2013 – Handcrafted Books by Michele Olsen

First Use of Sewing Frame

In his retirement my husband has taken to making fine furniture. I’ve been the gleeful recipient of a wall cabinet and standing cabinet especially made to hold my books and the books of other artists. So, I couldn’t ask for more, but I usually do. This has resulted in some custom bookbinding equipment: book presses, drawers for sheets of paper, jigs for woodworking, and most recently my sewing frame. I’ve never set up a sewing frame and after making substitutes for brass keys and fiddling around with cords, I managed to complete a book of my own as I followed my scattered notes from a 5 day workshop with Tim Ely taken last summer. I love the frame and was able to avoid pulling the cords into the interior of the book this time. I am also a convert to his technique for making book cloth—but I get ahead of myself—more on that in a later post. Hopefully next time it won’t take longer to set up the frame than to sew the book.

December 8, 2013/1 Comment/by Michele

My Books

Book Exhibit: Fullerton Library

We spend much of the Fall in our cabin near Fullerton, Nebraska. The cabin is located between the two libraries of St. Paul (45 minute drive) and Fullerton (25 minute drive). I like to describe our cabin’s location relative to the location of books and internet. Last Fall, the librarian of the little library in Fullerton asked if I would bring some of my books to display in the kiosk and it’s turned out to be a great experience all around. The library patrons have enjoyed seeing book structures that stretch the definition of “the book” and they have an opportunity to make a simple accordion structure this Tuesday evening. My books were also featured on the front page of the Nancy County Journal. It was a treat to cut it out and send it to my mom—hope she puts it on the fridge. I’m sure I’ll be doing this again next Fall and hope it inspires some new book artists.

October 21, 2013/2 Comments/by Michele

Workshop Followup

OLLI Fall Class: Transfers

I’m so late in posting this! We’ve been in transit, had car issues, lots of visitors to our little piece of heaven in Nebraska and….YES….rain, thunder, lightning, and some flooding. However, we missed the snow in western Nebraska and the tornadoes in eastern Nebraska. What a start to our visit.

In September OLLI students got together to learn how to make transfers and images for their books. We used hammers, heat, packing tape, and watercolor to produce some very interesting nature prints.

Tables and workstations:

Tools and Materials:

Exploring:

John using heat transfer:

A successful heat transfer:

Everyone finds something they like to work on.

Watercolor transfers—these were favorites!

Thank you Gisela for all of your plants and flowers.

October 7, 2013/1 Comment/by Michele

My Books, Past Workshops

Blizzard Book

I have a book that is part of the International Printmaking Conference in Dundee, Scotland. My book Equations is near the bottom of the table on the right edge. This is a book I made for an international exchange. One never knows where our books may show up! This is exciting and thanks to my friend Ellen for bringing it to my attention. I used a gelatin plate and printing inks to print plants from Humboldt County, California. These images were then enhanced using Photoshop. The wooden covers are made from recycled Bubinga and the pages were inserted into a Blizzard structure.

I love book arts!
I will be using this structure as a model for an OLLI class on this fun book.

September 1, 2013/1 Comment/by Michele

Folded, How-To, Mentors

Tim Ely Workshop: The Sketchbook

I make it a point to attend Focus on Book Arts (FOBA) in Forest Grove, Oregon. It is offered every other summer and I wouldn’t miss it because of the quality of the instruction and instructors, the idyllic setting, the 24-hour bookish ambience, and the chance to spent time with many book arts friends. I’ve always loved Tim Ely‘s books because of his artwork—pen & ink, bright colors, scientific imagery, and unusual topics. Tim’s workshop took five glorious days and i finished two books that I love and learned a lot in the process. Tim is a wonderful, inspirational teacher who really wants to bring out the best in each of his students. I felt that my artistic process was nurtured and supported in every possible way. You might enjoy some of the books I’ve read at his recommendation:
The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination by Jacob Bronowski
No More Secondhand Art by Peter London
101 Things to Learn in Art School by Kit White
FreePlay by Stephen Nachmanovitch

The following photos are some of the highlights of those five days.

Tim Ely is cooking wheat paste glue. We used it to create bookcloth and to glue endpapers. It also works on leather and wood!

Bookcloth from my hand-dyed fabric.

Tim designed this sewing frame.

Squaring up—ready to glue.

One of my favorite Tim Ely books. He has fabric custom printed with his images.

Tim’s substitute for a plough. Cutting the edges all the same length.

He uses a French paring knife by Jeff Peachey.

Tim is particular about his pens and nibs. In many cases he manufactures his own handles.

Tim instructing with a stack of his wonderful books.

Don’t you love his artwork? He uses his handmade books as journals for creative thinking. He makes plans for books knowing that the final book may not look like any of his drawings.

Beth and I with our four books.

A closeup of Beth’s book—love the color.

This is such a wonderful cover using paste and handmade tools.

Some of the handmade tools—simple but clever.

More luscious colors and books.

Tim enjoyed talking to all of the participants—he is truly interested in student work.

August 28, 2013/2 Comments/by Michele

My Books, Sewn Spine

Last Journal finished

The last book in the OLLI course Leather Journals is finally finished. It’s mine (instructor) and I know it’s the last one to be completed. I used the leather cover to demonstrate the longstitch sewing of the spine and hadn’t intended to actually complete a journal. I cut the leather from a blue suede jacket (shoes would have been too small) and the beautiful buttonholes were too interesting to ignore. I don’t know what I will use this one for; I usually use a journal for some kind of theme. The journal hasn’t told me what it wants to be yet.

August 14, 2013/3 Comments/by Michele

Sewn Spine, Workshop Followup

Finished Journals

Students in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) classes have finished their books and every single one is wonderful. This is the first sewn structure for almost all of the ten students and they showed extraordinary patience with the needles, 36 inches of waxed linen thread, and tiny little beads that were added to the spine. They all helped each other and laughter was constant. I knew I had an engaged class with I couldn’t get their attention—always a good thing as far as I’m concerned. The covers were goatskin, the endpapers were handmade papers from Nepal, the text papers were Stonehenge printmaking paper. Good Job!

July 16, 2013/by Michele

Past Workshops, Sewn Spine

Long Stitch Leather Journal

This week I am teaching a book arts class for Osher Life Long Learning Institute (OLLI). The first day we will construct this book: leather covers, pages of printmaking paper, sewn longstitch spine. Day two we will explore ways to “get things” on the page. The class is this Tuesday and Thursday, 3pm-6pm. I can hardly wait, I have as much fun as the students. You can register for many inspiring, informative, and entertaining classes here.

July 8, 2013/by Michele

Folded, My Books

Book Art Object International Exchange

I joined an international exchange in January 2012 because a friend suggested that I do so….you see…one of the topics was “Equations”. I was placed in Group #4 with about 8 other artists, each with a different title. The idea was to make enough editions for everyone else in the group, plus one for Sarah Bodman whose book of short stories An Exercise for Kurt Johannessen
provided 100 titles for our editions. I know this sounds like old news but I still haven’t received several books so “the file i still open”. AND I’m still playing catch-up with my blog.

It took months for the ideas to come together and several more to experiment with my ideas and find an appropriate structure; with the serendipitous gift of some wonderful pieces of wood samples, i was on my way.

I wanted, somehow, to illustrate the interdependence of mathematics and nature. Since these books were going to be mailed to several countries, I wanted to feature the redwood forests where I live. Picking through my gelatin prints of local plants, I scanned several, thinking I would play with these and then go hiking and find other material to print. I started with not-so-nice colored prints and used Photoshop to alter the colors. Remarkably, the newer colors were so beautiful that I decided there was no need to make more gelatin prints. Lesson learned: don’t give up on things I’ve made. They can be altered! Cut them up, crop them, alter the colors, paint over them.

The pages for the Blizzard Book structure were made from a single sheet of paper made from a collage. The collage was created from torn pages of a vintage mathematics textbook, then scanned, and finally Photoshop was used to adjust the colors and add semi-transparent texture.

A redwood tree printed (heat transfer) on bands of handmade paper served as the closure for the book. The books were very small (2.5 in x 4 in) and easy to mail.

The books I have received so far are beautiful, skillfully constructed, and very creative. One of my favorite exchanges. One of the photos shows a gelatin print of redwood needles and the other shows the entire set as they were ready to be mailed (you can also see the Bubinga wooden covers).

June 16, 2013/1 Comment/by Michele

Folded, Past Workshops

Holiday Ornament

I thought I was too late to submit my proposal for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) but managed to write one and come up with some cute little books. I cannot teach the workshop until early December so it made sense to come up with something easy, seasonal, and fun. This is the result—a miniature (2″x2″) popup book. I used double sided wrapping paper for the pages and covers. This little thing doubles as a holiday ornament! I plan on making several variations, including a book for a necklace. It was a great escape from a dreary day!

June 6, 2013/by Michele