Student Simply Folded Artist Books Resources

STUDENT RESOURCES

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This page shares information about the tools, resources and information covered during our workshop.

I buy most of my art supplies online, from several different sources depending on who is having a sale, and what I need in my order. I look for overall value in the pricing of the item, delivery cost and quality of service when ordering. I encourage you to shop around for different pricing. Different online stores offer sales and discounts at different times of the year, and there are other suppliers for most of the tools and materials I use.

I would love to hear from you if you do source from a different supplier – I am always on the lookout for other options to share with students, and for myself.

Click through on links that interest you. Each link will open in a new window, so you won’t lose this page. Bookmark this page in your browser so you can keep referring back to it.

And please let me know if you think I’ve left anything out! 🙂

The information below:

ARTIST BOOK REFERENCE BOOKS

Below are just a few excellent artist book resource books. Do your own searches to find the best prices for each book. Some are new and some are only available second hand, so shopping around may be needed to get the best pricing.

These two my first go GO TO reference books for artist book structures:

There are many more, so keep an eye open in in-person and online book stores. Rummage second-hand book shops to see what you find.

These books are a great starting point for showcasing a wide range of different handmade and artist book examples:

I shared the list of my top 18 books about making books in the studio library. You can read the article and see the full list here.

OTHER ARTISTS TO CHECK OUT

AUSTRALIA

UNITED KINDGOM

USA

Other corners of the world

SOCIAL MEDIA

Some great Facebook Pages and Groups to follow:

And some Instagram sites and hashtags to follow

And don’t forget about the Pinterest rabbit hole:

ARTIST BOOK ART PRIZES/AWARDS AND CHALLENGES

Galleries, foundations and organisations who run awards and art prize programs for artist books are often a great reference for the art form in their online galleries for previous competitions:

This link will take you to the 2020 Libris Awards catalogue.  And then 2022 Libris Awards catalogue.

And this link will take you to a virtual 3D tour of the current 2022 Libris Awards exhibition.

I mentioned the #areyoubookenough challenge – it is a great monthly challenge to follow in Instagram to see how different people around the world create their own interpretation of ‘books’. You can follow and enjoy the images shared by artists, or participate:

The 2025 challenge prompts:

  • JANUARY – Wild
  • FEBRUARY – Binding
  • MARCH – Layers
  • APRIL – Organic
  • MAY – Purpose
  • JUNE – Retro
  • JULY- Freedom
  • AUGUST – Games
  • SEPTEMBER – The 5 Senses
  • OCTOBER – Round & Round
  • NOVEMBER – Space
  • DECEMBER – Color

The basic hashtag – www.instagram.com/explore/tags/areyoubookenough
But also lookup or follow each of the monthly hashtags to see the full array of what people are creating.

 TOOLS

If you don’t have specific book making tools on hand you can generally improvise and find something that will do the same or similar job. If you want to start to build a collection of tools, these are my recommended starting point items:

PAPER

There are so many simple, plain, textured, coloured, embellish, thick, thin and everyhign in between papers to explore and incorporating into handmade book making. Keep en eye open at art supply stores, stationers, Spotlight – so many places sell all sorts of papers. Below are some places I have bought decorative papers for book making:

I wrote a 4-part blog post series wrote about printmaking paper you might be interested in:

ACRYLIC BOOK CASES

There are many businesses that can make custom-sized acrylic slip-cases and boxes for your books. I use Miles Plastics, based in Caloundra. I draw a diagram of what I want, include measurements, then email it through for a quote.

If you want to see who else makes them, do a Google search for something along the lines of “custom made acrylic boxes”.

You can make your own. I choose not to because of the toxicity of the materials.

STITCHING & THREAD

My favourite stitching binding technique is Coptic binding. There are a lot of online tutorials about this, and other, stitching binding techniques:

If you want to learn Coptic Binding in-person, I can’t recommend a workshop with Adele Outteridge or attendance at  Summer School highly enough. Adele is a fabulous teacher and generous is what she shares.

I also teach coptic binding in a 2 days ‘stitching’book workshop. Click here for more information.

Royalwood is the USA company I buy my waxed linen thread in bulk. You can buy individual spools at The Art Shed in Brisbane. The Rafia Connection is another Australian online resources that sells waxed linen thread at good prices.

MAGNETS

Magnets are great to use to help close a cover or structure. I collect magnets from printed marketing material, as well as buy Rare Earth magnets for specific purposes. Rare Earth Magnets are exceptionally strong magnets, and can come in small sizes, making them perfect to include in books to create discreet closures.

They can be expensive, so it’s worth shopping around to find who offers the best value in terms of pricing and delivery.

Do a Google-search for “Rare Earth Magnets” and start looking from there.

I have bought from www.magnet.com.au

RENAISSANCE WAX

This is the wax that I use to protect some papers in my bookmaking. I generally use this wax for papers where I think the colours from one paper may rub to another paper. I found a big range in price for this product, depending where you buy from, so shop around for the best price online.

MORE RESOURCES

  • Qld Bookbinders Guild – workshops, classes, library, demonstrations, Brisbane
  • The Journal of Artist Books
  • The Bonefolder – an e-journal for the bookbinder and book artist
  • Printed Matter – a non-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination and appreciation of artists’ books
  • Centre for Book Arts – promotes active explorations of artistic practices related to the book as an art object
  • bound:unbound – book artists collective
  • 23 Sandy – 23 Sandy is an online gallery featuring unique & limited edition artist books by a talented roster of artists from around the world
  • abecedariangallery.com – representing artists working in the book arts genrethrough curated exhibitions, sales to private and public collections, publication of artists’ book reviews, print and online catalogs and an online store front

Editions Studio – a community of book artists run by book artists founded by Sarah Mottaghinejad (and home of the #areyoubookenoughchallenge):

STATE LIBRARY OF QLD

“The Artists’ Books Collection, one of the component collections of the Australian Library of Art, is one of the largest publicly available collections of artists’ books in Australia, and is recognised as one of the best in the country. It consists of around 1700 works featuring both Australian and overseas artists.”

Find out more about the Artist Book collection here.

You will find a link to the database of books in the collection. You can visit the library to view some books, other books you will need to search the database then book a viewing time.

And this link will take you to a series of videos of Artist Book lectures.

LETS GO SHOPPING 🙂

Below are links to differant online stores where I but supplies and equipment form.

RECIPES

This is the recipe I use for the cake I made for our workshop. I make a few variations – swapping oranges for lemons or mandarins, and sometimes adding dark chocolate pieces. YUM.

And this link is for the biscuit recipe.

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