Carolina Wren, Chickadee, Tit Mouse, Nuthatch, Gold Finch, and Hummingbird - six of my favorite birds
Transferring the birds to blocks for carving.
I printed a proof of each block.
I printed the leaves in a taupe brown. Next I printed a light blue mat; then the birds and text in a dark charcoal black.
Each bird and text page were placed within a recessed area carved into the Davey board.
The recessed areas are all carved. I then covered the Davey board with a taupe colored Iris book cloth before attaching the image or text pages.
Hinging the pages together. I made the hinges from the handmade paper, which worked beautifully.
Closed book.
Here is a detail of the birds and the poem.
I have spent the past several weeks designing, printing, and assembling a new artist book housed in a Clamshell box. It has been a great project to focus on during the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Working on book binding and printmaking has been very therapeutic. I will share the various steps in completing Musing Garden Sprites. I began by completing a suite of bird drawings to serve as the visual images for the book. The six birds I chose are all small birds that frequent our gardens during various times of the year. Next, I considered several book structures and chose the Stiff Leaf Accordion Book. I have made this type of book in the past. The structure can stand freely displaying the book’s interior pages. This was the main reason I chose this form.
Carving the Carolina Wren.
I used this pressure plate of leaves to print the background for the birds and text.
I was now ready to print the pages for the book. I used both handmade cotton rag paper and Mohawk Superfine.
Various text forms set and ready for printing.
I wrote a poem entitled ‘Garden Sprites’. I set all the text in either Garamond or Times New Roman. Here I am printing the title page and poem.
I was ready to make the book once the printing was completed.
I used papyrus painted with milk paint on the book’s cover.
Covering with book cloth.
The next several images are of the completed book.
The book’s cover - I love how the sanded and polished milk paint looks on the papyrus!
The title of each bird and a muse of the bird are on the opposite side of each bird image.
Completed book as seen from the bird image side.
I then built a Clamshell box for the book. I will share some images from this process in another blog post.