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October 24, 2018
Call me an Insta addict, tell me I only see life in squares, but I know I'm not alone! I recently realised it was high time I made my popular Accordion Sketchbook Sets available in square format (and I wondered why I hadn't done so before).
In the same dreamy colourways - Natural, Harvest & Bloom - and with the same quality heavyweight cartridge paper and pastel covers, the new Square format will appeal to artists and photographers. They're compact to tuck into your bag, but expand into a panoramic form four times its original width.
Each page measures 105 x 105 mm, there are 4 pages at the front, and 4 at the back, and expand to a total length of 528 mm. The pages are sewn to the paperback covers with a simple stitch in linen thread.
As well as being great travel sketchbooks for landscapes and visual storytelling, these Accordion books also make for simple but effective photo albums. They're a particularly striking way of combining images and text; take a look at how photographer Robin Hutt made use of my Accordion Sketchbooks to beautiful effect:
"I love your Accordion Sketchbooks because of their simplicity, the quality of the paper and their understated stylishness.... They are really helping me refine my ideas for this exhibition" Robin Hutt
You may known the Accordion book form as the Concertina or Zig-Zag. Both refer to the same book form - a folded style with pages stacked alongside or on top of each other. It’s pretty clear why they're called Accordions or Concertinas, after the musical instrument which expands and contracts in the player’s hands.
But do you know the salacious story behind the other name for this book form, the Leporello? That term comes from the tale of the infamous Don Giovanni, particularly Mozart's opera of the same name. Don Giovanni's manservant wasn't shy about keeping his opinions about his master's lifestyle to himself. In fact, he chided Don Giovanni for leading a 'rotten life', full of infidelity and innumerable 'conquests'.
In the Catalogue Aria in Act 1 of Mozart's opera, this manservant compiles a list ("il catalogo") of the thousands of women Don Giovanni has seduced. This list takes up so much space that the manservant, called Leporello, has to write it on a piece of paper folded on itself many times simply to make it a manageable size for him to handle. Unfurled to great effect in Mozart's opera, 'Leporello's List' has since lent an alternative name to folded books, brochures and other printed matter.
Image Copyright Cory Weaver
My Accordion Sketchbooks aren't quite as long as Leporello's List but, whether in the new square or the original portrait format, I hope you'll find them useful and enjoyable to use. For lists, or otherwise! You can find them here or shop using the button below. Longer Accordions can be made on request.
Susan Green
+44 (0)7748 759 371
info@boundbyhand.co.uk
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