Transfers

Since some time ago, I'm experimenting with layers of papers making transfers of texts and also transfers images that I can show here later. 

Every notebook for me is a new field of experimentation with collages, starting from what I made in the previous notebook and finishing with something new that is for me a new discovery to apply in the next notebook. In that way, never I can repeat the same design and either exactly the same technique of collage.

The enjoynment of experimenting with papers and the beauty of their properties is something difficult to explaine. But I can show a couple of pictures of my last notebook. I'm very satisfaced with what I've got with it and it is one of my favorite notebooks I've made. I hope you like it.

_* R E U N I O N *_

These last posts are condensed notes of things I think while working with my crafts. I don’t pretend them to be very understandable, they are quite cumbersome; but to share them, because these are answers I’ve found to my questions about what crafts are for me.
I´m sorry for grammar mistakes.

I said in my previews post "Style" that the style of my notebooks is their essence and in my other preview post "Essence", I said that Heidegger explains that to like something is a correlation between our essence and the essence of what we like.

The style of my notebooks is the way I show the essence of a notebook.

The style of my notebooks is one between all the possible ways that a notebook could be made by others.

To like something is trough our perception of the thing.

Perception is the internal sensation as a result of a material impression in our senses. The perception presents to me a set of sensations as the way in which I'm affected by the notebooks. In the perception of my notebooks I find the correlation between my essence(mind) and the essence of the notebook.

The perceptual thing, the notebook, is in the middle between my essence and its essence (its style). They form part of the collection or constellation of properties (the notebook´s materiality), plus the characteristics of the style.

Constellation suggest a turn, movement, a directed movement that takes me in direction to a reunion between the essence of the notebook and my essence.

The reunion is the union of all of what the notebook gives me through its materiality and style plus all the sensations I get trough my perception of them.  The re-union is the correlation between my essence(mind) and the essence of the notebook in the interior of that constellation. This reunion is a reflective detention, an inward-looking, an introspection where I'm taken at the moment of writing in the notebook or when I hold it in my hands feeling its materiality. In this way is how the notebook makes me wish to write in it and inspires me trough my connection with it.

E s s e n c e

When we like something, to like is like an attraction that we feel for the thing we like. That attraction is because the thing has some element or something that we can recognize as part of the whole kind of things we like. But all that whole kind of diverse things have something in particular that is one essence. That essence is our style. Our style is the way we visually represent our way of being. So when we find something we like, it is like to find ourselves represented, reflected in that thing. There is a correlation between the thing and us.  Heidegger said that we only really like what is previously given from itself (from its essence), wishing us in our essence, approaching our essence and we let the thing we like to come to us (like in a feedback),and what we like is pulling us, guiding us to its essence. Heidegger uses the visual metaphor of what is "looking to us": we only see (the essence) what is already looking to us (to our essence) and we see it because it sees us.
According to Heidegger, to like is to form a relationship with our essence to the essence of what we like.

S T Y L E

Dictionary: Mode, manner, way of behavior. Practice, perform. Set of characteristics that make up the character of the work.

The characteristics are the permanent and essential aspects of the visual that give a particular character to the notebooks, for example, the use of natural materials, the look of aged books, the colors I am used to using, the kind of papers like envelopes, paper bags, wrinkled papers, torn edges, typewritten and handwritten texts, bold stitched patterns, smooth and polished surfaces and any other characteristics that I could always add. These are the characteristics of my notebooks that make them different from others, because of the way I apply these characteristics. The set of characteristics plus the properties of natural materials (materiality, qualities, exterior surface or apparency) make a unity, a whole. That unity with its characteristics and properties is the style, the character of my crafts. The unity of the style can express itself in a multiplicity of possible interrelations between the properties of materials and the way of working. That unity is the same in every part and every one of my notebooks, this way every notebook I make can be different from each other inside the same style. The unity of the style is its essence and it behaves as a collection, a constellation made of properties and characteristics.  The style is the order, the way of showing that constellation. The style is that constellation. The constellation is the essence. The style is the essence.

Properties As My References.

I’m starting this post as series of short posts based on small notes I take while working with my crafts. So this post is to be continued.

When I'm making my crafts, I always have some references in mind that influence and give me ideas. These references are mostly objects I see. Also, when someone ask 'What inspires you?', has the preconception of that you are inspired by some kind of figurative thing, because if you are making something like a simple notebook, you may be inspired by some object or figurative image, and that is true many times, but not always. In my case, the objects or figurative images that inspire me are, for instance, aged books with broken covers and yellowish pages that I often find in antique stores. Then, when I think, for example, about these books at the moment of trying to get new ideas for making the next notebook, I'm remembering these books and the way I saw them. This means that I'm using my visual memory and that the inspiration for my work is quite based on my visual perception. I have a big inventory of images in my memory where I take new ideas from. Visually and figuratively.

But there is something else apart or together with the visual perception of the inspiring objects and their images in my memory. It is something inherent in the objects or more precisely, inherent in the material of the objects. It is the natural properties of the materials, their essential qualities, and that is where I find their beauty and inspiration.

I find these natural properties only in natural materials, of course, like the kind of papers I use for my notebooks, wood, leather, linen… It means that I'm not only inspired by old broken books.

 

There is a strong attraction I feel for these qualities, they inspire me and that is what gives me pleasure in working with crafts.

The pleasure or sensations of the properties is something that I'm always trying to analyze while working with some notebook or other crafts. More precisely, what I try to analyze is the relationship between my internal sensations with the perception of the natural properties of the materials that are external to me. It was because of that relationship that I started making notebooks. I wanted a notebook that was in complete relation between its properties and qualities and my mind.

Some News

I haven't been updating this blog or my Facebook Page for many days. I've had a time of introspection and quite a lot of inspiration playing with new kind of (recycled) papers that I haven't used before, searching for new techniques and textures.These new notebooks are made with collages that I was experimenting with. Introspection and inspiration never end, but it is time for me to show and write you something.
These are two of the notebooks I'm making and uploading to Flickr


“"Axian" with a new kind of binding.


“Quain” A little experiment with the format.

A Meaningful Logo For My Crafts.

Some time ago I thought that my crafts need a logo. After making some designs I realized that it had to be meaningful. Not a meaning given to me, but for the native people of the place that I feel closely related to, that is Patagonia in Argentina. The native people from Patagonia are called the Mapuches. They have a millenary symbol that is a musical instrument called Kultrum and they are also using it today in their flag.

 For an easy explanation of the symbol and its meaning I have made a translation from a short description in Spanish in Wikipedia.

“It is a bowl-shaped drum, approximately 35 to 40 cm diameter and with a height of 12 to 15 cm.

It is the most important musical instrument of the Mapuche culture, it is used by the machi (medical, healer, shaman) for rituals as well as during the rogation of Nguillatun (annual rite of fertility).

The kultrum or Cultrun with its bowl-shaped form represents half of the universe or the world in the Mapuche world view, in the leather patch of the drum the four cardinal points are represented, which are the omnipotent powers of Nguenechen (God) master of the universe. These are represented as two-way cross lines and their ends branch into three lines, representing the legs of choique (ostrich); inside the rooms that are divided by lines described above the four seasons are drawn”.

For the logo of my crafts I have extracted the drawing in yellow circle with the brown cross on the leather patch of the instrument.

Good Feedback.

It is always a pleasure to receive nice comments for my crafts. It means a lot to me and makes me feel inspired to continue improving my work and experimenting with new ideas.

Here is a comment I received today from ArtcyLucy who bought the 3&4 notebook (the notebook in the picture of the previous post).

"Sebastian, I received my beautiful notebook this week, and I LOVE it! The cover is exquisite...the collage is unique, with a beautiful old-world worn feel to it. Thank you so much...I look forward to filling the book with my own art".

Many thanks! 

Mixed-media Series.

3&4
Originally uploaded by B a s t i a n o

When my sewing machine broke down a couple of month ago and I couldn't continue making the stitched patterns that had become a classic on my notebooks, I thought that stitched patterns were essential for the style of my notebooks. It was like an identity crisis for a moment.

However, I think that necessity is the mother of invention and invention is creativity. Since my machine broke down, I've started a new series of notebooks with collages on the covers.

As always I'm using recycled papers and almost never without modifying them first. There is always something to change. It is a process that takes many days and involves coffee, tea, eggs, typewritten texts, acrylic paint and polish. I scrutinize each paper for every detail of their natural properties and qualities in order tor make the beauty of torn edges, wrinkles, stains and their smooth tactile qualities visible. All papers are in brown, ochre colors and tones of grey.

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