October 19 meeting: 'Herbs', surprising circles, herringbones and ancient manuscripts

Our Autumn meeting took place on Saturday October 26th at the University of Sunderland, with ten attendees braving the October rain.  We were lucky enough to have three projects taught by Margaret Beech and a lovely shared lunch to celebrate Quarto’s 18^th birthday.

The day's projects

To begin, following Margaret’s instructions, we created a ‘Surprising Circles’ book which was decorative, interactive and very tactile.  The ‘surprising’ part comes in the way the pages fold out from a quarter of a circle into full circles and then refold themselves with a clever twist.

After a delicious lunch – we do put on a good spread for these occasions! - we were fortunate to have a visit from Susan Moor with her current work in progress - a facsimile on vellum of the opening page of St John from the ‘Durham Gospel’ fragments. Although not nearly as well known as the famous Lindisfarne Gospels, this page of the Durham Gospels has recently been on display at the British Library.  

The design is breathtaking in its complexity and detail, with complex interlacing and some fascinating zoomorphic creatures. We were all in awe of Susan’s skill at re-creating the work of the anonymous scribe who created the original on Lindisfarne in the 7^th century and really appreciated the chance to have a close look at such a fabulous piece of art.  Susan also very generously allowed us to photograph the piece, which is a commission.

A few details from Susan Moor's work-in-progress

Our book-swap theme was ‘Herbs’ and green was the colour of choice for many  as a result. Structures included concertinas, a border book, a star book with swivel panels and some interesting open spine binding. Although most members had taken the title at face value and concentrated on herbal plants, their medicinal qualities and the history of herbal use, there were some creative ‘off-piste’ books as well.

We learn so much from each other at this part of the day – and not just about bookbinding.  By the end of the swap we’d discovered the ‘Nine Herb Spell’, William Turner, Greek mountain oregano, a much-loved 1960s children’s TV programme, the automotive film star ‘Herbie’ and several famous people called ‘Herb’! (Hopefully all of the swap books are shown: apologies to anyone whose book I’ve accidentally missed out!)

Following Margaret’s instructions, everyone had brought multiple copies of the haiku they had written at the last meeting to be bound into a collaborative ‘Herringbone’ book.  A very simple but effective structure: we bound ours with double-sided tape, but Margaret showed two others she had made using pamphlet stitch and Japanese stab-binding.  The books were quick to make and looked very effective with our words inside.

Right at the end of the day, Margaret completed her ‘hat-trick’ of projects with a very simple origami fold which turns two squares of paper into an interesting box – a disphenoid (or isosceles) tetrahedron! -  perfect for small Christmas presents and table favours.  We left totally inspired to glorious Autumn sunshine!

 

Many thanks to everyone who helped make the day such a success and particularly to Margaret who organised the programme and demonstrated.

Next meeting: 25th January

Swap Theme: Precious Things

From our Achives 1

Looking forward to our upcoming meeting on 26th October and seeing what creative responses members have had to this quarter's theme - 'Herbs'.  In the meantime, here's a look back at some of our books from April 2015 - 'Butterflies'.

 Not all the books we created are represented here but these are a sample of the range of structures made by the group.

Can't wait to see what everyone has come up with for this month's meeting!

July 19 meeting: 'Italy', Jacob's Ladders, Haiku and Origami

Some of our Italian themed 'swap' books for July's meeting

Our Summer meeting took place on Saturday July 27th at the University of Sunderland, with thirteen members attending.  

In the morning, we followed Pat Duncan’s instructions for making a Jacob’s Ladder structure. Several of us had tried this before, using a range of different methods with mixed success.  However, Pat’s simpler process - using a template to position the ribbons correctly - enabled everyone to complete a working ’ladder’ without too much difficulty and the results were impressive. 

Margaret Beech has forwarded a photo of this fabulous version she created after the meeting:

Our book-swap theme was ‘Italy’ and the topic inspired a wide range of different responses and some impressive structures. It is always fascinating to hear the  stories behind the swap books, the thought processes, triumphs and occasional mishaps that lead to the finished pieces. As is often the case, several of the structures were requested as demonstrations for future meetings. (Only some of the swap books are shown above: apologies to anyone whose book I’ve missed off. Several of my photographs were not clear enough to reproduce: I think I needed better light to do them justice. I promise better photography next time!)  

After lunch and the book-swap, Jo Duncan reminded us how to write haiku: a simple Japanese poetry form of three lines and seventeen syllables. There was (silent!!) concentration for half an hour with much syllable counting. Everyone completed at least one haiku before sharing our mini-masterpieces round the table.  These will be used at the next meeting as the contents for the ‘Herringbone’ Book Margaret Beech will demonstrate.

Finally, Janet Barnett demonstrated two simple origami folds which can be used to create impressive concertina book structures and we finished the day by creating our own versions with the pretty papers she provided.

All in all, a very successful and productive day! 

Next meeting: 26th October

Theme: Herbs

Shared table to celebrate our 18^th birthday