It’s Christmas Eve and I know now that my bees have safely reached their destination and my client is happy.
As a small gift for her I had decided to “just” make a little hand made book, containing prints of all the bees and a little info about them all.
I, like any other artist and designer should know better. “Just” as a creative concept does not exist.
So being pushed for time, dealing with an uncooperative computer and printer and rising panic, it was a bit of a rush.
Book making, near death by a thousand cuts.
One of the trickiest things is working out the pagination to make sure everything prints properly on double sided paper. I printed the pictures separately which was nice as I cut them out and “tipped” them in, like the old fashioned picture books that always had the colour plates separately printed.
I seemed to cut and trim a million bits of paper and the odd fingernail… and then another million for the mistakes I made..sigh…more haste etc…yes, I know.
I found some paper with little gold cicadas to cover the boards, as close as I could get to bees in the time, and some honeycomb paper for the inside.
Each page had to be creased 3 times to fold properly and finally, Japanese stab binding is easy, if you punch the holes big enough which I failed to do first time round.
I made a quick “spare” everyday book because the blue book is fragile and, of course, the second one was a breeze!! Labels too for the back of the pictures.
Just before final packing I took a snap of the book, with the original painting of the Blue Banded Bee, the labels for the back of the pictures, brushes and paint tubes etc to give things a bit of scale. The little book is 4 x 5.25 inches with 36 pages.
At the end of this 4 month project I am definitely feeling bee-reft (sorry) without my little winged companions, but there will be more soon and I could always make another book… maybe.
By the way, “Deborah” in Hebrew means “bee”… 🙂
What a beautiful closure for your bee project! So impressive!! Your last photo here is great! Carol
I have been reading your blog for quite sometime and have enjoyed each and ever post. Yours is one of the few blogs that I've actually taken the time to go back through and read all the archives! After all that you have shared with us, I just waned to THANK YOU for all the inspiration, smiles ( "ant", your old studio buddy, made me chuckle!) and even tears, as you deal with your father's aging concerns of which I understand more than you know- you are not alone in this particular journey, and my heart goes out to you in this matter.
Your little bee book is beyond spectacular! (as is all your artwork). May your Christmas be merry and bright and 2010 bring good things to you!
thank you,
~gretchen
That turned out gorgeous!
Thank you all.. sometimes the blog is hard work and often sheer slog.Your comments make it worth while and keep me going. Believe me, you don't know how very much I do appreciate them! A very very merry Christmas to you all.
Merry Christmas xxx
Wow! I really admire your drawings. I am not an insect lover, but your books turned out beautiful and that is coming from someone who likes bookbinding herself.
Have a great 2010!
Thanks.. thats very kind, both of you.
I am not really an insect lover as such but, as I keep saying..once your learn about something and understand how it lives and it's contribution and part in the world you can admire and respect it…however the bees are just lovely.. the more I get to know about them the lovelier they are ! Happy New Year!
Green printing has become a beneficial as well as a safer alternative when it comes to the growing environmental concerns. It is not very expensive and the recycled paper that is used in printing is also very good quality and durable as well.
Environmentally Sustainable Printer
I adore these books.
Beautiful artwork! I'm an artist and gardener myself and I love your attention to detail. Keep up the good work!
Thank you both, The books were fun to do but as usual I didn't leave myself enough time.'twas always thus!