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Do you have a light? - my rizla flag book
Luke Carter - Lethal Trade
Olivia Jones - Demolition
Charlotte Biszewski
The ‘Set in Stone’ exhibition opened at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol yesterday evening - open until 27 September, so pop along for a nicotine- themed cornucopia of art. Great to see what everyone had produced - more highlights to be featured later this month - and many thanks to Charlotte Biszewski for organising the project and expertly curating the exhibition.
Chopping, folding and stamping onto roller prints (from a workshop with Stephen Fowler a couple of years ago). I can feel a series of these coming on as I have a large pile of roller prints languishing in my plan chest - they may finally have a purpose!
'Set in Stone' exhibition opening at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol from next thursday evening (date on poster slightly wrong - should be 4 August - 27 September).
Finished flag book of rizla papers ready for the ‘Set in Stone’ exhibition at the Tobacco Factory which opens next week…
The original lithographic stones found in the stores of the M-Shed in Bristol.
My chosen litho plate which I scanned to print acetates to create photo-polymer stamps.
Embossed book cloth for the front cover - the shape will be filled with a metallic print of the star motif (shown in the next photo).
Gold foil heat transfer – laser printing black ink onto black paper and then running it through a laminator with the foil.
After a fruitless search for just the right green paper for a bellyband (to match the tobacco tin in which the book will sit) I decided to mix and roller my own colour.
Belly bands printed with a photo-polymer stamp of the company name and a metallic heat transfer foil for the seal on the back.
The fiddly job of folding, cutting and sticking 150 rizla papers...
… into a flag book structure.
Set in Stone
Deep in the heart of the M-shed stores in Bristol, over 70 lithographic stones have been stored, gathering layers of dust. These stones, discovered in the blitzed basement of the Mardons printing house, were once used to mass-produce labels of W.D and H.O Wills tobacco, whose products included Golden Virginia and Players Navy Cut.
‘Set in Stone’ is a collaborative project run by Charlotte Biszewski, who has worked with Stephanie Turnbull to transfer the images on the stones onto lithographic plates in order for them to be a starting point for various Bristol artists to create new work. It will culminate in an exhibition, appropriately, at the Tobacco Factory in August - more details to follow soon.
As soon as I heard about this project I was really keen to be involved. Following on from my MA studies, I’m really interested in the idea of taking printed ephemera from the past and preserving it through re-invention. When I picked up my litho plate back in May, I was thinking that this would be a good opportunity to create something non-book for a change, but as I mulled over the potential of the imagery I started thinking of traditional embossed bookcloth, patterned endpapers and creating something that could be contained within a tobacco tin. So that will be a book then.
Pictured here are some photos from the production process, which involved creating photo-polymer stamps, heat transfer foil blocking, embossed book cloth and Hedi Kyle’s flag book structure using Rizla papers. Truly tobacco-tastic!
Cheeky wee Scottish Oystercatcher from my holiday sketchbook to round off the working week.
Very excited to learn that Margaret Atwood has tweeted about ‘Serena Joy’ the collaborative World Book Night rubber stamp project, inspired by her book ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. A copy of the box of prints is now winging its way to her courtesy of Sarah Bodman. Many thanks to fellow stamper Linda Williams for writing to Margaret to let her know about the project. Have also just heard that Tate Britain will be accepting a copy of ‘Serena Joy’ as a donation to their artists' books collection. Great to hear of ripples from a project long after you think it’s completed...
Back south of the border again after a wonderful fortnight up in the Scottish Highlands. Hills, lochs, big skies and lots of long walks. Just the ticket.
Stephanie Turnbull (stunning constructed tobacco label printed from original litho plates)
Jono Sandilands (screen print with raspberry pi LCD)
Jono Sandilands (mind blowing pinball machine - off the scale amazing!)
Clare Owen (beautiful ceramics and prints)
Philip Johnson (huge screen print with more than a nod to a woodcut approach)
A really inspiring show from this year’s MA Multi-disciplinary Printmaking final year students at UWE.
Stamps from the Rockets and Robots concertina book
A brilliant day yesterday teaching a rubber stamp workshop for MA Printmaking students at UWE. The theme was rockets and robots… chosen as an excuse to use the lovely stash of metallic stamp pads acquired by the university earlier in the year. It was also a good subject for looking at building up an illustration out of component parts. Really impressed with the quality and variety of the finished stamps, and thanks to some hard graft and teamwork, we ended up with an edition of seven stamped concertina books. Many thanks to Liz, Sophie, Linda, Rozzie and Vicky for a mighty fine end result.
Preparing for a rubber stamp workshop I’ll be running for MA Printmaking students at UWE next week. Space age stamping - it’s a whole new frontier, with metallic inks and everything!
Had a lot of fun at the last meeting of the Artists’ Book Club at UWE last week - they’d hired a couple of badge makers from Bristol Scrapstore. Great to see some of my rubber stamp patterns transformed into a pinnable format.
A really lovely weekend on the BS9 Arts Trail… the sun shone and we had lots of visitors at the scout hut (an excellent venue!) Exhibiting with a great bunch of very talented artists this year - Sue Pickering, Charlie West and Jenny Urquhart… all very inspiring. Many thanks to the scout hut for hosting us and providing such delicious tea and cakes. And thanks to everyone who came along and made it such an enjoyable couple of days.
A full-on couple of hours setting up in Stoke Bishop Scout Hut for the BS9 Arts Trail - running this weekend, 11am-5pm.
On sale for the first time this weekend will be a new range of hand stamped A6 notebooks - covers were created using a combination of handmade photopolymer stamps and hand carved rubber stamps. Way out in patternsville...
Great to see the collection of cracker books exhibited together in Bower Ashton library. It’s been a really fun project… many thanks to my fellow cracker collaborators: Rebecca Weeks, Stephanie Turnbull, Alison Sloggett, Kate Williamson and Linda Parr (and Anwyl Cooper-Willis who’s just handed in a beautiful new addition to the collection).
Spare moments in the first couple of months of this year were spent cutting, pinning and sewing lengths of bunting for the forthcoming BS9 Art Trail. The end result was 140 metres(!) of neon, rip-stop triangular loveliness which will be gracing the venues of the trail this weekend. I may have been smiling through gritted teeth by the end, but I was really glad to have taken part in the great bunting manufacture project. It was a lovely group of fellow stitchers, ably led by Fiona Barr, all of whom will be exhibiting as part of the trail: Jackie Johnson, Olga van Rijswijck, Laura Robertson and Franca Douglas. Top teamwork!
The final preparations for this year’s BS9 Arts Trail. Do come along and say hello if you’re in Bristol this weekend. I’ll be in the Stoke Bishop Scout Hut, and - crucially - there’ll also be tea and cake!
After three months of making books for the BS9 Arts Trail, I’m about to bind the final few (phew).