It seems strange that two weeks have passed since my class with Daniel Kelm, but I didn't want to forget to share some pictures and notes with you.
One of the things that impressed me from the start was how prepared Daniel was. He runs his own studio (The Wide Awake Garage) and I know a number of people who have interned with him...I imagine they help get him ready for a class. All of our materials for both days came in this wonderful packet along with instructions.
We spent the first day working on a coptic style book structure with wire-edge binding. The binding allows pages to swing almost completely from front to back and the book lies flat beautifully. The pages are a core of museum board wrapped with a light paper with a wire in the valley on one side of the wrap. Holes punched in the valley side of the page allow access to the wire and a series of knots ties all of the pages together. (This is a poor description for an elegant structure.) Daniel uses glue sheets and a dry mount press for his pages...materials not usually found in the home studio. But I think it could be done with PVA if you work clean and use good weights. Here's a photo of one my classmates tying her book. Note the use of a floss threader to get the thread through the holes and the masking tape on her pinky fingers to protect them while tying knots.
On the second day, we worked on an accordion with triangular pages that folded into a tetrahedron. The page construction was done in a similar fashion to the previous day's work, but the knotting is a little different. Daniel spent many years as a chemistry professor and knows the value of a good visual demonstration. Here he is showing the knot using a long cord and the arms of classmate and book artist Jody Williams.
The resulting structure is really a delight to hold and to use. The kidlets played with the tetrahedron every day while they were here. And the possibilities for other structures seem to be endless.
You can see more photos of this binding in the online gallery at Garage Annex School.
3 comments:
I am fascinated by this structure and have looked all over the web for instructions. Is Daniel Kelm the only source?
Also, are you aware that quite a number of your photos do not open to larger versions when one double-clicks them?
Dianne, I'm not sure why I'm having photo problems...and also not sure how to fix them!
As for the binding structure, Daniel Kelm is the main source, although Sara Langworthy (now at U of Iowa) has taught it as well. There may be others. Are you on the Book Arts List Serve? You might ask if anyone else is teaching it.
RL, your descriptions are fascinating. I'll look forward to seeing these in person -- maybe you can bring them to NYC.
As to the size of your photos -- are they large images to begin with? If not, then maybe they're opening only to the original size, which would explain Dianne's comment.
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