return of the sketchbooks!

I decided to do a little more sketchbook research! Plus, I wanted to have a go at making a  few more books- I gave the first ones I did away as presents to people! (I'll upload pictures of the new books I've made in a fresh post after this one)

These handmade books (the work of artist, Ashleigh Meusel) are beautiful- they are made using Japanese 'stab' binding. I think the name sounds a bit vicious, but the final appearance this technique gives the spine, is quite amazing.

see more at the artist's website, here

I have also developed a love of fancily folded books! After a bit of pinterest and blog searching, I came across star tunnel books, such as the one pictured here, made by Karen Kiick, who ran a 'book arts' course, focused on exploring different book-making techniques. I certainly want to try making something like this! It's a work of art in it's own right, as well as being a useable book. It's a bit like a fancier version of our simple french fold concertina books, made in the second session of this module...

Star tunnel book, Karen Kiik 2010 (image accessed here)

This is also very exciting, from Karen Kiick's website- a popup book! These remind me of children's story books- you immediately feel like you want to interact with the work, because it moves beyond the flat surface of the page:

I like how these three-dimensional books have a heightened sense of narrative. In our opening sketch innovation session, we discussed how sketchbooks are a place where the story or journey of a project unfolds and can be looked back on. It would be interesting to create a 3D book like this for a project, and see how it influences the development of ideas- perhaps it would encourage more creative, playful, innovate thinking than simply a flat sketchbook does? ...It's an interesting idea for future projects in my textiles practice!