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Folded book mock-ups


I have had the good fortune to receive a wonderful new book from Lark Publications recently called Making Handmade Books.  It's by one of my favorite book artist-teachers, Alisa Golden, and you'll want to stay tuned, because I've got a copy to GIVE AWAY starting on Wednesday!

In the meantime, I've been working my way through some of the easier forms, messing about with her samples of folded book forms.  All that is needed for these mock-ups are the following tools and materials:

Thin copy paper
X-acto knife
Bone folder
Pen
Cutting mat
Clear ruler 

See the one in the front?  It's a really clever tunnel book which opens in such a way that the first few pages form a platform for the tunnel.  There's an accordion book in the background, along with an X book, an ox-plow form, and several other structures.

Why bother to do these little mock-ups?  Several reasons.  First, you can make sure that the instructions are clear to you so you don't waste good (read expensive) paper.  Second, having the mock-up in your hands allows you to dream a little more about what text or pictures would suit it.  As you turn the pages and plan, your imagination will start to suggest texts that would have their meaning enhanced by the form your are fondling.  The third, approaching it from the other direction, having a whole collection of these samples will allow you to browse through them when you are looking for an appropriate form for a text you have already settled on. 

I decided to work with fabric, so next week I'll show you some of my experiments.

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Comments

Cori Lynn Berg said…
I'll have to remember to come by on Wednesday! Would love to win a copy of this book! Looks so cool!
What fun!

I look forward to seeing what you do with these ideas - as well as to the chance to win the book.