Finally time for the festive holiday to start - looking forward to a couple of weeks off. Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2018!
Collage challenge
Lots of envelopes at this time of year, so mainly patterned liners and postmarks
From an interior's catalogue and some offcuts of book pages from a papier mâché project
Paper culled from a free supermarket magazine
The ABC (Artists' Book Club) at UWE have a group project running this year to create books on the theme of 'found'. I've set myself a challenge to make at least one collage each week using only the paper I've salvaged from that week's recycling box. I'm not quite sure what form the book will take yet, but I'm enjoying playing around with collage and I'm surprised how different each one looks. My favourite thing about collage is the element of chance - I never know how the finished piece will work when I start working on it. Very liberating for a control freak...
A miscellany of recent work
The first collage in a weekly challenge I've set myself to make something each week with just the contents of the paper recycling box. The final collages will hopefully form a new book for an exhibition at UWE next year on the theme of 'Found'. A group project as part of the Artists' Book Club.
I'm about a third of the way through making the example books from 'Woven and Interlocking Book Structures' by Claire Van Vliet and Elizabeth Steiner. Elephant hide is my new favourite paper!
An embroidery in memory of a much loved aunt.
Wrapping paper back from the printers!
Also, some mini bullfinch cards.
I keep knocking around ideas for a book based on butterflies and/or moths. The latest pages in my sketchbook on this theme.
A very mixed bag of recent things I've been working on...
J is for jordnära
The latest rubber stamp illustration in my collaboration with Eva Hejdstrom, exchanging Swedish and English words. J is for jordnära, meaning close to nature.
I is for illumine
The latest rubber stamp illustration in my collaboration with Eva Hejdstrom, exchanging Swedish and English words. I is for illumine, meaning to light up. Inspired by my early evening dark dog walks now the clocks have gone back.
Serious tiling
Working on a new range of wrapping paper using rubber stamped patterns. Bit of a learning curve working out the repeat tiling, but it's amazing to see what patterns can be made with some really simple carved stamps (and the help of Photoshop!)
Book fairs coming up
My small books are packaged up ready for their very own city breaks... they can be seen at the Small Publishers Fair at Conway Hall in London on 10-11 November, and then in Berlin (artbookberlin.de) on 17-19 November. They're better travelled than me.
PaperLove – week five: mail
The final project - book cover collage
An avian variation on an origami heart box
Sad to report that the wonderful five week PaperLove e-course with Rachel Hazell is now over. It's been a lot of fun, and a great excuse to make new things that otherwise would never have progressed beyond endless pondering. The final week's projects involved making an origami heart box (which turned into a, less romantic, bird) and a collage on a book cover using stamps, labels, books and ephemera from previous weeks. I really enjoyed working on this collage - like a jigsaw puzzle where you make your own pieces - and I'd like to make more of these in future.
PaperLove – week four: book
Tiny 'trouser books' made with envelope backs
Multi-section book with embroidered cover
A slightly sinister shot of my book mobile
A bit more in my comfort zone this week with the e-course PaperLove's theme of 'book'. Starting with making single sheet 'trouser books' from envelope patterned papers (combined with last week's folded cover to make them more robust). Quite addictive once you get folding. Then moving onto a mobile of tiny map books (photographed on a particularly gloomy day)… not totally happy with the end result of this one so I may re-visit it at a later date. I like the idea, just not my execution. The larger project this week was making a multi-section book. I'd done this before so I wanted to use it as an opportunity to try a few new techniques: using deckle edged paper (cut with a clip point knife), embroidering bookcloth, leaving longer knot ties on the outside of the book, and also bringing the stitching over the top and bottom of the spine. Really pleased with how this one turned out, and I'm using it as a sketchbook already - hurray!
H is for Hovra
The latest rubber stamp illustration in my collaboration with Swedish artist Eva Hejdström: H is for Hovra (Swedish 'to float'). The orange is stamped with neon ink, but unfortunately looks very flat when photographed.
G is for Gluttony
The latest rubber stamp illustration in my collaboration with Swedish artist Eva Hejdström: G is for Gluttony (the act or habit of eating too much or being greedy).
PaperLove - week three: word
Collaged off-cuts of lettering practice
Snake concertina book to contain my messy lettering practice
Lettering practice
Concertina books of quotes
Little bit out of my comfort zone in week three of the PaperLove e-course. All about words. Pictures are really my thing, but I had fun finding patterns in letters, and also learning a new way to create a folded book cover to contain a concertina book. Really enjoying creating new work that's taking me in a different direction to my usual, well-trodden, path.
PaperLove - week two: collage
Collage map of my local dog walks.
Collage butterflies.
Making custom strips of tape with vintage papers and double sided tape.
Collaged strips of layered image of three humument painted pages.
A collaged box (made from greybeard and papier mache)
In my element with the second week of the PaperLove e-course - collage is one of my very favourite things in life. My studio is currently covered in snippets of paper, most of which I can't bear to throw away because they might just come in useful!
PaperLove - week one: paper
Collecting and cataloguing paper samples.
Creating different paper textures (photographed on a lightbox).
Pamphlet stitch booklets of paper samples.
Pamphlet stitch booklet of envelope linings.
A very inspiring first week on Rachel Hazell's PaperLove e-course. The first theme is 'paper' - a good excuse to use up some of my hoarded stash of papers in my plan chest.
PaperLove
Signed up for Rachel Hazell's PaperLove e-course… looking forward to five weeks of inspiration and a prod to start making new work...
Slots and tabs
The second book structure from 'Woven and Interlocking Book Structures' by Claire Van Vliet and Elizabeth Steiner - this one is called 'Moeraki Boulders'. Six individual pages are held together with binding strips and a series of slots and tabs. It took me a while to work out the correct sequence for the binding, but after a bit of trial and error I finally got there. The original version of this book was apparently made with circular pages and circular tabs, hence the name.
Cardiff Artists' Book Event
A really great day on Saturday at the first Cardiff Artists' Book event at The Printhaus (amazing screen printing workshop in Cardiff). Lovely to catch up with other book artists and to meet new people interested in handmade books. Hope this will be the first of many!
CAB 2017
Looking forward to taking part in the first Cardiff Artists' Books event this coming Saturday at The Printhaus in Cardiff. Working out my table layout in advance because I won't have long to set up!
New folds
Starting to work my way through 'Woven and Interlocking Book Structures' by Claire Van Vliet and Elizabeth Steiner. I'm keen to learn some different book structures to get me out of my concertina book comfort zone. These first three are variations on a format called 'Aunt Sallie's Lament'… linking individual pages with a long woven strip. A perfect opportunity for some rubber stamping too, to bring some pattern into the proceedings.
My medieval book
My entry for the Bodleian Library 'Redesigning the Medieval Book' competition – a real labour of love. The planning and thinking for this book have taken almost as long as the actual making, and I feel slightly bereft now it's finally completed.
I attended a workshop at the Bodleian back in March, and was inspired by a discussion about the prestige of book ownership in Medieval times – the time and expense of commissioning an illustrated book made the final product into a status symbol. I usually create small editions of cheap and cheerful books, but I saw this brief as an opportunity to create a one-off, handmade artefact with an unrushed, methodical production process.
I was interested in addressing the challenges of Medieval craftspeople in designing a book, and –influenced by their love of ornamentation – I decided to hand embroider my illustrations. I chose to work with natural materials such as cotton, wool felt and hemp cord which could have been available in centuries past. My nods to the 21st century were the digitising of the Carolingian Miniscule alphabet to create a typeface for the text, and digitally printing this and my original hand-drawn illustrations onto fabric (thanks to excellent fabric digital printers Contrado).
It's been a very enjoyable, and challenging, project to work on, and I'm definitely keen to find ways to combine stitch and books in the future. Just have to wait and see now if it makes the final selection for an exhibition at the Bodleian Library in December - fingers crossed!