Hellena's Chicago Theatre Piece

I made this tiny 1" by 1" book for my friend Hellena Jang.
We met a few weeks ago in an improv class and she's not feeling well, so I made her a book.
The cover is from a Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind program.
The tiny pages have segments from the Art Institute of Chicago tickets, as well as tickets to see improv shows like TJ and Dave, and Harold teams at iO Chicago.

Personal Histories

Personal histories international artist book exhibition:
Some of my book buddies from Sydney book art group were in this.
Some splendid work!



'via Blog this'

Nicola's Macbeth

My friend Nicola created a marvellous calligraphy piece many years ago.
It's one of the witches speeches from Macbeth (Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair, through the fog and filthy air).
It was calligraphed using a piece of balsa on a long piece of plain wallpaper. And a spatter of red "Blood" added (with acrylic paint).

My quest today was to make a book of several similar pieces (she did several drafts, as calligraphers do, each perfect enough for me, but not for a calligrapher).
I made 3 different books: a long concertina (21inches x 4inches), to which I will add a hard cover in red velvet (maybe with a dagger or a broomstick as a closure?).

Then the second structure is a snake book / leperello / single sheet book: I cut the sheet (maybe 8 feet long) into a single snake and folded into a 3 inch square concertina.

The concertina stands coincidentally about 3 inches high.

I cut it to fit inside a box from a Moet and Chandon champagne bottle box. (not the red on the 

Then i cut down the box to have an unevenly closing lid.

And discovered that looked like a crown or a castle (or both).

The remaining box bit looked so great I photographed them together. 

The first photo is mid-cut (8 feet is a lot of 3 inch cuts!

Plans to complete this piece: 

• get a copy of Macbeth to line the inside of the crown / castle boxes
• maybe cover the outside of the moet box (I'll be sad to miss the red letters, but the box needs covering)
• consider using red nail polish to make a seal or recover the lettering

The heater's fan revealed that this piece has a "slinky"-like quality... see video here and here (26 seconds and 23 seconds).

I remembered half way through that I still had other copies of Nicola's Macbeth to use as background! the green cutting mat is not as pretty!

The 3rd structure is similar to one I made at Sturt Summer School a few weeks ago. It's taken from Alisa Golden's Handmade books (100+ structures) which is my new bible. 

Each page has a string through it and then the strings get tied together to make a single book.

My intention (when I'm back from holidays in a few weeks) is to:

1. finish attaching ties

2. tie the pages togeher

3. add some beads (fair and foul are photographed here)

4. cut some windows in the tower box (this piece is 6 x 3 inch pages, so they fit inside the taller tower / crown box

5. or maybe I could make some small modelling clay icons (skulls? hands? a head?) instead of (or as well as) the beads.

John Doyle's works

I met the hardworking and talented John Doyle when doing an artist's books course with Sara Bowen at Sturt Summer School in Bowral (it's where I met Avril Makula).
Here are some of John's works, currently exhibiting in Canberra.
The details are:

SHOW RUNS: February 11 – March 3 2012

Where: FORM STUDIO and GALLERY

1/30 Aurora Ave

Queanbeyan NSW

If you're in or near Canberra, go see it!

We love books

I am privileged to be a part of a group of book artists who meet monthly and share ideas and inspire each other.
They are:


Sandra Winkworth

Concertina book of drawings and found paper objects

Barbara Bartlett

This glorious book was made of tea bags

Bernard Appassamy

Sacred Hands: Shortlisted for the Blake Prize and Director's Cut exhibition 2009

Now part of the collection of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital's museum

Cindy Tonkin (me)

Upcycled copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales rescued from
a fence in Newtown: in a box covered in the same pages.

Lisa Giles

Lisa's piece is at the back - an origami chain made
from upcycled real estate magazine pages

Julie Bookless

Box and book made from old maps

Avril Makula

Mrs Merivale: a Flag Book with text from Leaves of Grass by Patrick White

Cathie Edlington

Island of Rust: Double Concertina

Gary Smith

The Day at Braille Beach  made from found materials including empty sushi soy sauce bottles

My friend Anna

This is my friend Anna Warren's blog.
Just look at her beautiful drawings and paintings and miniatures and prints...