Category: Challenge

Patti

My daughter-in-law suggested I look at illegal immigration – much in the news these days. I found six of the top countries from which refugees attempting to cross the channel originally came; then found the names, details and photographs of someone from each country who had died in their attempt. I created their passports, soaked them in saline, and then encased them in a box which features thin black plastic, representing the flimsy boats in which these people risk their lives.

Tony

Working to the prompt Forbidden I used a ‘fortune teller’ structure, based on images created by ‘Tom of Finland’ The structure was the perfect way to reference the random, frenetic, cruising shown in the Tom of Finland drawings. I was reflecting on the time when homosexuality was illegal and gay pornographic was forbidden. A trip to the continent gave access to interesting bookshops the type of which Stoke-on-Trent or even Bristol didn’t seem to have. Smuggling an illicit paperback back home was a slightly scary thrill. I put the bookwork into an envelope because I wanted to showcase the postage stamps Finland issued to honour its famous talented son. All images are by Tom of Finland.

Gill

For the theme of Forbidden I chose to make a tetra-flexagon. The book consists of images of things that are forbidden to me as a diabetic; my favourite foods. In the centre is a small book containing alternative words for forbidden, the outside of the book is covered in numbers which are a selection of my blood sugar readings over the last couple of years .

Joan

I made a box, covered in Chinese paper and lined with red silk, about the Forbidden City in Beijing.

It houses my late father-in-law’s annotated copy of Chairman Mao’s ‘Little Red Book’

Alison

I chose an abstract approach to this theme. A box suggesting a present but labels ‘forbidden’ under the velvet ribbon. Inside a tunnel literally bouncing our and inviting the viewer to probe further. What the viewer expects to find might be exactly what is forbidden.

Joan

This is an envelope with sealing wax, which contains a small codex book about a recent incident I experienced in Spain.

It is a short tale, a ‘frippery’, with an illustrated cover.

Patti

I was surprised to discover that little girls still use euphemisms… and it prompted my Internet research to find the most common terminology for our ‘secret’ places…perfect for this little winged book!

Gill

For the ‘Secrets’ theme I chose the format of a double concertina with cut-outs. My booklet reveals my secret obsession with collecting earrings. As a keen traveller I decided to buy a pair of earrings from every place I have visited. The cut-out windows display a selection of my earrings with the name of the place I bought them from. 

Joan

The topic this month was ‘Palindrome’ and I made a double concertina book to illustrate  ‘A man, a plan, a canal, Panama’.

It uses collaged papers and maps to show the building of the Panama Canal and the men who designed and completed it.

Alison

I wanted to make a flexagon book so used two-letter words that can be read forwards or backwards and with a little graphic assistance, upside-down. A fun experiment. 

Patti

I decided to move away from the traditional palindrome for this month’s theme, instead making a book where the actions are reversed! My grandson, Alfie, loved it!

Tamsin

I knew that I wanted to make a square flexagon for this topic, as I felt that the continuous unfolding and turning structure would work well with words and phrases that can be read both forwards and backwards.

I decided to write a palindrome poem for the flexagon, inspired by the palindrome phase ‘won’t lovers revolt now’. I used two sheets of Japanese Hosho paper for the book, writing in walnut ink.

Gill

For the theme Palindrome I chose to make a simple graphic book based on my favourite Palindrome which is Yo Banana Boy.

Joan

This book is an adaptation of a Hedi Kyle structure and reflects a series of layers and meanings from my work on the Yorkshire textile industry, with handwritten text from order books in a local mill.

Patti

I didn’t have time to make new work for this month’s theme; instead I found a textile piece I made when “collecting colour” with artist Alice Fox. The vintage linen has been stained with natural dyes and then stitched. It’s wonderfully tactile.

Tamsin

This book is part of an ongoing project on JS Bach’s Goldberg Variations. I started by considering how musicians will often write all over a score while they practise and how I nearly always sit down to play the piano with a pencil to hand. I printed some pages from the score onto cartridge paper, which both lent itself to being written on, but also having areas of the score scraped away. I slotted the pages into a version of Heidi Kyle’s crown book.

Gill

My response to our first theme of Open/Closed was to make a Chinese Thread Book. The ‘book’ contains a total of 13 different compartments that are revealed as you open each section

Joan

This was a series of small books based on images of windows and doors in the Bloomsbury area of London.

Some open, some closed.

Patti

I had fun with a Turkish Map Fold book for this month’s theme. The irony is that even with her eyes open, my darling daughter can no longer see, having lost her sight to meningitis in March 2024.