Bear With Me Again

While making Bear With Me, I made some mistakes and changed my mind about what to include. I also made some tests to see how I would like a certain effect. So I had a lot of pages or pieces of collage parts that didn't go into the book. I hate to just toss these leftovers. If I add them to my stash of collage material, they often don't get used. Occasionally I make postcards or greeting cards with them. But this time I made three little books. They are each 3 inches wide. It was also a chance to test some binding styles. These books can be seen larger in my artist's books flickr set.


The book on the left is bound with a pamphlet stitch in two places. I don't like this one much, the book splits open in the center, my thread is too heavy and the pages are also heavy. However it has some nice imagery in it. The middle book is my test for wire edge binding. I like this one a lot. I'm not sure what the structure of the one on the right would be called, it might be a block book. The pages were folded, as for a codex, but I glued them back to back instead of sewing. The maps are white on the back, so gluing the pages back to back hides all the whiteness.


Here's a quick sketch of the structure. The pages lay much flatter than I expected, pressed overnight under heavy books. And it feels very nice in my hand, an important thing for books. I was running out of imagery at this point, so I had to make a few things to complete the book.