Tatebanko, Japanese paper dioramas

My husband received this Tatebanko made by "It's a Beautiful Day" in his office gift exchange. On their "about" page you can see more images.


Here is one of the pages - they are very attractive before they're cut out.

A definition from Osaka Prints:
"tatebanko-e: "Standing printing-block models," a paper-craft hobby featuring three-dimensional constructions made from woodblock prints. The divertisement appears to have originated in the Kansai region by at least the late eighteenth century. Most designs were dioramas with their various parts printed on one or more sheets, intended to be cut out and assembled. (Thus very few from the Tokogawa period have survived intact, and Meiji-period examples are also uncommon.). The Edo variant was called kumiage-e (assembled picture). Tatebanko-e are considered a type of omocha-e (toy print), although some scenes of kabuki, geisha, samurai, sumô and daily life are hardly "toylike," consisting of elaborate designs with numerous elements cut from large sets of individual ôban sheets. Other related terms include kumiage-dôrô ("assembled lanterns," although not actually "lanterns"), kinkumi-dôrô, and okoshi-e."


This image came from Osaka Prints, in their "articles" section.


I love this one. The parts and the finished tatebanko together are dream-like. It came from this site. I am very handicapped here, since I can't read Japanese. There are many more images on the same page.

On this site you can download some fairly contemporary looking tatebanko as pdfs. One is round and very sculptural, one looks like a tunnel book. Go to the download page by clicking on the left hand red link just below the large image.

Enjoy Korea has a few images of tatebanko, both flat and assembled. Scroll down to see them.

Zine Energy

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Years ago I had a neighbor who made these occasionally, and passed them out to anyone who wanted one. Another neighbor, a childhood friend of his, said that he was "shell shocked" in WWII. Unfortunately she intercepted them when she could because they embarrassed her. Of course I found them so wonderful. I blacked out all family names.


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What's New?

Above: The Distance of the Moon, ©1990, 2 x 3-3/4 x 1-3/4 inches, brass, silver, formica, copper. This little book is based on a story in "Cosmic Comics" by Italo Calvino, my all time favorite book.

Recently I added a "what's new" page to my web site. I've added pages for 7 Extinction Events and The Distance of the Moon. Also added many new links and updated the old ones.

When I did the matchbox pinhole camera demo at the Book Arts Jam I revised the handout. It now includes instructions for taking photos of film with a digital camera. This has been added to a matchbox pinhole camera page, with related links.

Kids Lab Pinhole Camera

I was browsing around Flickr the other day and came across magnifik 2.0's kidz lab pinhole camera set. I found this on the internet and it came today.


Here are the parts. The white arrow points to the little springs that work the shutter. They sent a spare. This was the hardest part to assemble. I found the spring a little flimsy. It didn't make the shutter snap up all the way, allowing light to leak in. In the photo the angle is less than 90 degrees. I bent it apart so it's a little more than 90 degrees. Now it snaps up nicely. The rest of the camera was pretty easy to snap together.


My biggest problem was with this drawing of the instructions. Everything else is verbal, which I usually hate, and the assembly instructions are visual. For some reason I found it a little hard to read. Maybe because I'm sick with a virus? I did get it all together, no parts left over. Because I had it around, I used a piece of brass shim with a .5 mm pinhole instead of the aluminum foil included in the box. According to this website, my 2 inch deep camera needs a .3 mm pinhole. (Scroll down to find the calculators button.) I will take my own good advice and go out and take a test roll with notes soon.

Book Arts Jam 2007 Report

As usual, I didn't see everything, not nearly. But I enjoyed the day. I did get to the PodPost table to make a purchase, bought a wonderful book from Joanne Wilson, and some papers from Nancy Welch, the author of Creative Paper Art. I also bought some cards from someone whose name escapes me. I have the receipt, but there isn't any name on it. Hopefully the cards will show up.

Every time I left my table planning to take photos, I ended up looking at all the wonderful things. I did get a few shots:


The San Jose Printer's Guild. They had these really nice little printers, business card size. I overheard someone say they go for about $100 on ebay, but make sure it has . . . some part. I really want one!


Ginger Burrell.


My table, complete with my husband, Jim. It looked much better this year. I had a list of things to take and checked everything off as it went into the car. Behind in the center, you can see Cari Ferraro. Her calligraphy is gorgeous.


My matchbox pinhole camera demo. A very nice group of people. There must have been at least 34, all my handouts were gone.


The test photo I took showing them how to take digital photos of film. It would need to be reversed in an image editing program to look "normal."

Tooth Icon

Another partially finished project, finally done. My son gave me two teeth 5 or 6 years ago. The deal was that I would make him something with one of them, and I can keep the other tooth. This is the first completed project. I'll probably keep it around for a few years, enter it in some shows, and then offer it to him. I don't have any more toothy plans right now, but I'm sure some ideas will come along.

See more photos on my web site.
Read about most of the processes involved in making Tooth Icon.

While making the tooth icon I was thinking about my son's childhood, how much I miss that little boy. He's a charming adult, and I enjoy him very much. But it was fun being a mom and I miss that. So this is an icon to that part of my life.

Because I sometimes hate to use my precious materials, I thought I'd check ebay and see if I could find other teeth for sale. Of course, I did find some. But they looked gross to me. I find that so funny. This tooth doesn't bother me in the least. But a stranger's tooth? Yuck! I'm surprised at my reaction, considering that I had boxes of stuff like mummified mice and rabbit skulls years ago. I finally gave them to my husband, he has probably used most of them in his projects.

Book Arts Jam, 2007

Matchbox pinhole camera demo, 2006.

On Saturday, October 20th I'll be at the Book Arts Jam at Foothill College in Los Altos California. From their web site: "The Book Arts Jam is a one-day celebration at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California at which you can view one-of-a-kind handmade artist books, zines, letterpress books and broadsides, mailart, calligraphy, fine art prints, handmade paper and multiples by over 50 exhibitors who are book artists, craftspeople, and workers in the allied fields of letterpress printing, papermaking, printmaking, photography, collage, and paper decoration." The BAJ web site. has photos of past events, directions, a complete list of the demos planned for this year and a list of vendors.

If you're in the area, come and see what's going on. It's a fantastic event. Every time I'm there, I come home exhausted and excited to make books. I'll be doing a pinhole camera demo at 11. Here are my flickr photos from last year's Jam. And if you're into letterpress you might like Zatoichi's flickr photos.