Bookmaking – Page 48 – Green Chair Press Blog

I Started Early, Took the Dog…

Over the winter and spring, I’ve continued to play with a variation on the Turkish Map Fold. Many of my haiku are about my walks around town and my neighborhood, so for this one I designed a book that unfolds to reveal an imaginary map of my early morning ramblings, walking my (also imaginary) dog. Ten original haiku trace the path, narrating the journey. I’ve called it “I Started Early, Took the Dog…” See the pictures below. I’ve made an edition of 35 — available in my shop here. See all my posts on the Turkish Map Fold here.

Karussell

Richard Minsky listed the book below, by Hedi Kyle, on ebay recently. It’s entitled “Karussell” and Minsky described it as 1993. 12″ h x 11″ diam. Printed papers, dyed thread, machine sewing, folded handmade paper extensions. Roundabout construction. Unique. Provenance: Karussell was exhibited in the 1993 exhibition Hedi Kyle & Her Influence: 1977-1993 at the Center for Book Arts in New York City.

KARUSSELL by HEDI KYLE

Bookmaking for Kids

Felt & Wired did a nice write-up about my friend Cathy’s blog Bookmaking with Kids. Cathy’s posted dozens of book-centric projects suitable for kids and teachers, categorized by age, structure and subject. Take a look at the interview here or read Cathy’s blog here.

Green Salad: Another Turkish Map Fold Example

Green Salad’s triple Turkish map-fold structure both conceals and reveals a poem nestled in the lettuce leaves, just as love can both hide and manifest itself in such simple activities as preparing and eating food.

I found this example, and the quote above, of the Turkish Map Fold in The Book as Art, a lovely illustrated volume of artists’ books collected by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC. The book is by Katherine Glover and made of Tyvek.

Deepak Chopr’s Map Fold Book

Most people find my shop in a very mundane way — a typical response to “how did you find me” is “I searched for ‘artist book’ on Etsy.” But last week I got an unexpected and pleasant answer from a woman who bought one of my bookmaking kits. She told me that she had seen a charity auction for The Lunchbox Fund that included a book of images and eight meditations handwritten by Deepak Chopra. She went on to say “I so enjoy origami and this book enchanted me by the way it was constructed. I googled the Turkish map fold and selected the images search. I clicked on one of your photographs and checked out your website.”
Intrigued by the Turkish map fold reference, I looked for the auction, which had just ended. The book went for $820! Here’s the description as well as nice photographs showing the book opening…

Reflecting on the personal journey, each page is folded into a Turkish map and arranged as an accordion which bursts open, blossoming to reveal the colorful text and images within. The covers are embroidered in a floral motif with stem and running stitches in cadmium yellow on Marc Jacobs teal wool cloth and mounted onto Japanese Unry-shi Kozo board. 5” by 5”. Made in collaboration with Alaska L. McFadden. Auction photos by David Belisle.

Do also check out Alaska McFadden’s website and her other books.

Popups

I’ve got a few ideas for pop-up books, but when I run across them in in my notebook it’s not long before I remember how much work they are to construct, since I hand-cut all the pieces. I’ve been thinking about getting a die cutting machine that will cut pieces directly from Illustrator. Mary Jeanne Linford uses this fancy one to make her pop-up books. She has some nice youtube videos showing them off:

No Dog, No: six reasons not to own a dog
Tools, a popup about carpenters tools
A Bainbridge ABC, a ABC book about Bainbridge Island, Washington.

Here’s a still from the tool pop-up