the way of shifu

i think, perhaps, i am finally understanding how to spin paper. so far, my efforts with a drop spindle have gone awry; there's nothing like spending time carefully cutting paper into 2mm strips only to see it break apart every three inches when you start to spin it.

then, after putting it aside for a bit, i came across a comment about using a bobbin winder. so, having armed myself with some medium weight handmade paper, i set about winding it on a bobbin winder and was successful. here are the results of the first success, wound onto a kiwaku.

pages softly turning

for the last guild meeting we looked into book making, choosing one of four types to create during the meeting. i have some experience of making books by hand, and readily enjoy the process. in the last few weeks i've come to be inspired by the work of wake robin, and feel the growing urges to retry my hand at making more organic freestyle books.

the book style i chose to make has an interesting spine setup whereby the individual codex are slipped into a separate threaded piece which has been glued to the spine after the inside cover paper is laid down. this style is quite useful, as you would be able to carefully remove the pages without ruining the book (in the off chance that you made an error while using the book and a page needed to by torn out; believe me, this happens to me a lot).

i've had these two papers for many years, and bought them at separate times, so i'm quite happy at how well they fit together. the rice paper for the pages is actually one of the earlier additions to my collection (having purchased them at a university store in new york about 10 years ago). at times it is quite useful having a hoard of art supplies!