Book binding has always been one of my passions. So when I found an opportunity to work with Kalamkhush Khadi Papers again, I was more than excited. Basically, this was a quick workshop with the Kalamkhush workers to collaborate and experiment with them to do book binding with new Khadi paper and try surface graphics for one of their products.
The product that I decided to work on were their hand marbled folders. These folders were very pretty with a nice touch of hand marbling technique incorporated. However, I felt that over time they had become monotonous and simple to look at, so I thought of adding some zing of color to it. Using a few bottles of colored ink lying around, I created a pattern of water blurbs in a blow technique. A good understanding of color mixing and interaction was needed. Also, control over the inks was imperative to avoid a messy design.
A few images of the folders - Before and After
A closer look at the spine of the diary
The diary was handbound using textured khadi paper for inner pages and embossed printed khadi paper for the hard cover. The diary is section bound and is of approximately 50 pages.
A closer look at the details
What was interesting about doing this short exercise with the Khadi workers was to understand their binding techniques, and while there were similarities, their efficiency, speed and precision was quite inspiring! I learnt a lot of new tricks and ideas in this workshop and in turn, they liked the idea of enhancing or at times experimenting on their products with a few innovative design techniques.
