The Shape of Things 5

 As mentioned, the fifth books in the collaborative series The Shape of Things have been completed and exchanged. 

As I continue my approach to using up things that I have in the studio for this second half of the series, I turned to some pre-folded khadi paper concertina books - see here for the beginnings. And here for some of the testing I did on the way through.

The book presents in this pouch - folded and then held together along the sides by circular baubles of French knots. Sturdy, yet elegant.

Inside the book folds into a square and I used a piece of Annwyn's printed paper to maintain that circular theme, I also chose pieces of prints that had circles within them, as part of the band to hold it together.

On the bottom, another wee circle from Annwyn's prints. Form and function - it actually hides some things!

Each book is made from four of the pre-folded concertina khadi paper books, and as you open it, they stretch out along four sides.

A wee pebble rests at the heart of it, hand stitched ripples flow around the central panel, and then embossed ripples continue through each of the four lengths. Hand lettering in graphite spirals around the lengths and the little dot lets you know where to start reading...

Ever expanding, yet ever diminishing; dissipating yet extending...

And then it folds up on itself to a neat little book!

This book was an absolute head-twisting challenge, and I worked hard to resolve it. It started off one way but as soon as I added a pebble, I suddenly realised it would be about ripples. And then how to represent ripples, and how to accommodate the pebble, and then how to fold it so it made sense as you read it, how to contain such a multi-folded springy little thing and... so it went.

I am very happy with how it worked out and how I used up several of the accordion fold booklet pages that had been sitting in the studio for quite sometime wondering what to become!