Twist and Print

Just finished printing multiple (4×8 ft woodblock) prints onto Tyvek by using my feet, doing something resembling the Twist. Best song ever for printing/twisting? “Jerk it out” by the Caesars. Don’t care what it means–it’s f-in’ awesome!!

More linos…

Listening to rebroadcast of the Cluck: From Jungle Fowl to City Chicks interview on Larry Meiller’s show (archives) that Susan Troller and I did earlier in the year, meanwhile drawing carcass for segment of Tunnel of Mortality that is upcoming solo show in June atArtisan Gallery.

Oh yeah, and my first reduction tees! (hint to you tee printing folks: if the lino is cut out in a shape, you can just line up color #2 by matching the outside contours of the block shape to the outside edges of the print shape) Just did 2 prototypes (pink thermal shown) to see if it would work…. It did!

Plucked lino measures about 30in. high. “Wallpaper” in background is lino on canvas duck cloth about 8ft wide, pigs are reductions on drill cloth, included in panels for ‘Tunnel’ installation

Ouch!

Now I know why that one Araucana squawks so loudly when she lays her eggs. That big green one on the right is hers…

No surprise here, when I cracked it open to cook…. a double-yolker:

Ivan and the Wily Coyotes

This scene usually happens at dusk or at night. In fact the most breathtaking chase that I witnessed took place on a moonless night in pitch blackness, save for my gazillion candlelight flashlight I used to watch the chase. As always, the coyote seemed to just taunt Ivan. This one night, there was only one (they almost always work in pairs or more) the scrawny thing didn’t even start running till Ivan–a 120 lb puffing and snorting and bellowing freight train–was practically bearing down on him.

When being chased, the coyotes always look back to see how close Ivan is, and they will actually slow down so they don’t get too far away. It really looks as if they are toying with him–teasing him enough to get him to jump the fence and start chasing them, and then they just mess with him. Ivan will chase them off the property–past the barbed wire–then come chugging back up the ridge to the house. Often, the coyotes will reappear on the crest of the hill that Ivan just chased them over, and they’ll bark and bark at him. I swear it sounds like they’re hurling insults at him “Your mama wears combat boots, sucka….” Wily coyotes indeed.

‘Ivan and the Wily Coyotes’ • 3-color reduction linocut on Rives BFK cream • 6in x 24in • (click image to enlarge)

And the print after color #1 (blue, at bottom), carving (linoleum, at top) for color #2, which will be orange:

An abbreviated version of the links I gathered for UW’s 446 Book Arts class….

…more links will be added as time permits…

Artists who do sculptural book forms: Beautiful and Creative Book Sculptures

From the NZ Book Council

Some of the most amazing book art I’ve ever seen (stop-action animation). Audio is horrible, but visually….

And another…

Links to online viewing of Artists’ Books

Artists’ Books Online
UW-Madison’s Kohler Art Library Artists’ Book Collection
Bonefolder | Book Arts Web
Bonefolder’s Online Exhibitions and Galleries
Artist Books 3.0
Granary Books
Artists’ Books collection at Otis College of Art And Design
And exhibit of Alphabet Books

More Artists’ Books

Timothy Ely’s Charts: 1, 2 and Fire
Inspired by the palm leaf manuscript from Indonesia.

Tutorials, etc

Making a Casebound book (sewing on tapes)
Making a Clamshell Box
Jim Escalante’s Video: Coptic Stitch Binding, Part 1
Jim Escalante’s Video: Coptic Stitch Binding, Part 2
Video: Sewing on Cloth Tapes
Video: Sewing on Cords

Links to Supplies, etc

Boxcar Press (polymer plate printing supplies)
French Split Goatskin we used to make our leather books in class

Class collaborative, end of semester…

Last day of teaching for the Book Arts class at UW this semester. What a great class (there were some really exceptional students in this group) and we all made a lot of stuff. I had no idea how many books I would have to make in order to demo (think cooking class–different stages ready to show), but omg I never dreamed it would have been this many! Holy cow. But, practice makes (closer to) perfect, right?

Here’s some of my students’ books, after the leather binding workshop we did, along with some of their 1st half of semester books (click photo to enlarge):

And some of their gorgeous marbled papers we made after Spring Break (click image to enlarge):

For end of semester, we printed/bound a class collaborative travel/adventure book (students picked the theme), with each of us making a spread (6in x 12in wide).

Some of the pieces–the printed cover papers and book cloth (lower right), little 1/2-size model of book to figure out pagination (upper left), title page, little bellhop guy that will be featured on interior pages of the book… (click image to enlarge)

I haven’t taken pics of the individual spreads yet, but (above) are some of the pieces of the book in progress. Handmade paper on cover, polymer plate printed 17th century world map on various pages, cover paper and book cloth. Also polymer-plate printed bellhop guy for some of inside spreads. I marbled the endpapers onto Rives BFK tan. Here they are drying in foreground with my double-spread foldout of Ivan and the Wily Coyotes in the background:

and the title pages and colophon are letter-press printed with wood type (big letters) and lead type (smaller text). Here’s setting up the type (#1) for the colophon and the students’ names (that they set themselves with the lead type), that will be printed with white ink over a polymer-plate-printed dark brown cover stock (#2). Click either image to actually read the type!:

I will post photos of the finished book and some spreads next time.