Airbrushed Decorated Paper - By Amy Borezo

One of my great  pleasures in hosting the Bind-O-Ramas is to to see binders and book artists challenge themselves to try new techniques and often create something truly special. In this case the standout for me is Amy's decorated paper. Below her description of how she created it. Thank you Amy. View all entries featuring bindings of "The Bone Folder" in the 2012 Bind-O-Rama here.

Our guest blogger today is Amy Borezo, book artist and edition binder.

For the Bind-o-rama exhibit featuring the set book The Bone Folder by Ernst Collin (translated by Peter D. Verheyen), I was inspired to create a version of the German Stiffened Paper Binding. The portion of the text itself which most interested me was the section on decorative papers. While the binding style is modest, I wanted the decorative paper used for the covering material to be inventive — having both a modern feel to echo the graphics of the time period in which the book was written, and a contemporary, process-oriented sensibility. To accomplish this, I used a bone folder (in keeping with the title of the book) to score a pattern on paper, which I then folded and airbrushed to create a unique geometric design. To begin, I first scored a hexagonal grid onto a piece of Cave paper using a metal bonefolder. Next, I folded the paper into a concertina in one direction (horizontal) along the scored lines. Leaving the mountain and valley folds intact, I aimed the airbrush so that the paint would only hit one side of the mountain fold with red paint.

Click to enlarge.

I then turned the paper around 180 degrees and painted the other side of the mountain folds with the airbrush in yellow. The color dries fairly quickly and I was able to now flatten the paper and begin folding along the diagonal scored lines. I changed to white paint and repeated the process of aiming the airbrush to only hit one side of the mountain fold with the white paint. I decided I liked the variation of having heavier coverage of white near one corner with a gradual fade to the other corner. This effect was easy enough to produce by angling the airbrush slightly.

Click to enlarge.

I flattened the paper again and folded along the opposing diagonal for the final application of white paint. I debated whether to continue along more folds, but felt like the resulting pattern was visually strong. I particularly like that the final design has a strong Art Deco look and that the paint was used to capture the physical process of the pattern being made through folding. I finished the binding by adding a subtle color fade to the book cloth on the spine with the airbrush in red.

Click to enlarge.

Go to Amy's blog for detailed views of this fantastic binding.

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Amy Borezo received an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from RISD in 2000. After graduating, she worked both as a bookbinder in a production bindery and as a book mechanic at Daniel Kelm's Wide Awake Garage where she learned that you can reinvent the book each time you make it. Amy is now a contemporary book artist and the proprietor of Shelter Bookworks, an edition binding studio in Western Massachusetts.