Leaves - an artists' book

 

I have completed a  5 'page' unbound  book in leaf form - including grinding and polishing. I blogged on the process of this book a couple of weeks ago - but it is now ready for exhibiting if my application is accepted.

The content of this book is my original fragmentary poem Leaves below:

leaf whispers

ruby

emerald

emerging

unfurling

 

autumnal flourish

copper

golden

falling

flying

 

quiet litterfall

bronze

russet

sheltering

renewing

A few more photos of the finished work follow.

I like the form of this book and the earlier one (Mighty River Trees) that I did for the Narratives exhibition at the Little Red Cottage Gallery Maleny.

All packed for Narratives

 

The opening photo and photo below show that I have completed my two artists' books for the Narratives - constellation of stories 2026 exhibition at the Little Red Cottage Gallery Maleny - May 2026. 

When I say completed - that includes the paper work and some art journals that could be included in the Narratives Pop Up Shop - see journal photo below.

Though earlier blog posts have shown the two books ( Mighty River Trees and Leaf Cycle) in progress, the photos below show the finished works: first Mighty River Trees and then Leaf Cycle

The shape of the 'pages' for Mighty River Trees was inspired by the shape of some fallen leaves similar to that below.

Fiona will be exhibiting a book in Narratives - of course Fiona's book is very different to mine!!!

I hope that folk can get along and support this local artists' book exhibition.  

Finishing artists' book - Leaves

 

I was able to grab a couple of session in the workshop to finish my new 5 leaf  artists' book Leaves - words are a poem by me.

The opening photo shows the leaf forms after they have been:  cut, stamped, formed, planished, ground and polished. 

A few photos of part of the making process.

And a couple of the finished book on the workshop bench.

I will take the time to photograph Leaves properly before putting in an application for it to be exhibited in a show later this year.

Merging of ideas and designs - unbound artists' book

 

I have decided to create a third artists' book to submit it for inclusion in a NZ exhibition. The opening photo shows the 5 leaf forms with a poem stamped onto the flat leaf forms.

I have decided to combine a reworked version of my leaf poem that was used in the trio of copper books and the leaf form I used for my mighty river trees artists' book. As you can see from scribbles in my wee journal the idea came to me during one of our Biblio sessions.

I significantly reworked the original leaf cycle poem - it is now a stand alone version titled Leaves. Reworked with some comments and feedback from Fiona - grand to have a word person to bounce ideas around with. See the photo of the text below.

Process-progress photos follow including marking up  from a template, cutting with hand shears and marking up the cleaned blanks for stamping.

Hand stamping does not always go as planned - the s, p and e in whispers were just too close - so I decided to restamp the whole verse - before and after versions of 'whispers' appear in image below. Probably doesn't appear to be greatly different but it mattered to me.

Following are a couple more images of the stamped leaf blanks.

I hope to grab a few hours in the coming week to make the flat leaf forms into their concave shape and then planish the back to create the faceted look.

Leaf Cycle - trio of metal booklets

 

My second artists' book for the upcoming Narratives Constellation of Stories exhibition at The Little Red Cottage is titled Leaf Cycle. 

The book is in fact an installation of 3 small (10cmx6.5cm) patinated copper booklets. Each has one of the three stanzas my original poem stamped in it. 

The opening photo gives a sneak peek of the installation.

The following photos are some process-progress stages - particularly the stamping of the covers, the middle page and initials on the back page (first photo). 

The booklets are made from naturally patinated copper plate cut from an antique gifted laundry boiler. After stamping the pages they are riveted down the spine with tiny brass rivets. Once trimmed and grinding sharp edges off the booklets are opened. The leaf form in the opening photo has the title of the poem stamped on it.

As you can see from the last photo the metal cut from the boiler has not been hammered straight - this gives the pages a paper like quality - at least that is what I think. 

I'm pleased how Leaf Cycle has come to fruition. Over the next couple of months the stamped ares should become more integrated-softened. I might leave them out in the weather to re-patina!!!

Mindful Metal books

 

I tend to categorise the above small silver-plated metal books in both my Mindful Metal and Artists' Books online shop categories because they have both function and form.

From a function perspective, because each small book (about 4.5cm high, 3.7cm wide and 2.5cm across page opening) has a word stamped on the centre page, each is meant to encourage contemplation on or holding onto that word of the action it invokes. Each book could be used as part of meditation; or sit beside one's bed or computer to encourage a gentle focus on the word. Because each book is unique and hand made from silver-plate from salvaged placemats I also see then as small 3D artists' books - small sculptural pieces.

A few process photos follow. I usually tape the three book leaves together to hold them firm when I drill and rivet the book leaves together.

A couple more photos of four of the completed books follow.

At least one of each of the books (shine, love, hope and dream) can be found in my online shop. 

When a metal worker makes a book

 

I have started making a couple of artists' books for the upcoming Narratives exhibition at the little Red Cottage in Maleny. Unfortunately we will be in Scotland when the exhibition opens so we need to get our pieces done well before heading overseas.

One of my books is based on my prose poem on the important and multiple roles of river trees. A you can see from the opening photo the book will be unbound and each book leaf will be in the form of a metal leaf.

A few images of font tests on the flat metal and stamping the pages follow.

Once the book leaves were ground and polished they were annealed and then formed into the curved leaves.

The back of the formed leaves were then hammered on a metal stake to take and wrinkles out of the metal and give the leaves a faceted look.

The leaf forms need to be be given another grind and polish and the curves tweaked.My artists' book Mighty River Trees will then be ready for photographing and for the exhibition.