torsdag 23. desember 2010

God jul - Merry Christmas!

Embossing on Khadi paper - none of them are alike
Nå er det dagen før dagen. Ribba ligger kjølig og trekker til seg salt og peppersmak - kalkunen må tas ut fra fryser'n og jeg må pakke inn de siste gavene. Så gjenstår det bare å ønske alle en riktig god jul. 

P.S. Jeg fikk julekortene i boks i år også - jeg lagde en hel bønsj der jeg preget i papiret og skrev God jul med deilig julerød gouache farge.


Close up - sorry it's a bit blurry folks...
It is the day before Christmas Eve and the ribbe is kept cool and is covered in salt and pepper to give it wonderful taste tomorrow. I need also to take out the turkey from the freezer and I have a few parcels to wrap. All I need to do now is to wish you all a merry Christmas. 

P.S. I managed to get the Christmas cards made in time - a whole bunch of them too. I embossed a pattern in the white paper and wrote GOD JUL (Merry Christmas in Norwegian) on them in the most delicious Christmas red colour using gouache paint.

 

mandag 13. desember 2010

Victoria by Hamsun

Limp vellum binding sewn on calf skin strips

My latest bookbinding project is a limp vellum binding of "Victoria - A Love Story" by Knut Hamsun. For those who do not know the story, it is the classic story of the pore miller's son and a rich girl who is in love - and of course they cannot have each other.

I wanted to show the rich and the poor in the binding, using expensive vellum and somewhat crude and inexpensive calf skin. I put silver buttons representing the rich. I made a pouch out of a knitted Norwegian "lusekofte" to represent the poor. All these elements makes the book very Norwegian, and I wanted to show just that in the binding.

I do not know yet, but I hope that the book will be exhibited in Brugge, Belgium for the bookbinding convention Xth FIRA that takes place in May next year. Fingers crossed :)

onsdag 8. desember 2010

Julekort - Christmas cards...

Skrevet med doble blyanter







4 kort fra en serie jeg lagde julen 2004
I påvente av at idéflommen skal komme strømmende over meg når det gjelder å finne frem til hvordan årets julekort skal bli, har jeg sett gjennom den lille bunken av gamle julekort som jeg har lagd opp gjennom årene. Og disse fikk jeg plutselig lyst til å dele med dere. Her er bilder av kort jeg har lagd siden 1999, altså etter at jeg tok utdannelsen min som bokbinder og kalligraf ved Roehampton Institute. Jeg har lagd flere kort enn de dere ser her, men har antakeligvis ikke tatt vare på dem for jeg fant ikke fler.

Kortet dere ser øverst lagde jeg ved å tegne med doble blyanter (for de som ikke vet hva jeg mener, jeg tar to blyanter og teiper de sammen og skriver med de som om jeg holder en bredpenn - dette gjør slik at det blir lett å skape forholdsvis store bokstavformer). Deretter fylte jeg inn bokstavene. Jeg var inspirert av uncialskrift, men det er med en meeeeget moderne tvist. I og med at dette var kortet jeg lagde før årtusenskiftet ville jeg prøve å trekke tråder fra langt tilbake og frem til 1999. Jeg tok kopier og lagde også en negativ versjon, der det var hvite bokstaver på sort bakgrunn.

De fire kortene under lagde jeg til julen 2004 (tror jeg). Jeg var inspirert av gotisk skrift og ønsket å ha en kontrast og fant noen bokstavformer i en bok jeg har som hadde veldig dekorativ og floral utforming. En kontrast til de litt mer rigide, gotiske bokstavene. Disse ble trykt opp  på håndlaget Khadipapir med biter av strå i seg.

Nederst ser dere fjorårets julekort. Jeg er glad i g'en som dere ser, og siden julen inneholder mange ting på g så ville jeg lage bokstaven og hekte på fortsettelsen g-od jul, g-litter, g-røt, g-rantre, g-oro, g-lade barn etc. Jeg skar ut i gullkartong som var limt på et dekorativt papir trykt med gullmotiv. Bærre lækkert!

Jeg kommer nok snart på et eller annet til årets julekort også. Uansett, riktig goooooood jul til dere alle!

ENGLISH:
As I was waiting for inspiration for designing this year's Christmas cards, I started looking through the pile of Christmas cards that I have made over the years. All of these I have made since I graduated from the calligraphy course at Roehampton in 1999. I have made more, but I don't think I have saved any of them.

The top card was made by writing with double pencils. After drawing them I filled in the lettershapes and made a frame around. I copied it and also made a card in negative colours - white letters on black background. I was inspired by uncial letter shapes, however, with quite a modern twist - linking old with new as the new millennium was about to come.
Skar ut en g i gullkartong og hektet på lapper med ord som begynner på g

The four cards underneath was made in 2004. I was inspired by the Gothic alphabet. To contrast the letter shapes I drew a big letter with floral shapes that I found inspiration from a book that I have. I thought the contrast worked well with the rigid letter shapes of the Gothic letters.

The card on the bottom is from 2009. I have always loved this g-shape and had a crazy idea to cut out little strips of cards that had words starting with the letter g, like g-litter etc. Funny hun?

Anyway inspiration come to me...Meeeeeeery Christmas everyone! 








søndag 5. desember 2010

December...and almost year end!

It has been a long time since I wrote something in English. I have had a busy year (what's new?). I have managed to teach a bookbinding course and a calligraphy course - both had new content than before. I love the fact that I have people coming back to my courses, and I want to provide new teaching material so they are moving into new areas of the disciplines. However, you can hardly call yourself a trained calligrapher or bookbinder after a 6 week course for four hours once a week...There is no problem to repeat what you have learned. I also need to practice the same thing over and over to keep my skills at a certain level, and I have felt that I do not set aside enough time to do just that. There's joy in repetition...as Prince says in one of his songs :)

I hope, as I always do, that 2011 will provide me more time - but knowing myself it will fly by too. Already, I have planned not one, but two courses in the spring, and a third one in the fall. I enjoy it though and I get the sense that so do the participants too.

Now it is time to make this years Christmas cards. I have no idea what to make, but since I do make a lot of monograms I think I will try and make a lovely symbol or word inspired by monograms, perhaps.

One last thought, I hope the book I sent off to Brugge made it there and that the jury loved the book. I had an accident as I was finishing it initially...but I managed to rescue it and changed the binding style and materials for it. I found a little piece of vellum lying around, and I found my course file notes from Roehampton where I learned to make limp vellum bindings from Jen Lindsay (exelent teacher!) and made a nice book using calf skin strips to sew it on which were threaded through the slits in the vellum. I was going to post a photo of the book here, but I will do it later :) Good things come to those who wait,  huh? Have a wonderful winter day y'all.