CREATING IN A TIME OF GLOBAL SOLITUDE AND EMPTINESS

During this time of global solitude and emptiness in our cities and countries, I have been expressing myself through my creations.  

HANGING AROUND TOWN 

In my previous post, I talked about creating a book called, Hanging Around Town, starring Ms Silky Scarf, two buskers: Mr. Lapointe and Mr. Flett and a gentleman I met from Bejing, China, Mr. Liu.  The photos were sent off to the printers and have been returned to be bound into a book.  I found an outdated map of the City of Ottawa and decided to use it to cover the boards of the book.  It had that used, hands-on look to it and it was the perfect match to the photo book.  

  This city map, on the front cover, includes the Byward Market location where all the photographs, in the book, were taken. 

  

 The endpaper is another section of the map and the fly leaf is of a wall mural found in the Byward Market district. 

 The introduction page includes the names of the participants in the book: Ms Silky Scarf, Mr. Lapointe, Mr. Flett and Mr. Liu. 

 The closing page of the book reads: "Ms Silky Scarf made it home safely.  She had a warm shower and slept like a silk nightgown."

The back cover of the book. 

MINIATURE BOOKS 

I have always enjoyed making miniature books.  They are a great way to try out different bindings and create new works. 

These two books measure 2 1/8 x 2 5/8 x 1inch or 5.5 x 6.7 x 2.5 cm.  They both have 100 pages of Fabriano sketch paper.  The book on the left is covered with paper that I marbled and the book on the right is covered with a Japanese Chiyogami paper.

In the book on the left, I printed the alphabet, lower case and upper case letters 

 In the book on the right, I wrote the alphabet in cursive writing in lower and upper case.  

This stab bound book is a little larger than the acceptable miniature book measurement.  It measures 1.5 x 4 x 1 inch or 3.9 x 10.3 x 2.5 cm.  I used a Japanese Chiyogami paper to cover this book and wrote the multiplication tables in it with room for practice. 

Some accidents make the best books.  I was attempting to make a flutter book and something went wrong with my folds.  As I put the paper aside I noticed it was standing, in a presentation format, on its own.  I stitched pages into the mountain fold and then turned it around and stitched pages into each valley fold. This book measures, when closed, 2 x 3 x .25 inches or 5 x 7.6 x .08 cm. It may work in a larger format if heavier paper is used for the cover - to be experimented with further. 

PLAYING WITH LINES AND COLOUR 

In this accordion, pop-up book, I played with colour and lines.  I made three of them, one has made its way to Bejing, China to sit in a private library and two are with me.  One still requires some colour and a cover.  

I used a heavy weight sketch paper, ink and water colours for this book. 

FLUTTER BOOKS 

This is a simple book made from one piece of paper and involves four folds and two cuts.  I used a 9 x 12 piece of sketch paper for each of these books.  In the center of the book I created a pop-up section.  These little books are a nice alternative to a blank greeting card.  There is a lot of space to write in them and they are uniquely decorative. 

 I used circles cut from a variety of papers to decorate this book. 

 I used a red and gold Chiyogami paper to decorate this book. 

 Circles cut from printed photographs left over from another project were used to decorate this book. 

 As an admirer of postage stamps, I find I always have a fabulous selection of stamps, which I used to decorate this book. 

I use a heavy white sketch paper to make the envelopes for the flutter books.  Often I decorate the closing flap with the same paper that has been used to decorate the enclosed book.  

WATER

In 2015 I created this artist book in response to a call.  I found a beautiful piece of stained glass that looked like the different shades of water and it had a beautiful ripple in it.  This added to the tactile experience when holding the book. The pages in the book consist of suminagashi marbled paper and laminated roasted seaweed with photographs of water.  

Stained glass front cover of the book. 

Title page - suminagashi marbling and hand set letters.

Laminated page with roasted seaweed and photograph of a sunset over the Ottawa River and evening fishermen. 

Two more marbled pages with hand set letters. 

Stained glass, back cover of the book. 

Throughout the book I have used descriptive lines written from the perspective of the water, describing its many characteristics and where it can be found. I hand set wood and metal letters and printed them on a Vandercook press.  I also created a clam shell box for the book and a padded cradle to display the book. 

Over the years I have continued to photograph the water and use it in a number of other books.  These two flag books were created for an art fundraiser, where I  was demonstrating the art of suminagashi marbling, which is done on water.  

 The photographs in these two flag books are of bodies of water in and around Ottawa, as well as some activities that take place in and on them. 

This trio was used with the flag books at the same event.  The two books on either side of the bottle, I call rockers, because they have a tendency to rock back and forth.  The picture on the left is of the lights used to illuminate the falls, which is the photograph around the bottle.  The photograph on the right is a reflection of trees in a large puddle on the bike path in Ottawa. 

Most recently I had some photographs printed in a large format.  The photographs were of a sculpture that ran the full length of a street in Toronto.  The other large format printing was of an art installation in the old Ottawa Art Gallery of large metal plates with the names of different colours on each plate.  I used these photographs to make fish bone books.  While making them I decided to see if I could find a way to get some blue water into the mix, that would complement the water book.  I had two pieces of glass shaped into waves as a background to the fish.  

This is a top down view of the glass waves and the fish bone books.  The nice thing about these books is they can be expanded or contracted, depending on the exhibit space available. To the right, you can see one of the flag books. 

These fish are made from the two different pieces of large format photos.  The small fish on the right, with the  printing on it is from a piece left over from another project. 

Little glass beads are used to demonstrate bubbles. 

It is my thinking that all these pieces could be used in one exhibit about Water.  It would require a large space in order to spread it out for better effect.  

That's all for now.  Have a wonderful spring and enjoy the song birds and the spring flowers that will be popping up soon. 

If you have any questions about my work, you may contact me through this blog or at: bbinder999@gmail.com.

Until next time, 

Mary