Sunday 26 May 2013

Busy Busy Bees are we...............................


I uploaded my 'book' on Friday night to el Blurb.   Let me tell you ......... everything that could go wrong - in the process of uploading  - DID.!!

I had to upload the images three times in total.  I left so many blank pages that I was worried that the software would automatically assume that I was a 'brainless wonder'  and most likely decline from forwarding me through to the point where I could submit the material for my book and just pay the money.


above a screen grab of 12 of the files generated towards 
this altered pod project by Friday night

No discount by the way after all my efforts........... ho hum !!   BUT........  after I'd  had all this frustration and exasperation with the upload............ I just wanted to pay the money and for the task "to be done"........... it truly was quite a contrast to the last time I did an upload.  Friday night probably wasn't the most ideal time to do the upload now that I think on it.

Actually in a typical Blurb manner - they only went and sent me a discount code today........ (tut !!)


  the other ten images I made for the book


Additionally I wasn't going to do anything to the cover and was going to just leave it blank.  I mean I was planning that I would be encasing it, in a hardcover after all, so it was irrelevant.

However in the end I did throw an image on there and inserted the title of the book as Untitled" by 'Anonymous', as the author.
I thought to myself that again the software might assume I had forgotten it and refuse to push it through to the 'printing the book' phase.

 And because I had had so much trouble with uploading it and then locating it, each time I revisited the website to continue working  -  I just wanted it to be finished.  They really could do with a dashboard on there to clearly delineate where to find things.

 I was so exhausted and by then it was two in the morning..........So now I can get back to the intaglio/inkjet print edition I am doing for another project for impact.

I spent way too much time doing the intaglio plate for it using carborundum on Perspex  BUT its done and now I can get on with its background.  I already know how that part is going to look so I just need to try out different media and then select the best one as the 'back ground'.

Its very good to hear how some of you are getting on I just hope those that haven't been posting on here are doing OK?.     Everyone was invited on here to be able to create posts so its not for the want of an invitation.  Perhaps you are all working away quietly and don't have time to write posts on top of all your other commitments.  I can understand that.

As well as getting the imagery finished for this project I also had to send a book off to David Faithful for an artists book exhibition he's curating for another Impact project.  That book is from the most recent edition of 15 books that I made for the Book Art Object Project which I am a member of, these past few years .  Its only the second edition of books I have ever created.

One thing I know about for 2014 and that is that I will not be making an edition of artists books.

Making this unique artists book for me is wonderfully liberating.  Its so good to know I don't have to be limited by the fact that I have to things I know I can repeat 15 times to a high standard.

I can do whatever I like - I just wish I had realised that Blurb books were 'perfect bound' which of course is the most ironic of terminology given that they are very much not perfectly bound.  Had they been in signature format it would have made all the difference.

If any of you become aware of a Print On Demand service that binds their books using stitch then please do let us all know.

Saturday 25 May 2013

I wanted to post some snap shots of what I am up to. I have been working on altering my pod book for the last week or so. Lately the way I work is to print a lot of different elements on Asian papers and cut them out and then colle them. So, I am approaching the book in the same way. Many of the elements to be colled are printed intaglio, some screen. A colleague who teaches book arts showed me how to take the POD book apart and we discussed my possibilities for rebinding. I forgot which one we decided would work the best... Anyway, it will involve sewing, I liked that look much better than the perfect binding. THe content of the book is related to cellular structures as well as patterns that are inspired from India. I have been combining the two a great deal in the last year or so. I think I should be done with the pages, well at least the first round, they may get altered more than once, in a week or so. I am planning on a soft cover as I do not like the way her hard cover examples looked.





Friday 24 May 2013

So....I have all my images now....I am satisfied that they are a coherent gathering that flows and I have enjoyed the process immensely.  I am now embarked on a journey of research regarding the shadow, wonderful.  And as you can see from the images I have altered my title.  I love it when things link up....In the past I have taken lots of photos of shadows and not really connected with it until now and I have also suddenly remembered the only poem I learnt by heart as a child: My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson.  And of course researching Carl Jung's  construct of the shadow which is opening up lots of possibilities.

 The Dummy Cover

I am just trying to work out now if there should be some blank pages scattered throughout the published to book to add bits on to or cut bits out.....I am thinking perhaps that I want to somehow create shadows with the book itself.  All a bit of a learning curve as I am new to altered books.









Tuesday 21 May 2013

I am gathering images ready to organize within the book and wondering if it is best to just put the images in and not think about how I am going to alter the book OR make a working model and try and alter it before I finally publish so that I am aware of pitfalls or think I wish I had done it this way.....

Saturday 18 May 2013

So Much for my Great Schedule !!


I've been working really hard this past week on my imagery for my book and am pleased to have got 10 images finished so far.  Heres a sheet of clippings from some of them.

Hope everyone else is getting on OK

Don't forget to go to the discount page at the top of the blog on the nav bar before you go into blurb to set up your discount.  Ironically I cant use it myself unless one of you use it beforehand.