Week 46: 29 Dresses

The Hwy 311 Flea Market near Sofia, NC

   The book-of-the-week for this week, 29 Dresses, is about a collection. Some days the bustle and hubbub of life seem to rise in a crescendo through objects... Whether it's chinaware, furniture, a certain child's toy, or a rack of sequined ball gowns... each has its own story.. signifying a sort of chapter in the book of a person's life. Recently, an outing to the Highway 311 Flea Market in rural North Carolina illustrated that same energy and narrative. While walking through a labrynth of clothing, chinaware, furniture, toys, military memorabilia, old tools, and more... the fullness of life was oddly displayed in the discarded remnants and the cheap merchandise. 

The cover

    The cased-in cover of 29 Dresses has hand-dyed indigo bookcloth and marbled cover paper. The title plate is letterpress printed with Antique Caslon typeface and indigo blue ink. Looking down on the book, the 29 dresses, glued onto the stiff pages, give the book a slightly rumpled, textured effect. One by one, the dresses tell a story...

the glued-on dresses and indigo bookcloth spine pieces.

Dresses of a child's book and a pastepaper painting

Dresses of a Paris map and gardening seed catalogue

Dresses of notebook paper and Japanese cloud paper

Dresses of a magazine page and a monoprint in pink

Dresses of a collograph print and a peacock feathers print

Each of the dresses in 29 Dresses has it's own story... just like the racks of clothes and the tables of goods at the Highway 311 Flea Market.

Inside the labyrinth of things

To make paper folded dresses, check out the You-tube video www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp3Aehoo-w.

Week 45: The Reminder of Christmas Past

   The book-of-the-week for Week 45 is The Reminder of Christmas Past. This little stiff leaf book is a three dimensional assembly of stiff paper triangles that have been folded in half then glued on their adjoining outer sides. Depending on the scale, this book structure can fill several useful guises, from holiday tree ornament... to door stop. 

This particular book accompanies the ongoing House series.

The poem, The Reminder of Christmas Past is handwritten inside with sepia toned calligraphy ink and an old fashioned pen and nib...

The Reminder of Christmas Past

It stands in the yard

somewhat alone -

The small fir tree

A relic from some long ago

Christmas.

Bought with the fervor,

the impending

importance

of the yearly

drama played out

as Love, Devotion, Joy and Peace

One night a year.

So it stands, somewhat alone -

in the yard. Because

trees should not

be grown, harvested,

sold,

used for

one night a year

and discarded! No!

So it was harvested with its roots

intact, and after the celebration, was

planted in the corner of the yard...

an odd reminder of Joy and

Devotion, Love and

Peace.

Not just a singular book about a place in time, this little tree is part of the setting... it moves around the books of the House series as some toy soldier on movements. It stands sentry by the tree house stairs, or perches on the porch veranda.

When all the doors of the old house and the tree house and garden shed are flung open, it stands firmly in the center of the stage.

...and in the corner of the yard at Orange Lantern Press, the real little tree stands guard at the beginning of the driveway.

Week 44: Ode to Stairs

   The book-of-the-week for week 44 is titled Ode to Stairs. It is an additional book to the House series. Ode to Stairs completes the Garden Shed and The Tree House book set...maybe.

The front cover of the book has a cut-out silhouette of a staircase over pastepaper and sepia toned sun-printed kozo. It was planned to resemble the real stairs leading to the tree house and garden shed in my own backyard.

The soft spine cased-in book opens to a single folio which is letterpress printed with the title, Ode to Stairs. The folio has been affixed to the case so it's centerfold is at the base of the book rather than along the spine. 

That way, when the page is pulled down, the stairs rise up as if they are leading up to the tree house. The stairs are a type of box pop-up known as origamic architecture. Read about architectural origami at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origamic_architecture. 

   The poem was letterpress printed along the side of the pop-up. Hand-marbled paper was used for the background and a grey-tinted white ink used for the letterpress printing. The font is 12-point Caslon.

Climbing up stairs takes some effort, but once at the top, there is always a feeling of having accomplished something. Is there the same feeling when descending?

Week 43: The Tree House

   There's a magic place in every child's backyard. Whether it's real or imagined, the tree house is something children know should be part of a home. Stories about tree houses in literature include the delightful treetop home of the Swiss Family Robinson, Tarzan and Jane's jungle abode, and the Ewok Village in the Star Wars trilogy. All of these literary tree homes have the enticing aura of a treasure chest... full of fascinating and charming features... absolutely irresistible and somehow perfectly reasonable... Because a tree house has the ability to morph into anything! That magic is the subject of the book-of-the-week for week 43, The Tree House. 

   The Tree House is a stiff board book printed on the Pearl letterpress here at Orange Lantern Press. The illustrations are lithograph prints of line drawings. The little book nests inside it's own tree house, an open structure which rises up from the Garden Shed box of Week 42. The four corner posts of the tree house are boxes which have been covered in paper dyed with walnut hulls. A piece of book board, also covered in walnut hull-dyed paper, is glued to the top end of the corner posts to make a sturdy frame structure. The etui box made for Week 42 Garden Shed roof rests atop it all. This is the poem of The Tree House...

The tree house and it's little book

Up above the forest pathways

above the frog holes

and the leaf piles

cradled in the treetops 

of The Woods

or some backyard

... cradled in the treetops...

this nest

this clubhouse

this lookout

this sky-ship

this play house

beckons.

...this play house beckons.

Ascend the stairs

clamber up the tree limbs

or scale the ladder, 

arm-over-arm

scale the ladder...

up

up

up

up, up, up...

to this nest

this stand

this stage

this dias

...this stage...

Oh, Exhilaration!

the summit is reached

with a sigh

then breathing in

all the exhalations 

of all those leaves

...the summit is reached!

and the sky

so close by

kisses the cheeks

and busses the eye lids

in the Tree House.

...and the sky so close by...

   There's a headiness one gets when perched in a tree house. Who can say what causes it? What physiological phenomena are triggered by the slightly elevated stature combined with the open-air atmosphere in a largely green-hued aura? Is it just more magic?

treasures in the tree house...

Week 42: Garden Shed

   For many homes, the yard and garden are absolutely necessary to the architecture of the home and the life of the family... They are the outdoor rooms. One small building which facilitates that outdoor life is the Garden Shed...the book-of-the-week for Week 42. Garden Shed augments the books already in the House series, Old House, Attic, Window, and Front Porch Facade.

Garden Shed with House series 

This week's book is stretching the stiff-leaf binding concept quite a bit, because it's actually two boxes stacked atop each other. The boxes, are known as etui boxes, from the Old French word estuier, meaning to enclose. These small ornate boxes have collapsable sides which fall flat when the lid is lifted; and traditionally, held sewing kit items, cosmetics, or other small articles. This same structure was used for the Week 32: Laundry Poem.  http://paperbuttons.blogspot.com/2013/08/week-32-laundry-poem.html. 

   The boxes can be shaped as squares, rectangles, pyramids.. actually, as long as the hinging is set so the walls close properly and also drop flat when opened... any shape can be made into an etui box!

Remove the roof-shaped etui box..and peak inside!

   This piece has a roof top etui which is shaped like a pyramid and opens flat. Inside is a space where dried flowers, leaves or collected seed pods can be stored. When the roof and eaves are removed, the walls of the bottom etui (the shed part) fall flat. Inside the shed etui are four folded star books... These are also glued together in the stiff-leaf manner by gluing the backside of one star folio to the backside of the next star folio.. and so on... Like many garden sheds, this shed seems to be jam-packed and bursting at the seams!

as the walls drop down, the star-book chapters are revealed... neat and tidy

Collaged onto each of the Garden Shed walls and each folio of the four star-book chapters is a cut-out from a vintage seed catalog. 

something for the garden on every page... the possibilities of a Garden Shed!

The four chapters are: Garden Plants, Herb Seeds, Vegetable Seeds, and Flower Seeds. Eventually, entropy takes over and the folded-star pages burst out! ....just like a garden might do after a summer of constant rain... 

Some garden sheds are neat and tidy... others, not so much!

everything stored inside...

At the end of the day, everything gets put back into it's place in the Garden Shed.

Week 41: Front Porch Facade

  Week 41 book-of-the-week is titled Front Porch Facade. It's the fourth book in the House series that began with Old House in Week 38. Front Porch Facade is a rhyme about a certain front porch.

Covered in antique marbled paper, pastepaper, and silk bookcloth

It joins the books Old House, Attic, and Window... 

the book, Front Porch Facade... beside The House Series box set 

   The book slides inside it's own slipcase... which also serves as the physical porch of the House.

The slipcase porch is covered in pastepaper and marbled paper

Front Porch Facade in its own slipcase porch

Inside the little stiff-leaf book are the pastepainted folios and and the letterpress rhyme about a neglected  part of the house...

Looking down on the Front Porch Facade

paste paint, letterpress, and shadows...

This is the silly little rhyme, Front Porch Facade...

Front Porch Facade

The old swing hung

on the Front Porch;

an anniversary gift

from long ago

Promise of evenings spent

sharing the events of the day

and rocking to and fro

The hope was there

in those early years:

the perfect match for

the family life

the toasts, and boasts, and cheers.

So the swing was strung

from links of chain:

it hung as if to say

Here Lives a Happy Family

Come visit us and stay!

On the surface it greeted all

comers. It's thick enamel pate

the pure and simple whiteness

Welcome beacon to the estate.

But year after year it hung

forgot; the Front Porch for

distant guests, and

peddlers and beggars

not FAMILY like the rest.

The slats grew cobwebbed

and dirty - shrouded with

patches of mold;

and the old porch swing

just hung there

swung by the wind and the cold.

When the Front Porch was

newly painted

the old swing was taken down,

hung in a tree in the backyard

...perhaps a better place found.

Now, beside the Front

Porch door sits a

handmade oaken pew

a testament to faith and love

and covered in mildew.

beyond the Front Porch Facade...

Week 40: Window

  Windows are commonplace everyday structures that still draw attention and create interest. Many, many architects and craftsmen, from Le Corbusier to Louis Comfort Tiffany, have designed windows which are interesting and beautiful. Windows let sunlight and warmth into a structure. They let the person within see outside. They form a protective barrier and provide ventilation. All of these attributes improve one's view of the world or personal comfort. And I have always been infatuated with windows. This week's book-of-the-week, an addition to the earlier books-of-the-week Old House and Attic, is titled Window.

Window attached to the box for the books Old House and Attic

   Window is housed in a gusset pocket that looks like a window and has been attached to the box made for the Week 38 book, Old House. Black heavyweight Fabriano® paper and a sheet of stiff mylar were used to construct the gusset pocket. It has been designed so the little 3 inch by 3.5 inch accordion book slips right inside.

inside the gusset pocket...

The pocket flap (rooftop) of marbled paper, is held in place by tension caused by the rounded fold. It simply pulls out to get to the little book and remove it. The cover board has a photograph taken of some of the windows of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, France.

a window pocket and Window the book

The accordion book is held shut with a black satin ribbon. When the ribbon is untied, the book expands into it's zigzag form, revealing an array of box-cut pop-outs which resemble windows.

opened up as an accordion book...

As the book is opened the side-view resembles a sort of gear wheel... a bridge... or a fan... all depending on how far back the covers are pulled... and your point of view.

opened... the view from the fore-edge

But looked at individually, the pages of Window are clearly about the windows themselves. Eleven pages of windows from all over the world are depicted. In buildings from historic eras to modern times... public, private, or communal... religious or secular... the windows not only let in the outside, but let us see in. These are a few of the stars of Window.

 Cathedral de Notre Dame, Paris France

 a chinese alleyway...

Musee des Beaux Arts in Angers, France

through a temple gate...

ruins of Bluebeard's castle, 1025AD France...

e

a Buddhist monastery in the Taiwanese mountains

sleek skyscraper and Taipei 101...

...kitchen window in Pittsburgh

Once the book has been viewed and the windows have brought to mind your own favorite windows, the little book can serve as a play toy.. moving the accordion body into a variety of lovely geometric shapes..

....opened like a flower

... and creating still lifes... 

A daisy growing outside your window?

...or as cat toys.

Charlemagne gets the book

Charlemagne eats the book

Windows are architectural elements which add immeasurable quality to buildings by letting the outside enter the interior of a structure, and thus forming a connection between nature and man. Regardless of the age of a building, this enlightenment can never be too small.

 the back cover: Taipei 101...in 2007 world's tallest building and almost ALL windows