I didn’t stop making book art sculptures in 2018. I just held off documenting them on this blog for a while, mostly for time constraints.
Rocketship 1 – 5 2.75×1.75×1.5”
See more here: http://www.cranehanabooks.com/blog/2017/12/18/rocketship-fiber-art-books/
This edition of five accordion-fold books celebrates the (first?) Space Race, that of the 1950s and 1960s. Six pages, with title and colophon on inserted fold-out. On hand-dyed blue linen and patchwork applique backgrounds, fabric applique retro-style cartoon rocketships blast off on cones of fire, accented by Swarovski crystal stars.
Covers are dyed and woodburned aromatic cedar, with accent tassels of waxed polyester.
The other side contains an original prose poem that wistfully reminds of the human potential lost when we stopped exploring our near-Earth space: ‘Rocketship / The Future Hope of Ages Past / Race to theMoon / Survey the Stars / Renew the Earth / Scout New Worlds.’
Two Jade Buttons 3×4.5×2” bookform, 6” tassels
See more here: http://www.cranehanabooks.com/2018/01/23/two-jade-buttons/
Inspired by two Burmese jade buttons I collected years ago,Wuxia films and novels, Chinese fantasy romance novels, and Korean historical dramas, this small book opens to 14 fabric pages richly decorated with hand-and-machine-sewn details, digital prints of vintage porcelain and cloisonné from my personal thrift store finds, and my own hand-drawn ink paintings on linen.
Original prose embroidered on pages: ‘Two jade buttons / clasp silken sleeves / around sturdy wrists / under white fur robes / against the winter night / of pine-clad hills / in the Iron Tiger’s kingdom.’
Covers of painted and wood-burned Brazil Cherry are bound in a linen and waxed polyester tape binding, with accent cords of waxed gray-green polyester and beads in glass, bone, porcelain, jade, and moss agate.
Collection Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.
The Truth Remains 1 – 5 7.25×5.25×1.25” closed, 7.25×50” open
See more here: http://www.cranehanabooks.com/2018/03/30/first-look-the-truth-remains-2-0/
Edition of five. Accordion-fold books with twenty pages. Covers of stiffened felt overlaid with cotton scrap applique, American flag patches, metal gun charms, and glass beads. Embroidered over digitally-altered maps of mass shooting locations, protest marches, NRA Headquarters, Washington DC, and Mar-a-Lago, the main text examines the National Rifle Association’s disturbing links with white racist groups, foreign governments (Heellloooo Maria Butina!), and Christian theocratic groups within and without the United States of America.
Collections of Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, UC Davis Special Collections Library.
Bone Feather Votive Ring 5×1.5″
See more here: http://www.cranehanabooks.com/2018/05/09/bone-feather-votive-ring/
Buffalo bone, leather, waxed polyester, glass beads, acrylic stain.
This size 8 ring is a rebuild of an older set of rings. This time I carved a ‘feather’ motif into the half-inch-wide pages: a writing quill,an ostrich feather, a flaming phoenix plume, a peacock feather, and Maat’s feather from Egyptian myth.
It’s a start. I have finer versions in mind. Book art jewelry may not sell in local boutique settings, but making it feeds two art obsessions at once.
Tempe Spring 2018 ribbons
9×3″and 16×4″ to 20×5″
See more here: http://www.cranehanabooks.com/2018/03/22/tempe-festival-ribbons-spring-2018/
With ‘metal wings’ as a starting motif, the Tempe Festival of the Arts organizers and I launched into these shimmering ribbons in metallic satin, leather, blue applique cottons, and metal and glass accent beads. Based off the metal sculpture work of Tucson artist Adam Homan. My personal note while designing these:
“Inside a vast, dim workshop, strange machines lurk dormant under old cloth drapes, or hang suspended from steel chains and huge hoists. A metallic rumble shakes the chains. A side door begins to open, letting in a glimpse of blue sky outside. The wind pushes inside, blowing back clouds of dust and age-browned muslin, setting the chains clanging. The machines wake, and unfold into the shapes of huge steel and bronze wings…”
Tour Necklace / Bracelet
Book roughly 2.75x2x1, necklace roughly 23″
See more here: http://www.cranehanabooks.com/2018/04/01/tour-necklace-bracelet/
The wrapped band combines braided turquoise cord and semiprecious stone beads: various agates, hematite, jasper, green feldspar (aventurine), serpentine, and snowflake obsidian, with an antler button clasp.
Copper Star
5x5x2” book form, 9” tassels.
See more here: http://www.cranehanabooks.com/2018/10/07/book-art-copper-star/
This book contains eight double-sided fabric pages of pieced and appliqued fabric, digitally printed and gel-transferred text, and lots of glass beads. The jointed covers are carved and painted leather, cocobolo wood, waxed polyester cord, variegated copper leaf, and acrylic ink and varnish. Inside front and back covers showcase gel-transferred original text and vintage Arizona maps. Page texts are gel-transferred onto white linen and appliqued in place, along with miniature original Arizona landscapes and copies of vintage postage stamps.
It’s inspired by the idea of copper influencing not just Arizona history and culture, but humankind in general.
Tempe Fall 2018 Ribbons
9×3″and 16×4″ to 20×5″
See more here: http://www.cranehanabooks.com/2018/11/28/tempe-festival-of-the-arts-fall-2018/
Continuing the ‘copper’ theme, and inspired by our stunning Arizona sunsets, the Tempe Festival organizers and I adapted the Arizona State Flag and referenced some of the Bohemian colors and textures of 1968. The sunburst sky of the flag became angled blocks radiating from either side. An Arizona Star in coppery-orange cotton sateen applique unifies the pieces. They’re accented with glass beads, and finished with grosgrain ribbon ties and metal pin-backs for easier display (or wear!)
Color Cards
5×3.5×2.25”
Aka ‘My Little Gay Book’
The Abecedarian Galley of Denver, Colorado is organizing a 2019 book arts exhibition called ‘The Art of the Fold’, with a deceptively simple premise: make books using the bookform structures first devised by Hedi Kyle. I almost didn’t enter this show, because I was thinking: ‘Most of Kyle’s structures involve origami-type work with paper, and I prefer fabric’. But I’d already done some origami work in fabric. It’s possible, as long as the artist anchors the folds with sewn folds.
I kept coming back to the ‘Blizzard’ book envelope-style’fold, and finally decided to try it in tan linen with rainbow fabric accents.
Why rainbows? Mostly because the yellow cotton napkins that originally inspired this had a glorious multicolor stripe I salvaged for this book.
Also because Color is Good, dammit. It was a bleak November around the world when I started making ‘Color Cards’ on November 13. My LGBTQIA friends and relatives seem more under fire than ever. Without words, this book celebrates flickers of color and pattern, mixed with tactile feedback.
Six 2”x4” fabric cards are embroidered with rainbow appliques in constructed cloth. Each card is tucked into the envelope-fold of my linen Blizzard book (though anchored with braided cord to keep them from getting lost.) Off the back seams, twenty 7” tassels in tan waxed polyester flower into multicolored cotton tassels with glass bead accents.
Collection: Swarthmore College, McCabe Library
I’m looking forward to seeing what book-madness 2019 brings.