Papyrus and its Woes

I found someone at http://www.livejournal.com/community/bookarts/ who was looking for folks who had used papyrus. Having had done so, I posted a comment or two there, and said I'd have snaps here. Well, they're from my Clie's camera, so the quality isn't as high as one would like, but here they are. I'll have better ones up in a few days.

Tacket-bound journals

These journals were a lot of fun to make; I rarely use a lot of ornament, but the rough feel of the wrapper paper and the smooth twist of the artifical sinew made me crazy :-)

Two of Two

This piece was executed at the same time as the Greek Soldiers below. I presented them to a pair of friends some time ago, so the blocks are not of a piece though they are paired. If I do say so myself, I am very pleased with the tree.

And now, some books!

The purple book I especially like because of the pastepaper cover. Being new to making my own, I didn't know that it's bad form for the pigment-and-paste mixture to have tooth and texture. On the other hand, the book has been used semi-regularly and only shows wear at the usual places (corners, hinge, and tail of the spine) and nothing's flaked off yet.


These blue books are rather smaller than the purple one; they measure abut 4" high and 2.5" high compared to the purple book's 9" height. This pastepaper is more traditional; there is no texture and the colors are more reflective of their wateroclor nature.

Bird at the Nest

This is a wood engraving, one of my first efforts. The fine lines are one of the whys I love working with wood; not even the hard tan lino blocks will allow such fine lines.

And on that note

This is a small (about 3 x 5) wood piece I engraved but never made a print off of (intentionally). Sometimes, it's all about the beauty of the grain and heft of the wood; other times I have no problem making the prints and scoring the face of the block to prevent further prints. I plan on making a linocut of this during the next press run in order to make prints.

This is what an art book looks like

This is a polymer clay & woodblock book I did for a show at the San Francisco Center for the Book a few years ago. It tells a Tolstoi story about a king who seeks wisdom; it moved me a great deal when I first read it. The illustration is of the king as he sleeps in a poor wiseman's barn. The other side of the block shows what I think is the better art piece, though; it shows the king setting off into the woods to seek wisdom.