Handmade Books
One of my favorite applications for printmaking is bookmaking. Books can be made using a wide variety of techniques, either employing a traditional binding or a folding pattern. Transforming original prints into a three dimensional art object is a process that I find elevates the impact and originality of each piece.
Autumn Leaves
This book explores the passage of time during the last few months of the year. As the trees change color and the days get shorter I always feel a sleepy melancholy, as though I'm about to enter a state of dormancy alongside the earth. Using dry point etching I created the images of open palms, swirling hair, and a self portrait of my face pressed against glass. I find the hands and face evoke a sense of sleepy drowning, as though a person is trapped against the underside of a frozen lake. Pairing these images with the dark leaves, monoprints created with found leaves, deepens the moody quality of this book.
Cover
The cover of this book is bound in book cloth, the standard for hard covers. I chose black to evoke night and darkness, drawing the viewer into the moody experience of this book. The monoprint leaf is affixed underneath cloth cut to reveal the image. Gamblin intaglio black ink was used in all the prints for this book, including all of the leaves.
Binding
Books can be bound by hand in more conventional ways as well. This example shows a book whose covers have been made in the same method as the example above, but instead of showcasing original prints I chose to fill this book with empty pages to make a handmade notebook. I stitched this binding with a "Kettle Stitch."
