I don't do New Year's resolutions, but my plans for 2017 included making more blue things and creating an edition of artists' books (and other stuff I've already crossed off the list!). In early February already, many things aligned, all at once, all of a sudden: I'm working on a blue mixed media artists' book! I was invited to create a poetry piece for the publication series Pushpin & Poetry. Along with the invite I received ten tiny clear round acrylic pots to work with. You know how I like a tiny challenge! Another appropriately timed challenge came from the direction of Instagram - a monthly themed bookbinding challenge #AreYouBookEnough, set in motion by Sarah of Ink and Awl. This month's theme is 'peace', January's was 'light'. And it was actually seeing some of the light-themed books that gave me the spark for creating this piece I'm just about to finish. Today I'm sharing photos of the work in progress, hoping to share the finished artists' book on Thursday!

I definitely work better when given some constraints instead of complete freedom. Hell, I'm creating a poetry book using mainly cut up dictionary texts - and I mean cut up with scissors, not in the easy ctrl+c&v style - that's pretty restrictive (check out Oulipo, if you think constraints in literature sounds interesting). I tend to get spooked by the limitless possibilities and end up paralyzed by them. So, having both a theme and an odd-shaped container given to me made work a breeze! And yes, I'm so taking part in the bookbinding challenge in the coming months; probably not every month, though, because my time management sucks and I have a book to write.

On the first night spent staring at the acrylic pots I just brainstormed and listed different types of binding structures that could work with the container. The screw top pots measure just 3,5 cm in diameter and 4,5 cm in height, so the dimensions limit possible bindings a bit. Using the pots as containers instead of building something around them allowed for more fragile and sculptural ideas than the ones I usually get to play around with. I absolutely wanted to preserve the round shape, because where's the fun in sticking a rectangular item into a round pot. The first idea was of course a scroll, but I wanted to push myself further. And besides, working on a scroll basically means creating something in 2D and then rolling it up, and I'm scared of two-dimensional things like drawing. Instead I build. And that's why I decided to make very un-book-like cylindrical artists' book objects instead.

A quick prototype, and a quick photo on the glue-stained desk...

...followed by a notebook spread with samples, experiments, plans, and important measurements.

24 little cylinders cut to measure and lined with paper I dyed greenish dark blue. These 24 halves make 12 cylinders. The edition size is 10, but I learnt early on to make a few extras, as you're bound to ruin something sooner or later, and it's a pain to start all from scratch. Making one or two more is a small price to pay for finishing an edition without crying. Okay, the extra copies are a nice insurance, but no guarantee against tears. Thankfully, this edition has seen no tears, so far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Paper I dyed with gesso sprinklings and light teal acrylic ink and 24 mica circles...

... a total of 48 transparency film circles...

...360 characters and 60 lines typed...

...and a whole lot of paper edges pared. Never heard of someone paring the edges of a piece of paper? Don't worry, it's a special task reserved for obsessive people. I only do it on fine binding projects and when I'm working on something so small that the thickness of a paper's edge is a big deal. I leave it up to you to decide on Thursday whether it, or any of this, is worth the trouble. I'm pretty biased, but I'm going to say yes, this is absolutely worth it - I love how the edition is coming together!