A Book a Day? What's Up With That?


Hi, and welcome to this year-long project. So what's this all about and how did it happen, you might ask. In mid 2007, artist Noah Scalin decided to make a skull out of anything he could find, every day for a year. It stretched him in ways he never imagined, as an artist, a writer and a person. His experience turned into a blog that went viral, and then a book.

Others have picked up on the idea: 365 Hearts, 365 Masks, 365 Bears drawn on a cellphone, 365 paper napkin mustaches.
I wanted to play, too, and I chose books. I love books, I know a bit about making books (thanks to my talented book-maker sister, Marilyn Worrix), and they're broad enough in definition to give me a lot of creative leeway.

The whole point is not really the books. The idea is to stretch myself in many ways as an artist and a person, to set up a discipline, stick with it and see what that teaches me.

I hope you'll join with me and follow along on the journey chronicled here, and let me know what you think.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Day 81 - "Carousel" - A Star Tassel Book

We have something a little more complicated today, though it turned out not to be as hard as I thought it might be. I've never made a star book before but always loved the way they look. So guess how pleased I was to learn it's basically just a 16-panel accordion or concertina fold pulled into a circle. Then the end panels are glued together and a tie of some sort is passed through the center to pull it all into the star shape and hold it there.

As I was thinking about the structure and how to make it, I knew I wanted some content, something on the pages. I thought about the form--a circle, a cylinder, a wheel. Then the idea of a carousel struck. I found a wonderful passage from J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. It seemed to be the perfect text. I printed it out and glued it into the valley folds of the book. 

Here's the passage:
Then the carousel started and I watched her go round and round...
All the kids tried to grab for the brass ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she'd fall off the goddam horse, but I didn't say anything.
The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything.
If they fall, they fall."

I actually love this book and want to make more star books now. (And now I've got that song, Jacques Brel, I think, running round and round in my head.  "... We're on a carousel, a crazy carousel, and now we go around, again we go around, and now we spin around, we're high above the ground..."  So now you can go around humming it too. You're welcome!





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1 comment:

  1. RachelApril 19, 2011 at 7:58 PM

    oh, how nifty. I do like that one. Of course, I have liked all of them so far. I have a very special category for things of my own that I like, that category is DONE. I have a very hard time finishing things, not because I get stuck, but because I wonder off to the NEXT thing, so you are an awesome role model.

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