Round

Because the only lightweight paper I had for scroll pages was Chinese calligraphy paper (which while it drapes beautifully its lack of sizing means it’s difficult to work on) I played with the whirlwind and dragon scale books adapting the structures to a more western style of bonding. 

 Please ignore the colours they were chosen to show up on a zoom workshop.

I especially liked the whirlwind and thought it would work for the NWBA theme of ‘Round’.

I played with monoprints and labyrinths as a motif to give the books content but I'm not happy with them yet.

Though I did turn one into a paper orb

From Bed to Book

When we resumed our meetings after lock down one of the NWBA members suggested the theme for the next set of books should be our journey to get there. I admit I was sceptical about it at first.

But on the way home I realised that medieval strip maps gave the same view of the world as sat navs – you go in a straight line and everything else, rivers, junctions, etc, is an adjunct to that.

 I developed a diagrammatic record of the journey from my bed to the room in the library where we meet. 

 I had been intending to make a scroll but when experimenting with structures for a different project I realise that an accordion folded triangular book would take this straight journey and make it go round corners and up and down hills.

It is essentially a long acrylic monoprint and is a bit springy. So it needs keeping in a slip case. 

Brambles

I wanted to make something out of the blackberry monoprints but I didn’t want to cut them up just yet.So I scanned the best of the 4 layered prints and used it to make double sided digital prints to make a flag book. 

I wanted to give the impression of the vigorous prickly shoots that the bramble bushes give out.

I was struggling for words so I used a section of a Seamus Heaney poem on one facing page and my recipe for bramble gin on the other.

Brambles

 Studies from the bramble hedge at the allotment. Drypoint and monoprint. Tony says I've spent the day reinventing wallpaper!

The storm is over

I’ve finally done with ‘storm in a teacup’.

Colour separation monoprint (a different, better palette but I’m still not happy with it) and collagraph overprinting. Oops I misregistered the collagraph on this one

 And as a ghost, with better registration. 

 And as a watercolour wash with the collagraph print.

I’m still getting halos round some of the stepped areas of the block and I’m not sure whether it’s due to press pressure or too thin paper. When I can go back to Hot Bed I’ll experiment with the heavier press I that usually use for collagraph

Still raining

I decided that I wanted to try a coloured collagraph version of 'Storm in a teacup'.

The first step is the collagraph plate. I made it quite light on texture because I want the colour to show through.

I've printed several to use with washes of watercolour.

 I'm also going to print some colour separation monoprints and then print the collagraph on top. But that will need a decent amount of time setting aside and while the weather holds there's lots of allotmenting that needs doing.

And in between I've been making some small monoprints on fabric to go in ''An inch a day'.

More storms

I've been working on the image using reduction monoprint.

 In a mix of raw umber and ultramarine.

 And a three colour separation reduction using deep red, deep yellow and ultramarine.

And a ghost print.

I'm not happy with the colour palette but do I want to try overlaying a trace monoprint to add line to the colour prints when they've dried, just to see if it will work.

Chesse

The theme for the art society this month was ‘Contrast’. I decided to go with monoprinting, black and white and return to the idea of the chess board for my motifs.

I made a series of stencils and foam stamps and dug out my drawings of the Lewis chessmen. I also culled a few more quotes from The Game and Playe of the Chesse  (a book printed by Caxton – you can find the transcript on the web)

I started with black and white. 

 Then added red,and then green as a complementary contrast.

 But soon other colours joined in.

 I eventually ended up with a set of about 30 prints so decided to make a book out of them. I was limited by the fact that the prints were all on pieces of thin paper only half a centimetre larger than the gelli late and I didn’t want to cut into the images. After some experimentation I decided to stick them back to back and add a piece of florists wire at one edge that I could use to wrap the stitching round. 

 Now for the next months theme (and more Magellan.)