Your Custom Text Here
Collecting and cataloguing paper samples.
Creating different paper textures (photographed on a lightbox).
Pamphlet stitch booklets of paper samples.
Pamphlet stitch booklet of envelope linings.
A very inspiring first week on Rachel Hazell's PaperLove e-course. The first theme is 'paper' - a good excuse to use up some of my hoarded stash of papers in my plan chest.
Signed up for Rachel Hazell's PaperLove e-course… looking forward to five weeks of inspiration and a prod to start making new work...
The second book structure from 'Woven and Interlocking Book Structures' by Claire Van Vliet and Elizabeth Steiner - this one is called 'Moeraki Boulders'. Six individual pages are held together with binding strips and a series of slots and tabs. It took me a while to work out the correct sequence for the binding, but after a bit of trial and error I finally got there. The original version of this book was apparently made with circular pages and circular tabs, hence the name.
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!
Looking forward to taking part in the first Cardiff Artists' Books event this coming Saturday at The Printhaus in Cardiff. Working out my table layout in advance because I won't have long to set up!
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.
My entry for the Bodleian Library 'Redesigning the Medieval Book' competition – a real labour of love. The planning and thinking for this book have taken almost as long as the actual making, and I feel slightly bereft now it's finally completed.
I attended a workshop at the Bodleian back in March, and was inspired by a discussion about the prestige of book ownership in Medieval times – the time and expense of commissioning an illustrated book made the final product into a status symbol. I usually create small editions of cheap and cheerful books, but I saw this brief as an opportunity to create a one-off, handmade artefact with an unrushed, methodical production process.
I was interested in addressing the challenges of Medieval craftspeople in designing a book, and –influenced by their love of ornamentation – I decided to hand embroider my illustrations. I chose to work with natural materials such as cotton, wool felt and hemp cord which could have been available in centuries past. My nods to the 21st century were the digitising of the Carolingian Miniscule alphabet to create a typeface for the text, and digitally printing this and my original hand-drawn illustrations onto fabric (thanks to excellent fabric digital printers Contrado).
It's been a very enjoyable, and challenging, project to work on, and I'm definitely keen to find ways to combine stitch and books in the future. Just have to wait and see now if it makes the final selection for an exhibition at the Bodleian Library in December - fingers crossed!
A very enjoyable afternoon spent monoprinting with my gelli plate and collection of found objects (most picked up from pavements on my dog walks). Decided to keep my colour palette a little more neutral this time in an attempt to wean myself fluorescent paint colours. Printing onto old book pages (from a library discard) added to the pleasing build up of pattern and texture. Many of the prints need more layers, but some of the early trimmings escaped the bin and made it into my sketchbook as collages.
The latest rubber stamp illustration in my collaboration with Swedish artist Eva Hejdström: F is for Farggläd (Swedish for colourful).
Found some monoprints I had digitally printed onto fabric in the second year of my MA, and decided to make a small book cover from one of them. Ironing a sandwich of the fabric, bondaweb and tissue paper makes a passable book cloth to cover a board. The pink spine/endpaper was a colour catcher used in the washing machine (nice colour thanks to a leaky red duvet cover). Needs some refining, but I like the idea of bringing more stitch into my work.
Lucky enough to see one of these rather special chaps last week when one flew into my neighbour's kitchen - amazing colours, and a real treat to see one up close.
Better late than never, my 'E' word for my collaboration with Swedish book artist Eva Hejdström: Enmesh – to become entangled in something. This was a bit experimental - playing around with layers of rubber stamp stencils, and also stamping over a taped 'net' of threads.
A few sneak peeks at my most ambitious project to date. An embroidered Medieval book for a competition set by the Bodleian Library in Oxford. No such thing as fast hand-embroidery. It takes as long as it takes. But the deadline is the end of August so I'd better get a wiggle on…
A week in the Scottish Highlands… my absolutely most favourite place to be in the whole wide world. Lots of time for walking, reading, sketching and really important things like painting on shells.
Taking part in the BS9 Arts Trail this weekend (10/11 June) - I'll be at Stoke Bishop Scout Hut (between 15 and 17 Kewstoke Road)… come along and say hello if you're in that neck of the woods in Bristol. New for this year's art trail are prints of Bristol Terraces, beetle mini prints, handmade wooden print stands and lots of new books.
Rubber stamp stencil prints
1950's vases and vessels
Sketching from a book called 'Indian Birds'
Sketching from a 1950's wildflower book
Small gouache painting of flowers on my kitchen table
Since joining Instagram (@corinne_welch_) I have been neglecting this blog a little, lured by the instant gratification of regular, quick posts. However, I have been busy - getting ready for the BS9 Arts Trail in Bristol on 10/11 June. And also making the most of some time in the evenings to start developing new ideas in my sketchbook. Some recent pages featured here...
World Book Night is here again (23 April) and this year's collaborative project organised by Sarah Bodman at UWE is all about the Loch Ness Monster. A field trip in March and contributions from artists all over the world has resulted in a wonderful publication produced by Sarah called BOOKISHNESS. It contains photos of 'sightings' of the monster and some wonderful book covers designed on this theme. A copy of the publication was sent to each contributor, the remaining 40 copies are available to purchase at £5 each including postage, email Sarah for details at: Sarah.Bodman@uwe.ac.uk. As always, it was really fun to be involved, and I'm thrilled to see my photo-bombing Nessie in print!
I had a quick dash round before opening on the Sunday and bought a small stash of bookish treasures.
The Bristol Artist's Book Event (BABE) at the Arnolfini in Bristol on 1/2 April was an amazing weekend. Beautiful sunny weather certainly brought the crowds out, and there was barely a quiet moment for the whole two days. It was fantastic to meet so many people interested in artists' books and to spend a blissful weekend talking about books and printmaking (instead of Trump and other depressing political nonsense). I'd almost lost my voice by the saturday evening… talking that much is unusual for a hermit like me. Lots of sales and positive feedback, and a strengthened resolve to continue making more books. Just two years to prepare for the next one...
Final couple of days of preparation for the Bristol Artists' Book Event (BABE) at the Arnolfini in Bristol this weekend (1 and 2 April). I've been busy making for months but still seem to take it up to the wire and will only just be ready on time. Lots of new books, cards and a fresh batch of hand-stamped notebooks will be on sale, alongside 79 other stalls of bookish loveliness. Hope to see you there!
Recent collage experiments of collaging monoprints made with a gelli plate. I enjoyed picking the colours and patterns to fill my outline beetles, and then drawing on details with a fine black pen. Although some of the vibrancy of the neon inks is lost when scanned or photographed, they've made a smart set of postcards. Available this weekend at the Bristol Artists' Book Event (BABE) at the Arnolfini. Come and say hello if you're in Bristol!