Saturday 31 December 2016

Happy New Year

The covers are now done and dried. I can’t put it off any longer. I’m going to have to start cutting into the prints to finish the pages.
 I wish you all a peaceful, happy and creative 2017

Wednesday 14 December 2016

Pages printed

The book block is now printed. Only the cutting, folding and covers to go!


 You can see more at my blog

Tuesday 6 December 2016

Thursday 10 November 2016

Pehernefer






I have finally got to nearly the last layer of the painting which will form the spines of the accordion books.  Pehernefer was a scribe, thought to be a representation of the Seated Scribe, of course we know he is related to the Bhubezi Women...more details will unfold in Some Beginnings, No Endings. 

Monday 7 November 2016


These photos were taken before the opening right after I had put up the whole thing.
I’ll post more photos of the opening/vernissage.
The exhibit will be on until the 17th and it is in the Nelson Mandela Library in Gardanne which is a little town near Marseille. Little town but huge library so it was nice to do the exhibition there. I also show my personal books in vitrines and I made an installation of visual poetry of ’flying silent books’ .

Sunday 6 November 2016

Books like stars ... again !

Hi everyone,
Our books from 3.0 are travelling again. Another library here in France. I put ip the exhibition last Friday, over 100 books hanging from the ceiling in 5 different spots. People love them once again !
I’m trying to post photos ... will it work ??
Martine (this is me ’white parrot press’)

Saturday 29 October 2016

Made a start

If you want to see the work in progress come over to my blog. Otherwise here’s a relatively spoiler free snippet of what’s happening. 


Just realised I’m using the back of pantomime scripts for the mock up – seems appropriate!

Monday 24 October 2016

A tentative start

Once upon a time there lived a bookmaker who is convinced she would live happily ever after if the ideas for this book would stop trying to get out of an accordion format!


Have we thought of a date for mailing this one?  I was thinking end of January? That gives three more months to fight with it and means we miss the Christmas post. (Ooops- Ignore this question, just seen the earlier comments)







(I thought a post should have an image so this is one I made earlier that may turn out to be vaguely related to the new book)

Sunday 9 October 2016

Binding Discussion

Have you all found a 'personal best' binding style? I've come to realise that although I love receiving intricate and complex bindings, making/creating them holds no attraction for me.  Its more about the the content?  Have you made some really intricate bindings? Post some pictures here for us.  To add, select the edit button in the posts setting.

Tuesday 4 October 2016

The New Alexandrian Library

Just as a matter of interest, I have an enormous collection of artists books, many of which are collaborations.  I am TRYING to document them all, but its slow going. The collection is called The New Alexandrian Library. I think the title came about whilst investigating Hypatia. It would be good to see some of your collaborative efforts here?
http://newalexandrianlibrary.blogspot.co.za




Saturday 1 October 2016

Useful Resource

I thought people might find this useful.
I came across a post on Painting Speech which said “Claire Van Vliet and Elizabeth Steiner have made their 2002 book Woven and Interlocking Book Structures freely available in a variety of formats (PDF, EPUB, Kindle, etc.) at the Internet Archive. Published in 2002 and no longer in print, this book is a self-teaching manual with directions for making basic models of 16 book structures designed for Janus, Steiner, and Gefn Press publications. You can find it here at archive.org; download options are listed as links on the right.

If you follow Claire’s recommendation to print the PDF 2-sided and bind it in a 3-ring binder as a bench top manual, it will take 76 sheets of letter-size paper.”

I’ve been trying to get a library or a reasonably priced second hand copy for ages with no success. So I’d like to say thank you to Claire and Elizabeth for their generosity in sharing.

Saturday 24 September 2016

Time to start a new book?

Now that we seem to be slowly migrating over here is it time to start considering the next title?

Could I suggest 'Endings and Beginings'.

Sunday 18 September 2016

Jo Southorn (Australia) - 3.0 # 17 (Colours/Folding/Recycling)

3.0 # 17 
(Colours/Folding/
Recycling)

No. 5 of i0 (no that’s not a numbering mistake), handmade accordion book, printed and tea stained.  The note from Jo asked if it had rained yet.  As I write the wind is picking up and that may be in the clouds later.  All I know is her book reminds me so much of the colours of Australia - the Painted Desert is one of my favourite places there.  The richness of one colour, just enhancing its saturation or shade or tone is alluring.

Friday 16 September 2016

Jac Balmer (UK) 3.0 # 17 (CoLours/FolDing/ReCycling)(Hungarian Flowers)

3.0 #17
(CoLours/FolDing/
ReCycling)
(Hungarian Flowers)

No. 8 of an Edition of 8, handmade books constructed from recycled books and papers, 3 fold accordion format.





A pop-up book whose title “Hungarian Flowers” points the viewer to the methodology employed by Jac, that of an origami type fold book - called on his blog “a Hungarian map fold” -   http://jacsblog-jac.blogspot.co.za

This one’s a beauty, complex in its construction and I can see only practice would make perfect.

Reminder: the platform  http://artistbooks.ning.com.  is closing in October.  Artists who collaborate are invited to contribute to this blog.  There is a group of us who are on our 17th collaboration where we swop books.  Groups are formed in numbers of up to 10 people.