448 artists' books: found paper book.

"found paper" is anything that is found, just not in a store. i searched around the house for found paper and came across many things i could have made a book out of. for instance, misc ticket stubs from the tube and amtrak/metrolink. it could have been a "travel" book or i could have made a bible-thick stab-bound book of verizon wireless comps, from my previous agency life.

i decided to bind a collection of newspapers that i saved this summer. i stashed away every olympic section (BEIJING 2008) of the LA Times from thursday to sunday in the month the olympics were held. i have a weird olympic fetish, if you haven't noticed. so, with that, i decided to make a box/case to preserve the finished book for years to come.








the case consisted of the cardboard backs of large sketch books (found) and layout paper from the my old drawing classes (10 years old, found) holding the hinges together and to cover the flaps i used international calendar pages that were laying around in my classroom (found) and an advertisement with poster-boy michael phelps that slides into a newspaper stand (found... at the ralph's in brea). i used mucho PVA glue and some matte medium to decopauge the covers.




the actual book, the newspaper spreads, were too thin to bind directly. so, i reinforced the newsprint with book cloth in each spread's spine and sewed them together with dental floss. (found, found, and found). still thinking about covering the inside of the box, just haven't found the right paper or cloth.


and there you have it.

i also did another "found paper" book from another mini collection that i found laying around. for some reason, i've been saving the six-pack boxes of project artschool beer — getting me through this experience. they really had no purpose until now. i cut them up and bound them. then added a nifty little handle.





this book can probably be taken to another level or two. but i'll worry about that later...

voila. found paper.

this class is pretty much just therapy. a break from everything else in the world. i love these friday mornings when i can just escape the stresses of freelance and life in general.

a couple other little binding exercises i tested:
a stab-bound book (no glue used) with handmade paper...




and a pamphlet-stitch book (no glue used)...






and finally to wrap up this book blog, a sneak preview into the narrative book i'm creating now, "familiar days spent in unfamiliar ways." it's based on 4 days of sleeping in my car in random places throughout orange county. thus far, i've covered davey board with moss green book cloth and finished the inside covers with a coffee stained map of north orange county. the contents will be used papers from all over the place, wrappers and such, with xylene transfer xerox's of my story and photos. i'm not sure how long it will be but i'm guessing somewhere around 30 pages (stab bound).