Artfest 2011 Gallery Art } ATC Nest Book

I wanted to make a small ATC-sized book to show at the gallery this year. I loved the bird theme and was drawn to nests as the focus of this piece. I did a little online research and found out that there are nine different type of nests (scrape, mound, burrow, cavity, cup, saucer, platform, pendant and sphere). That sparked my direction in making different "nests". I poked holes in the card and wove in different materials to form the nest. I used yarn, twine, painted paper strips, cut book text and other miscellaneous papers I had laying about.



I was thinking about how this all could relate to art making and came up with fragile possibilities which to me represented the inspiration or spark of an idea that can be lost if not nurtured carefully.



I had some wonderful handmade papers that I wanted to use for the main cards. These were thicker than the nest cards which are two regular weight ATC blanks glued together.


This is the cover.


My all-time favorite binding technique is called "single-sheet sewing" and was developed by Keith Smith. I learned it from Cindy Hollander from Hollander's in Ann Arbor. It's really not that hard to learn and is very flexible. You can bind a mix of any kind of material, all the pages do not have to be the same size or thickness.



After I chose phrases that described the essence of a nest and egg, I encapsulated the words inside paper eggs that went into the nests.


incubation


nurturing vessel


quiet architecture


woven intentions


place of refuge

I am still finishing up a small wooden box that will house the book. I'll post again when I get more pictures:)