purple beet

This one is a silkscreened beet and a three signature binding.

and another interpretation of the beet…

from above.

This book is sewn with a dos-si-dos style binding where two textblocks are sewn into one extended cover, making two books that share one cover.  The text which is interspersed, woven, shredded, or glued in place is excepts from my poem Beet Love and from a short story I wrote last year.  Both the poem and the story deal with how people relate to landscape and in turn, this book explores how text relates to book form.

The text and images were transferred with wintergreen oil, giving it a watery, dreamy quality.  modified long stitch.  Winter 2009.  Photo credit Teresa Silva (http://unwornworld.blogspot.com/)

inside page

inside page

front and back covers of one side of the book; text block of the other.

other cover, beet love poem in reverse

text sewn to page, inside cover

binding. Linked modified long stitich binding

new projects

There is a farmers’ market opening soon near where I live  and I was asked to design a flier for it.

Here is the flier, done in watercolor.  They will add text to it as well.

printmaking, bookmaking

This maze book is made from a paper litho print.  The image shows a topographical map of the land surrounding the farm I worked on last summer and the words that runs along the contours of the land is the text of Beet love, my poem.

photo credit:  Teresa Silva (http://mongoosenamedt.blogspot.com/)

this is the print lying read to fold.

standing, back

standing, front

Japanese Stab Binding

Here are a few books sew with the Japanese stab binding technique, taught to me by my friend T (Unworn World Studio).

little trees. Simple Japanese stab binding. Fall 2008

beet. The dark blue beet is a stencil cut from thin paper and silkscreened onto the front and back of this book. Winter 2009.

Thinning brassicas. This image came out of a lot of sketching I've been doing for my printmaking class. I've been thinking about hands, work, and the many tasks hands perform. Modified simple Japanese stab binding. Winter 2009.

kangxi corner detail.

photo credit: Teresa Silva (http://mongoosenamedt.blogspot.com/)

Prayer for an Agricultural Future

This series of books, Prayer for an Agricultural Future, was mostly made while I was working on a farm this past summer.   They all explore, in some way or another, the theme of being connected to land and landscape and of working with the land.

Beet love

It’s a dark earth kind of

day after day love I’ve got.

Damp earth and maybe sun tomorrow

and my hands in the dirt beside yours.

Pulling beets in the rain

and the cold water down my neck

and red bulbs against greygreen hills,

saying, yes, like this, days like this.

It’s this,

day after day,

with my hands in the dirt beside yours,

that I’ve got.

Beet love.

This book is called Prayer for an Agricultural Future 1. Modified coptic binding; cardboard, drawing paper, watercolor, and Chinese black ink cover.

This one is Prayer for An Agricultural Future 2/2. Internal strap binding; paper bag and notebook paper, cardboard, and ink cover, elastic to hold shut.

This one, Northeast Kingdom, is named for Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, where I was working. Button hole binding; paper bag, cardboard, Chinese black ink and brush cover.

This Far North 1 is hand drawn on paper bag and inside the pages are lined with text. The text expressed the sadness of leaving the farm, and a deep desire to one day return to farming. Slanted cross binding.

This book, This Far North 2, is a combination of watercolor and ink. The inside contains text and some stitching along the pages, as well as a block print. Bar-loop binding.

This Far North 2, inside cover.

These three books are Garlic Harvest 1/3, 2/3, and 3/3. All three are paper bag and pen, the first two are bar-loop bindings and the third is a strap binding.

Garlic Harvest 3/3

Beet love is named for a poem about pulling beets with the person you love. Both front and back covers are a block print and the inside has the text of the poem running along the pages as well as in the back. Coptic binding; paper bag, cardboard, block print and acrylic paint.

Beet love, inside back cover with text.

Beet love calendar 2009. This calendar, made with the same block print as Beet love, is a day by day calendar for 2009. Bar-loop binding.