Adventures in the Book Arts
A couple of days ago I got a call from a friend asking me if I had any books I could put in a show at Branigan Cultural Center, as they had a book show opening Friday and not enough entries. I grabbed what I had in the studio, and tonight had the pleasure of seeing my works and others on display.
Now, ideally they'd have actually used the titles I gave them instead of making them up, and they'd have done a better job of display on the stupa book, but it was still cool to see them displayed.
Today was a university holiday, though since they're sort of being subtle about it totally being for Good Friday, it's just called "Spring Holiday." This didn't affect us art types because there aren't art classes on Fridays anyway (seriously, a lot of us didn't know about it) but what did affect us was that the university, in its finite wisdom, decided to take advantage of the holiday and turn off all the power in the art building for a 24 hour period, due to some rewiring issues.
Bah.
Unable to get any screenprinting done without a power washer or exposure unit, I worked on the folio that's going to hold 24 of the prints.
So here's a quick sketch of my plan for the folio.
Obviously, there was a lot of measuring. And math. *shudder* Oh the Math.
Here are the pieces of bookboard cut out and temporarily assembled to check for fit.
This is the outer piece being covered with bookcloth.
Unfortunately, further testing revealed that the thickness of the fabric was enough to throw the measurements off.
So that unfinished part on the right that had been lovingly cut, glued, and sanded? Turns out that it no longer fit. The folio wasn't closing right.
After some consultation and panicking, decided to remake the inner part, this time shorter.
Covering the inner folio with bookcloth:
And here's the inner folio as it currently is, missing the inner red lining but otherwise done:
Those little bits of red in the corners are to make sure that no bookboard will show through if I don't cut the red lining perfectly.
As near as I can tell, the math and fit is currently working. The whole process has been somewhat nerve wracking because I don't have enough bookcloth to screw it up. Also, I'm bad at working in three dimensions, it's part of the reason I'm a 2D artist. Stupid depth. Totally overrated. So I'm working really really slowly and quadruple checking to make sure I'm doing everything right and in the right order (Order is really really important here). If it works out, it'll be a tribute to Stilton and my former book arts prof.
And just FYI, I have 6 more creatures that need text written and screenprinted and then they'll be totally done, and one more creature that is as yet not as far as a twinkling in my eye. The thesis has been looked over by my committee head and another member, and both tell me that aside from minor cosmetic changes it's fine, something I attribute to their indifference on the matter rather than my l33t writing skillz.
Now, ideally they'd have actually used the titles I gave them instead of making them up, and they'd have done a better job of display on the stupa book, but it was still cool to see them displayed.
Today was a university holiday, though since they're sort of being subtle about it totally being for Good Friday, it's just called "Spring Holiday." This didn't affect us art types because there aren't art classes on Fridays anyway (seriously, a lot of us didn't know about it) but what did affect us was that the university, in its finite wisdom, decided to take advantage of the holiday and turn off all the power in the art building for a 24 hour period, due to some rewiring issues.
Bah.
Unable to get any screenprinting done without a power washer or exposure unit, I worked on the folio that's going to hold 24 of the prints.
So here's a quick sketch of my plan for the folio.
Obviously, there was a lot of measuring. And math. *shudder* Oh the Math.
Here are the pieces of bookboard cut out and temporarily assembled to check for fit.
This is the outer piece being covered with bookcloth.
Unfortunately, further testing revealed that the thickness of the fabric was enough to throw the measurements off.
So that unfinished part on the right that had been lovingly cut, glued, and sanded? Turns out that it no longer fit. The folio wasn't closing right.
After some consultation and panicking, decided to remake the inner part, this time shorter.
Covering the inner folio with bookcloth:
And here's the inner folio as it currently is, missing the inner red lining but otherwise done:
Those little bits of red in the corners are to make sure that no bookboard will show through if I don't cut the red lining perfectly.
As near as I can tell, the math and fit is currently working. The whole process has been somewhat nerve wracking because I don't have enough bookcloth to screw it up. Also, I'm bad at working in three dimensions, it's part of the reason I'm a 2D artist. Stupid depth. Totally overrated. So I'm working really really slowly and quadruple checking to make sure I'm doing everything right and in the right order (Order is really really important here). If it works out, it'll be a tribute to Stilton and my former book arts prof.
And just FYI, I have 6 more creatures that need text written and screenprinted and then they'll be totally done, and one more creature that is as yet not as far as a twinkling in my eye. The thesis has been looked over by my committee head and another member, and both tell me that aside from minor cosmetic changes it's fine, something I attribute to their indifference on the matter rather than my l33t writing skillz.