Thesis In The Works

Work on the MFA thesis continues.  In conjunction with the final 7-tiered mandala book, I have been designing and constructing a few more mandala book structures that will house some glass pages incorporating mandalas.  This is not part of the final book.  These additional book structures are helping me get to the final piece in a more complete way.  I was feeling that more work needed to be done before the final glass portion of the mandala book was started.  

I'm finding a real passion for combining glass and book arts.   I know each medium can stand on it's own as I've done dozens of each component.  Putting them together is both a huge challenge due to the limitations of attaching glass to glass and exhilarating to think I can actually make it happen in a way that will stand the test of time.

The outline for my thesis proposal is nearly complete and will be sending that out in a week or so.  I continue to read and review the history of mandalas, The Heroine's Journey, and much of Carl Jung's interpretations and discoveries regarding mandalas.

Some of the tools used to start construction of what will be a coptic bound glass mandala book of seven pages and front & back cover.

Cutting by hand a total of 14 six inch circles in 1/8th in book board took some doing.  Thankfully I had purchased a hand held circle cutter (you can see the yellow and black cutter through the right circle) at the RISD art store recently.  (The RISD art store is a dangerous place for the pocket book!)

Here are seven sheets of paper that I made using a gel-print method of adding surface design.  These papers are to cover the book board sleeves, or pages, that will house the glass mandala inserts.

Here you can see the paper is covering the book board.  A constructed 3D sleeve was made using 6 pieces of book board, PVA glue and the paper.  There was a lot of 'mock' construction needed to get the steps down in the right order for construction.

The individual pages or glass sleeves are taking shape. 

Here are all seven pages done and awaiting the glass inserts.  There will be a front and back cover that I think will be book board without glass.  Once the glass is inserted, the final piece of book board will be glued in and the tabs glued down to secure the glass.  The binding will be a coptic binding on the left side of the book.  When the book is closed and sitting on a table it will measure over 4" thick.

This is the end of April!  It seems we have extra time this semester before our presentations are due.  I hope to have 2 or 3 of these smaller glass books ready for that weekend as well as being pretty clear about the nature of the final glass mandala with drawings ready and maybe even a page or two of the glass itself.