Drawing images for the relief prints.
Carving the cicada.
Printing on my Vandercook; I printed the insects on a handmade cotton rag paper.
I constructed a tunnel book using layers from each print. Here is the cicada tunnel book underway. I cut away layers for each insect for each tunnel book.
Here is a close-up of the butterfly tunnel book - note the cut layers.
Each box had a mica window.
Adding the feet to the Cicada reliquary.
Completed Butterfly and Dragonfly reliquaries.
Completed Cicada and Bee reliquaries.
I often find bits of insects while gardening; and am attracted to their ephemeral beauty. I have collected numerous insects and their wings over the years; which I often use in my books and boxes. I recently completed a group of reliquaries inspired by these 'garden remnants'. I began by selecting a butterfly, cicada, dragonfly, and bee from my collection. I completed a group of small prints which I then used as the focus of the reliquaries.
Drawings transferred to blocks, now ready to carve.
Pressure plates. I printed papers to use in the reliquaries using these plates.
Insect prints completed, pressure prints completed (on Niddeggen paper). I will now begin designing and building the reliquaries. I love playing around with the various components!
Here are the completed cicada and dragonfly tunnel books.
Next, I built a box using Davey board for each book.
I then constructed a case binding for the boxes; covered them with pressure printed papers and a printed cover; gave them a base covered with cork paper; and added vintage button closures and feet! Whew!
I couldn't resist adding a window at the top of each piece - I placed actual wings behind a piece of mica.
Dragonfly reliquary with the door opened.
Top of the Cicada reliquary - I just love how the windows enhance the finished piece.
I learned so much constructing these pieces bringing together my love for nature, letterpress printing, and book arts! Additionally, the Cicada Reliquary was juried into Pop-Up Now II at 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland, Oregon; and was purchased by Ohio University!