Back to the book

I’ve been working on the ruined village book structure, mainly thumbnails working out where the doors and windows should go and what is going to be inside the ‘rooms’. I don’t want to make a model so it doesn’t have to work architecturally. I’m trying to get the feel of a maze of interconnecting streets.

I initially thought I’d make it circular but without a front and back cover (so you can just go round and round) but this means you can’t have the corners of the rooms and streets all open at 90 degrees at the same time.  I’ve been playing at placing the folded sheets together in different combinations but these are more difficult to fold down into one structure. 

Think I’ll start the painting for the separate pages and work the rest out as I go along.

Finishing off

It’s been a week of finishing things off. The prints for Lesley’s exchange have now reached their destinations. Here is my contribution.  It is an etching. The plate is aluminium etched in copper sulphate using a mixture of traditional and ‘green’ grounds.

It looks a bit drab next to the colour of all the others. (Gina has posted the full set on her blog.)

I’ve also finished the first alphabet for ALAW. I’ve used a simple Japanese stab binding to hold the pages together.

Prints finished

Last night I printed 7 reasonably similar prints (and quite a few botched ones) for Lesley’s print exchange. They are now being pressed and dried before mailing out. I’ll post images when they arrive at their destinations

I’ve also been pondering the second alphabet for ALAW. This is the peace alphabet. 

I’m working on the idea of intervals of peace/silence interspersed between all the noise and chatter of daily life. I’ve an idea for the structure and how to represent the noise.

I’m not sure yet about the letters yet although I’m thinking white/translucent and quite delicate.

Not much progress

Since being back at work I’ve not has the time to make much progress on anything creative.

Although last weekend I did take the day off to go to Printfest in Ulverston.

 

There was some interesting work on display. I especially liked the relief work of Jane Walker and Mark Pearce and the lovely expressive drypoints by Emerson Mayes. The technical virtuosity of the mezzotint prints by Martin Mitchell was amazing. 

I was lucky enough to get the last ticket for the demonstration by Ross Loveday. It turned out to be a talk about his work and career rather than a demo but it was interesting. 

I came back inspired and ready to get on with the prints for Lesley’s exchange. Unfortunately the weather improved and rather than spending the next two days thinking print I spent most of them painting the outside of the house.

This exchange has been a challenge. The more I doodle and try out ideas in rough the more I have come to realise that I think ‘long and thin’ rather than ‘square’. It’s good to be forced out of your comfort zone.

I’ve decided I’m going to etch and I’ve produced a few tonal sketches that  I may develop further. 

Although after Printfest, I’m contemplating completely changing my usual way of working and trying something much more abstract.

Playing

Before going back to work I had time to play around with a few things.

I’ve been trying out ideas for the maze like book structure. The imagery is a bit rudimentary but I’m thinking ruined villages with abandoned buildings and streets. 

I also used some of the images that I prepared for the solar print workshop to have another go at gum arabic transfer printing.

I like the two colour print but it took several goes to get something that worked. I’ve signed up for a print exchange organised by Lesley but I think I think this method is too hit and miss to try and get eight good multicolour prints.

Solar Plate Workshop

This weekend I went on a course at the Hot Bed Press. I took the acetates that I’d prepared earlier.

We were shown how to expose the plates using various UV exposure units. The plates are then developed in warm water before printing. 

My images were printed intaglio but you can also use the process to create relief blocks.

 I like the idea of being able to manipulate the image digitally before printing and being able to get a great deal of detail and a full range of tones from the plate

On the down side you can’t work into the plate to alter and develop it further. I also had problems with the paper sticking to the surface on some of my prints althoug I think that would improve with practice. (The emulsion on the plates also smell foul when its been developed)

But it’s an interesting process that I think I would like to explore more.

More from the album

Some of the photos I've scanned are not what you'd call flattering.
 

They're beginning to bring out my dark side.

Family Album

I’m going to a solar etching workshop at the Hot Bed Press in a couple of weeks time and I have to take some acetate transparencies to use to expose the plates. I thought this would be a good opportunity to use some old family photos that we found whilst sorting out junk a few weeks ago.

 

I scanned the photos, some objects and printed stuff, took some photos I thought might be useful and started to layer them in Photoshop.

I just used objects that I thought would fit the spaces but am finding that I can start to read stories into the images. 

I’m not sure if they will be contrasty enough for the print workshop but I think they may be the starting point for a book. 

Exploring structure

I was quite pleased with the single sheet book but I want to push the idea further. The way some of the larger cemeteries are laid out feels like the 'stone houses' are arranged in streets that cut across each other. It can feel a bit like a maze. I want to play with this ideas of wandering in and out. So I've started to experiment with structures

 

  

 

Single page book

After some drawing....

Some printing...

Some more painting.....

Finally a book.