process

I like this picture. I think its because it reminds me why I like making books, all the possibilities...


I have a few boxes like this, from different times, when different ideas were running around my head, and when ever I feel a bit stuck or uninspired it often helps to take them out and have a play...

As the pages unfold it starts to come back to me; how paper can be manipulated, folded, bent and sewn; and my fingers start to get itchy to have another go at cutting, folding, stitching...


I suppose its like kind of like drawing for me, seeing what shapes I can make with the paper. These boxes are like my sketchbooks. And I suppose its quite systematic, I often take one shape and try all the different combinations of fitting it together. I think its quite funny that these messy boxes, with bits sticking out and thread trailing, are really my attempt to create order...


One of my favourite shapes to experiment with is an 'M' shaped piece of paper. All these books are made from simply this shape, just sewn in different combinations and ways.


And I make notes, I like to cover all the possibilities (impossible, I know!) and when I can't hold them all in my head I scribble them down...


Then I take a combination I think has potential (this is the difficult bit to explain, how do I know it has potential? Perhaps something in the way the paper moves as the pages turn or move. Something in the way the pages connect?) and extend it, make it longer, bigger, smaller. Use different paper... and this is where the possibilities become too numerous again, so it's back to the note book, write them all down. Then try one...


Sometimes I feel like there are so many possibilities I can never try them all. I think that's why I limit myself to simple colours and textures, I would love to be more adventurous but feel myself loosing control. I know I need to ask myself if that's a bad thing. Perhaps I do need to let go more, and that's something I'll keep working on...