Book Arts Mania: Work in Progress

 "Not every act of art creates something special, but it creates something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result." Michael L. Goodman

I have been working for the last few weeks, when I have a moment or two, on a concertina fold book. The folding is easy; it is facing the blank page that is difficult. The pages are 5 1/2'' by 6'', and there are seven almost square, empty pages staring at me.

For some reason, I love using an abundance of circles in my drawings, doodles, and designs. Maybe it is as the circle painter, Wassily Kandinsky said, "The circle is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric and the eccentric in a single form and equilibrium. Of the three primary forms, it points most clearly to the fourth dimension." So, of course, circles will dominate each square page in the finished book. Here are the first three finished circles:

"The whole universe is based on rhythms. Everything happens in circles, in spirals." John Hartford.

Book Arts Mania: "Australian Reverse Piano Hinge"

"Not every act of art creates something special, but it creates something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result." Michael L. Goodman

Last week I was browsing some Pinterest bloggers and rediscovered Alisa Golden's Making Handmade Books blog. I have two of her books, Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures and Forms and Expressive Handmade Books in my studio library.

This particular blog post from way back in 2019 was on a linked hinge binding that she created from a structure she had dreamed about. I never dream of book structures, but maybe a new envelope design though. I like how the spine looks like a piano hinge binding, but it does not have any rods, sticks, or other apparatus holding the pages together. I thought I would give this modified piano hinge structure a try.

However, on the blog sidebar was a link to one of her posts from 2012 where she showed a binding from Australia called Flat-Style Australian Reverse Piano Hinge. The spine of this binding is also pleasing to my eye, and that is the binding I decided to tackle first.

I made three books with this binding. I used some signatures that I had folded long ago for books I did not get around to binding. These premade signatures came in handy. Two of the books are 4 1/2 inches by 5 3/4 inches. The third book is 6 1/4 inches by 9 1/4 inches.

I like the look of the spines very much. I modified the binding of the book on the left. The binding is created with an accordion-folded strip of paper. The instructions for this binding are in the link above.

This photo shows the reversed [inside the book] piano hinge created by the mountain fold. The "lock" of the hinge is a strip of paper the width of the mountain fold and a bit longer than the width of the paper strip. Because of the hinge, the binding edge of the book is thicker than the fore-edge. This allows for ephemera or small art pieces like ATCs to be attached to these pages without the fore-edge being thicker than the spine. 

This shows the space between the signatures. I like how the pages lie flat when the book is open as with a Coptic stitch.

The third book was constructed of thick, stained papers I made at least ten years ago and never had the motivation to sew together with a Coptic stitch. Now I have used them.

Enveloping the Word: 2023 Christmas Cards

"Not every act of art creates something special, but it creates something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result." Michael L. Goodman 

It has been a long time since I have posted anything on this blog. I will attempt again to keep something going. I have decided to concentrate on decorated envelopes [Enveloping the Word], ATCs/postcards [Big Art-Little Spaces], and handmade books/art journals [Book Art Mania]. I am going to refrain from commenting on criminal political antics, disgusting current events, and the mindless morass of social media in the third decade of the 21st Century. I shall leave any observations I may have on those disasters for other venues, and here concern myself with acts of art.

So, for this first post of 2024, I want to present the decorated envelopes I made for my 2023 Christmas cards. I wanted to have a stylized wreath surrounding the address. After several experiments, I settled on the following pattern. I first drew a circle on the envelope followed by two interlacing, serpentine lines to represent foliage.

I added a few circles for decoration.

I used Tombow ABT Water-Based pens to color the wreath. The greens are numbers 173 and 245. These are two of my favorite greens that I often use together. The gold is number 993, and the red is 845.

I sent out 87 decorated Christmas cards in 2023. I posted photos of them on Mailart365 where I finished my fifth year making 365 envelopes a year.

Here are two of my experiments before I settled on the final wreath design above. I sent these experiments out as well because no envelope gets wasted.

Here are some cards from previous Christmases.

A Third Year of Mailart 365

I have now begun my third year of creating envelopes and postcards for Mailart365.com. I have completed the goal of 365 pieces of postal art during each of the last two years. Here are a couple of my first envelopes of this year of creation. One of the nice things about sending art to other mail artists is that you usually receive art in return. The art runs the gamut of styles and techniques created by professional and amateur artists. I keep the pieces I receive in a binder of Mylar pages along with Artist Trading Cards, and some I have framed for the walls. I am having a lot of fun, and I invite anyone reading this to check out the different online mail art associations and join in the fun.

IUOMA International Union of Mail-Artists   Mend Me Some Art   MailArt365.com

Time to Get Busy

It seems like it has been an eon and a half since I last posted on this blog, but it has only been thirteen months. I have decided to make an effort to write again. I used to write letters to family and friends every few weeks, but Facebook has sapped my writing time as I look at all the posts every day and occasionally respond. At least I am clicking the like button a lot so that my friends can see that I have seen their posts. I have also spent many hours each week over the last two years creating mail art on Mailart 365. Yes, that is 365 individual pieces of mail art (i.e., decorated envelopes and post cards) in 2016 and 2017.
Family history and genealogical research also takes up big chunks of my week. I am looking forward to RootsTech 2018. Last year was the first time I was able to attend the four day genealogy and technology conference in Salt Lake City, and I had a stupendous time. My wife Chris and I published a book of her father's missionary letters from the Norwegian Mission to his mother from 1936 to 1938. Chris transcribed all the letters, and my daughter Rebekah and I formatted and edited the book on the computer. I scanned and added photographs to the manuscript. Office Depot printed and bound the final book.
My hope for 2018 is to write letters again, write a few more memoir pieces (hard to do without the Writing Memoirs Workshop I took for four years while I was teaching), and post on this blog. We shall see what I can accomplish. I am going to do it whether anyone reads what I write or not.

This is the front cover of the book.

ATCs for Iryna B.

I made these three ATCs for a trade partner in Belarus, Iryna Barysava. I added a couple more that I had made previously and mailed them all in a decorated envelope. I am hoping they arrive in one piece.

The End of October

Well, it has been a long time since I blogged here. I have just ended my 69th year (Oct 22) and quietly slipped into my 70th year. I don't feel old, so I must not be. I retired in June and have been trying to figure out why I get less done now than when I was working. They (who ever they are) say that "work expands to meet the time allowed." It is nice to be able to work in the garden during the day and not late afternoon after work.
My wife and I went to Alaska in late August for a train and cruise vacation. It was our retirement celebration, and we had a stupendous time. We started in Fairbanks and ended in Victoria, Vancouver, Canada.
I have been blogging at Mailart 365 from January 1st until now, posting images of my mail art. The goal has been to create 365 pieces of mail art, envelopes and postcards, in 365 days. I did very well during the first half of the year, but I have fallen behind since August. I have only finished 230 pieces of mail art. I have 66 days left to complete 135 envelopes. That is only two or so a day, but I will be in Israel for twelve days starting the day after Thanksgiving. So that only leaves me 54 days.
I have also tried to do a few artist trading cards to send off to people who have sent me some, in decorated envelopes of course. Here are three of a set of four ATCs that I made this week. I titled the set: Music of the Spheres. (The 4th card was sent to a trader in New York before I scanned the set.)