Plant Ink

Inspired by my trusty Pantone swatch book - in almost daily use for the past 20 years - Plant Ink is a limited edition catalogue of natural ink samples made as part of my Garden Residency last year. It could have had an alternative title of Fifty Shades of Brown, but it’s interesting to see all the colours together in one place to appreciate the subtle differences in those shades. The book will be available for the first time at BABE (the Bristol Artist’s Book Event) this coming weekend, and then in my online shop from next week…

UPDATE: Over the moon that the whole edition of 15 copies of Plant Ink sold out over the past week, so I’m afraid it won’t be listed in my online shop. Many thanks to anyone who bought a copy!

Keep cutting

I really enjoyed the online Collage Colloquium hosted last month by the Centre for Fine Print Research at UWE and the London Centre for Book Arts. There were filmed talks by Jeremy Dixon, Jean McEwan, Daniel Lehan and Jeff Rathermel, followed by two discussion sessions with all the artists. Very inspiring, and the talks and discussions can still be accessed here. I jotted down some quotes from each of the artists during their talks, and then in the time between discussions I made them into a small single-sheet book using collage, letrafilm and typewritten text. I made this as a memento of the event for myself, but then decided to make a small digitally printed edition for the participants and other people I know who work with collage. Quite fun to make a book so quickly and to turn it into an edition without over-thinking it too much.

Lockdown – A Pocket Manifesto

I’m pleased to announce that a small edition of my new book ‘Lockdown – A Pocket Manifesto’ is now available in my online shop.

It’s digitally printed (thanks to printed.com) from my original hand-carved rubber stamp illustrations on 150gsm fresco gesso paper. It costs £6 (+p+p) and £5 from each sale will go to Bristol North West Food Bank, who really do need all the help they can get right now. The original book was made for a mail art project for Artists Book Club (ABC) at UWE and was inspired by all the things I identified as being important to focus on at the beginning of the Lockdown...

Embroidered book for my mum to mark the grand occasion of her turning 70 today. Flower design from the wonderful ‘Simply stitched with applique’ by Yumiko Higuchi - a bit nerve wracking turning an embroidery into bookcloth for binding but I’m relieved it’s worked without being too lumpy bumpy…

Makers

Really thrilled that my books and cards are now stocked in the excellent Makers gallery on Colston Street in Bristol... the shop is chock-full of beautiful things, so it’s very exciting to see my books nestling amongst them. . .

Preparing for BS9 Art Trail

There have been a lot of books in production over the past few weeks in preparation for the BS9 Art Trail this weekend (9 and 10 June). I'll be at the Stoke Bishop scout hut again (venue 11) - so come along and say hello if you're in Bristol

PaperLove – week four: book

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!

PaperLove - week three: word

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.

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!

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.