Category: General

Book Making, Exhibitions, General, Uncategorized

Getting Out and About – 23rd August 2021

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August 2019 was the last time that I had participated in an in-person event, so Art in the Pen in Skipton a mere 4 miles  away from home was somewhat of an adventure, despite having taken part in it for many years.

My friend, Joan Newall,  a fellow artist book maker as usual joined me and we set up on the Friday. Each pen is slightly different, wobbly and uneven bars, nothing is really straight! and a concrete floor with many rough edges. Participants and visitors all join into the spirit of the event. Because of the current restrictions entry was by ticket and timed slots, almost all were fully subscribed to, which was wonderful. There were just over 200 stands.

It was brilliant to meet up with fellow artists, none of us had aged at all since we last met two years ago!

It was tiring but jolly and after two days of standing and talking, putting up and taking down it was quite nice to return, if only for a few days, to a quiet life.

And my reading pile, by chance they are amongst my favourites

Book Making, General, Printing

Bringing it all Together – 17th May 2021

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The four individual books are now complete.

The covers had had a great deal of consideration given to them, in the end I used silk paper, as a reference to the original silk fabric used as inspiration, which I painted. The text was hand printed and I used the sewing machine to give a line of holes around the edge to represent the unpicked parts of the alteration.

Such a complex pile in order to glue the covers on!

And the books

Unevenly folded
Evenly folded
Flag Book
Reducing in width concertina

The reading list this time looks slim, but there was plenty of gardening and also these books were read cover to cover, as well as holding lots of memories

Whilst I was working through this series of books I thought to myself, that we all alter and adapt, just like the textiles that I am inspired by and that seems to have particular relevance at the moment. May we all look forward to a peaceful and stable future.

General, Printing, Uncategorized

Collection – 22nd March 2021

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I suspect that we have all collected items/things/stuff from being children. maybe it’s the beginning of honing ones eye, discovering our style, experiencing a little bit of control, it’s part of our human development. I could write a thesis, but I’m not going to!

For the past 30 years I have collected fragments of antique textiles, for various reasons, teaching aids, intrinsic beauty, the joy of study or for a particular project, to name but a few.

The current world situation has made collecting somewhat difficult, I like to feel the textile, turn it over and consider its history before adding it to my collection. However this restriction has allowed me the opportunity to spend more time with the pieces that I have.

I have thought of time periods, techniques, geography, politics, people, journeys, trade, design influences etc and their integration with each other. Somehow I feel that many of these elements are magnified by my location, on the Lancashire/Yorkshire borders where I am surrounded by pre-industrial revolution and industrial revolution reminders of bobbin mills, wool and cotton weaving and thread manufacture, not to mention the long Leeds Liverpool canal, two fields away, which sourced the raw materials and took away the completed textiles.

These ideas have lead me to consider the idea of ‘The Collection’, something that I have dabbled with before. I have the time to consider the whole, something that has sustained me in my artistic endeavours over the years. There have been artists’ books, now I have turned my attention to postcards from the Collection, small glimpses and reminders of what the collection holds.

These are the three lace postcards, I’ll be moving on to woven next.

I liked these books of postcards, probably from the 1950’s, they are smaller than today being 14cm x 9cm. Ive always had them, presumably from my parents house.

And I haven’t read many books, the weather has been good and I’ve been gardening