in gold? on the spine?

Booklyn.. The outer Boards.

The ideal I am looking for is an Urban Grittiness. It is very rare that one technique that I am working with will follow on to another project but the work I have done with An Advertiser's Alphabet.. the poster work.. works so well that it is a logical answer.

The process starts with the laying out of image and text derived from various sauces. These are then painted over and more layers added.. Just as in real life, the surface undulates with the various layers.

Next is the waiting, waiting, waiting. Waiting for all to dry, to add the final top layer and then to start to rip or tear the surface and layers away. There is a degree of control about this but  one is at the whim of the natural, the spontaneous and happen chance. Much of the layers will never be seen but I know that those hidden layers exist.

Finally the outer boards for Booklyn are complete (perhaps) Now I can work on the inner boards.. The clock is ticking and I cannot make mistakes......

Something for Booklyn.

 Something for Booklyn. http://booklyn.org/
One of only 10 variants of an artists book. All the contents have been donated and monies raised from the sale of the books goes towards supporting the work of book artists.
The text block is a mixture of low and high relief works on paper, canvas, packing boxes etc, all different sizes and so on.
The overall impression I get is Urban Gritty. My response will be likewise.
First things first... sewing...

First things first... sewing...

An Advertiser's Alphabet.

The poster material has been applied to the spines and the front boards of the books. Each one of the bindings follows a rhythm yet has an individual nature. The way the text and imagery comes together on the boards has gone well over my expectations. The layers, texture and compositions is coming on. Now for the back boards.........

Bookbinding Equipment For Sale

A friend of mine is selling his bookbinding equipment. He has many, many wonderful things. Board chopper, presses, brass type... the lot.. everything. For those interested please get in touch with me and i will pass on his phone number. London based.

STUDIO 5 BOOKARTS SUMMER WORKSHOP

 

STUDIO 5 SUMMER WORKSHOP

EXPLORING CREATIVE DECORATIVE TECHNIQUES

ONE DAY WORKSHOP 29^TH AND 30^TH AUGUST

Limited to 5 places per workshop. All materials and bad coffee included in the fee.

Topics include: New Cold Gold Techniques, Craquele, Mud and Combination Methods. Plus if there is time, more!

For further information, fees, times etc or to book a place please contact Mark at Studio 5

Studio5bookarts@aol.oc.uk

An Advertiser's Alphabet.

 Now that the main body of the binding structure has been completed I can begin to create elements of the art work. The working base for this is a sheet of conservation board which I have sized with a PVA Yamato Nori mix.

 Next to layer small sheets of a mould made paper, overlapping as I work

 This helps to create a texture.

 And when painted the texture becomes visible. The ironic thing is that all of this may never be seen again. I need this for the next stages...

 Layering up adverts and the like, layer upon layer. Coats of paint and more layers.

 On and on until I decide to start to tear away the surface.

The aim is to create a wall covered in posters, adverts and the like. Only small elements will be used in the final binding.