Here is the artist book I've been working on for an eternity called Earth. It is about the different views of our planet. Here in North America we always see images of Earth that include North and maybe South America but we rarely see the other continents. This book celebrates the beauty of the whole planet.
This one is number 1 in an edition of 10. I'll put together numbers 2 and 3 soon also. The rest of the edition will have to wait for me to hand color all of the interior art- it takes a long time.
Each print is a black and white linocut done with oil based ink and colored with watercolor.
I trimmed the art right to the image so it would look dramatic against the black paper of the pages.
I attached the art to the page with acid-free ATG. It's a tape used in picture framing. When you peel up the backing of the tape only adhesive is left on the art.
By laying rulers down to mark the place for the art I can get it in position quickly. It's really hard to pull up the art when the adhesive has already made contact so this saves me from having to reposition it.
These straps are a composite leather material. It's thin and strong and cheaper than leather. It's actually so thin that I glued two pieces back to back for strength. Then I trimmed the corners and sanded the ends to make the glue stick better.
I punched holes in the pages to match the holes in this wooden spine. The sewing is my favorite part!
I punched holes in my leather straps ahead of time to be sure they were all centered. Then when the pages were sewn to the spine I just had to fold the straps over and mark the holes onto the wooden covers. Then I took the covers and drilled the holes all the way through. Next I glued the straps to the cover.
I found these fun stars here. They are brads that have 2 tiny metal straps coming off the back. You put them through the hole and then open the metal pieces to lock them into place. Then I lined up the last print to be sure it would show through the cut-out correctly.
Yeah!!! It's exciting to see the book finished!
This is really beautiful, Jill! Have you ever sent out artist books to art directors?
ReplyDeleteWow, Jill! What a beautiful thing, and I can only imagine how satisfying it must feel to have it done! Very, very special.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I made two hand made books (accordian style) in college and one had a variety of styles of printed art ( lanolium print, jello print, hard and soft lanolium print, etching etc.) Books on their own take a TON of work to assemble. Then of course the prints take a long time but i can't even imagine after all that going back in and painting the images. Very Impressive!
ReplyDeleteThanks you guys!
ReplyDeleteMarsha I don't think mine would really go over very well for traditional publishing. There's not a story in this one, just images. I originally wanted to also have quotes in it that talk about the beauty of the world. Getting permission to use the quotes was difficult though. So I wrote a poem, but that didn't really work exactly right either! That's how I wound up using just images. I would love to do a larger scale book like this with text and lots of people's art and get it published. We'll see....
this is wonderful- the images are sooo...earthy in a really cool way- and thanks for the how to process- what an undertaking and so successful
ReplyDeleteReally cool! I love your design choices and process photos. =)
ReplyDeleteOh Jill, I need to see this!!!
ReplyDeleteJoAnn Paul
Wow. I'm speechless. That looks amazing! Gorgeous book!
ReplyDeleteOh Jill, it's absolutely exquisite! What an amazing accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous! Congrats! Thanks for posting the pictures. Would be awesome to see in person.
ReplyDelete