A tunnel book is like a set for a play, or like looking into binoculars. The pages are mysteriously separated, each with its own shapes and imagery, and with spaces cut out in order to see the next page. They used to be called ‘peep shows’ in the 18thcentury, when they were invented.
Perhaps you read your children books that were tunnel books of a sort, like Eric Carle’s The Hungry Caterpillar, each page revealing something more than the page before. They are fun, clever, and lots of fun to make.
Here is a tunnel book by Cindy McGuirl.
Here is how it looks when spread open:
26 Split Rock Cove is offering its next Book Arts Intensive weekend, Friday – Sunday, September 6 – 8, 2024. And the subject matter is Tunnel Books, taught by Abbie Read, Cindy McGuirl, Joelle Webber and Sandy Weisman
The first day we will create colorful content for your book. Abbie and Sandy will spend the day working on gel prints and cut stamp printing to inspire your backgrounds, foregrounds, objects, and words for your tunnel book. Abbie has developed an new way of gel printing to create amazingly complex backgrounds for your tunnel books.
And Sandy is working on some simple block printing techniques with either paint or ink to create objects and details.
The second day Cindy will lead you through the construction of your tunnel book – making the pages and cutouts, the concertina sides of your book and your covers – using the pages you designed on Day 1.
The third day Joelle will teach you how to make a folded box to store your tunnel book when you fold it up again and send it out for an exhibition, or to put on your living room table.
All in all, the Book Arts Intensive artists are very excited to be offering this book construction to you.
Please go to https://26splitrockcove.com/workshops to sign up. There are options to come only one or two days if that suits you, or to come for the entire weekend.
Hope you’ll consider joining us!
Sandy