Book Making inspired on medieval Books of Hours – to make these books we researched the covers of Medieval Books and Illuminations. Before students started to cut and glue shapes, they created their designs on paper. They planned, they experimented and they made decisions.
For the covers:
- two 6″x 6″ (15 cm x 15 cm) of 0.078″ (2 mm) cardboard per student, for the covers
- two 6″x 6″ (15 cm x 15 cm) of 0.039 (1 mm) thick card per student to cut shapes from
- heavy duty aluminium foil (from the supermarket) enough to cover the squares and bit to fold back
- white glue (PVA glue) to glue the shapes to cardboard base
- paint brushes to apply glue
- 1 blunt soft pencil per student to create texture and lines
- small amount of black acrylic paint, to rub over the aluminium foil for a patina/depth effect
How to: cut shapes according to design – when all the shapes are cut up and design decisions have been made, glue shapes to base.When all the shapes are glued in place and before the glue dries, apply aluminium foil pressing gently on the shapes. Fold the rest of aluminium to the back of cover and start drawing textures and lines on the front using the blunt pencil making sure that all the shapes are outlined ( like creating a low relief).
Notes: this technique is also good to create low relief pictures when applying textures and lines make sure that the aluminium doesn’t break, if it does? is not a big problem, just push the broken bit back to place.
