Category Archives: Accordion binding

Back to reality, but not finished

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I’m back in Chicago. My experience at the residency was wonderful and I loved every minute. I loved being with all of the younger women, the change in my routine was great and the need to work full days, no naps, was stimulating and energizing.

I still have one more decision before the book is finished by Chris Petrone and the great people at WSW. The cover image and color remain a question. We began with this sample and played with different paper colors and whether the image should be positive or negative.

Finally decided to go with blue, but which blue and again positive or negative remains to be seen. Chris ordered the paper and will send a printed sheet to me for the final decision.

Last day

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Tomorrow I go home. There are still a few things to decide about the cover, which makes me a little unhappy. I spent time today scoring; tedious, labor intensive work that has to be done right or the books won’t fold properly.

The ruler is lined up with the hash marks and the bone folder is pulled twice against the ruler creasing the paper and insuring a clean fold. Each sheet gets scored in 19 places. After all of the scoring is finished the sheet will be cut, each book will be folded individually and hash marks will be trimmed off.

Books will probably not be completed for another month. A plate will be made to do the letterpress printing on the cover. It will then be diecut, scored, folded and the text block will be inserted into the cover. Women’s Studio Workshop will handle sales and distribution.

Next step

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All of the books are signed. They will be numbered after all of the scoring, folding and trimming is finished and we know how many books are actually completed. Sixty books were printed; we are hoping to get at least 50. Scoring and folding are done by hand. Trimming can be done in a more mechanized fashion.

Vertical lines are guides for scoring and folding. Horizontal lines are trimming guides. All will be trimmed off.

We are still working on the cover. It will be letterpress printed, diecut, scored and folded. Final decisions wil have to be made tomorrow or Saturday before I go home. Here are pictures of some of the sample prints and the printing press.

What’s next?

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Most of the work to bind the book will be done by someone other than me. Each of those sheets are about 70 inches long and have four books printed on them. There are 15 sheets plus three test sheets. The sheets will be cut by hand. None of the mechanical cutters is long enough to take the entire sheet.

The finished book will be an accordion inserted into a folded, diecut cover. After the first cut is made the sheets will be scored to insure the folds are made at the proper distances.. All of this will be done by hand–a huge amount of work. After scoring each sheet will be cut again by hand in the long direction. Finally the books will be folded and trimmed. I will not be doing any of this. All of it will be done by the wonderful people at the Women’s Studio Workshop.

Most of my work was done before I came to the Workshop. I created the pictures and I hand wrote the captions. Now I am here to make decisions: the color of the paper, the color of the ink and the picture used on the cover. I created a line drawing from one of the photos but we are not sure it will work. The cover will be letterpress printed and the plate requires a particular kind of image. I don’t have an answer on that yet.

I will also be signing each book. We are hoping for a yield of fifty books. The thought of signing my name fifty times is daunting. Each book will also be numbered and a record kept of the purchaser or recipient.

Sometimes Amazing Things Happen

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The Women’s Studio Workshop in Kingston, New York, noted for publishing artist’s books, is publishing one of my books. I am amazed this is happening, that I am here for a residency, that anyone is paying attention to this old lady. We did half of the work online. planning the book, deciding which pictures to use in what order and finally I hand wrote the captions. The inside of the book was printed and we picked it up today. Now for the cover.

My images with Chris Petrone from WSW, who will do all the cutting, folding and cover-making.

Waiting for Nothing to Happen–2 books

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Waiting and waiting and walking. First I started photographing a witch hazel bush in front of the church across the street. The church was being cleaned; the bush was almost destroyed. Today it is thriving and the church is no longer black.

This strange Gingko tree also caught my eye and I photographed it each time I passed by. My first book of Waiting for Nothing to Happen used multiple images of both.

Another year of waiting; another book: Still Waiting for Nothing to Happen. Still walking; now studying the sidewalk.

This is three small books, each with 12 images, tied together with pink ribbon and beads.

Books in pandemic

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Nine months since my last post. Nine months of mostly quarantine. I try to walk every day; at least a mile, sometimes three. Occasionally, during nice weather, I meet someone outside and sit and talk, masked. Once or twice a week I meet with Robin and Steve who are both working from home and even more careful. Otherwise everything by Zoom. I am high risk and It’s a terrible way to die. I haven’t felt like writing, but I have been making books. In fact, I have completed #97. No, I won’t show all of them in this post.

I’ve had two sources of inspiration: my book-making group that met monthly to teach and experiment with new structures and techniques and which I will discuss in another post; and a package of 4 x 6 inch glossy photo paper; a total departure from anything I did in the past. Back when I was a “real” photographer I would never print on glossy paper, never printed anything that small; never printed such an odd assortment of photos. As an iPhone photographer I seldom take a single photo I consider “really good.” But often I can put together a group and make a book. But how to make a book from 4 x 6 paper that you can’t even fold. It cracks.

Looking through my photos I realized I had taken many photos of works of art where I am reflected in the work. I printed out the photos, made an accordion structure where the photos pop up, and glued them in. I don’t know if I’ve ever written this before, but I will make every mistake it’s possible to make. This book exemplifies it. I plan to remake it, printing directly on the paper I use for the structure so I don’t have to glue. Happily I don’t have much of the glossy paper left. So here is the book:

To begin with the cover is too wide. It’s the same size as each sheet, but the sheets are folded. The book is approximately 9 x 9 inches to allow positioning the six inch side as vertical or horizontal. The cover should have been 7 inches wide. By the way, the reflective material I used for the cover was from a blanket Robin got at a race. Then I positioned the photos on the wrong side of the paper. To compensate for the blank right hand page I added image transfers. Some are OK. Many are not. I will do it again; I have plenty of blanket material left and I hope I won’t find more mistakes to make.

Book #89

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I have been going to almost every protest held here in Pittsburgh, particularly the climate crisis strikes. On October 23 there was a conference about shale gas (fracking) addressed by POTUS and a protest. Many of the speakers were indigenous people from protest groups in other states. They came a long way. Unfortunately not so many people came who had only a short distance to come.

As I stood there, with all of these wonderful, articulate people, and not enough response, I lost hope. Five minutes after I returned home I wrote the words that became #89:

Who will mourn the earth
Where is the wake for the animals
What is the prayer for the birds
Who will sit shiva for the bees
And who will say Kaddish for us

 

The words stay in my head and I repeat them again and again, a prayer for someone who never prays.

Book Cover-

When a close relative dies we are supposed to tear our clothing. In practice, the undertaker pins a black ribbon on our clothing and slashes it.

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0331AB03-21BC-47A1-BD3D-14B6E2D4C3B5

We sit shiva, mourning, for up to a week.

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We say Kaddish, a prayer to remember who we have lost.

 

I have been lazy and remiss

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in posting about my books. I told about Maurie’s book, No. 87, but neglected 85 and 86, which are fold books and 88 and 89, both accordion books. The fold books begin with square pieces of card stock folded into four squares. I actually made four different books but they are so similar I’m counting them as two. Three of the books are images of reflections, one is a staircase.

Light art board covered with hand decorated paper

Art board covered with hand decorated papers

Reflections in Pittsburgh, New York and Japan

Reflections in Pittsburgh, New York and Japan

Text on bottom of carousel

Text on bottom of carousel

Stairway carousel fold book. Pictures taken at our book exchange party since I no longer own it.

imageStairway carousel

The two accordion books are quite different. The first one, which I made shortly after I returned from Japan contains photos of Mt. Fuji, mostly taken from the workshop. The cover is one of the prints of Mt. Fuji I made in the workshop.

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I will tell about the second accordion book in my next post. Soon, I promise.