Week 21

Friday Feb 24:


Saturday Feb 25:

New locations
-Huron River

Tree Swallow

Commarant Fishing
http://www.flickr.com/photos/instin/362778566/

Purple Martins by Peggy Collins

Taylor Lasse

Ramen Noodles

Tree roots wrapping

-Backyard

winter rain--monica arellano

Sunday: Carving blocks, sketched the new view of the glass bottle

Monday: Finish carving and shalacing The Docks blocks.

Looking up imagery. Sketching possible illustrations for the next books.

Considering tossing the paper-sculpture idea for slip cases to focus on the carvings.

Tuesday: Proofing blocks, carving out unwanted areas. Reshallac

Wednesday: Began poetry for the River and Backyard. Sketching more ideas for the block imagery. 

Thursday: Carving new block, the cormorant

Proofing blocks, putting the scans into layouts.

Friday: Continuing to carve, began looking at thesis. Frustrated because most of it is about pop-up material which I can't use. I think I am going to abandon the pop up aspect.

Or not

options:

pop-up slip cases

unfolding maps from books

That would bring my concept together

BUT WHY DO I SUCK AT WRITING THIS

AAAH ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS OPEN UP AND READ MY BOOK
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHAT

Week 20

What I did
Saturday Feb 18: [2 hrs]

It's official
Unnamed Places  2012

Sunday Feb 19:

Monday Feb 20: [3 hrs] Sketching slip case designs, need to email Book Arts professor about creating one, sketches for woodblocks, layout editing, blocking in where images will go. Browsing inspiring photos for reference.

Houses at the bottom of the mountain by Vu Duy Nghia

Taeeum Yoo

Steven Hazel- Rhino

Tomorrow my goal is to scan sketches to place into layout, get it rightish, then begin blocks. 

























































Tuesday: [7 hrs] Sketches into layout. Adjust size to know the correct size on blocks. Fake flat back binding practice. Scanned and read Make Handmade Books - Alisa Golden

Spread with Fermi II 

Spread with Fermi II smoke swans

Wednesday: [5 hrs] Adjusting sizes of sketches in Indesign, printing out and binding. Printed out images and measured out onto woodblock

Thursday: [8 hrs] Small group critique, cut woodblocks, began carving. Want to go in and think some more about the bottle image. Went to hollanders and picked up bookboard and davie board

Friday: remembered to post blog while at work D:

What I discovered
I'm on a roll, and I know what I'm doing for the most part now

To do
WORK DURING MY SPRING BREAK, yay. My goal is to have all layouts for three places down, with sketched imagery and woodblock prints for the docks.

Week 19

What I did

Sat: [0 hr]

Sun: [1 hr] Sketching possible imagery for the docks and the river. Blue Heron, Fermi II.

Mon: [2 hrs] Editing poetry and looking at pacing. Condensed it a little too much that it was lacking interesting details.

Tues Feb 14: [6 hrs] Created layout design by hand into a slightly larger format. Met with Hannah who suggested my larger misprints were more successful. They are 7.5" x 8.25" pages now. Began to edit poetry and creating all three book layouts at the same time.

Wed Feb 15: [3 hrs] Doing layout design by hand with new size format and grid then translating into InDesign. Printing and building mockups of a larger size.

Thurs Feb 16: [8 hrs] Meeting with Hannah and Juliet to get feedback about the mockups. Suggestions for font size, layout, tone of voice, and poetry pacing. Began to rework mockups. Scanned in print to layout quickly. Prepared a spread to photo-shoot for the postcard design. Printed on nice paper and photographed.


Fri: [0 hr before noon] 

I'm considering to use one of
the bottom two photos.
Any feedback would be great.

Began to edit in Photoshop

What I discovered
This layout thing is tricky. It's taking a lot of time without any obvious sense of satisfaction yet. The big struggle was having so much space on the page with such little text. I'm also getting anxious because I want to move forward and work on the slip case design and blocks and whatnot. But I have to pin these down first.

What to do next
Read poetry out loud to find most successful sense breaks and line lengths.
I want to get the three books printed out with a somewhat successful layout and with imagery.
They will be sketches in consistant styles for tuesday or thursday. I'm not sure if the fishfly block is the kind of mood I want to portray in these, so I don't want to invest too much time into carving until I know
what I want to carve.

Week 18

What I did

Friday Feb 3: [1.5 hr] Doing layout test prints on Rives BFK, Rives Heavyweight, and Rives Lightweight papers.
[1 hr] Finalized fishfly woodblock design
Saturday Feb 4: [3 hrs] carving and proofing images, testing papers when folded and printed on
Sunday Feb 5: [2hrs] test layout printing, more carving
Monday Feb 6: [2hrs] revised layout and printing to show for critique. Decision on Rives Lightweight.
Tuesday Feb 7: [.25 hr] critique
[2hrs]
Re organizing poetry, trying to consolidate it. Doing pagination for the next three books (I think I want to do four sections for the docks).

We built things

The boat floating at the ramp

bones and glass float

Beautiful panfish

iridescence scales

reminiscent of the blood they draw with their sharp backfins

the time Joey locked the keys in the aerostar 

trailer half way in the water

The marina was full of assholes

can't use the phone, can't use the bathroom

a three year old and an eight year old

one crying the other yelling at their honest mistake

Dad had to walk us to a pub it was called the silly goose inn

it sat on the gravel beside the water beds and cat tails

by this time it was evening
and too late to fish 

the worms all died in the heat of the car

suffocating, smelled of dirt

Fermi II in the distance, right over the docked vessels

Swans 

usually seen alone

find their other halves

The sun is a father

the kids that jump from the overpass into the water

are safe because of him

he protects all of the inhabitants here

Rickety old boards of wood and life

I know lake Erie because 

I grew up here like

the fishflies that covered the entire parking lot that year

the truck crunched with the weight of the boat

and I sat in the back seat

Uncle Gene and Dad smelled like sweat, beer, cigarettes

and it was the only time I was ever there at night

[1.5 hrs] Book arts class sit in

Wednesday Feb 8
[1hr] Working on pagination
Discussion in Slavic Class about Russian futurist book arts.

Burljuk, Burljuk, and Kamenskij Tango with Cows 1914

Tango With Cows (poem)

Life is shorter than the squeal of a sparrow.
Like a dog, regardless, sailing
on an ice floe down the river in spring?
With tinned mirth
we look at our destiny.
We - the discoverers of countries -
conquerors of the air -
kings of orange groves
and cattle.
Perhaps we will drink
a glass of wine
to the health of the comets,
expiring diamond blood.
Or better still – we’ll get a record player.
Well, to hell with you! -
hornless and ironed!
I want one - to dance one
tango with cows
and to build bridges -
from the tears
of bovine jealousy
to the tears
of crimson girls.

Thursday Feb 9: [2 hrs] working on pagination, and sketching. This was a very distracting day due to the career expo so I didn't get as much done as I had anticipated.
[1hr] Visiting printmaking artist Dennis O'Neil. Watched a demo and saw some techniques that were very inspiring.


Friday Feb 10: [-]  Finish posting, work
What I discovered
I feel like I'm on a good track for what I need to do next. However, during the career expo everyone I spoke to said I should really get into packaging design. D: Now I feel like this project is a full 180 from the original packaging when it's not. I hope the slipcase can portray some of those skills in my final.

To do next
Finalize pagination with prospective imagery! Plan for what to show for postcards. Scan fishfly print to make layout process easier.

Week 17

What I did
Saturday Jan 28: [.5hr] Decided I want to just start making without thinking too much. So I did. Sketched details I remember about the docks and started pagination.
Sunday Jan 29: [3.5 hrs] 
Thinking about content for the booklets I want to make. I choose the site of the docks to start with.

Monday Jan 30: [1hr] Planning out pagination and sketching for woodblock ideas. Writing down on visual map.

Tuesday Jan 31: [5hrs]
Working on Docks booklet format. Decided on 4"x4.5" pages. Created a dock structure as a pop-up. I had decided that I wanted to seperate my writing into three different subsets: Intro-docks, mid-the fishflies, outro-swans.

Wednesday Feb 1: [.5hr] Spoke to Ana about different types of bookmaking paper that may work for my project. We also arranged for my to test print out the paper in the printers upstairs on Friday. Sketched out pagination and creating a list of goals for the next day.

Thursday Feb 2: [6hrs] 
Grids and more layout, spoke to Hannah and Stephanie. We discussed how the pop-up elements aren't aiding in the sequence. Suggestion for having single overarching pop-up as the intro for each location, perhaps having it included in the Slip case. That way, you begin with a general notion of place, then pick out specific details that "color"the scene. Spoke about cutting down the amount of locations since each will have a subsection as well. I'd rather pull out 3 really nice locational books than 5-6.
Started working on woodcut illustrations for fishflies subsection.

Friday Feb 3: [0hr (before noon)]

What I discovered 
My writing references memories, but it still holds a solitary feeling. It's as if one was thinking alone about their experiences in a location. After having a conversation with my professors, I feel like I'm heading in a good track. I can actually see a final product in my mind now.

Also, don't trap myself in a specific format.

What to do next
I need to have some layout for Friday to print out. I will then take that and do some woodblock prints on it. I want to have this prototype ready to show for Tuesday critique. I want to focus on one prototype to photograph for my postcards as well.