There seems to have been everything happening since I last wrote, its been too hot to work in the studio or to print or to garden and then it was too wet to garden and I didn’t feel like spending time in the studio, so it was thinking and reading time. So it wasn’t wasted time. I completed the small print from my last blog and decided to make two small soft covered books with a paper envelope.
It was then time to start preparing for Art in the Pen on August 14th and 15th in Skipton www.artinthepen.org.uk This was my last event in August 2019 and it will be good to get back and meet lots of visitors and fellow exhibitors. So I have wrapped cards and begun to select books. See events page for more details.
Then I started pottering. I had an idea for a concertina book with several small pages, however it has taken several attempts to get the balance right for what I had seen in my minds eye.
Three small pleatsCropped cover to the leftSeparate pages bound on the backFive pleatsSeparate pages glued hingesDecision! four pleatsExpanded
Although I have continued to consider and explore ideas around the Vulnerable to Alteration theme I became diverted following a session folding paper into book formats. this usually happens in the afternoon between tea and the need to prepare supper, when my set tasks have been completed.
I had been handling one of the C17th pieces of woven silk, see here in a previous blog. However I needed a 24cm print for the book design and so off I diverted, using that piece of silk as a design source. I have printed three in a grey colour from silver mixed with black and I hope that they will dry a little quicker than the last time I used silver ink.
Half cut out printing plate
Despite all the disruption of the last year and a bit, I’m pleased to say that Art in the Pen in Skipton Auction Mart is going ahead this year on Saturday August 14th and Sunday August 15th, both days from 10.00 to 4.00. Being an animal auction venue the ceilings are very high and there is plenty of ventilation and space. Visitors will need to book and further details can be obtained from www.artinthepen.org.uk I shall be there with my friend and fellow book artist, Joan Newell as PagePaperStitch.
I did complete the book that I had started in my last post
So far untitled!
An C18th sack dress would take between 20 and 22 yards to make. There would be a very small amount of fabric used for the bodice and most of the yardage was used in the skirt, which was sewn into panels of waist to heel length, along the selvages. This was then pleated to fit the waist, or as in a sack dress pleated from the back neckline. There are very few unaltered dresses in collections, the fabric was too expensive to waste.
Over the years I have altered clothing for various reasons and I know that to make the whole process worthwhile and successful a lot of planning has to go into it, the first dress having been developed from a pattern, my alterations are evolving from my head!
So this image shows the beginning of a redesign of the plates used in the book shown here, from a blog from last November. I cut each plate up a little more so that the exposed designs were on both sides of the plate. The numbers on the reverse depict what size of print I can obtain from each plate. That is as far as I have managed to get. There may well be a delay as my husband is sanding and then painting the studio windows and this isn’t conducive to printing!
And my reading list, soon I shall be on the top shelf where the short books are!
Although I’m quite sure that there will be more on the subject of Alteration I wanted to turn my mind to an opportunity to apply for selection in an exhibition next year.
On first considering the title I was stumped, it didn’t seem one for me, but that is the challenge. I didn’t feel that I wanted to depart from my style and subject too far and I mulled over the possibilities, let it lie dormant for a while and then it came to me, thankfully!
Worked my samples and from these I was able to work up a mock book with the correct sizings, I printed over 100 2cm blind prints, in black and red, allowed them to dry and sewed them in sets of 10, as my trial in my notebook.
Now I need a wet day to pull all the components together, the garden seems to have taken me over at the minute!
Annwyn Dean 