My Maker Philosophy
Handmade books have an intimacy and immediacy. They are more than content transmission, they become objects worthy in their own right. Like other book artists, my goal is to balance form and content to enhances the book. I try to meld digital and analog processes and incorporate recycling elements.
2017
MaiNichi Mushroom is a 15 issue zine project. Each 8 page zine includes mushroom fancy, mushroom fact and mushroom fiction.
2020 Update: MaiNichiMushroom is undergoing a redesign and I’m looking forward to sharing their expanded version.
Available in 2018
Issue 4: Ascomycota
Issue 5: Mushrooms for Money
Issue 6: Mushrooms and the Environment
Issue 7: Folklore
Issue 12: Great Glowing Mushrooms
MaiNichi Mushroom Colouring Pages
MaiNichi Mushroom 図鑑と英語の言葉
Blog posts about the zine creation can be found here and here.
2016
Crow
Crow is a 7x7cm mame bon with a coptic binding. It’s mixed media photography. The cover is done in a relief style. Crow was sold at the 2016 Tokyo Artbook Fair.
Bumble
Bumble is a 5x5cm mame bon (bean book) using a coptic binding of digital photos. The cover papers are hand painted and hand stencilled and stamped. The book is a response to the declining bee population in my area. I planted lavender to attract bees. But each year there are fewer bees. Not only in my yard, but in park areas that used to be buzzing with bees around hollyhocks. There a variety of covers. Bumble was first sold at 2016 Tokyo Art Book Fair. The first edition of 6 has sold out. A second edition will be available in 2018.
Octopus Pop-Up (test)
Made a video for a test project for Tokyo Art Book Fair 2016. This is my first pop-up page. Estello makes an appearance!
Pop-up Test Page 2
The Milk Shallows is getting reformatted. I want to express light and shadow and the idea of a rippling river. So far I envision an accordion book. I like this mock-up but I want to have some kind of hard-cover.
2015
What Goes In My Coffee
What Goes In My Coffee is a revisional book. The book is made from created pages and found items. It has illustrations, musing and moveable object. Readers can move items around in the book to revise it and create their own meaning. The book can a bit of fun or used as a reflection or meditation tool. This is planned to be a series of three books.
STATUS: In progress
amuseMEnt
AmuseMEnt is a handmade photography collection of shots taken at amusement parks and Aka Renga Souko. AmuseMEnt examines the effect of nostalgia on memory. The old and the new and the fabricated are part of the subject matter and the development technique. The photo creation technique revolves around the interplay between analogue and digital processes. Photos are taken with a Polgaroid (a Holga camera modified with an instant-film back), scanned and edited with software and put back into an analogue format when printed. The pages are printed on Japanese paper (Washington) and bound using traditional Japanese stab bindings.
Dark and Stormy Morning
Dark and Stormy Morning is a children’s book about Elizabeth Bird and Fletcher Wriggley and their rainy day debacle. It combines hand-drawn illustration and Adobe Illustrator.
Kinjiro
Kinjiro examines life through the fishbowl. Illustrations are a combination of Adobe Illustrator and Copic Markers.
STATUS: In progress
Something Fishy Series (in progress)
This is a series of poems using text and graphic design.
STATUS: binding stage
2014
For a PDF of this invite with links to artist websites, Zinesmate and a google map click this link: artbyte_artbookfair_invites_2014
豆本 Mame Bon (Bean Books)
Named for their tiny size, mame (mamay) bon are tiny little books of happiness. They are easy to carry or to keep secret and to pull out whenever you need a smile.
Seasons of Estello
This is a series of bean books based on my character, Estello. They are concertina folds in a hard cover binding. The images are a mix of photographs, hand-made stamps and hand illustrations.
Star Books
Named for their folding pattern and the 3-D shape that can be achieved with this book.
Yuki
This is a collection of macro photographs of snowflakes. Photos were taken during the snowstorm in Tokyo in 2014. The cover is hand embossed and uses recycled card and a Starbucks carrier bag.
Concertina Fold
London
Photographs attached to a concertina fold and placed in a cover made of paper, old felt attached with glue and machine sewing, with a hand-sewn button.
Zine
Kandachime Uma
Kandachime Uma is made in zine format for immediate production and hand made rather than mass printed to promote intimacy with the topic. Horses are not something one thinks about when it comes to Japan, yet Japan has eight indigenous breeds of horse. Horses were once an integral part of daily life but become easily forgotten these days. I am working on a project to photograph and document these horses. Covers have a front plate or embossed kanji. I also pursued this project during my artist residency at Shiro Oni Artist Residency in Onishi, Gunma.
The Spendy Pencil 
4 thoughts on “Book Arts”