Tunnel Books with Mel Anie

Have you ever seen a tunnel book? I hadn't either, so in this episode my guest Mel Anie and I set out to create one. Listen in to hear how we did.

Links Mentioned

How to Make Raspberry Jam by Mel Anie

Mel Anie's Instagram: @tumblingfumbling

The B0ardside

Stoke Fest

Laura Quinn

Bending the glass with a tea light YouTube by Laura Quinn

Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms by Alisa Golden

Some of the above are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission

Photos of Tunnel Books

Mel's Book

Thomas' book

Transcript

Thomas: My guest today is Melanie. Mel is an artist and author living in the UK. She's active in the mail art community and runs the Society of Letters. Her correspondents are from all over the globe. Mel has also published Five Foot Story House's debut book called How to Make Raspberry Jam, a lyrical journey of anguish and joy.

You may reach her on Instagram @tumblingfumbling.

Hello, Mel. Welcome to the podcast.

Mel: Hi, Thomas. Thank you so much for inviting me. I'm so excited to do this with you.

Thomas: Oh, I'm excited too. This is wonderful. Before we get started on our ideas for You and I Make a Thing, I'm curious, do you have a current art project that you're working on or something that you're excited about?

Mel: Well, I think at the moment I'm focusing on writing my big piece. That's like the core, most constant aspect of my creative practice. I've been working on something for about two years and now it's starting to take shape, but I have lots of little side projects. which a lot of those are participative.

So for example, mail art correspondence in the past has been a big part of that. Yes, like you pointed out, it's mostly international.

Whatever my project is, it's usually conversations. So at the moment there's a walking project going on. I do a lot of walking and I've started up a small online salon, but that's a really new thing. We've only done that once.

And then sometimes these side projects, they turn into bigger things, more ongoing things. And I'm also joining a poetry writing group this month. But I've never really intentionally written to a form, so I don't think I've actually properly ever written poetry, so that will be a whole challenge for me.

So yeah, those are some of the things I'm doing.

Thomas: You are busy.

Mel: How about you?

Thomas: Well, I participate in a local art collective called The B0ardside. And we hold backyard art shows with music and whatnot. But there's gonna be a local community festival here in the neighborhood called Stoke Fest. And The B0ardside are going to have a booth at that festival.

And I'm going to be leading some sort of do it yourself activity. Stoke Fest is all about surfing and the ocean and whatnot, so I'm kind of thinking of doing something with surfboards and surfers and like a little kinetic art project or something like that. So, you know, bring a bunch of materials and then invite people to build little kinetic art pieces with me.

So that's, that's what I'm focused on right now. That's coming up on November 11th. And…

Mel: I wish I was closer.

Thomas: …you know, whenever there's a date coming up, it's always sooner than you think it is.

Mel: Yes.

Thomas: So, I'll be focused on that here pretty