by Chris | Apr 7, 2013 | Creative Projects
Creating a what? A Japanese album is sometimes known as an ‘accordion’ album, as the pages are joined zigzagging continuously throughout the book. This means that the whole album can be folded outwards to form one long strip of paper. Moleskine make them as small sketchbooks but I wanted to make my own for a very particular purpose. As from this month I have been invited to be the Artist-in-Residence at the Theatre, Chipping Norton for a period of one year. Having held a solo exhibition of paintings there early last year, I am very excited at the prospect of a cultural partnership with such a lively and vibrant creative centre as the Chippy Theatre! I know that as a part of this experience I want to record regular drawings and notes in a sketchbook to form a ‘diary’ or journal over the coming months, but in what form? It occurred to me that if I made a sketchbook in the form of a Japanese album then at the end of the year it could be unfolded and displayed as a whole which would surely be very dramatic. (Theatre-dramatic-see what-I-did?) Awesome thought. But the Moleskine ones, lovely as they are, are too small. The answer – as our house has always doubled as a Blue Peter studio – make my own! First of all the cover – two pieces of 2mm thin scrap mdf board cut to 190mm squares (that’s 7.5″ in old money). Cut a square hole in each and cover them (as shown in the first photo) with cotton fabric cut out of the back of a...
