These artist books are too good not to have their own blog post! They are one of the main outcomes of a recent art retreat to Lutruwita / Tasmania held at Enclave Tasmania. I proposed at the beginning of the retreat that each student come up with a concept for their book, paint and assemble it all within the retreat. My brief to them was a collation of their inspiration, memories or experience of their time in Tassie. The excitement was real!

The timeline was quite tight to pull the whole idea together, to gather enough inspiration and reference, as well as painting time and assembly - but I knew they could do it. Plus, there's nothing quite like a deadline to move procrastination over.

Only a couple of the students had any experience with any of the techniques for bookbinding so it was such an awesome addition, a whole new skill for them to take home and utilise in other ways. I hope they continue to make these little books as their are so effective and such a wonderful keepsake from travel, big life moments and adventures.

The first image is of all the bound books together before they went into a press overnight. Each had a belly band on it tying it all together. So there were three parts to the books to bring to life, the covers, the internal concertina pages and the belly band.

 

Below is a little before snap from just before I glued the covers and concertina booklet together. The theme I chose for my book was our day at Larapuna / Bay of Fires. This little beach we set up at reminded me so strongly of a favourite kids' book of mine, Magic Beach by Alison Lester. We managed to visit on just the most exquisite day, we couldn't have asked for better. It really did feel like a magic beach.

 

Drum roll please! Here are our artist books. I'm so very proud of what each student put together. Each book is so unique and truly encapsulates the students experience. It was smiles all round for the big reveal.

 

 

Sadly I only thought to capture them all on the very last morning and our lovely local student had already grabbed hers to take home! So missed photographing this one. She thankfully sent through a snap from home so I've got a record of them all.