Double Dutch Design Visual Journal

Part 3 of "What would the neighbors think...?"

2011-03-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, another renaming, but this is the final title of this piece.

And the final result...

I decided to leave the doors off. I wasn't happy with the design, and since this is a "try-out" model, I decided not to put any more time and material in this model. I wanted the doors to be taller, so they would overlap part of the drawers when closed, which would make the drawers inaccessible at the same time as the text body. So that's for the next box!

For the text body I used a concertina fold, with the valleys held in place by copper rods

inserted into the base and top

There is no text in the body, just inkjet-printed old family photos.

I topped the protruding rods with vintage brads.

Silver crown from one of my late mother-in-law's religious figures.

Dan Kelm's workshop part 2. "Where did we go wrong?"

2011-02-16T15:02:00.000-08:00

No, not a lamentation uttered while working on this box; yes, the "Round Box" got a proper name! More about the "content" later.

This in itself could be a finished box, but where would the fun be..

An extra layer added to accommodate the copper rods that will hold the pages in place.

Figuring out the spacing of the holes for the rods.

The "bare" box starts taking shape.

Working out the hinging details of the round enclosure/door on a model - I used copper tubing, threaded on a smaller tube.

I then worked out how to attach this to the main body.

The two halves of the door, with the flaps that go around the hinge.

One half attached to the hinge.

The two halves attached to the hinge.

The doors with the inside lining.

Trying out the concept of the pages.

At this stage, only the bottom box with the drawers is finished. Everything else is still in the "try-out with masking tape" stage. I am working on the content, and then when all the individual pieces are ready, it can be put together. The last stage is where I assemble the rods, pages, lid and door in fell swoop. Until then I will have done many dry runs, using masking tape and clips.

The learning on this project is incredible, and I am documenting my mistakes. When this box is finished I consider it my "learning" box. The one after that will be the exhibition-standard one!

Dan Kelm's workshop

2011-02-02T18:58:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to be invited to a Dan Kelm workshop at Mary Taylor's studio back in November. He is the master! Just look at some of his work here.

I went there with a vague idea, and Dan helped me along greatly.

So these past couple of days I finally had time to implement what I had learned from the workshop, and I'm well on my way making the "round book box", for lack of a better title for now.

I am using an old industrial spool, 10" in diameter and 7" high, for the internal structure.
On the bottom it will have four trays, and each tray has a different number of partitions.

The bottom on which the trays will sit, and the top.

The underside of the covered bottom ( a lot of cutting!)

Be careful to not cut the notches too close to the board, or you'll get these little "frays". You should stay away one board width + 1/8"

The tray part is beginning to take shape.

The makings of a tray in close-up.

The pieces of lining and partitions.

The lining glued in place, with grooves for the partitions to fit into.

The partition slotted into the groove to check the fit

The tray covered with paper, the grooves clearly visible.

The trays drying, and with the damp fronts tied around them to shape them before covering and gluing.

The covered fronts with little drawer pulls, ready to be put on the trays.

All the trays in place on the bottom housing.

Bottom housing.

My very professional "jig" for shaping the round doors.

Paris est fermee

2010-12-16T15:04:00.000-08:00

One of the projects I'm working on and doing some experimentations for is a book about Paris being closed in August. I knew that, but had forgotten, and paid the hard way... three blisters, zero results.

These are transfers done on respectively a page in an old French novel and pattern paper. The last one is a try out for my friend Kelly :-)

Richard Salley at The Bead House

2010-10-11T13:13:00.000-07:00

A wonderful 3-day course in Rhode Island with Richard Salley. He is such a good and generous instructor and very patient.

With a nod to Emily Martin's Volvelles:

Paper & Book Intensive

2010-07-12T14:27:00.000-07:00

Paper & Book Intensive, now twenty-five years old, is held in the spring or summer in different regions of the country. It is attended by individuals who are passionate about the book arts, including bookbinding, hand papermaking, conservation, and related fields. I took the following classes:
Frank Brannon

Paper Sculpture

Forming three-dimensional objects by using various papermaking fibers. Basics of papermaking and an introduction to the production of paper pulp. One method of sculptural exploration will involve a cloth muslin armature filled with sand. Dampened sheets of handmade paper will be used to cover the armature using methylcellulose as the adhesive. In the second form of book/sculpture, we will work at the time of sheet formation to initially develop the sculpture, and with the use of sunlight and other sources of heat, convert the two-dimensional form into a three-dimensional one.

Frank Brannon was born in Maryville, Tennessee, in the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains, and currently lives near Dillsboro, North Carolina, where he is proprietor of Speakeasy Press. He is a resident papermaker and letterpress printer at Asheville BookWorks and a graduate of the M.F.A. in the Book Arts Program at The University of Alabama. His most recent monograph focuses upon research into the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper of northern Georgia, 1828-1834. He is currently developing a letterpress studio with the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts in Cherokee, North Carolina.

Emily Martin
Movables in a Book Format

The earliest movables date from the 13th century, were developed by a Benedictine monk, Matthew Paris in Herefordshire, England. The form called a volvelle from the Latin verb volvere, meaning “to turn or roll around” was used to coordinate religious dates and even to predict the future. The form has endured to this day. In addition to volvelles, there are other versatile movables such as turning wheels, Victorian wheels, slides and dissolves. The class will make models of all the structures and also make a sample book using a variation on the cross structure binding to accommodate the added bulk of the pages. Participants will also be able to explore the uses of these structures with their own content and crate an editioned movable to share with the class.

Emily Martin makes mostly movable/sculptural books under her Naughty Dog Press imprint. She has recently finished a 5-part flexagon series and also a pop-up book called Sleepers, Dreamers and Screamers. Her work is in collection nationally and internationally and she exhibits extensively. She teaches artists’ book classes and bookbinding classes at the University of Iowa Center for the Book.

Melissa Jay Craig
Beyond Inlays and Onlays: Tactile Books

One of the great advantages of making artists’ books or book art is the fact that books are most often meant to be held; we can engage our viewers/readers through text and image, but also through tactility. This highly individualized class will focus on strategies for using odd materials, from found objects to fur, in the codex and other book forms from simple to complex, both as covers and incorporated into the body of the book.

Melissa Jay Craig’s handmade paper book works, sculptures and installation works are exhibited internationally. She is also a curator and an award-winning teacher, who has given numerous classes and workshops at schools and art centers in the United States. She was associated with the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts for nearly fifteen years, and taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in bookbinding, artists’ books and sculptural paper there. Melissa has been awarded numerous grants and residencies, including several residencies and she was the 2009 National Endowment for the Arts resident in papermaking at Women’s Studio Workshop. She recently became the proud owner of one of David Reina’s early bronze hollander beaters.

A New Journal

2010-05-26T13:53:00.000-07:00

An almost finished "blank" journal, waiting to be written in... All the images are of my family and me, going back more than a 100 years (my family that is, not me ;-)

Revised and new journal pages

2010-05-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

2010-05-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

The Lellebel book has been accepted for the exhibition "Interior Markings" at Abecedarian Gallery! I'm happy :-)

San Diego Book Arts Third National Juried Exhibition

2010-04-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

Yeah! "Soldier" and "Inside my House" have been accepted in the San Diego Book Arts Third National Juried Exhibition. The exhibition will be on display at the Geisel Library at the University of California at San Diego from May 29 to July 4, 2010, with an opening reception on the afternoon of Saturday, May 29. I hope you will be able to attend.

Back to nature

2010-03-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

I have been working on these babies off and on for about 3 months now and still don't know how I am going to finish them. It'll come to me!

Progress

2010-03-09T08:43:00.000-08:00

"A Soldier of the Second World War" has been accepted for Cornucopia at the Abecedarian Gallery, so I am pretty excited about that. Also for Jason Thompson's upcoming new book "Playing with Journals", the Africa Journal and "Inside my House" have been selected for gallery photos, but unfortunately he fell ill, and is not finishing this book for the time being. I wish you a speedy recovery, Jason!

Next on my list is applying for the studio residency at WSW (deadline 1 April!); I don't like leaving things till the last moment, but I had to go away unexpectedly, and had other deadlines in between. So that has to happen THIS week. I have the outline all ready, just have to make it pretty and sounding good. I am entering other exhibitions as well, and will keep you posted on the progress.

In July I'll be attending the workshops at Paper and Book Intensive, so I'm pretty excited about that too. I'll be attending Emily Martin's "Movables in a Book Format", Frank Brannon's "Paper Sculpture" and Melissa Jay Craig's "Beyond Inlays and Onlays - Tactile Books". I had applied for a bookbinding course by Jeff Peachy, but didn't get that one; however, I did get my other two first choices.

Journal Pages

2010-02-17T10:03:00.000-08:00

I'm afraid the scanner is on its way out, and the colors are a bit off. But anyroad, here are some journal pages from this (the first 9) and last year.

More fun

2010-01-15T11:21:00.000-08:00

Scanned sewing patterns printed on colored background paper, cut, folded and assembled.

Just for fun

2010-01-15T11:18:00.000-08:00

Totally made from (tissue) paper with a sewing pattern as template.

Some new work in progress

2010-01-11T13:04:00.000-08:00

This is an accordion fold book that is almost finished; it just needs a cover. It sprang forth out of the desire to do something fun, and having leftover dried flowers from the Normandy book and other travels.

Page for May

2009-10-08T14:02:00.001-07:00

Leonard Cohen concert Waterbury, CT May 14

Kylie's 1st birthday

2009-10-08T07:23:00.000-07:00

Way behind...

2009-10-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

I am way behind, not only on the postings for this blog, but also the work for the journal...

But June, which turned into a book all by itself, is finished.

In June this year we were in Normandy for the 65th anniversary of D-Day. While visiting the "recently" dug-out bunkers at Grandcamp Maisy, I was struck by the opposites of that day and the same day in 1944.

2009: beautiful weather, very quiet, wild flowers everywhere. 1944: the weather wasn't so good, it must've been deafening with all the shooting and bombing going on, and certainly the wild flowers would've been trampled by soldiers' boots. And if not, would the soldiers have noticed them?

I had similar thoughts when visiting an allied cemetary a couple of days later. Really quiet, flowers everywhere, immaculately groomed graves and head stones. You could think the soldiers finally had their peace and quiet, but at the same time it seemed so unreal and contradictory.

Hence "A Soldier of the Second World War". Photographs of the head stones are from the allied cemetary in ???, flowers picked at Grandcamp Maisy, V-mail acquired from Ebay, negatives of soldiers' pictures are original glass Kodak negatives from 1942-44 and actual accounts from soldiers are from the PBS website .

To show what the pictures would've looked like, I have reversed one of the negatives:

2009-04-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

I have added a new blog: Double Dutch Assemblage

http://doubledutchassemblage.blogspot.com/

2009-04-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

2009-04-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

2009-04-07T12:29:00.000-07:00

New images for the month of February

2009-04-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

2009-03-18T12:41:00.000-07:00

Got the sewing machine out!

2009-03-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

First image for February. Photograph: Kenneth Lewis, France.

2009-03-17T19:18:00.000-07:00

These are the images for January. Click on any image to enlarge.

2009-03-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

Two new images for the Africa book.

2009-03-15T16:38:00.000-07:00

One altered and one new image

2009-03-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

New images for Africa book. Click on photo to enlarge.

2009-03-14T10:48:00.000-07:00

2009-03-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

I'm currently working on a book about Africa.
Here are some of the (unfinished) pages.