In our first class I
said that I liked the result rather than the process. However, while altering
my book, I found out that I did like the process and that I didn’t want to take
a break from it or completely be done altering the book. My first idea to alter
the book was to create a secret compartment inside of the book, like I have
seen in some movies. I took the safety knife from the art kit and picked
somewhere in the middle of the book to cut out a big rectangle. At first, I
wasn’t getting a good cut and I was only cutting a few pages at a time. I
realized I wasn’t using the sharpest side of the knife. Once I was using the
sharper side, I was cutting about fifteen pages at a time and it was much
easier to make the compartment. I eventually had a compartment in the middle of
the book where I could put small items.
I then decided that to
alter the book I wanted to change its cover. The first thing I did was rip off
the cover of another book I had brought with me. Once I did that it was time to
rip off my main book’s cover without ruining the compartment that I had
previously made. Once the cover was off, it was time to glue the different
cover on. I used the glue that was in the art packet. I realized that the new
cover was a little too small for the book, but I was able to make it work and
like the way it looked in the end. I kept using the glue and I created sections
in the book by gluing groups of pages together. This took a lot longer than I
thought. I had 3 sections that I glued together but then I realized that it was
a lot of work, as I needed to glue every single page together and I wanted it
to be glued perfectly.
Lastly, I folded some
of the pages together and then burned some of the book. The folding of the book
was easy, I just took a few pages and folded them together in to different
triangle shapes. Burning the book was the best part of altering it. I took a
lighter and burnt off the cover, the edges and some pages inside of the book. It
could have been because it was cold outside but the book took a little while to
light on fire and while it was on fire it burned very slowly. To stop the book
from burning and the ashes from spreading, I threw the book into the snow.
Overall from altering the book I learned that I really
enjoyed the process of altering the book and thinking about things I could do
to the book. Although the book isn’t as perfect as I wanted it to be, I still
enjoyed altering the book and was proud of my final result. I also learned how
to use the safety knife, found out how strong the glue was from the art kit and
got an idea of how paper burns.
From the readings I
learned about the many things that were used to write on before there was
paper. I originally just thought there
was stone and papyrus, but from the Hunter reading I found out people used
wood, stone, bronze and many other things. When paper was being made of cloth,
it was so popular that cloth was becoming a rarity to find. In the Basbanes
reading I found out that paper was made for the first time in China in A.D.
105. It was Cai Lun who first had the idea of making paper out of bark from
trees. I also learned that it took a while for paper to get popular because it
was light and ripped easily. But once people realized that it was easier to
write on and copy, it became the standard for writing. I also learned in the
Basabanes reading that “In theory, any plant can be used for making paper, but
the difference is the quality and the quantity of the fibers.” Lastly from the
Leberve reading, I learned that the invention of printing wasn’t just on a
whim, it was out of necessity. It was hard and took a long time to copy over
because people did it by hand. The transformation of the rotary action to
levers and cultivation of flax and hemp changed the way items were printed and
made the process a lot easier.
I could not agree more with Richard that Tharp’s survey along with the book altering exercise changed my perceptions of the creative process. I also enjoyed the process of altering my book just as much, if not more, than I loved the finished product. I really like the idea of creating a hidden compartment in a book. I also like that to avoid burning the book too much he threw it in the snow. I considered burning my book but I was afraid to light the whole book on fire. I will definitely try this for my second altered book. I also like how Richard was not afraid to make mistakes during the altering process. When the cover did not fit right, he found a way to make it work. When altering my book, I had the problem of underestimating how much time it would take me to make changes. Since I made the tone of my altered book optimistic, I cut out all of the negative entries. This part of my project alone took over an hour. I had to be very careful when cutting out the pages because I did not want to destroy the binding of my soft-cover book. Similar to Richard’s tactic of gluing pages together, I stapled pages together in order to have the book tell a different story. Although this project was time consuming, it was definitely worth it to learn the process and about the history behind books and paper.
ReplyDeleteI definitely have mixed feelings about the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but Ricard’s cover was awesome. I liked how he burnt the edges to add a different look at the book. Huck Finn was a difficult book to read in high school, it was a hard story line to understand. I can definitely relate to Ricard when he said that “Although the book isn’t as perfect as I wanted it to be, I still enjoyed altering the book and was proud of my final result”. My altered book could absolutely be better, but this is something I have never done before and it’s a learning process. Like Ricard and Jennifer said, this project was very time consuming but definitely worth it! From the readings, Ricard mentioned that there were many things that were used to write on before paper. I was interested in learning what was used, and thought to myself, what if we used other things to write on today in some of our classes. I think that would overall be a cool experience. Everyone holds a pen, pencil, paintbrush, etc. differently. I think it would be a great experience to see what individuals handwriting looks like on different writing surfaces.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Richard and Jennifer in the fact that I enjoyed the process of altering the book more than I could have imagined. I also can relate to how Richard altered his book because I did some of the same things that he decided to do. He decided that he wanted to burn his book and by doing so he had to go outside in the cold weather. I too wanted to burn my book because I thought that the end result would look cool and give meaning to a specific page of my book. I began to burn the book outside but didn’t want the fire to get out of hand so I threw it in the snow just like Richard did to put out the flame. I went about altering my book the same way as Richard did by doing different acts to the book and thinking about what else I could possibly do to it. I am excited to learn more about the paper/ book making process so that for the next book we alter can be enhanced to the next level.
ReplyDeleteI also said in the first class that I like the result over the process, but can definitely relate to how with this project the process could be pretty fun. The secret hole in the book is one of those cool ideas that, like Richard said, you often see on TV but not really in real life so I think it’s awesome that you made one yourself. That, in combination with the changed cover of the book that you did really makes this book full of surprises. I also can relate to the struggles Richard faced when gluing the pages together. I wasn’t thinking it through when I had the idea for my book and for some reason was thinking it would be an easy process, but it ended up being pretty time consuming to glue every page together and let them dry before being able to make more changes. I’m glad Richard was still able to be proud of the end result of his work and I’m sure all of the experiences from this project can only be helpful as we continue on in this class. One of the things that Richard mentioned from the reading that really stuck with me as well was how in theory you can use any plant for making paper. It would be interesting to compare firsthand the differences between writing on paper from all different sources of plants and how much the quality can be affected.
ReplyDeleteI really agree with Richard in the sense that prior to this project I had never really enjoyed the process. Once I started altering my book, I didn’t want to stop and felt like I could keep going. I like how he got his inspiration for cutting the hole in the middle of the book from what he has seen in movies. To be honest, I have always wanted a book like that! It is also interesting that when changing the cover of the book, he decided to go against just covering it. Instead, he thought it would be more interesting to completely remove the cover from his main book, and add a cover from a different book. This is a very interesting approach to the assignment. It is also very comical that when he was burning the pages of the book, he decided to throw it into the snow in order to make it stop. After all the snow we have had the past few weeks, I think that throwing fire into the snow is very fitting. I enjoyed his discussion on the reading materials and liked that he talked about why paper was unpopular at the time of its invention. However, once people began to see how easy it was to use, it became the norm.
ReplyDeleteRichard did a great job altering his book and it seems as though he had a fun time doing it. Creating the “secret pocket” as he had seen in the movies was an awesome idea and he was able to learn about some of our art supplies in doing so. This was a learning moment for Richard that allowed him to understand how to utilize some of the tools we will use in the remainder of this class. Richard clearly put a lot of time and effort into this project as he mentioned that gluing all of the pages back in took more time than he anticipated. I also thought it was funny that he threw the book into the snow in order to put out the fire in the burning process. I thought it was interesting that Richard brought up the point of how the invention of printing was seen as a necessity and although it took a lot of time to develop, people in this time realized they need a more functional and efficient way to copy writing. Like Richard, prior to these readings, I was not aware of all of the various alternatives people used prior to the invention of paper. These readings were very eye opening and informational about something that is often taken for granted today.
ReplyDeleteI like how that through altering his book Richard learned that he does not only enjoy the result of his work but also the process. I feel like it is difficult to really pick which you like better because every process differs and you may enjoy one more than the other. Like Richard, I also enjoyed the process of altering my book more than the result. My favorite part of his book was the secret compartment inside the book because he got the idea from movies. Also, I liked the burned look of his book. It’s pretty amazing to see the effect that fire has on paper.
ReplyDeleteLike Richard, I had no idea how many different writing mediums there were before paper was invented. It is also very interesting that paper was not very popular when it was first invented. You would think that it would have been however like all inventions it usually does take a while to create a version that does not have many problems, like being light and ripping easily in the case of paper.