My goal was to make three artist books that incorporated laser etching in a more experimental way. I planned to laser-etch several materials, including wood, MDF, paper, wool felt and vellum. I did not have time to run tests on wool and vellum, so I didn’t use those materials. I made three artist’s books and accompanying cases. The walnut cases were laser etched. The books were ink-jet printed on fine art, Japanese paper and laser etched on one side.
Two of the books correspond to a research-based project called “In the Future, We Don’t Know How to Make Cloth.” Many of the Mesoamerican codices reference spinning and weaving and I wondered if a compilation of all of these references existed. It turned out there isn’t such a resource, so I decided to make my own by extracting images from the codices. There are too many references, so this is an ongoing project. I made one book from Aztec/Mexica/Mixtec codices and another from the Mayan codices (Dresden and Madrid). The Aztec book is accompanied by handspun yarn bundles. The Mayan book was printed on both sides, with laser-etching incorporated on one side.
The second project is entitled “Codex Spime: Xochiquetzal.” My MFA thesis, “In the Future, We Danced with the Goddesses in the Place of the Seven Caves,” is a hybrid text that incorporates science fiction and creative non-fiction. The Codex Spime is an object that is mentioned in the fiction portion of the text. It is composed with manipulated pages from the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer and my own images from scans. On one side, it depicts the creation story of a new goddess. On the other, I laser etched the cut plans for a stacked sculpture of the goddess Coatlicue. I am planning on eventually placing the book in a dry cave in Mexico, which is where the Codex Spime was found in my story.
TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES:
Laser etching
Converted images/text to threshold (50%) .bmp
Bone folder
accordion book structure
MATERIALS LIST:
Scrap maple wood
Wood glue
Acid-free glue stick
Awagami Factory Bamboo ink jet paper, 250 grams
70% Bamboo, 30% Recycled Washi
250 gsm, PH Neutral
Handspun yarn, natural dye, yarn
