Handmade Books

About a year ago I finished a book completing it with poetry done in calligraphy. These were free form haiku, more correct-senryu. This is a very private book. But this book was not handmade. I found it at a local bookstore. The cover was black in color and the pages were thick water color papers. It was necessary for these pages since all the work was done using gauche, an opaque water color. I wish I would have photographed a small part of it.

Using the same type of book, I have considered starting another but written using my favorite scriptures. There are so many ideas. I had been looking for one with black pages but they must hold water color or gauche and all the lettering would be done in silver paint but using very bold letter art.

Back in the day when I was studying calligraphy in California, I created some small books, one in the class I took. This was an accordian book. I still have it and it is one of my first and favorites.

And more recently, in the scrapbooking days, I started using a lot of calligraphy in my photo books making for very artistic pages. With digital photography, I have not worked on the scrapbooks in quite some time. Much of my photography is on smugmug.com.

I had a vision this morning. Typically my artistic and creative visions come in the late evenings accelarated by a glass or two of gewurztraminer. The more wine, the more dramatic and unrestrained my calligraphy becomes. The book I wish to create is one of photography and calligraphy, more specifically Holga and scratchy handwriting. But the subject of the photographs remains in question. I have an idea but shall keep it private until I decide.