Wendy Yang

The cover box is finally done. =)

I wrapped the FedEx box with black paper and bought a white marker and my boyfriend helped me draw pictures of the Eiffel tower, Big Ben and Coliseum on the box.

Here are the pictures:

I been working on my three books and I am finally done with all of them, including the cover sleeves. very happy =)

So for the three books, I printed it at Kinkos and it only costed $34.68. not bad at all.
It was printed on laser standard white paper, front and back.
The books I used the stab binding method with thread.
Then for the cover sleeves I used Epson 4 stars 13 x 19 matte paper that I bought for my other art class, and I had a lot left.

The cover box is still currently being worked on. I am using a FedEx shipping box that I took from Kinkos, I cut it down so it can be able to fit the books in it. And now I am working on the design. Ill post up more pictures when I finish.

Here are some pictures of what I have so far:

my three books

the spine

FedEx box

books in box

working progress =)

so as my older post from Oct 24 said:

My final book would be a series of books under the name “Europe” and may contain about 3 books or more.  The first three books would be called “When in London…”, “When in Paris…” and “When in Rome…”.

When i first thought about making these books I wanted to make them in Japanese binding form, however, since these books are suppose to be travel catalogs it would be hard to open them since the spine will be so tight. So I decided to change the binding style to stab binding. And I would print each page on thicker paper from Kinkos. I will also be sewing the books myself along with making a book case for them.

As you can see from my banner on my blog, those 3 pictures will be the cover of my three books. The picture on the bottom is just a preview of one of my books. I will post more info and pictures when I have hard copies of them =)

My trip to the EAB Fair located at  X Initiative was nice. The place wasn’t big compared to the one that was held at PS1 so I had enough time to walk through the whole fair. It was also crowed, but i guess that is because it was the last day for the fair. There was even a guy who did a hand stand with the word “peace” tied to his legs.

the fair

upside down guy with peace sign

The first book that I picked up when I went to the fair was a book called “India” by Charlotte Dumas. The book was saddle stitched and came in an edition size of 1000. What caught my eyes was cover, it was a picture of a white tiger and I love tigers so of course I picked it up. The book contains pictures of the white tiger, like as if it was its story of its life. But the book itself was very unique, the pictures were only printed on one page. Two on a page, and then the page was folded in half. So in the beginning of the book you only see pictures on the left and towards the end of the book you only see pictures on the right side.

The second book was very similar to the first book. It was a book called “Day is done” also by Charlotte Dumas. The book was saddle stitched and came in an edition size of 700. This book was made the same way as the book called “India”, with only pictures printed on one side. But in this book it contains pictures of a white horse and I am guessing also about the story of the horse. Both of the books made by Charlotte Dumas were very unique and simple.

Next was a book called “Torayan’s Great Adventure” by Kenji Tanobe. The book was perfect binding and was $50. This book was very cool and unique. The books cover is made of this yellow soft yet looks water proof material and has a printed smiley sun on the cover. The book was filled with pictures, like a story book about the journey of a cartoon character. I talked to the person selling the book and she said that this book’s cover was made out of the materiel that you can see on one of the character’s outfit, which was very cool.

“Technics and Creativity” by Robert Rauschenberg wasn’t really a book but looks like one. It was displayed on top of a shelf so I couldn’t take it down but from up close it looks like a book that is really a white plastic case. The right side of the open case are three long vertical stripes of colors: red, yellow and blue. The left side of the open case has a non-color filled in target. Below that you see three painting dry inks that is also in the colors of red, yellow and blue. And below that is just a paint brush. From the look of this it looks as if the person who buys this art can choose to color in the target with the ink and brush provided.

The fifth book that I picked up is a book called “The National Gallery Washington”. The price of this book was $1,500 and edition of 15/30. This book was signed and dated in 1999 by Donald Lipski. Donald Lipski buy books from museums from all around the place, like the one I saw from the fair. And what he does is he cuts out a center hole out from the whole book. I don’t understand the meaning of cutting out a large round hole but it was very interesting.

The last book that caught my attention was a book called “Seascapes One Location 1999-2009” by Renate Aller. This was a book that contains pictures of colorful seascapes that were all taken from the same location through out 10 years. However, this book doesn’t come out until 2010 and was printed through Blurb which was very interesting for me since the other day in class we learned how to use Blurb.

FedEx Office Print & Ship Center

This is the FedEx Office Print & Ship Center that is near Baruch located at 257 Park Ave S New York, NY 10010, and you can call them at (646) 602-0074.

Here are the answers to the questions for printing, trimming, folding and binding:

1) Printing double side with laser color print on a regular 11×17 inch copy paper is $1.98 per page.

2) Trimming is $1.49 per cut.

3) Folding is $0.03 per fold (down the middle).

4) Staple binding is 0.54 per staple. Coil binding is $5.95 for the first inch and addition of $1.00 for each extra inch(es).  They also do perfect binding, however, the workers didn’t know the rates and said the file has to be send in in order to know the price.

My final book would be a series of books under the name “Europe” and may contain about 3 books or more.  The first three books would be called “When in London…”, “When in Paris…” and “When in Rome…”. I want to make these books for myself and others because I have always wanted to go to Europe and visit the beautiful cities. I am planning to go to Europe after I graduate next year and not planning to go on a tour. Therefore if I can make books about the places I want to see and visit in my final book project, in a way I can use these books on my trip so I know what to visit without getting lost. My books would contain pictures, direction, location and information on places to visit and see in Europe.

At the moment I don’t have any pictures of what will be on my series of books.

For my stab sewn binding related theme book I decided to use scanned pictures of graffiti that I have drawn for the people I love, my friends and myself. I am not great at graffiti yet but whenever I have time I practice. And so my book contains some of the graffiti that I have done.

book cover

graffiti of my name

So I was on the subway going home and thinking about how I am going to make my stab sewing binding book. I thought about how the stab sewn technique seems very solid and thick. I wanted to work with things that you normally don’t see in a book so I thought about magnets. From there I thought about magnets on a fridge and decided I wanted to make a fridge looking book with magnets on the cover. And in the book would be pictures of food so it really looks like a fridge. =)

I walked around the hardware store to find things that I can add on my book. I found  metal plates with holes and decided that it would be nice to put it on the side near the spine, since when you put holes in the book the holes look very rough, and this metal would cover it up. Then I found a large version of the metal plates that would be good for the inside of my cover which can attract metal. It was heavy but thin enough for a book.

For the front cover I used a thick gift box that already had folds, then I taped the large metal plates on to the cover and then wrapped the whole thing with aluminum foil. I then took the smaller metal plates and used double sided tape to make it stay on the book. For the back cover it was the same process but just without the large metal plates. The pages within the book were just blank pages and I glued pictures of food onto each page.

Now the book is done and it makes me hungry.

book cover

fruit page

sushi page

work was in progress

My trip to the NY Art Book Fair was very interesting. I got to enjoy a lot of artworks, paintings, books and etc. It was more of an exhibit than a book fair since many of the publications where for eyes only or behind a glass case. However, the whole experience was very nice even though I only got to go to two floors. While I was there I picked out six books that interested me the most.

The first interesting book is called “Inside World” by Richard Prince. The price was not listed and the binding style was perfect binding. This book comes in edition size of 250. I wasn’t able to flip through the book since it was locked up behind a case but the cover did catch my eyes. It’s a red hard cover book with large gold letters saying “INSIDE WORLD”. On the side of the book there were three more red books with a white paper on top of each that is signed and with its own original handwritten joke. The first joke was: ”If I refuse to go to bed with you,” she whispered, “will you really commit suicide?” That’s been my usual procedure. Second: With all I’ve heard about A-bombs that’ll destroy a city and H-bombs that’ll destroy a state and chain reactions that’ll destroy the world – you know I just don’t have the incentive to buy a two pants suit. Lastly the third joke: I remember practicing the violin in front of a roaring fire. My old man walked in. He was furious. We didn’t have a fireplace.

“Like Ghosts” by Adam Shecher is a colorful cartoon picture book that seems to be a story of a wolf. The price and edition size where not listed. It was printed on glossy paper and was stab sewn binding. This book caught my eyes because it had a cartoon drawing of a wolf in an outfit. Throughout the book you just see cartoon pictures of the same wolf in different scenarios. The book was very simple and fun to flip through.

Third, is a book called “One Million Years” by On Kawara. The book was opened on the display table and weren’t allowed to be touched. The binding style seemed to be perfect binding and edition size of 500. Even though we weren’t allow to touch it but the book caught my eyes with it only filled with numbers of years in BC and AD. A little paper on the side said: Past “For all those who have lived and died” – Future “For the last one”.

“Drawings” by Julie Nord was one of my favorites. It cost $40, perfect binding and came in edition size of 1,000. Originally the book was in Danish and was then translated into English. This book was very unique. It was full of pictures that were both cute and evil, good and bad, very unique drawings.  Here is a picture of the cover of the book. As you can see on the left side you see an adorable girl with butterflies surrounding her and flowers in her hand, but if you look very closely notice that the flowers have skulls in it. The drawings show good and evil.

“My Shit is Gold” [Volume I] by Paul Herbst is a stapled bounded book that has a brown slip cover with gold letters. It comes in edition size 250 and the price was not listed. The book contains glossy pictures in mostly black and white, very little colors. I just like the book because of the book’s title.

Lastly, the sixth book is called “Reading Your Face” by Franticham.  It is a large book that has cardboard reused boxes as its cover and toilet brown paper as pages. On each page is a picture of a human face that was drawn with different colorful chalk. This book was $130, saddle stitched with 3 holes and came in the edition size of 23.