Art Progress

You may have noticed the Block of four images on the right of the artprogress mainpage.

Chris Keolle recently introduced me to Etsy.ight away I loved the Etsy emphasis on handmade everything so I created a shop there so that it's eiser for folks to buy my work.

The Etsy mini on the main page should contain an up to date set of four items marked as features in my Etsy shop. You can click on the images to go directly to their page on Etsy or you can click the jwaggone link below the images to go to my shop and see all the items I have for sale.

The other exciting thing about Etsy is that it allows folks to request custom items. So, if you see something on this blog--a book or piece of jewelry for instance--but want it especially made for you you can make a custom request in my Etsy shop. Of course you can always contact me through this blog as well but Etsy makes everything a bit simpler.

Just before Christmas I received this commission to rebind a well loved Bible. It was a great project to work on.

I had done a couple new testaments and one full Bible before and I love doing them. What more exciting project is there for a Christian interested in bookbinding. Also there's an exciting connection to the past since the preservation of scripture motivated some of the biggest advances in the field of book arts. But Bibles are a challenge since they have so many signatures (in this case over 40).

The cover is milk painted like the E1 journals (I was able to make a matching E1 journal to go with the Bible) but with a slight color variation. I used three, rather than two layers of color on the cover to hint at the original Bible's red leather cover.

I was asked to incorporate a favorite quote into the cover so I etched it into a zinc plate and inset it into the wood.

This is a great example of spine wrapping with a decorative mulberry paper. In a situation like this where I'm repairing an existing book the spine wrap does double duty as a patch between the two outside pages in a signature (the two most likely to be torn from use).

This photograph isn't great but you may be able to make out the Greek style variation on traditional coptic binding. This works well when you have so many signatures because you can split the book block into two more manageable chunks and then join them later. Of course the locking knot at the center of each sewing station on a greek binding makes a lovely addition to the spine as well.

As a side note, with 40 signatures, each of the bands at the head and tail of the Bible took about 10 feet of cord.

Each of these pendants are made from a single river pebble wrapped with a single strand of copper.

The red "beads" are actually part of the copper wire wrapping the pendant that had been heated to molten and the cooled rapidly. The rapid cooling creates the vivid cranberry color on these round drops of copper.

Each pendant is 35$ + shipping ($3.50 to US addresses) and comes in a small aluminum gift tin (like those pictured below). Check out my Etsy Shop for up to date selection.

If you are interested in a customized pendant, please let me know.

Gift Cases

I recently began working on a new series of journals. I'm calling them E1 journals. The E stands for environment-easy, economical. This pair are rust colored.

The pages in these E1 blank books are made of paper that is not only 100% recycled but also: processed chlorine free, "made carbon neutral", and both FSC and Green Seal Certified. It's a fairly heavy paper (70# text) and has a beautiful look and feel.

I used a coptic stitch to bind the sections together and the head and tail bands are sewn from the same Irish waxed linen used on the spine.

I made the covers from high quality plywood (Some are cabinet-grade Baltic birch and other are super dense plywood used for model building).

I painted them with milk paint (which is "The greenest paint there is") I also impressed the front cover with a tiny E1 stamp and waxed the painted covers to make them more user friendly--less susceptible to dirt and oil from handling.

One of these journals is a heavily distressed white and the other black over a rusty red.

Price per journal : 75$ + shipping (4$ to US addresses)

Let me know if you are interested in a custom journal.

Chris Koelle and I finally finished our collaborative project. The hand signed and numbered CDs are available here.

Check out Koelle's excellent blog post on the project here.

The CD packaging is great so I wanted to post some images of one the CDs.

the Fuel Project is a collaboration between myself and Chris Koelle. It will be a series of sixteen images related in some loose way to fuel.

This image is an HDR photograph (a blending between three or more exposures). As with other photographs used in the project it was taken 9 miles or less from our homes.

I intend for this small sculpture in limestone to be handled. It is small enough
to fit nicely between the hands but large enough to have significance.

On November 12th I will be showing some of my cast metal sculpture at Mary Praytor Gallery In Greenville. It will be a group show of cast metal including works by Jonathan Eoute, Lily Wikoff, Christopher Koelle, Brian Rees, Julie Arsenault, Christopher Salter, and Seth Roberts.

Here is an image of the invitation designed by Brian Rees.

Join us if you can.

4.75 X 6.75 X 1”

Denim, paper, waxed linen, stainless steel, collage, and acrylic

This is a basic Coptic bound book but I made a soft cover using some old denim. I was going for a lighter feel overall.

The little silver thing at the bottom of the image is a heart charm and it is attached to a waxed linen cord to serve as a bookmark.

4.75 X 6.75 X 1”

Wood, paper, kitchen twine, collage, and acrylic

This book is an accordion fold. I placed an envelope on every other page. The idea is that you can collect things, scraps of paper, buttons, clues, etc… then on the opposite page you can write about what’s in the envelope.

My goal was to come up with a form that echoed the purpose of the book.

Here's the cover.

Here's an image of one of the pages.

4.75 X 6 X 1”

Wood, paper, button, waxed linen, collage, and acrylic

Here is the second in the map series. It is a lighter approach to the subject.

The clasp for this book uses two cords from the binding and an old button. You can see the two clasp cords coming from the back of the book. The cords go on opposite sides of the book. One has the button attached to it. The other cord can be wrapped around the button to secure the book.

Here's a picture of the cover.

Here's a closeup on the clasp.

4.75 X 6 X 1”

wood, paper, waxed linen, collage, and acrylic

This journal is the first in a series of books that ponder the question “Where am I going?” I use maps as a metaphor for broader more metaphysical questions.

I've been making these clasps based on a Japanese technique. In most cases I use one of the cords from the binding so the clasp is structurally integral to the book, not just an attached piece.

Cover
View image

Clasp Detail

Unfortunately our dog India...

got her jaws around the Mendelssohn book. Below are photo's of the remains.

I'm excited to say that I've finally found the time to post a couple of the pieces I've been working on recently. Enjoy.