Bookbinding Themes

My growing desire to incorporate pattern in my paintings has led me back to Gustav Klimt.  I've always loved his art but there are amazing design treasures to be found in the detail of his pictures.  Of course I'm not the first to make this discovery.  His designs pop up everywhere.  I'm spending a lot of time just doodling with his recurring marks.

At the same time I've been trying to extend my bookbinding craft.  I've just completed a Japanese Album Accordion with a soft cover.  The red cardboard looked a little plain so I added a Klimt doodle to the first page of the accordion and cut a frame in the cover. 

This is such a simple little book with a very distinctive Japanese style.

I think I'll dedicate it to further studies of Klimt.

I've lost count of how many Reverse Piano Hinge sketchbooks our American students from Santa Chiara have made in the print studio in the past weeks.  It's been a wonderful extension of Rick Woodbury's  printmaking course because everyone has made a beautiful monotype cover for their book. 

For my demonstration book I used a beautiful piece of paste paper made by my Sydney artist friend, Wendy Shortland.  I'd never have learned to make these books without Wendy's help and now I am really keen to make my own paste papers covers.

Paste paper cover by Wendy Shortland

Solar Plate Printing with Wendy & Annie

Annie McMahon's sublime Sydney studio

I've been wanting to try solar plate etching using photopolymere plates ever since I acquired some of Wendy Shortland's Quirky Artist beautiful and intriguing prints.  On a recent trip home to Sydney Wendy and Annie McMahon treated me to a fantastically generous and exciting day in Annie's Sydney studio.  Now I'm totally hooked and have brought ten plates back to Tuscany for further experiments in this exciting chemical free method of etching.  In a future post I'll attempt to do a WIP for those interested in the process.  For now I'd just like to share my excitement. Click on the images for a larger view.

Dark Corner - two colour print

Dark Corner was etched from a pen and liquid pencil trace on drafting film from a sketch I made in Patonga (see previous post).

This is the image that was placed face down on the photopolymere plate and exposed in the sun for a couple of minutes.  The plate was then washed off with a sponge and water, dried and after another hour cooking in the sun was ready to print.

 Plates ready for inking

My second plate was an ink trace of an old sketch I had made in Castiglion Fiorentino.

First print inked in two colours

My sketch was too small for the plate which resulted in a dirty boarder when I wiped the plate so, when I got back to Italy, I cut the plate back to the edge of the image and printed it again.

All these prints are on Rives BFK paper, generously provided by Wendy and unfortunately unavailable in Italy.

'Quirky Artist' inking her plate which is held on a clever magnetic board

Wendy demonstrated the inking process on her own beautiful Gymea Lily plate and I got to keep the print!

Wendy Shortland

Then I got to ink one of Annie's plates and another beautiful print came home to Italy.

Annie McMahon

Charlie -The Studio Dog who reminded me of You Know Who

A perfect day of printmaking that I do hope I can repay one day when my Sydney mentors make it to Tuscany.

Reverse Piano Hinge Bookbinding

Spine of my first homemade RPH13cm x 18.5cm sketchbook

I have been struck over and over again by the generosity of printmakers. Artists I find are a generous breed in general, willing to share advice and tips but it is printmakers who have shown themselves to be super generous in giving a beginner a leg up and lots of advice and instruction, not to mention materials. Belinda del Pesco, bless her, is such a generous person. She shares her techniques with anyone lucky enough to find her blog and when I was stuck for mat board supplies here in Italy she surprised me with offcuts so I could make collographs. Then there is Sherrie York a.k.a. Brush and Baren who enabled me to make my first reduction linocut. Martin Stankewitz who provided me with fantastic insights into monotype printmaking and may eventually succeed in teaching me How to Draw a Tree. Of course there is always Rick Woodbury whose ongoing generosity includes a key to his print studio here in Tuscany!

Today I'm paying tribute to another Printmaking Angel - Wendy Shortland a.k.a Quirky Artist.

Wendy travelled into the city to meet me when I was last in Sydney and spent hours answering my questions about Solarplate Etching, Viscosity Printing and Bookbinding. Now she has given me directions to make a Reverse Piano Hinge Sketchbook. This was my first real attempt at bookbinding. I've made a couple of concertina fold books but nothing more ambitious. Now I am delighted to have been shown how to make a book that has a very pleasing Japanese-like spine, sits flat when open and has the benefit of being able to remove and replace pages.

Inside cover

Internal hinge with removable paper pin
These are in the middle of each of the 6 signatures

In my book there are 17 double pages where you don't see the hinge

This book was made from two sheets of Italian Grafia printmaking paper, a piece of coloured craft paper, a scrap of brown packing paper for the cover and two pieces of cover board, in addition to some PVC glue, with which I made a bit of a mess. The book is far from professional bookbinder perfect but I'll do better next time.

I'm not suggesting Wendy invented the reverse piano hinge method but I am saying a big thank you for refining the instructions and sharing them with this beginner.

Editors Note: For those of you interested in learning to make a version of this book, Wendy recommends Gwen Diehn's book Real Life Journals - Designing and Using Handmade Books, a copy of which I've just ordered for myself from Amazon.

Gwen also generously posted instructions for the EDM Yahoo Group. Everyday Matters is a great group well worth joining.