ArtiphyTheHeart

Making A Statement

From time to time throughout history, a discussion about the function of art resurfaces.  I personally believe that art is above function.  It needs nothing to justify its existence.  But there is no denying that art can be used in many ways and can have many functions.  Making a statement is one of the ways that art can be used functionally.

This is page five in my Swatches journal, a tiny handbound book made from pieces of discarded library books.  This page which I worked on top of had been part of a discarded children's encyclopedia. The entry was "plantation".  I had already cut out the red dress and the white flower, grabbed some pieces of shreded washi tape, and was painting out the background when the picture emerged of the plantation owner sitting on a bench smoking a pipe while a slave labored over a barrel.  I looked for a Lincoln stamp and found one.  Then it all came together fairly quickly.  

Sometimes when you least expect it, the pages themselves have a story to tell or a statement to make.  

The necklace and heart are dimensional resin stickers, and have been included as part of my plan to use at least one sticker per page in this book.

So Small

It's impossible to tell how tiny these pages are when you're viewing them online.  This one fits in the palm of my hand with room to spare.  The writing is miniscule.  The back of this page was fortified with lots of collage elements, which strengthened it sufficiently so that most of the background on this side could be used as-is.  It's often more of a challenge to do that than to start from scratch.  The aim is for a cohesive whole, not a page with things stuck on top of it.  

I'm sticking to my sticker on each page plan.  The puffy "hello!" works here.  

This is page 4 in my Swatches journal.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I bound the book using pages from discarded library books.  Every page had a rip or a tear or dirty marks and folds.  I love using parts of them as a base for collage.  Every once in a while, parts of what was once a really delightful page will be salvageable, and I love giving new life to the old page by incorporating it into a new one.

One Page At A Time, For Now

This is page two in my Swatches journal.  None of the pages in this tiny book are the same size or shape.  That means that parts of  both previous pages and next pages, peek through from behind the smaller pages.  This creates a puzzle for photographing them as individual pages because in the book, each page becomes part of the artwork of the greater whole.  While they are pages of journaled mixed-media collage in their own right, as a book, they are not separate from one another, but parts of many different pieces.

I decided to scan each page solo, without the surroundings you'd see if you were flipping through the book.  Maybe later when the book is complete or when lots of pages have been completed, I'll do a quick flip-through video and post it so you can see each page in its natural habitat.  But for now, one page at a time.  

Teeny-Tiny

The pages in my Swatches journal are really small.  None of them are the same size.  Each of them has a torn edge or two or three.  Not four because they're sewn into the book.

This is the first page.  It's roughly 3" X 4".  My goal is to keep it whimsical and use a sticker on every page.  Just because.  There are two puffy stickers on this page:  The chicken in the broken eggshell and the tulip.

The main image was part of an illustration that was on the parent page--the part underneath all the collage.  I doctored it a bit.  The scalloped edge was a small piece of trim from a wallpaper book.  Not wallpaper.  One of the photos in the wallpaper book.  When it comes to materials, anything that works is fair game.

I've made lots--LOTS--of these little books before, but this is the first one I've made with multiple signatures stitched into an honest to goodness book cover.  And as teeny-tiny as it is, it is still a bit bigger than some of my other "little" swatches books.  

The fun is just starting.  Click on Swatches and make some little books with us.

Teacup Journal

The virus from hell part two struck our house a couple of weeks ago.  Part one lasted an entire month, but part two is much more miserable.  I think I'm in the home stretch which means only that I have the energy to take a photo with my iPhone and sit upright long enough to upload it and write something about it.  Oh, and that I can see again--but not hear too well just yet.  Virus from hell doesn't describe it.  Hell incarnate is more accurate.

This is the journal that I was making in my last post.  See that post by clicking HERE.  I finished it the next morning, but by that time I was too sick to do anything more until today.  

I did poke the holes with my compass.  It created beautiful sewing stations, but it bent the compass beyond recognition.  First item of business when I'm well:  Get a new bookbinder's awl.

I picked up the beautiful coral waxed linen bookbinding thread a couple of weeks before for a mere 25¢ per yard.  I had no idea how I would use it at the time, but I knew I would, and I wasn't thinking about it when I began to prepare this book.  It was a marriage that just happened.  I'm good at facilitating serendipitous artistic matches.

I have no idea if the cover will stay as-is, or if I'll change it beyond recognition.  Probably something in between.  I like to do the covers last.  The inside pages are next.  

This journal was made for Swatches.  I modified the basic plan by adding an additional 2 signatures, but I wanted to keep it small.  I usually make these books really tiny, but decided on a size that would fully open into the palms of both hands.  Teacup size.

Little Books

The most fun I ever had in a book binding workshop was several years ago.  I had a really full schedule and could only participate in half of the workshop.  We made raggedy little pamphlets lavishly collaged over with lots of little snippits of this and that and many other things, too.  Books with a sense of humor and whimsy that didn't take themselves seriously.  Not even a little bit.  

"Little Swatches" was what Kelly Kilmer named them.  I left several hours early with a couple of gallon zip lock bags full of stuff.  I had to be at a ballet in two hours.  I took the ziplocks along and glued in the car during the 20 minute intermission.  Seriously.  I did that.  I made tons of these books, then tons more.

Kelly doesn't teach that workshop in person anymore, but she has just revised and updated it, is calling it "Swatches", and is offering it as an online class.  It starts officially in April, but there's a discount if you sign up early.

I'm doing a bit of a spin on the original concept.  My first book for Swatches revisited will have three signatures with paper torn from a variety of worn-out books.  All of them library discards.  

What you see above is deceiving.  That neatly cut piece of file folder with the fancy cut strip of wallpaper down the middle, edged with pink masking tape and rounded corners is just for reinforcement.  My cover will have to take a beating, and then some.  Trust me.  It won't look like this for long.  And the signatures which appear to be the same neatly trimmed size--well, you can see only the outer folio.  Inside is a hodge-podge of sizes and torn edges, ripped from the books that weren't really containing them to begin with.  And you won't be seeing them much longer. Along with the cover, they are due to be transformed into a whimsical delight which you won't recognize from this pic, no matter how hard you squint.  More fun to look at, and squee with delight!  No serious sophistication here.  Just pure pleasure!

Now I'm off to pierce the holes and stitch the little things into their cover.  I'll be doing this with whimsy too, as someone walked off with my tried and true bookbinding awl.  The real ones, the good ones are not easy to come by, so while I wait for a new one, I'm using the next best thing.  The needle end of a compass I have in my stash of materials is extra long and less than a mm wide.  Wish me luck with it.  I think it will work.  Ice picks, carpenter's awls (even the small ones), and bead reamers may all seem like they should work, but trust me, they won't.  At least not happily and successfully.

So while I'm stitching the book, why not sign up for Swatches?  It's so much more fun when lots of people play along.  Time to put the serious stuff away for a bit and enjoy some pure fun!