TTV photography

One of my first ttv photos. Ttv stands for through the viewfinder photography, my new distraction.


You take an old camera with a large viewfinder and focus your digital camera on the surface of the viewfinder. Some fiddling must be done to figure out the right distance. Russ Morris's tutorial and the discussion page of the flickr group through the viewfinder will be helpful. These photos of my Kodak Duaflex were taken with an Olympus C-60 Zoom.


You can see there is a lot of reflection on the viewfinder. It's also hard to hold the camera in the right place. You need a "chimney."


You can make a simple chimney with a cereal box. My chimney is based on Russ Morris's instructions but not as well constructed. I added a guide for my digital camera on the top.


A little experimenting. Taken through our screen door.


Looking through the view finder, images are flipped horizontally. The world looks different and interesting photos seem to jump into place.

Added March 12, 2008: Here is another post with more information about my chimney.

I have more ttv photos on flickr.

Bear With Me Again

While making Bear With Me, I made some mistakes and changed my mind about what to include. I also made some tests to see how I would like a certain effect. So I had a lot of pages or pieces of collage parts that didn't go into the book. I hate to just toss these leftovers. If I add them to my stash of collage material, they often don't get used. Occasionally I make postcards or greeting cards with them. But this time I made three little books. They are each 3 inches wide. It was also a chance to test some binding styles. These books can be seen larger in my artist's books flickr set.


The book on the left is bound with a pamphlet stitch in two places. I don't like this one much, the book splits open in the center, my thread is too heavy and the pages are also heavy. However it has some nice imagery in it. The middle book is my test for wire edge binding. I like this one a lot. I'm not sure what the structure of the one on the right would be called, it might be a block book. The pages were folded, as for a codex, but I glued them back to back instead of sewing. The maps are white on the back, so gluing the pages back to back hides all the whiteness.


Here's a quick sketch of the structure. The pages lay much flatter than I expected, pressed overnight under heavy books. And it feels very nice in my hand, an important thing for books. I was running out of imagery at this point, so I had to make a few things to complete the book.

Bear With Me

Bear With Me, ©2008, 5.5 x 4.5 x 1.5 (closed). Museum board, topo maps, collage, photos, handcarved rubber stamps, handcarved pencil eraser font, transfers, memories, dreams. Wire edge binding. More photos of Bear With Me here.


This book started as a quick project to do over the Christmas holidays. I wanted it to be fast, reproducible as black and white photocopies and very cheap. I planned to give them away, or sell them for under $10. How much of this did I accomplish? Zero. I couldn't give up the colors, I decided to make multiples on my color printer. I made 4 or 5 pages several times because I decided I didn't like an element already glued down and it couldn't be collaged over.


I was thinking about bears when I started the book. I dream about bears occasionally. I know bears are important in American Indian thought. And I love the idea that they are powerful spirit figures. But in working on this book, I decided for me they may represent my animus. Just as I finished the book I dreamed about a huge sleeping bear. I wanted to poke it and make it come after me. I wasn't afraid, and as I woke, I was about to poke it.


This is wire a edge binding, developed by Daniel Kelm. The page above has notches cut in the spine for the wire and strips of paper holding a piece of 18 gauge wire along the spine. I covered all the edges of the board (page) with map. I found the binding instructions in Books Unbound by Michael Jacobs. It feels a little more floppy than Coptic binding to me. The effect is similar, it works great for board or single sheet books. And it is much easier to do. I just connected all these pages with a square knot.

the first day of 2008

I like to start the new year by watching the sun come up on the first day. It's a time to reflect and feel connected with the natural world. The sunrise this year was not dramatic. But the sky was clear and peaceful. Let's hope it's a sign. 2007 turned out to be a very tough year for us. It's looking like 2008 might be just as difficult. My only resolution is to try to find more inner peace so I can deal with the stress.

My artmaking time is scattered right now. When I get into the studio, there are times when I can't really focus. I'm doing some eraser carving for fun and working on a book that is destined to be a multiple. I have started it twice and decided last night that I'll need to re-do some pages, again. This all sounds negative, but in the middle of the stress there are some very sweet moments that keep me going. I don't feel my life is about making art right now. It's about the whole process of living, and adjusting to whatever comes.

christmas zine

This was my Christmas card for my family this year. I made it from photos of our 2005 Christmas, mostly taken by my son. There were several rules I tried to follow: include at least two photos of everyone, include random shots from walks, and field trips, no page should have just one photo. Oh, and I culled out the most unflattering photos. I think my sisters will thank me for that. It's all color, a two sided photocopy, each book is on one sheet of legal sized paper.


I have failed at metal casting and printmaking because I hate many-step art processes. I have been wanting to make some kind of book multiple, but was worried about having to sit and do the same thing over and over. I made this in about 12 hours, and spent another 4 hours assembling it. I think it cost around $25 for 15. If I had remembered to put the title and a birthday message on the master, it would have gone together quicker.


This is my master. The white lines indicate cuts, the black ones are the folds. They aren't there in reality, I added them in PhotoShop.

This was inspired by sinoun's zine, "small tasks of labour suit her slender bones." You can see her zines at anatomic air press. stolshsb is poetic and mysterious. I also love "the art of smelling and feeling paper."

Disclaimer: I'm using "zine" very loosely. It really seems to mean an ongoing edition, like a magazine. Mine are one-shot deals, but they are are meant to be fast (sort of) and cheap (relatively) to make.

Ursa Major

Ursa Major, Staedtler MasterCarve carving block, image is 3 x 4 inches. This is the most complicated eraser carving I have done. I ground the point of a large needle flat and polished it to make a small carving tool for the detail around the stars and the eye. You can a larger version on my flickr page.

Searching the web to find stars charts to use for this carving was fascinating. The asterism (the big dipper part of the constellation) has different images associated with it in different cultures.

My favorite is from Keith Snyder's site. "When a Lakota dies, his or her material body returns to grandmother sacred below. The spirit rises up into the spirit world, returning to grandfather sacred above. It is important to note that while the spirit travels from a material to a spiritual dimension of existance, both of these realms are called "sacred". Formerly, there was a star in the center of the Big Dipper. Now, however, there is an opening or hole where the star was located. The Wenagi comes up into the spiritual world through this hole which was made when Fallen Star's mother dug out the first wild turnip."

From this web site:
"Nearly every culture on Earth has seen patterns in the stars. But, not surprisingly, very few have seen the same patterns. Take, for example, the Big Dipper, perhaps the most recognizable star pattern in the sky. The Big Dipper is not actually a constellation itself, but is part of a larger pattern known to the Greeks as Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The seven stars of the Big Dipper have inspired many stories, perhaps because they are bright and located so near the north celestial pole, around which the stars rotate during the course of the night. But not everyone calls it a Dipper. The British call it a Plough. In Southern France, it is a Saucepan. The Skidi Pawnee Indians saw a stretcher on which a sick man was carried. To the ancient Maya, it was a mythological parrot named Seven Macaw. Hindu sky lore called it the Seven Rishis, or Wise Men. To the early Egyptians, it was the thigh and leg of a bull. The ancient Chinese thought of it as a special chariot for the Emperor of the Heaven or some other celestial bureaucrat. For the Micmac Indians of Canada's Maritime Provinces, along with several other North American Indian tribes, the bowl of the Big Dipper was a bear, and the stars in the handle represented hunters tracking the bear. And in the nineteenth century, the Big Dipper became a symbol of freedom for runaway slaves, who "followed the Drinking Gourd" to the northern states."

More here. (Skim down to "The Big Dipper in other Cultures."

Soft Block or Eraser Carving

I am working on a book and needed a bear, so I carved the one above. He was traced from a photo with a 2B pencil and transfered directly to the carving block. I like the stray marks a lot in this one.


I keep fussing over this, probably because it is from a favorite photo, taken by my son two years ago at a family Christmas. The arm is terrible, so I started another.


I thought I would like the composition better reversed. But now the elf is too large, the nose bothers me, the hand needs work (that may be fixable). I like the squareness and the position of the elf in the first try. I am tempted to start over again to make it "right." At the moment I'm thinking I should leave it for awhile. I used a big block of Staedtler carving material for all the stuff above. Everything is shown actual size.


These are very old, I like them much more now than I used to. In fact, I like them better today than yesterday. The larger letters were carved from some old green erasers and the smaller ones are on pencil erasers. So far the pencil erasers are holding up okay, but the green eraser material is getting brittle. I have numbers, but need more punctuation.

What have I learned? In no particular order:
1. The image will be reversed.
2. Start with the hard part (faces for me).
3. Turn the block to cut a curve.
4. Keep photo references nearby. I didn't know I was carving an arm and a mitten on the Christmas elf, it came out looking very awkward.
5. Start with a slightly larger block than the finished stamp. It's hard to carve the very edge neatly, it's better to trim away the edge when you're done.
6. Go slow, make lots of test prints along the way. You can't replace what has been removed.
7. Use an old, faded ink pad that doesn't cover the pencil lines. Or you can buy pads made for testing.
8. I like the stray marks, and am trying to use them to good advantage.
9. One option is to carve like you draw. Look at lots of drawings, study how shadows are indicated. If you would shade an arm with "bracelet shading," carve in the same way.
10. Photoshop Elements (and I assume Photoshop) has a nice "stamp" filter, it's under "sketch." It usually needs some adjustments. If you like the face better on one setting and the rest on another, you can layer them and erase the "bad" face to combine the two.
11. Also try tracing the image with a soft pencil. This is sometimes better than the "stamp" command. Lay the tracing on your block and rub with a bone folder or spoon to transfer the pencil lines to the block.
12. Or draw directly on the block.
13. Don't carve away both sides of a corner - it will have no support. A border might help here. Or change the design.
14. I couldn't get my laser prints to transfer with acetone, citrasolve or ironing. I'm no good at these kinds of transfers anyway. See #11.
15. If you heat the Staedtler carving block too much it will change texture and become harder to carve. It's probably also very unhealthy.
16. Simple is best - I don't always take my own good advice.

There are several photo pools on flickr with lots of carved images:
Carve Your Stamps
Stamp Your Art Out
Block Prints

Stampeaz has soft block and linoleum carving supplies. Wonderful, helpful people, fast delivery.