M4 Chapters 9 & 10 Stitching Into Papers and Making Book Structures

I decided to combine these chapters and stitch into the structures I was making. I started by colouring several large sheets of paper to use alongside some of my hand made paper - I had plenty made.

I started by making a simple pamphlet book. I decided to decorate the covers so the books were nice to use and also to give me some ideas for my assessment piece. I used Cover to Cover by Shereen Plantz as a reference alongside the course notes. I also wanted to try to incorporate some of the techniques and ideas I had gained from Summer School.

I decorated the cover by machine stitching thick silk threads, using a zig zag stitch and then hand stitched blanket stitch along two sides. For decoration I used a sample of drawn thread work and stitched into this and then built up a small area with fabric scraps.

10.1

 

I used cartridge paper for the inside pages, held together with pamphlet stitch.

 

10.2

 

The book held together well and is usable.

10.3

 

Next I decided to use some of the paper I had coloured to make a folded book. This is quite easy to make and gives a double side to use. I decorated the edges with a simple machine hem stitch. I went on to more pattern making with letters using the word 'script' again.

10.4

10.5

10.6

10.7

 

I lay the book flat again to work on the reverse side and wrote my word across the whole page using acrylic inks and droppers. This made some interesting marks when the book was refolded.

10.8

 



I moved on to making a concertina book. I decorated the edges with hand stitch. I found machine stitching a long straight stitch first helped to make small holes for the hand stitching. I used a narrow inside folded paper rather than the same size as the cover. This worked well on a small scale but I'm not sure if it would work as well on a larger piece.

 



10.9

 

I made patterns with my word again using acrylic inks and a twig pen.

 

 10.10

 

Again I could work on both sides of the folded paper.

10.11

 

10.12

For the next book I made 3 pamphlets books but used cut down skewers to hold them together. I then used pamphlet stitch to attach them to the cover. For this cover I used hand stitch to hold trim/ribbon on two sides and hand stitched the other sides. I used paper inlaid with scrim and attached a piece of drawn thread work which had been dipped in pulp, some bark paper (bought) and a cord.

10.13

10.14

On the back cover I wove some threads through the embedded scrim.

10.15

For the pamphlets I used a variety of papers which I had, including old maps, paper bags, off cuts of paper and so on. This has made the book very usable as a sketch book.

10.16

 

I wanted to form a more unusual book structure and decided to build layers of paper vertically. I started by decorating some small, irregular torn papers. I used a decorative machine stitch and hand stitched loops. I then wrapped some scraps of materials with string and attached them. I added some quotes about art for a message type script.

 

10.17

10.18

10.19

10.20

10.21

 

I wanted to hold the pieces in layers or 'build up' and used paper covered wire. As the papers were irregular sizes and shapes I was unable to wire them at the corners. Eventually, after much deliberation, I worked from the top down using three wires and a template to transfer placings to the back of each piece.

 

 

10.22

10.23

I was pleased with the result. It would need to be more robust on a larger piece as the sample is quite delicate. The beads helped hold the wires, along with knots. One difficulty would be holding the papers in place on the wire without knots and a stronger wire would be more difficult to manipulate.

10.24

10.25

This chapter has been a good opportunity to try out different structures and look at a range of ways to form them. Making smaller structures gives some usable books using scraps and leftover pieces of fabric and papers.