Finally Finished

I’ve finally finished “Voices from the Lockout”

I had been intending to make a box covered with white cotton book cloth to house it in but decided instead to make a wrap out of recycled cotton cloth. I thought that the mills girls would probably carry their sewing wrapped in a similar fashion in order to keep it clean. 

My husband turned the scroll rods for me. The ends reference cotton bobbins from the mills.

This weekend I’ve also been to the September meeting of the North West Book Artists. We made miniature fishbone books and discussed future projects. There was a train strike and it turned into a bit of a trek getting back but it was worth it. It’s good to meet and share with other book makers. 

I also spotted an interesting book structure whilst browsing pinterest. I can’t find it again but I think it was called an Australian reverse piano hinge binding and I think it was credited to Alisa Golden (if I’ve got that wrong I appologise). I had a go at making it using some gelliprints I made last summer. 

The double spreads are cut in the middle of the centre fold and put over the mountain folds of an accordian pleated spine. They are locked in place with a strip of paper pushed through the accordian pleat.

 I like this structure. I'm thinking of adapting it for one of the NWBA projects. 

(I have no idea what blogger is doing to my font sizes!) 

It Grew

I’ve been printing out more quotes from the material in the archives and they were dry enough to finish arranging and pinning onto the backing cloth yesterday. It now measures about two yards long.

 The original sample was stitched to scrim. I thought that that would be too flimsy for the final book so I’ve decided to go with old sheeting with a backing of hessian. The sheet will give support and the hessian, with the stitching visible, will add texture to the back of the scroll. I think this will look more finished than just the white cotton.

 The following image is a quote from a letter from the Rev Clay. It was this that made me decide to work with pieces of recycled and left over fabrics. I didn’t think that during the middle of the lockout that these girls would have lengths of new material to play with, much more likely to be patching, darning and making over.

 I’m not sure how long it will take to sew but I’ve a deadline of somewhere mid September I think.

New Book

I went to the Liverpool book fair last week partly to see the entries for the Frankenstein exhibition (my wire bound book started off as a response to the call for entries and although it soon morphed into something else I wanted to see what others had done with the theme) but mainly to meet the North West Book Artists Group. They were very welcoming. I joined in with their open session at the exhibition making scroll books. I hope to be able to join them again in the near future.

I’m not going to show what I made in Liverpool but working on the scroll book there gave me ideas for the archive project.

Usually I try and find a story that grabs me in the mass of information that the archive holds on the subject that is chosen. I’m struggling to do that with the Preston lockout. But what has struck me is the language used in handbills and reported in the press. I’ve decided to make a book ’Voices from the Lockout ‘focusing on the words used by people at the time.

One of the things I did come across was a letter written by the Rev. Clay describing the effects of the lockout on the people of Preston. In it he describes a school that ladies from his church set up giving lessons in literacy and in sewing to girls who would normally have been employed in the mills.

I’ve decided to print the words onto cotton fabrics and stitch them into a scroll.

Early experiments in printing...

And assembling.

Puppets and Currants

Still not a lot of art work done this month but I have been busy elsewhere.

Our production of Peter Pan finally finished on Saturday.  As a prop maker and scenery painter, married to the scriptwriter/director, it tends to take over your life especially when we had a full stage ship and a movable bed/ship/campsite to make and my solution to flying in a church hall was using puppets instead of installing trapezes’.

On the growing front this glorious weather means a bumper crop of blackcurrants, now harvested and nearly all put in the freezer (except for the ones that just happened to get turned into blackcurrant brandy and blackcurrant gin). The redcurrants are now ready to be picked.

I’ve been researching the Preston lockout and the effects of the cotton famine at the Lancashire Archives trying to find a way in for a print. Nothing visual yet but I did reprint my previous bit of letterpress, this time with the N the right way up. Thanks Fiona, it looks much better. Though I don’t think the colour is really appropriate. I used the tail end of a rainbow roll that I’d used to make a father’s day card.

Books, letters and digging

Art work has slowed down somewhat these past couple of weeks. I said that I was going to the allotment to draw but so far I’ve been clearing edges, helping to sort out accumulated rubbish from inside and behind the shed (two trips to the tip, a third one pending) and liberating rhubarb, raspberry canes and fruit bushes. It is starting to look a lot less like an overgrown field so I’m hoping for some of the predicted sun next week and some sketching. In the meantime here is self portrait with shed (after clearing)

I have managed to cut and fold the pages for Artists Books #20 (?)

And I’ve made a bit of a start on the next project that is happening in conjunction with the Lancashire Archives. The subject this time is The Preston Lockout.  (A brief history can be found here)

I’m not sure what I want to make yet but I’ve been playing with wooden type.

  I’m wondering what will happen if I print it on cotton.