Polymer Clay, Bookbinding, and Keith Smith

21 October 2007

Accordion Crazy

Posted by Lady Artisan under: General Bookbinding .

I volunteered to teach our local polymer clay guild how to make accordion books with relief work on the front cover. Had to make samples so I had fun coming up with four different samples, two were very easy, one was pretty easy, and the fourth was rather detailed. The sculpting, of course, takes the longest time, although tearing the paper can be an interesting challenge in mathematics sometimes.

I started by amusing myself with a pun. Knowing that I would be teaching them some simple bas relief, I started thinking about sheep. Which got me to thinking about incorporating sheep into some designs and calling them my Baa Relief Series (I’ve posted three of them in my Etsy shop and one has sold so far).

My first one was a simple sheep design in color. Green background  textured to look somewhat like grass. A white, fluffy sheep with black head and black legs. I called it “Study in Green” just to sound pretentious.  I used a thick yellow paper for the text block.

My second Baa Relief book was slightly more ambitious and reverts to my usual love of ancient designs. This one was based on Egyptian relief found in their temples and pyramids. I took an Egyptian figure and drew a sheep in its place. Made my covers from ecru clay (one of my fave colors for the ancient, sandstone look) that I textured with sandpaper to look roughed up, added some arbitrary stamped heiroglyphs and then did the sculpted figure from my drawing. Sheepek, the Egyptian god of pastures and wool. This is the one that sold on Etsy. The text block is made from smooth mulberry paper in a luscious red color that contrasts wonderfully with the ecru/beige of the covers.

The final accordion book sample I made was what I call medieval style relief. Lots of geometric and swag shapes, some floral designs and then Swarovski crystals embedded all over the place for extra sparkle.  I used black batik paper for the text block on this one.

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