Slow Progress

I’ve made progress on two and a half fronts over the past few weeks. 

The half involves trying to do more drawing. My attendance at life drawing has been rather sporadic recently so I’ve decided that I need to get out and about with my sketchbook. What better opportunity than the Art Society summer sketching programme. 

Well, I sorted out and packed my kit, I got to the venues on time, and each time the heavens opened.  Fortunately the locations have been very carefully chosen (with proximity to cafe and toilet) so we’ve eaten cake, drunk coffee and nattered. I’ve been getting out and about, only the drawing is lacking!

In the studio (my work room has been upgraded) progress has been better.

I started playing with imagery in charcoal

Which I decided to translate into multi colour monoprints at Hot Bed

 I think I’m going to follow this way of working for this project. Its flexible and I can concentrate on exploring the imagery rather having to allow time to build or etch plates. I don’t think there will be a lot of interest in buying teetotal images (think they might be even less commercially viable than my French mausoleums) so the lack of multiple editioned prints won’t be a problem.

Recycle/reuse has changed completely. As  I was playing with painted music manuscript (I was thinking “music of the spheres” to go into my pierced metal ball) the phrase “weaver of words” came to mind. 

It stuck  and I’ve gone from this

through this

and  this

and this

And at the moment I think I have the components for the cover

And an idea of roughly what the content will be.

I now need to work out if I need to stiffen the old book pages (whilst still keeping the recycled ethos) for the pop ups and I’m contemplating trying to colour the insides of the hexagon to make the images read clearer. But hopefully this will be finished for the next NWBA meeting.

New projects

We’ve been away in Northumberland for a week, lots of ruins, beaches and reading.

 Before we went away I finished off most outstanding projects.  (The only thing left was the Bodleian book which is still limping along, vey slowly)

So now I’m at the starting point of several different things which tends to mean lots of fiddling but nothing quite gelling yet.

Sketches considering composition for combining monoprint and drypoint/collagraph

Followed by monoprinting, to explore colour combinations and mark making

 A starting point for the NWBA title for July’s meeting “recycled, reused”

And purely in the research stage I’ve also got an idea brewing for for a letterpress/broadside print and research on the go for the Lancashire Archives /creative writers/visual artist annual joint project. The title this year is “Teetotal” (The Victorian temperance movement in the UK had its roots in Preston).

I like this stage where everything is a possibility but none of the problems have yet arisen

Winter and Sea

One of the advantages of having a workroom in a spare bedroom is that you can roll out of bed and start to fiddle. On the other hand it can get to 4 o’clock in the afternoon and you realise you haven’t got dressed yet and there’s printing ink all the way down the front of your dressing gown. 

This weekend I managed to finish two little books that should have been simple but for some reason I really struggled with.

The first one was in reponse to ‘Sea', the NWBA theme for the last two months’.  I decided to experiment using some small bottles (4cm tall) that I had in order to make 'A message in a bottle'.

Inside the bottle is a gelli printed strip of fabric with text on both sides.

One side has the romantic notion of being shipwrecked

 and the other what I suspect is closer to reality. 

I had been intending to make an edition of these little bottles for sale at a low price at the Manchester Book Fair but struggled with them.  I have finally ended up with four, all made slightly differently. They won’t be going to the Book Fair but I’ve learned a lot from making them.

I’m pleased with the shell and beadwork but this was so fiddly and time consuming that it isn’t an option for a low cost edition. Also I’m not happy with the text. Gum arabic transfer wouldn’t play and I don’t like the feel of the inkjet iron on transfer paper that I eventually used.

 I’ll probably come back to the idea and see what I can do with it in a couple of months.

The second book is the second in the Woodland series, also for a NWBA project. It also took disproportionately too much time from idea to finishing. Again that was down to time spent trying to get the right print method for the image and then making it work together with the text. Lots of learning and experimenting ended up in a very simple and small edition.

Asemic writing

 It is finally done, printed, bound and wrapped ready for the post.

On another note at the North West Book Artists meeting we had a workshop on eco printing using plants. I am inspired I know what I can do now with all those vicious nettles that I spent the summer pulling out of the allotment.