The first illustration for a collaboration with Swedish book artist Eva Hejdstrom - exchanging English and Swedish words. A is for Angulate: to hold, bend or distort a part of the body so as to form angles. Dremelled rubber stamps with black pen.
At long last...
The collaborative cracker book project with the Artist's Book Club at UWE is finally complete. All packaged up and ready to distribute to the participants. Looking on the bright side, it's taken so long that it's seasonal all over again!
Launching today...
… a new shop in Westbury-on-Trym - We Make Bristol. Featuring the work of local artists and designers (including some of my books and cards). Worth checking out for some early Christmas shopping.
Keeping it local
Have been trimming and binding a new book of line drawings of my local shops (Westbury-on-Trym in Bristol). All ready for its launch tomorrow in a brand new shop - We Make Bristol - on the very same High Street. The shop will feature work of local artists and designers (including some of my books and cards)… do pop along and check it out if you're in the area.
hot off the press
A new set of printed cards made from scans of collages...
Taking a leaf out of a (digital) book
Trimming and binding 40 copies of a digitally printed version of the very first book I made back in 2012 - Autumn Leaves. I used scans of the original carved rubbers, stamped in black and then coloured in Illustrator. Card covers with a title block cut away with my trusty Sizzix machine. Top notch printing job by printed.com - printed as A3 flat sheets on Acquerello paper.
Published Primitive Printmaking
Really chuffed to have some of my prints featured in Stephen Fowler’s wonderful new book ‘Rubber Stamping’. The found object and plasticine prints were created on Stephen’s Primitive Printmaking summer school course at UWE in 2014, and it’s very exciting to see them included in the book. I may be biased but I can highly recommend getting hold of a copy - it’s absolutely jam packed with unusual project ideas and inspiration for all kinds of low tech printmaking. As Stephen explained in an interview with Sarah Bodman in the latest issue of ‘Printmaking Today’: “(the book is) very much in the spirit of ‘60s and ‘70′s Batsford art books - to share an open recipe rather than say ‘you have to do it this way’. It’s about inspiring people with examples and letting them think how they will use the process; it’s a beginning of something rather than an end.”
Rubber stamping free-for-all
Spent a very enjoyable Saturday afternoon helping out at Stephen Fowler’s drop-in rubber stamp workshop at the Arnolfini in Bristol. It was busy all afternoon, and by 5 o’clock two huge paper-covered walls were decorated with an array of beautiful stamps. Really inspiring to see everyone’s work and the excitement it generated - the instant gratification of rubber stamps seems to appeal to all ages.
sketchbook collages
Using up every last offcut of roller printing
Tobacco art at the Tobacco Factory
Do you have a light? - my rizla flag book
Luke Carter - Lethal Trade
Olivia Jones - Demolition
Charlotte Biszewski
The ‘Set in Stone’ exhibition opened at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol yesterday evening - open until 27 September, so pop along for a nicotine- themed cornucopia of art. Great to see what everyone had produced - more highlights to be featured later this month - and many thanks to Charlotte Biszewski for organising the project and expertly curating the exhibition.
Revisiting roller prints
Chopping, folding and stamping onto roller prints (from a workshop with Stephen Fowler a couple of years ago). I can feel a series of these coming on as I have a large pile of roller prints languishing in my plan chest - they may finally have a purpose!
Coming soon…
'Set in Stone' exhibition opening at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol from next thursday evening (date on poster slightly wrong - should be 4 August - 27 September).
Do you have a light?
Finished flag book of rizla papers ready for the ‘Set in Stone’ exhibition at the Tobacco Factory which opens next week…
Set in Stone
The original lithographic stones found in the stores of the M-Shed in Bristol.
My chosen litho plate which I scanned to print acetates to create photo-polymer stamps.
Embossed book cloth for the front cover - the shape will be filled with a metallic print of the star motif (shown in the next photo).
Gold foil heat transfer – laser printing black ink onto black paper and then running it through a laminator with the foil.
After a fruitless search for just the right green paper for a bellyband (to match the tobacco tin in which the book will sit) I decided to mix and roller my own colour.
Belly bands printed with a photo-polymer stamp of the company name and a metallic heat transfer foil for the seal on the back.
The fiddly job of folding, cutting and sticking 150 rizla papers...
… into a flag book structure.
Set in Stone
Deep in the heart of the M-shed stores in Bristol, over 70 lithographic stones have been stored, gathering layers of dust. These stones, discovered in the blitzed basement of the Mardons printing house, were once used to mass-produce labels of W.D and H.O Wills tobacco, whose products included Golden Virginia and Players Navy Cut.
‘Set in Stone’ is a collaborative project run by Charlotte Biszewski, who has worked with Stephanie Turnbull to transfer the images on the stones onto lithographic plates in order for them to be a starting point for various Bristol artists to create new work. It will culminate in an exhibition, appropriately, at the Tobacco Factory in August - more details to follow soon.
As soon as I heard about this project I was really keen to be involved. Following on from my MA studies, I’m really interested in the idea of taking printed ephemera from the past and preserving it through re-invention. When I picked up my litho plate back in May, I was thinking that this would be a good opportunity to create something non-book for a change, but as I mulled over the potential of the imagery I started thinking of traditional embossed bookcloth, patterned endpapers and creating something that could be contained within a tobacco tin. So that will be a book then.
Pictured here are some photos from the production process, which involved creating photo-polymer stamps, heat transfer foil blocking, embossed book cloth and Hedi Kyle’s flag book structure using Rizla papers. Truly tobacco-tastic!
Feathered friend
Cheeky wee Scottish Oystercatcher from my holiday sketchbook to round off the working week.
Starstruck by association
Very excited to learn that Margaret Atwood has tweeted about ‘Serena Joy’ the collaborative World Book Night rubber stamp project, inspired by her book ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. A copy of the box of prints is now winging its way to her courtesy of Sarah Bodman. Many thanks to fellow stamper Linda Williams for writing to Margaret to let her know about the project. Have also just heard that Tate Britain will be accepting a copy of ‘Serena Joy’ as a donation to their artists' books collection. Great to hear of ripples from a project long after you think it’s completed...
Holiday
Back south of the border again after a wonderful fortnight up in the Scottish Highlands. Hills, lochs, big skies and lots of long walks. Just the ticket.
Degree Show highlights
Stephanie Turnbull (stunning constructed tobacco label printed from original litho plates)
Jono Sandilands (screen print with raspberry pi LCD)
Jono Sandilands (mind blowing pinball machine - off the scale amazing!)
Clare Owen (beautiful ceramics and prints)
Philip Johnson (huge screen print with more than a nod to a woodcut approach)
A really inspiring show from this year’s MA Multi-disciplinary Printmaking final year students at UWE.
The roll call of rockets and robots
Stamps from the Rockets and Robots concertina book