Category: General

I found that the momentum that i had gathered from the printing of the 215 small ‘blind’ prints stayed with me and I was able to have several shortish periods in the studio furthering ideas.

I find that sometimes the final design of a book wafts in front of my eyes and I then have to settle down to work out the technical bits in the middle and that is how it was.

I planned

I embossed recesses into Somerset 250 gsm paper

I painted tissue papers – I really only needed red but once all the preparation had been done I decided that I might as well carry on until my decanted paint ran out. I found myself inspired by all the autumn colours in the leaves in the garden.

And I folded the embossed papers, stuck and stitched the 2cm square prints into the recesses. I still have over 100 small prints left for another day!

And the details

Next to design and make their covers – blackberry and plum colours I think!

The process of giving thought to my latest idea – ‘Stories from the Collection’ is ongoing and in many ways it continues the pattern of previous themes and bodies of work. Along side the thoughts a lot of stuff is written down and those jottings are written again more formally to hopefully make a little more sense and so my ideas are clarified and organised. Whilst I no longer have to fulfil the role of student or teacher, I still find that the discipline of exploring the initial ideas is a real benefit to the work and the creative process. Notebook is essential!!

So far I have jotted down several phrases – I find doing the ironing is a particular productive time.

How does rearranging the Collection open up new avenues of imagery?

What happens if I reassess the textile fragments into different categories, date, materials Country etc

Have the printing plates really become the Collection?

What is my definition of a Collection?

I could go on!

It wasn’t so long ago I drew upon ideas around ‘The Unpicked Seam’. I was up near to Hadrians Wall recently and in the museum there was this AD100 leather saddle fragment with an unpicked seam! On that trip we visited the Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle. At the end of the C19th Josephine and John Rothschild built a huge Museum just to house their Collection of paintings ceramics, furniture etc and this was done specifically for the public to view.

Now of course I draw no parallels between the collections but I do see the desire to share and communicate ideas and objects.

I have also been constructing some paper mock ups for books – one thing that I have learnt over the years is that it is essential to use the same paper for the mock up and the real thing  as a good book is all about the quality of the folds, the thickness of the books and how it feels in the hand.

Displacement activity is also good for ideas to pop up and this week saw me making a couple of bags. A very dear friend gave me an Indian cotton table cloth that she had bought in 1970. It was no longer serviceable, wine, candle wax and fraying had all taken their toll over the years. So I made us both a bag each – to hold the memories.