THE MASTERPIECE

Here's what I was holed up in my workroom doing for the past three straight days (not counting the days and days of preparation). I don't think the glue will ever come off my fingers--kidding. It's a bound book of the client, who was paying tribute to her mother's life. The story was written by a professional writer, bound in Japanese stab-binding style, with hidden-picture artwork, created by another artist, representing the mother's interests and contributions, bound to fold out flat, and a slipcase to hold the two together.

I created the paste paper design on Arches Text Wove paper for the covers. The cover boards were .98 Davey Board, used to construct the covers and the box. I used the Japanese stab-bound method of binding of the book. The covers have a hinge that I worked very hard to ensure would fold back easily without tearing the paper on the inside. The holes on the cover-board were drilled with a dremel tool, though the holes of the text block were individually punched a few pages at a time with a Japanese screw-punch.

The text itself was created by the client with interviews of family members, and professionally written by Laurel Hostetler of Arizona. I helped arrange for the proper text layout on the page, to take into consideration the binding, by using the formal book canon to calculate the placement. The client also asked me to do the calligraphy for the title page. Of course, this meant doing lots of preliminary layouts and experimenting with nib sizes, etc. When I finally got it laid out like I wanted, then I realized that I had it way too high on the page. So, I did it "one more time" (as I had proclaimed many times before that), but this time it worked. I added the gold brads on the letters, but used Holbein Pearl gold gouache, which has a shiny sheen.


The artwork was designed by an artist from Utah, sent to me with huge margins, and finally cut to 20x20". I researched the fold and found the Turkish map-fold to be the best solution for this fold-out. The binding was another challenge, especially to get it to fold out flat. I still wake up in the night trying to find a better solution for this, but it worked for now.



The box was quite a challenge: if too tight, the book and artwork would not have slid in, and if toome, but this involved aspects that I found to be challenging, especially to have the paper wrap over the edges correctly. I lined each piece of the box for the inside before I put it together.


All gold accents are 24K gold leaf, which reflects either white or orange in the light, but looks great in person. There was even gold on the edges of the gripper cutouts on the slipcase. The gold flecks on the paste paper were dropped in while the paste was still wet.

I had originally told the client I needed 4 to 6 weeks to complete this project. I got 10 days. Fortunately, I had prepared the paste papers weeks ahead, but could do nothing else until I had all of the elements in front of me. There was no way to work on anything until I had all measurements taken to make sure everything coordinated. There were only two weekends and a couple of weekdays to work on it, but that was in addition to the panic attack I had in the middle of the project. I was so frightened of making a mistake and not having time to start again that I could hardly even get started. I called my friend Leslie Wade who helped me map out the process. After going over it out loud, she asked me what part would be the easiest, and I said the book. That's where I started. There were so many small subtle elements of this whole project that are too detailed to go through, but little by little the job got done.

As is my usual way, I make a project, create the coordinating container, and then, for some reason, I make another container for the container (I think I have this thing for containers). I wrapped the whole thing in craft foam and tied it with a coordinating ribbon. Then I put it in a gigantic plastic bag, wound it around and taped it closed. Slipped it in the FedEx box and headed to Kinko's.

But, there was about to come my last panic to tackle. When I claimed a value above and beyond their minimum, they wanted to see the item. What was it -- a bomb? I don't know....but I told her it was artwork. The woman starting ripping open the box to take it out, though I said that I would take it out. I slipped it out and laid it on the counter and she started reaching for it rather assertively. When I simply held up my hands and said, "I will do it," she stopped, but I had begun to draw a crowd. I slowly unwrapped all of my hard work, and revealed the project, to which she exclaimed, "Oh, it's a scrapbook." O*M*G......to which I thought--almost out loud---"Yeh, lady, it's a $5,000 scrapbook!!!" The client, fortunately, has insurance on artwork while in transit from the artist to the client.Anyway, after a few phone calls and back-and-forths, they packed it in another larger, bubble-wrap filled box, and off it went to Colorado.

The time pressure was awful, but Bill was a great, helping me out as I worked day and night. Rather a tough juggling act with teaching, etc., but I performed a miracle of creation. The company is called Living Celebrations (check out website), who proclaim they provide masterpieces of art because "life is a masterpiece." Well, I truly believe it's a masterpiece!!!