"facial"

 

This is another small book of anonymous faces that surface constantly when I draw as in New Facebook  and Double Sided  Later I use snippets of found text to direct the marks once they start to come alive. Since so many of these chancey portraits lately have been elderly and somewhat wrinkled, I needed an appropriate cover paper - hence my re-discovery of an old Japanese process with paper, Momigami. 

I had played with this process several years ago for a book about skin - Cutaneous .  

The process makes the paper tougher and more durable, yet flexible and soft like fabric. It depends whether you need a crisper paper and starch based glues will help you. I believe the Japanese craftsmen do make garments using this process with mulberry paper.

Playing with papers and gums and starches and information on the web, I have found some papers that work very well. I can go into more specific process notes if I get feedback from other interested book /paper artists. The paper on this book used cartridge paper not known for its wet strength, pomegranate ink, and aloe vera. 

After folding and kneading and dying the finished paper was sanded with fine wet and dry paper to give a soft, wrinkled, skin like finish. This paper was glued to a more robust thin card for the cover. The paper seems to have a memory for the creases and gluing or hot ironing it does not remove the wrinkles.

The images weremade using gouache, gesso, inks and waterbased stains from pomegranate, avocado and red gum onto 160gsm pastel paper. The book is 15cm x 13cm and is the only copy.

back to books

After a little 3D diversion, I am back on track trying to catch up on my book a month project I set myself at the start of the year. This will be my 10th book (which includes a couple of zines I posted recently). I started this book ages ago after a trip to Japan and discovered it when tidying up, with lots of work to do before being able to say "finished".
We had been in Japan during their autumn to see the changing colours of the leaves. We were not disappointed but the beauty was too much for me to try to use in my books. So "red leaves" is not about the leaves, but the experience of getting to see the leaves. 

The mixed media images use :
acrylic paint, gesso, wax pigment,stamped letters collage from maps, white ink, chinagraph pencil and linseed oil on Kraft paper. The very fine spider web like lines were made with a Japanese Pilot,  Hi-Tec-C 0.25 .

"co - ordinates"

The first little book for the new year. It was started in Mackay when I was there for the Libris event. I always seem to be able to make new work when I am in different surroundings. Maybe my senses are more alert and open to new stimuli. I made the cover once I got home so in reality it is really one of last years books (the last).
The card for the cover and some of the old paper I used for the mixed media drawings, is from an old book of my mother's from her school days (about 80 yrs old). The lined paper is thicker and has a sheen and is now almost an ivory colour. 

The hinge and fastener are felt from an old army blanket we all seemed to have when we were children. It fits rather well with the vintage recycled card of my mother's old exercise book.