Monday, August 11, 2014

Creating a Star Book

Here I am with my recently handmade star books.Created in an open format, you can see how nicely these books fold into a star pattern, hence their name.
I am a calligrapher. I have years of training on writing many of the old alphabets out by hand. Since all older books were made by hand, before the printing press, it seemed a natural step for me to get into making books by hand also.Now it a separate art form known as book arts. 
I chose maps as the covers for the front book. There are actually 3 pages in each fold. This gives it strength, and adds to the design element.Yet it folds up and becomes an ordinary looking book. 
The book behind is called a star tunnel book. Like the other, it starts out as a basic concertina book. That term refers to the specific manner of folding one  page so as to create many. Once again there are three pages, but on the inside layer, I have added pictures that fold out. Kind of a pop out style.I took small prints of tarot cards for my designs. Then comes the blue middle layer. I had to make a window for the tarot pictures to pop out of each fold, or page. The final, white page has an even bigger cut out, which creates a type of shadow effect.
All this looks easy, but I assure you, it is not. An exercise for the mind, as well as the hands. But what fun in the finished creations!

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