Jerilyn Crowley Reflection

After reading the three articles for class I can recall a couple key facts that stuck out to me.  To begin, I never considered the fact that the amount of paper produced was restricted by the raw materials available at the time.  During the years between the 15^th and 18^th centuries people would make careers out of collecting rags (raw materials).  Rags were very important to the paper industry and the demand for them was higher than the supply.  Many countries forbid the importation or export of rags from their region.  For example, in German, they designated special zones for collecting rags so that only local rags could be used to make local paper. I never realized how dependent the paper industry was on this outside factor.  Another important factor when producing paper was water.  After reading this article, I learned that water was very important to the paper making process.  Therefore, people would make paper at the beginning of the river, away from all the in-purifications that resulted downstream; the purer the water the better the final product, paper. 

            The second article, shocked me when I learned that paper was responsible for the only deaths on American soil during World War II caused by enemy action.  I was not aware of this incident and the major role paper played in it.  More specifically, Japan decided to construct balloons out of paper that would house anti-personnel bombs.  These balloons were then launched on November 3, 1944 until April 5, 1945 from three coastal location in Japan.  They travelled across the Pacific Ocean by wind and landed in cities, forests and farmlands within America.  This project was named Fu-Go Weapon and set-up seven manufacturing centers around Tokyo to assemble the, thirty-two foot in diameter, balloons that were made out of handmade paper.  In order to ensure that they did not deflate before arriving in America, six hundred sheets of paper were glued together in a lamination fashion.  The paper needed to be strong but light so they made it out of Kozo.  It took about two years to complete this project.  After the balloons were launched there were confirmed sightings throughout the American Continent.  Unfortunately, an embargo was placed to censor all the details in order to stop Japan from learning details about the raids, which is why many Americans do not know about it.  Miraculously, there was only one balloon that caused fatalities out of nearly nine thousand balloons.  It occurred on May 5, 1945, near the Gearhart Mountains when a women and five children came across one in the mountains and pulled on a dangling line that triggered the bomb; killing them all.  I had no idea that this every occurred during WWII and how important paper was to the Japanese offense strategy.

            The last article made me realized that depending on the type of paper a region had determined their bookmaking process.  For example, Hunter explains that there are two distinct bookmaking techniques.  The first is Oriental; they only use one side of the paper because it takes delicate wood-blocks to make the impressions due to the fact that the paper made in China and Japan was soft and pliable, making the paper absorbent.  However, the second method, European, used both sides of the paper.  This is due to the fact that the raw materials for Europe’s papermaking industry was macerated linen and cotton cloth.  Therefore, the paper was hard with an impervious surface ideal for writing with a quill pen.  Therefore, they used metal types to make heavy indentations on both sides of the paper.  Overall, I learned that both civilizations created paper for their personal needs and the resources they had available.  This intern influenced there method of bookmaking.

            Looking back at my alteration process I can tell my method was very analytical as well as creative.  I began with Curious George Goes Camping.  I knew right away that I wanted to rebind the book by attempting to make it into a hard cover book.  I considered several mediums such as wood, cardboard, metal, poster board foam and tough construction paper when deciding how to create the hard cover effect.  I decided that the most convenient and easily assessable material for me to use would be cardboard.  I also knew that I wanted to incorporate a second book (Mother Goose) into this book. 

At first I thought about binding both books together into one book.  However, I felt this approach was not encompassing the project and I was instead altering two books.  As I was flipping through the pages trying to decide how to continue I realized that the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill correlated perfectly to what was going on during pages 16 and 17 of Curious George.   George saw a fire in the distance and climbed down a tree to get a pail of water (very similar to the rhyme).  Therefore, I decided to cut the rhyme out of Mother Goose and glue it into Curious George.  All of a sudden I realized every turn of the page for Curious George some way or another related to a nursery rhyme in Mother Goose.  Therefore, Curious George Goes Camping with Mother Goose was created. 

In the end, it took two attempts to bind the book with yarn because my first attempt was too tight and the pages didn’t flip nicely.  Therefore, I rebound the book keeping the pages open.  Lastly, after the book was bound I decided to do some alterations to the inside of the book in order to practice more of the art actions discussed in class.  I experimented with charcoal pencils, markers, crayons, highlighters, and colored pencils.  Overall, I learned a lot about myself from altering the book.  Mainly that I am unable to destroy a book so much that it is unrecognizable and instead wanted to create something that is still readable, just in a different sense then when I began.