POTATO

A new book I’ve made is currently being exhibited in the ‘Pattern:Books’ exhibition at the Upright Gallery in Edinburgh… Artist bookmakers were invited to submit artworks for the annual artist book exhibition held every December. The brief was to celebrate pattern in artist book form. Over 80 handmade books are on display from 35 artists in an exhibition co-curated with Edinburgh based artist book maker and tutor Susie Wilson.

The book POTATO is a digitally printed edition of potato prints and backdrawn monoprints. Started as an experiment in making printed repeat patterns with carved potatoes at my kitchen table, I then drew the carved potatoes as backdrawn monoprints. It’s fun to see the book travelling up to Edinburgh to be exhibited, and then making it onto the cover of Art Mag at the beginning of December. An exciting journey for a handful of humble potatoes.

Pages from a garden residency

Had fun giving a short talk at BABE 2022 last weekend on the books I made as part of my Garden Residency last year (which was ironically meant to be a break from making books!) Interesting to see them all together as a group, and it’s given me a few ideas for new future editions.

Frankenstein is on the move...

The exhibition curated by Simon Ryder of Liverpool Book Art is moving this week from Liverpool down to Bristol. Work by 50 artists all created in response to Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ will be on display at Bower Ashton Library at UWE from 1-28 February. I’m gathering together some of my preparatory materials for my embroidered book to take along to a Show & Tell event at the library on Saturday 2 February, 11am - 12.30pm. I’m really looking forward to seeing all the books and hearing more about the exhibitions in Liverpool.

When we call a place home...

The importance of pressing the books overnight ('before' at the back and 'after' at the front)

A quote from Frank Cottrell Boyce for the endpapers (I heard this on the radio a few years ago, and wrote it down in the hope it would come in useful one day)

Starting to take shape, with the addition of Trodat stamped dates

Grappling with my vintage typewriter to add the memory captions to each card. Who knew centring type was so tricky in the good old days?!

Hand lettering on the pockets of all the road names

Stamping on top of the digitally printed illustrations

Hand carved rubber stamps for the house numbers

Lots of folding to create the pocket concertina structure

Illustrations were digitally printed onto A3 gesso paper, and then cut down into individual cards and the corners of each rounded with a punch. 

Carbon paper illustrations of my second five homes

Carbon paper illustrations of my first five homes

A new book created for an exhibition as part of the Athens Print Fest 2018, on the themes of nostalgia and interruptions.

It is a catalogue of the ten places I have called home – the depictions of these houses represent punctuations in my life. The houses are originally illustrated with carbon paper – a transient medium that fades over time – but digitally reproduced for longevity. The concertina format reflects the chronological nature of the content, and the use of cards and pockets is reminiscent of childhood memories of library books: checking in and out of each place. The visible information (house number, road name and date) is factual, with typewritten personal memories of each place hidden within the pockets. I chose to cover the books with woodchip wallpaper – a common feature in all of my childhood and student homes, and a wall covering I have spent many hours scraping off walls of homes I have renovated as an adult.

I've only finished three books so far, but it will be an edition of 20 (once I can carve out a little more time to make them!)

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!

CAB 2017

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!

Countdown to BABE

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!

Do you have a light?

Finished flag book of rizla papers ready for the ‘Set in Stone’ exhibition at the Tobacco Factory which opens next week…

Starstruck by association

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...

Cracker Book sneak peek

The Cracker Book collaboration with the ABC group at UWE is nearing completion, and early results will be exhibited in Bower Ashton library from 20 April. Participating artists (from the left): Kate Williamson, myself, Alison Sloggett, Linda Parr, Rebecca Weeks (2 books). Having seen early print proofs of Stephanie Turnbull’s amazing lithographic contribution, it’s shaping up to be a lovely set of books. Just need to put my thinking cap on to come up with a good way to package them...

Phew!

Fifty books made in the last two-and-a-half weeks, Building up stocks for the ABC@UWE exhibition at Bower Ashton library, the Turn The Page artists’ book fair in Norwich and the BS9 Arts Trail. 

Ten orange cracker books

Flocked and finished - hurray!

Words about books

'Turn Over Darling' – Ron King, Circle Press

'Aplphabeta Concertina' – Ron King, Circle Press

A Made Up True Story' – Sam Winston, Circle Press

A Made Up True Story' – Sam Winston, Circle Press

A fascinating weekend spent at a conference at Cardiff University – ‘Livres d’Artistes – the artist’s book in theory and practice’. Marking the donation of a large collection of artists’ book by Ron King from the Circle Press, it was a real treat to see and handle some of these books. Particular favourites of mine were books of beautiful embossed wire prints and alphabet pop-ups. So inspiring also to hear from Ron King about the development of the Circle Press and his various collaborations which have led to such a rich and varied output. Other highlights of the weekend included a talk by Imi Maufe about translating her travels into book form, Jay Young talking about his work with pop-up books, and an amazing talk by Sam Winston about his approach to working with books and words. Lots to think about, but most of all it just makes me want to make more books… which can only be a good thing!

Lots of lovely books

Carol Wood

Cathey Webb

Olga Fear

Katherine Stevens

A real pleasure to attend an exhibition of student’s work from the Hand Printed Artists’ Books course at Spike Print Studio. Having taught some sessions on lino printing on this course back in the Spring, it was a great to see those concertina books finished, but also the dizzying array of other handmade books on display. So many different formats and styles of working - and all completed since January. Really impressive stuff. The books will be on display in the Tom Trusky exhibition cases at UWE (Bower Ashton campus library) from 7 December to 31 January.

Heading South

Packaging up books ready to hand over to the lovely Sarah Bodman to take along to Counter – Plymouth Art Book Fair (Saturday 24 October at KARST).