The fifth book in the collaboration with Fiona Dempster has just taken place. There is one more when the books will be posted off early in January 2024
Within my bundles of papers from Fiona was a piece of card 25 x 30cm with bold calligraphy all over one side.
This book took a lot of thought and I wondered how I could use this piece of card, making use of its properties. Of course it came to me – I treated it as a piece of cloth, I folded, manipulated and cut the whole, just as we would for dressmaking, not a scrap was wasted! In the C17th and C18th, a length of cloth was called a piece, the yardage was variable and it was so expensive that every bit was used. It was also a time when sewing thread was not as strong as it is today and when gathering of the cloth was needed, small pleats were made and then oversewn to make it flat.
The card was divided into two, half for each of us, then folded into eight, laid flat, folded the other way so dividing it in two, top and bottom. Then I cut along this folded line leaving one section uncut and the concertina was folded into shape. I backed the card with painted tissue paper. It is a book format that I like, it achieves a long length and there is an opportunity for a flash of colour from the reverse.
The cover is a collagraph print with inserted text and the inside is calligraphy using the title words and silver pen.
The book is 4.5cm x 7cm and secured with red elastic.
Fiona’s book was stunning, she used the Indian cotton rag paper which I often choose to use and folded it to create ripples extending out from a single pebble in the centre. She will be writing more about her book in the future.
I have found lots of joy in the collaboration, so often we are thinking similar thoughts about construction, ideas and about materials and also the huge distance between us provides a different understanding of community.
Annwyn Dean 