E14. Free Little Bird

E14. Peter and Donna Thomas, Free Little Bird. Santa Cruz, California: Peter & Donna Thomas, 2011.

11 x 6 cm (4 ½” x 2 ¼”) 20 copies.

Binding: Nested accordion, covers are cream paper, handmade by Peter Thomas and students in the class, over shaped boards. Secured with twine tied through a hole in the right-hand side of the front cover and a stone bead. Pages are cut so that there is the silhouette of a bird at the top of each face of the larger accordion. Paper: Accordion structures are Canson text-weight. Text, illustrations, and colophon printed on cream paper handmade by Peter Thomas and students in the class. Printing: Text is relief. Colophon is digital. Typography: Text linocut by Donna Thomas. Colophon digital reproduction of text handwritten by Donna Thomas. Illustration: Seven linocuts by Donna Thomas. Notes: Made by Peter and Donna Thomas in collaboration with students at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina.

“This book was the final project of a week-long class where students learned how to make the bindings in our book More Making Books by Hand. The text for this book is the chorus of a folk song the Folk School director sang the first morning of every session. Students made the paper for the cover, text, and illustrations. The covers are shaped to mimic the wings of a bird and the pages are cut paper-doll-style with the silhouette of a bird above the nested accordion cut out.”