Geometry

Always I've liked geometry in all the senses: mathematical, philosophical and aesthetic. It has been my main source of inspiration together with the Golden Ratio. Even in the covers of my notebooks there is a rational analysis of composition on the basis of the covers' format with the proportion of size and position of the papers making the collages. When I draw, my drawings are abstract and geometrical using proportions. I don't understand geometry without precision, or at least, I didn't until now.

I'm starting to make some drawings on the covers of my new noteboos, minimal drawings with basic geometrical shapes on the basis of some drawings from some years ago that I've shown in flickr. These new covers with drawings will be without adding too many materials to the list of materials I already use for the collages, only pencil, black, grey and white acrylic paint (no colors) and chinese ink.

The idea of making drawings on the covers is because of the time I spent in London recently. It was very inspiring, although not productive because I couldn't make any notebooks, but I got a new point of view on the way of drawing with geometry.

Every time I went out in London was mostly for going to contemporary art exhibitions. After some time I realized that my favorite artists today are women who work with a more organic approach to geometry: Rachel Whiteread, Ellen Gallagher, Anna Helpher  and others. The work of these female artists opened my eyes and made me understand how geometry without precision and rigidness, drawing freehand lines by hand without precise measurements can be organic and as alive as a plant, finding there as much beauty as I find in the strict geometry of Richard Talbot´s drawings.

I'm starting my drawings for my new notebooks as always I've drawn, with the precision of a ruler and a calculator. But with the goal of finding my way for making my geometrical drawings more organic with freehand lines and without the precision of measurements. It will be a process of learning.

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.

M O T H E R ' S D A Y

The new pin on the story-map is located in Spain, where the Mother's Day was last sunday(May 1st) and  my notebook Yoko is  there, because my mother lives in Alicante, Spain. Yoko was my Mother's Day present for her. She is going back to Argentina in June, the next month I will have to move the pin to the other side of the map.

For shipping my notebooks I put a wrapper around them with a typewritten text that I take randomly from books of art , philosophy or Google. The text I used for this notebook is from Yoko Ono:

"Touch Poem V" 

                 Fill the wall.

                       Examine its temperature and moisture. Take notes about many different walls.

                                                                                                                   1963,  autumn. YOKO ONO

I've been featured in the front page of Etsy with one of my notebooks, "Simple", my most simple notebook and the first one with very flexible covers. I'm thrilled!

Also, as of today it is SALES TIME in my Etsy shop. In the picture you can see the price of "Simple" is $15. Now it is $10. Almost all my notebooks are on sale and I've made discounts up to $10!

For some time now I've been thinking of restarting with my handmade bags with recycled fabrics. I'll post soon pictures of some bags I've made and explain the style and how I like to make them. It would be nice to receive some feedback from you.

Nervation

Nervation
Originally uploaded by B a s t i a n o

With the concept of organic design and nature as its example I made the covers of my notebook Nervation.



Nervation is a pattern of veins or nerves to give more strength to a surface, i.e. like in the tree leaves.

The covers are made with paper, stitches and fabric in between that gives also more resistance. The pages are hand sewn to the covers with a single line of stitches.

. It measures 14.5×10.5cm and has 60 pages of blank recycled paper.