Editioning and Monoprinting

It’s one thing to use up scrap and leftover papers to work out an idea in rough but I’ve no idea what I was thinking when I decided it would be a good idea to use gelli plate monoprints to produce an edition of 12 books.

However, many prints later, I have now made 24 large envelopes for the covers and 72 small envelopes and 36 prints to make the inside pages.

 All I have to do now is assemble them all.

Oh yes, and then make more prints to cut up to put inside the  small envelopes

Never throw anything away

I’ve signed up for another book exchange with Artist Books 3.0. The title of this swop is ‘Letters and Alphabets’. I am playing with the idea that letters make up alphabets, which we use in written communication, which we send as letters.

I have also agreed to do a demonstration as part of Preston Art Society's exhibition and had been planning on making a collagraph plate. But I decided yesterday that gelli printing was probably more interesting to watch, certainly more colourful, and that I could use the sheets of prints produced for this book edition.
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After thinking about structure (the book has to be a 63cm accordion) and subject matter I decided to make envelopes for the covers of this book. This also means that I can put card inside to make easy stiff covers.
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I thought that it would be appropriate to use stationary papers rather than printing paper so I dug out old sheets of gelli prints done on printer paper to see if it would be strong enough and started playing.

But I also found discarded prints from an ALAW project (exploring how little of the letter is needed in order for it to read as a letter). I added them.

And then I found letters that I’d cut out as part of another ALAW book exploring looking through.

It’s a bit garish (though it’s growing on me) and it might be a bit labour intensive for an edition of 10 but it’s definitely a starting point.