Concertina Book Making: Soul Food for your Spirit

hello world this is another session for culture and Quarantine welcome to my studio I'll be showing you how to make folding concertina books out of an a3 sheet of paper and if you don't have an a3 sheet of paper you can use a smaller piece of paper and it will just result in this adorable little mini book which is also really cool so whatever you have just make it work I'll be teaching you how to join up the strips of paper into one long strip so you can make it as long as you want it's just really only limited by your imagination so let it run wild this is sort of the finished book that we will be making I've tied it together with a bit of twine and it reflects the long walks that I take here out to the sea this is called vanishing horizon and it starts with emerging from the pine woods it goes over the dunes it arrives at the sea hits the beach and then have the long horizon I was inspired to make this book from a book that I walked when I was in France in the eighties and this book is called La Petite per se it's designed by wire tool avatar and this is a fantastic book and it has just inspired me for decades I have to say expect more graphic than mine but it's breathtaking in its beauty and its simplicity I don't know if it's a walk in a garden or an exploration this one is quite long so you can take your time seriously it's fabulous so think of the design that you want to do bookmaking like printmaking is centuries old and it the very first book was printed in China using wood blocks so we're connecting to craftsmanship that has been with us for forever what do you need to make these books you need an a3 sheet of paper you need a sharp knife you need a glue stick and whatever paints that you have available or markers or pencil doesn't matter but whatever you use that will help you tell your story let's get started first thing you need to do is fold your paper lengthwise and half and you're going to crease it and if you don't have a fish boning knife at home you can use some sort of rounded object I'm use a broken drumstick a friend of mine who's the drummer in a band I went to his game and he broke the stick and gave to me thanks repeat then you're going to take your knife and cut it away from you you'll create two pieces of paper now you have two strips we're going to match them up together and we're going to make a seam out of another piece of paper ahead of time you will have cut another strip of paper that's the height of the paper and roughly an inch and width you will take your glue stick you will pilot glue quite easy quite simple take your time you will line up the seam of the paper and you will line up your [Music] joining paper and you will attach them it's very simple anybody could do it have fun with all of this it's all just learning and there's no right or wrong there's just experimenting and learning and really it's the joy of making something so now you have your long strip this is the part of the process where you design whatever it is that's your story and I love storytelling I love books and I love storytelling and for me it's part of a human identity and this project for me combines two of my loves words and images and images come from cave paintings and writing comes from stone slabs and I'm a big fan of course of the illuminated manuscripts so I'm sort of taking all of those inspiration points and pulling them together and then I invented this idea of doing these different drawings about the walks that I've been taking while I'm on quarantine and this session will enable you to focus on your own creative ideas and cultivate them and I really look forward to seeing what you create so remember to take photograph post it online at hashtag get creative at home so let me show you how to fold it now that's the next bit of this turn it face down and you're going to take your two tail ends and you're going to go backwards and touch your two edges together line them up as fast as you can you'll take your folding tool and put your crease in you will fold it bottom to top again flip it over bottom to top again then you take the outside edge and you fold it into the middle where you've made your mark when you fold that mark back and then you're going to take it up fold it up to the top now here you've got your accordion pleat going it's kind of exciting isn't it it's part of the beauty of making things is the excitement of you sort of don't really know what it's all going to look like and you've opened it up to the other side and then you fold into the middle flip it back and then the last one is the tail into the middle there you go there's your concertina it's a beautiful thing you know when you can open it up and this one so you can see it's sort of limits the view but then you can also get the long horizon line which I adore this one says in between abandon and the elements there's fearlessness and art is a way to overcome the absurdity of a pandemic and just think of Albert Camus and we all witnessed the denials and the lack of repair which yields shortages of medical supplies and not enough hospital beds but with creative compassionate response from many the hook boy's us up amidst the uncertainty we realize that we're all fragile and interdependent and that pandemics can harm not just the body but also spirit and these books are supposed to be food for your soul and to have fun making them send one to a friend I know I'll be sending a few out so be well and stay safe see you next week when we will be doing the binding bit of the book to put it all together so post to hash tag get creative at home bye

Channel: Mary Blue Creates

Views: 4,081

Keywords: GetCreativeAtHome, CultureInQuarantine, EverydayMaking, Artist, Art, Painting, Book-Making

Id: f1qiGeYgxLw

Length: 10min 14sec (614 seconds)

Published: Tue May 05 2020