Wednesday 30 May 2012

Back from the bush

Back in the bindery again after three weeks off bushwalking in northern New South Wales and south east Queensland. Time on the track is great for reflection and I've returned with ideas for new projects; some thoughts on a way forward for started but stalled projects; and an offer of some teaching at a small contemplative retreat in the Gold Coast hinterland. Spent this morning tidying up in preparation for an anticipated burst of activity, including cleaning up some bench weights that I picked up from an old wares shop on the way to the start of my first walk.
Delighted to find two BAO books waiting for me on my return - A Subversive Stitch and Snow Falling in Daylight - both by Queensland calligraphic and book artist Fiona Dempster. Some wonderful photographs of these (and other examples of Fiona's work) can be found here.

Monday 7 May 2012

The book's in the mail

The end of last week saw me finally wrap up my first title for BookArtObject Edition 4. I'd been putting off doing this until we rolled into May, which was the date I'd included in the colophon back in February when I sent the text off to the printer.
Eight copies of 41: It's beginning to hurt were packed into padded bags and posted to New South Wales, Queensland, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Very satisfying and I am now looking forward to enjoying the books from the other artists in my group. The first of these arrived a couple of days before my own mail-out, a magnificent tunnel book by the American collage artist paperworker. You can read more about this book here.
I'll post something similar about my own piece once others in the group have received their copy. Right now, I'm going to take a break for a few weeks before starting on my next project. Back in June!

Tuesday 1 May 2012

15 Mountain Houses

I'm away from BEMBindery at the moment which means that this week's book is one from my back catalogue.
I'm taking a break for some bushwalking in the Australian Alps, one of my favourite places and somewhere I try and visit at least a couple of times a year.
15 Mountain Houses is about the Alps. It contains drawings from an architectural competition that aimed to promote new approaches to designing buildings for the Australian high country. The book dates from my very early days as a bookbinder and was, in fact, the first 'unsupervised' book that I produced. It is a concertina binding with paste paper covered boards trimmed with black goatskin. It has never been exhibited.