The Box challenge - hunter s. thompson

hand drawn stencils, hand cut, air brushed dyes,
and flicked ink......

i have crossed a threshold....

First class of the year

class time
1st of a few I hope to be running this year,

1.Making professional grade Eggshell panels...7th and 8th May
students will learn the method and materials involved in making eggshell panels to a professional standard, over a weekend.
cost $300
please email info@paperdragonbooks.com for further details.

The Box Challenge - down so long

it looks like up to me

crushed inlays, dyed goat, onlays.....
doodling with brass tools

teaching and bench space

hi all
...PDB is opening studio to bench rental and on hand teaching...students encouraged to bring own projects to work.....also offering some prelim.classes, and 1 week intensive on a new method for clamshells...watch out...... may onwards
There is also an opportunity available for a student to work alongside me for 1 year ....applicant must be 100% committed to having a career as a bookbinder.Must have some aptitude, though not necessarily be experienced.
please send us a message if you are interested.
g

The Box challenge - Key Largo

Just under the flap of the dust jacket on the front board..

         "EX LIBRIS
     REX HARRISON"

..Rex Harrison's copy of Key Largo, by Maxwell Anderson

you don't see that everyday!

just a note too that PDB has a new Facebook page, so you can now follow us on there. The blog will be posted, but there will also be some different, hopefully more informal content published!
Also, there is a treat for anyone(almost anyone!!!), who are freinds of PDB

The Box challenge - Rangoli

...back to the boxes....
rangoli pattern,back-pared "Om" and 24 dots from the ashoka chakra.

more to follow

How do you get to Carnegie Hall ? - Intermission

...lets have a break from the boxes, umm, an intermission if you will....
Marylin Horne celebrated 50 years appearing on stage at Carnegie Hall, so we made this to celebrate....
The usual stuff, but i decided to make a slipcase for the last two books, with the plate stamped and recessed in a well.The book is all leaf, but the fabric is a great foil....
You could stamp directly on the cover by backing the fabric onto a card stock the size of the case, but i decided to do it this way, as the plate is difficult, and if you mess it up, you end up wasting a lot of asahi.
More boxes to come........

The Box challenge - "I can't imagine.."

Boxes for 2 Gracie Allen Murder Case's, written by Willard Wright, inscribed for Gracie Allen,  and George Burns.

The large yellow area is stamped with artwork from the cover, but I added the magnifying glass and manipulated it slightly.....the rest is hand-tooled...all me...right down to the fingerprints!!




I have also managed to get my freaky face somewhere in the collection too.

The Box challenge - Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King's,"Stride Toward Freedom"1958, inscribed

"...To my first teacher, Mrs Rebecca Dickinson.."

, signed in a beautiful calligraphic hand.

It was the first of king's book, documenting Montgomery bus boycott, and violence, and threats faced down by King,  Abernathy,  and other civil rights leaders, in the wake of the Rosa Parks incident.It is a critical document, which chronicles the beginning of a movement that changed the world, and made a real difference in the lives of all black americans.

Stencils of iconic images of King from the library of congress, as back-pared onlays,  together with regular onlays of black circles.Four onlays have been printed from half-tones. The stencil made on the front is from famous photograph of king with LBJ in the backround, both men appearing visibly frustrated. The second image on the spine is, of course,  from the March on Washington, where he delivered his famous "I have a dream ..." speech.

The closing lines from the book...

"In a day when Sputniks and Explorers dash through outer space and guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere, nobody can win a war.  Today the choice is no longer between violence and nonviolence.  It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.....
....The eternal appeal takes the form of a warning : "All who take the sword will perish by the sword.".."

I've always been struck by his prophetic words, delivered in what is now referred to as the Mountaintop speech, April 3rd 1968  "...I have seen the promise land,  I may not get there with you..."
The very day before he was assinated.


the speech


Happy birthday Martin Luther King.

The Box challenge - fitzgerald , old and new ....

Fitzgerald's inscription to american actor

Edward Horton

reads....

"....you have reached the end of the sequence..."

so, on that note i have included the latest aswell as one of the first....the rest you can find somewhere on here....



more to come....look out for the dot...

box challenge - the dot

...ordinary..... artwork form the dust jacket, stamped onlays with handtooling...but it is neat, clean, and does demonstrate the benefit of a well placed dot.

we should all expect to see much more of the dot...

Box challenge - La Peste

".....we have indeed drifted into the arena of the unwell...."

...no, not Camus, but Paul Mcgann in Withnail and I, just as existential an experience. Peppered with memorable lines such as... never mix your drinks... I want the finest wines available to humanity... I want something's flesh.... I mean to have you even if it's burglary....  it can utilise up to twelve skins.....a coward you are Withnail, an expert on bulls you are not.........

Onlays, stamped with  22 carat leaf...
Interestingly, Camus has inscribed the edition with as best as I can make out with my bad French......

"...to someone who also shares an interest in the plague of the soul"

Withnail's Hamlet is worth sticking to the end for.....

 "what a piece of work is man.....yet to me , what is this quintessence of dust.Man delights not me, no,
   nor women neither..."

Box challenge - happy 1-1-11

I have not posted anything in december, as I have been busy with the boxes, which I hope will be evident in the steady stream of regular posts this month.

I start 2011 with  Lost Horizon.

The second picture shows the back-pared onlays in the process of being cut-out from an overlaid stencil for positioning.Sanskrit..
om mani padme hum
....tooled over with Eternal knots.

You will be seeing more boxes with back pared onlays. Planned correctly, they can save a lot of time.

James Hilton also took the time to inscribe one of the more memorable lines from the high lama of Shangri-la



"...When the strong have devoured each other, the Christian ethic may at last be fulfilled and the meek shall inherit the earth."

Happy New Year everybody.....PDB wishes the best for all in 2011, but really I'm just biding my time waiting for 2012 ....the year of the dragon....

Box challenge - A box a day........

.


....yet more, and more to follow

Box challenge - A box a day........

...would be nice, but it actually averages out at 1 every 6 days.....for 4 years.....