Key to terms used in physical descriptions
cover | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 18A | 19 | 20 | 21
The project takes the form of an A4 booklet, constructed by hand, by the child. The cover has been made by folding a piece of A3 paper down the centre. 11 sheets of lined paper have been inserted into the cover, and secured with two staples, at the side. The staples have come out at the back, so that the sheets are now only attached to the front cover, and two sheets at the back have come completely loose. The cover is slightly curled up at the corners and along the stapled edge, and generally slightly crumpled as a result of handling. The project contains drawings and writing by the child; usually both sides of the paper are used. One page contains a folded up model, which can be opened up and reconstructed by the reader into a 3 dimensional structure.
Three tools are used for writing and drawing: fibretip, biro and pencil. Fibretip is used on the front cover, for both drawing and writing; elsewhere, most of the writing (and underlining) is in blue biro. There are crossings out and many small alterations in biro, but tippex is used in a few places. Pencil has been used to write the words that accompany some of the drawings. Most of the drawings are in pencil, a few in biro; the strokes have a light, sketchy quality. Pencil has also been used to draw the frame and grid for the crossword and wordsearch. The model is made of cardboard, sellotape and paint.
cover page [ next page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ] (cover)
The author’s name has been written twice, in different handwriting: signed with a flourish below the title, and printed in small letters bottom left. The date appears to have been added later, in a different biro. Both the drawing of the bird, and the title, have been outlined in pencil and shaded in with fibretip. The jagged outline to the letters in the title is a distinctive style of writing, unique to this child, in this set of projects. The fibretip pen has been carefully controlled; for the body of the bird the child has used a loose, curved, flecky kind of stroke, allowing a lot of space to come through from the surface of the paper, but for the bird’s head and the letters of the title, she has used shorter, straighter strokes, more densely packed together. There are two small holes, about half an inch above the lower staple, indicating restapling.
page 1 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ] (contents page)
There are corrections to the later page numbers, indicating alteration to the numbering system. Also notice that a different pen appears to have been used for the words relating to pages 17 and 20, suggesting that this information may have been added at a different time. There is no work on the other side of the sheet (unlike all the others).
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Erased pencil lines above the jaw line of the female bird indicate slight alteration to the shape of the face, in an earlier draft.
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This is the reverse side of page 2. Most of the words accompanying the drawings are written to fit inside the margin, unlike the rest of the writing.
page 4 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ]
There is a very neat line of tippex under the letter ‘l’ in the word ‘wool’ (line 9), indicating alteration to an earlier draft (from the reverse, we can see that the ‘l’ has replaced the letter ‘t’.); also a tiny blob has been used to shorten the letter ‘i’ in ‘live’ (line 7). Most of the words accompanying the drawings are written to fit inside the margin, unlike the rest of the writing.
page 5 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ]
This is the reverse side of page 4.
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The drawing is produced in the same material as the words, but using a much lighter stroke. The crossword on the following page is visible as a grey shadow, through the paper, behind the drawing; the pencilwork has left deep indentations which can be felt on this side.
page 7 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ]
This is the reverse side of page 6. A round blob of tippex beneath the letters ‘ey’ in the word ‘they’ in the penultimate line, indicate alteration to an earlier draft; it is not possible to see the original version. The crossword has been very heavily shaded in pencil, leaving a deep indentation on the paper, which can be felt on the previous page.
page 8 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ]
Two different types of strokes (squiggly and circular) have been used to shade the exclamation mark; the dot has been heavily worked, leaving an indentation on the paper.
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This is the reverse side of page 8. The arrow symbol(top right) has been constructed in 2 layers, one of pencil and one of biro; some lines have also been drawn twice in biro. In the wordsearch, the example word ‘SPARROW’ has been highlighted, using a layer of pencil, in addition to the biro which is in a heavier stroke here than in the rest of the writing.
page 10 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ] -
page 11 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ]
This is the reverse side of page 10
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The word ‘summer’ (two lines up from bottom) is in very small writing, suggesting that perhaps a gap was left, and the word added later, squashed to fit into the available space.
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This is the reverse side of page 12
page 14 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ]
There are quite a few corrections in biro on this page
page 15 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ]
This is the reverse side of page 14. In the title, the letters ‘TH’ in the word ‘THE’ have been written in pencil as well as biro, suggesting that the child may have begun to write in pencil and then changed to biro. The question marks at each end of the title have been drawn very, very lightly and shaded using a heavier, backward and forward stroke. The bird is much larger than the previous drawings and it has been constructed using longer, firmer strokes.
page 16 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ]
The dot at the end of the title is very heavily worked.
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This is the reverse side of page 16. The page is covered in brown smudgy marks which indicate where it has come into contact with the brown painted model on the next page, when the book has been closed. Some of the small marks look as if they have been produced from the imprint of a pen, suggesting that the sheet was placed on top of the model, before writing; however, they have not been made by the words written on page 16, and it is not clear which page, if any, from this project, has produced the marks.
page 18, page 18A [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ]
This page contains a cardboard, ‘foldup’ model of a bird box, made out of a pizza box, cut out, painted with thick brown poster paint, sellotaped together and then sellotaped onto the page. It has been extremely thoughtfully and carefully constructed, in a way which enables it to be folded flat, ready for the reader to unfold and reconstruct as a 3 dimensional object.
There is much physical evidence of the awkward and messy processes involved in the construction of the model. The rough edges of the cardboard indicate that it was quite difficult to cut with scissors. One edge appears to be torn rather than cut. Some parts such as the bird perch, constructed out of small layers of card, and stuck with sellotape to the surface, give the impression of being fiddly to construct. There are lots of small pieces of sellotape holding the various sections together.
All the visible outer surfaces (ie card and sellotape) have been painted. There are lots of splashes and smudges of paint on the lined paper on which the model is mounted, which provide evidence of accidental damage during the process of construction. There is also some evidence of general wear and tear, here: the paint is wearing off in some places, especially along the folds and on the sellotape, and there are paint marks where parts of the folded model have come into contact with the paper, after completion.
The page is very heavy and has come apart from the rest of the booklet. Now that the page is loose, it is possible to see that it was first numbered in the top left corner, but when put together, this would not have been visible, so it was rewritten (top right). It appears to have been numbered ‘17’ initially, then changed to ‘18’; the new page number was finally rewritten (top left). The correction can be seen in each of the earlier drafts, indicating that it was made before the page was stapled into the booklet.
page 19 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ]
This is the reverse side of page 18. The brown paint splashes on this page provide evidence of construction of the model birdhouse on the previous page. The small grey marks at the bottom of the page have been made by the sticky part of the sellotape which is working its way through from the other side of the paper, where the model has been attached, an example of ‘post construction’ damage.
The carbboard strip down the back of the birdhouse creates a raised surface on this side. The straight lines down the side of the number in the middle of the page have been drawn against the ridge made by the cardboard; on the right, there is a mark made by a slip of the pen as it was following the ridge.
The squiggly biro marks in the centre of the page almost completely obscure part of a previous draft. Close observation reveals the word ‘PAGE’ at the top of the box, and the number ‘18’ in large numerals in the centre, indicating alteration to the page number, consistent with the change on the previous page, and those on the contents page.
page 20 [ next page ] [ previous page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ]
The final letters in the word ‘Newnes’ have been reworked very heavily. There are faint brown marks, on the left of the page, where it has come into contact with the paint marks on the previous page; there is also a smudge on the right.
page 21 [ previous page ] [ top ] [ RJ53 index ]
There are two small holes, about half an inch above the lower staple, indicating alteration to the position of the staple. There is a very faint pencil line indicating initial rough drafting of the frame containing the ‘price’ of the booklet. The very fine, strokes (made using a sharp pencil) for the frame of the barcode, contrast with the softer stroke used to shade the bars. This page is a bit crumpled. There are marks of some kind of liquid, possibly glue, along the bottom edge, suggesting that glue may have been used in the construction of the birdbox, although it is not visible in the model itself.