A Question of Scale

David has persuaded me to do a small edition of A Clear Midnight. Rather than just produce copies of the DIY book, I decided that the edition copies should be larger. This is the reverse of my usual process. Normally I take a book that already exists —usually one that is out of print— and make a smaller version. Scaling things up rather than down comes with some hazards and I figured the cover might offer special problems.

Here are the printed parts for a test copy of the large scale version.

Here are all the parts cut out.

Friday Night Flicks: If I were a Typewriter and G_AAAH

Both short flicks tonight were produced using typewriters. If I were a Typewriter is a student animation by Batuhan Ins and was made for a Kinetic Typography course.

 

 

G-AAAH was created by Lizzie Hobbs on an Underwood 315 typewriter. The animation celebrates the record- breaking solo flight from Croydon to Australia in 1930 by legal typist Amy Johnson.

 

 

If you have access to a typewriter, you might try creating some images with it this weekend. For inspiration you might look at images here.

Cover for A Clear Midnight

Last week’s post contained the instructions for making A Clear Midnight, and a link to a printable pdf of the parts.

This week you can make a cover for the book.

Friday Night Flicks: Black Bear Moon

Since it is Tanabata tomorrow, I tried to find a star-themed video for tonight’s flick, but was unsuccessful. I did find this lovely animation co-directed by Ta-Wei Chao and Tsai-Chun Han. It is at least remotely astronomical, with a few scenes showing stars in the night sky and, of course, the moon on the bear’s chest.

 

 

If the night sky is clear where you are, you might catch a glimpse of the crescent moon this weekend.

A Clear Midnight

It is once again time to offer a DIY artist’s book in celebration of the anniversary of this blog: four years this coming Saturday. Since July 7 is also the beginning of Tanabata celebrations in Japan, the book is star-themed. An accordion with interlocked diamond-shaped pages, it unfolds into a six point star.

Friday Night Flicks: Der Papiermacher

A friend sent me a link to this video a little while ago, and I enjoyed it enough to want to share it further. Directed by Daniel Egenolf for Kings and Kongs, Der Papiermacher is a portrait of Gangolf Ulbricht, papermaker.

 

 

Papermaking in the winter was probably historically a cold and miserable occupation, but in these hot summer days, messing about in tubs of water sounds quite attractive. Perhaps you will get to play in water this weekend, even if you are not making paper.

A Little Catching Up

There’s nothing better than someone asking to purchase a book to prod me into finishing the edition. Last week I received an order for a copy of Westron Wynde. I already had all the copies printed and just waiting.

I had even cut and folded the covers.

But I had not completed the last four copies of the book.

Friday Night Flicks: Making hanji: Korean papermaking by Shin Hyun Se

Tonight’s video is a little longer than usual, but it’s worth it to watch all the steps involved in producing hanji.

 

 

If you want to try a little papermaking this weekend, there’s a tutorial on making your own crude but workable mould and deckle here. The post also contains a link to instructions on producing pulp using a blender and recycled paper.

Making The Deadline

I got the last two paper toys completed this week: that is, I managed to prepare a pdf for each of them including assembly instructions. I double-checked that everything worked by building the toys following the instructions exactly.

Here’s a screen shot of the pdf for Trunocchio.

Friday Night Flicks: Demonstration of Arabic Script Calligraphy

Another calligraphic video this week, this time featuring the work of New York-based calligrapher Elinor Aishah Holland.

 

 

Traditionally this type of lettering would have been done with a reed pen. If you want to try making your own reed pen this weekend, there’s an instruction video here (poor image quality but very clear steps) and written instructions here.