printed material

The Man Who Planted Trees from MrGreatShortFilms on Vimeo.

I came across this beautiful version of the Jean Giono story only a few months ago and decided to save it as a special post one day. Even though it is not seasonal it is a wonderful story and a perfect gift. Enjoy everyone. See you in 2014!

 My books workshop was good fun last week and I did take some photos but when I looked at them they were pretty blurred and useless. I need to take them through the day rather than run round like a mad thing at the end of the workshop I think. There is another in two weeks time and THIS TIME I will do better. I think it has a lot to do with this time of year. All of a sudden everything cranks up a gear and I seem to be in headless chicken mode.... or maybe it's more about my inability to say no to something or restrain myself from starting one thing before finishing another?

Firstly, I agreed to co-ordinate a project for my old employers, the National Trust, just on a voluntary basis, but the time commitment and workload is more detailed than expected and I'm not so great at detail any more. Plus I also joined the hundred or so people who took a piece of barkcloth to decorate for the charity Hands Up for Uganda. Run with passion and commitment by textile artist Bobby Britnell, the charity is being partnered by Star- Child Shoes to turn this barkcloth from Uganda into baby boots ready for exhibition next year. I gave a piece each to my two friends Vickie and Joan as a sort of mini autumn challenge. They've delivered theirs back to me so guess who was dragging her feet? On Monday I finally bit the bullet and printed on mine before stitching on it yesterday. After lots of ideas I used two hand carved eraser stamps for the hands and painted on the stripes before machine stitching the circular motifs.  I have limited ability in machine embroidery but what I do know has been learned from a dvd by the lovely Gina. I did the stitching in ordinary cotton  and the back looks much worse than the front. It really does not bear close scrutiny but at least I have finished.... I think ..... (Please Gina, do not enlarge this photo for a closer look....I beg you...)
 I also promised my friend's daughter that I'd do a craft fair with her next week. The idea was to sell some of my books but then I saw all these origami ideas on different blogs and thought I'd make some Christmas decorations. That was a mistake. Not only was it time consuming, it was obsessive! I couldn't stop folding and creasing, using up mountains of old music. I found the tutorial for these here if you want to have a go.

 I also made these five pointed origami stars using some free gift wrap from a magazine but it's only patterned on one side so the reverse is white in the centre and I wasn't happy with that until I realised they'd make a quick Christmas card, something I've not given any thought to this year unusually. Finally, I've been playing around in Photoshop to make some tags for the craft event and the demented dogs and cats below are what I am printing out later. I'm not sure whether they're the product of an overactive imagination or a sign that I'm running close to the edge..... I think it could be the latter......

 My second books workshop is this Friday and I've been making lots of samples for it in an attempt to decide my itinerary. The trouble with me is that one thing always leads to another.... leads to another... etc etc and I suddenly have a list of structures to make that's as long as your arm and requires adding a few hours to the workshop. Remembering the pace of the first workshop and knowing I have the same people attending has helped sort the 'to do' list out and we are going to be focussed on basic accordion structures with a few variants and a few ideas how they can be used. I may make the pocket books seen above but these samples are still works in progress as I refine the way to pull it together so it's more than likely that I'll keep it straightforward (famous last words) and encourage them to think about scale and content. I've made these tiny books as tree ornaments for Christmas instead of cards for some of my friends and they have Jingle Bells printed inside. A simple accordion idea just to give them some ideas. I'm also going to focus on simple decoration like collage and papercutting and making pockets etc but who knows? I have a box full of samples aside from those shown so anything could happen!

In a future workshop I'm thinking of concentrating on books with pockets, folds and hideaways so I made a small sample using a childrens encyclopaedia from the charity shop. It is a lot of faffing about making the envelopes by hand and getting the stitching done before sticking them together but it would take all day and that would mean my lesson plan would be straightforward and would save me spending hours making more of those samples that keep distracting me. I think I'll see how they get on with Friday's tasks before I decide and this time I will remember to take the camera and take photos of their work. I forgot last time and they made some lovely things so my next post will hopefully be the chance to show off their efforts this week.

 We have had some glorious end of year sunlight this weekend. Sharp, bright and crisp has been the order of the day. Temperatures down, gloves needed, sun low in the sky. I just had to see the sea so we went to St Govan's Head , site of the tiny chapel (hidden by shadow in my photo) built in the 14th century. The chapel is built in a fissure in the rocks where the hermit St Govan lived and died in the 6th century. There are stone steps down to it and no matter how many times you do it, the number is never the same going back up as it is going down. All of the headland is now in MOD hands for training so it is only open at certain times. It is popular with rock climbers and there are pegs along the cliff edge for them to tie to but I noticed lots of erosion and did not venture too near the edge! The colour of the sea was mesmerising. It was a stunning blue and I could have stared at it for ages but it was too cold to linger. Brisk walking to increase the blood flow was required! A walk to blow the cobwebs away and enjoy the tail end of autumn.

 I've seen some beautiful blog posts about the striking autumn colours this year. Our colour has come late here in the far west and I only really noticed the intensity of it this weekend. During some local woodland  walks in the past few days I was struck by the amount of fungi I saw, particularly bracket fungus, so I went out into the garden to see if I could find any here and suddenly realised what was under my own nose! Some trees have nearly shed all of their leaves, whilst others are hanging in there. We have lots of birch and maple trees all shedding their bark and tall grasses with architectural seedheads which look wonderful against the light but the overwhelming colour out there is red. In truth, most of it is generated by a beautiful Acer  Osakazuki which we've had for about 15 years. It just glows and almost hurts the eyes when you look at it in some light.

All my foraging around did not find any fungi so I shall have to go further afield to look for more of that, but I did find some oak galls attached to a trio of leaves. It was lying intact on the ground and is now on the table ready to draw. The dry autumn has been wonderful but it might be coming to an end....we've had a bit of snow this morning, turning from hail to slush, and it is definitely a few degrees colder. I hope this is not the start of 'Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter....'

A few weeks ago my chum Sue started some posts on her blog about the silk aquatint  process she was teaching her weekly printmaking group. It looked wonderful, especially as it seemed to produce striking tonal differences. My voice was one amongst many that wanted a workshop and quite by chance Sue re-arranged a date in her busy calendar and offered one this past weekend. I needed no second bidding to get my name down and all my expectations about the scope of this technique were fulfilled. Now, I never go to a workshop with a desire to bring home a masterpiece. I need to concentrate on watching, absorbing, understanding and practicing the process from start to finish and after the workshop I love the next step of thinking how I can use it or push it a bit.So, I made my first two plates just as tonal exercises just to see how many layers I needed on each plate to wipe white and this first plate will inform all the subsequent ones so well.

After reading Sue's continuing blog posts I thought I could work out the process so I  made a couple of sample plates which did not print well and this tonal plate above suddenly taught me why they had failed. Even if I'd made no other plates, this one alone would have been worth going to the workshop for.... but friend or not, Sue has a plan for her workshops and she makes sure you get the most from them so resting on your laurels is a no-no. We were encouraged to try lots of mediums to create tones but my favourite one is the rich velvety one achieved by leaving the silk uncoated. A close up view of my photos show how juicy and wet those prints still are. I think they'll need a few weeks to dry off completely!
 Here's the plate alongside the resulting print. It was drizzled with glues and paints and has some inking issues but, alongside the three small ones below, will inform where I go next with this process.
 Some workshops can be an awkward mix but there were five of us and we just gelled so well, making it a great environment to learn in. Some of us were experienced and one was a beginner to printmaking but we all had a fabulous time. The others kindly said I could show their images here :
 And finally, Liz, who produced for me, the print of the weekend. By accident Liz stuck some card to her plate the wrong side up. Instead of a shiny, wipe free surface she had the rougher texture uppermost so needed to salvage it with glues. Her initial print was lovely but when she tried viscosity inking over it, it was even better. Look at that beautiful plate. For me, a work of art in it's own right. When this is dry and framed it will be stunning... and all from a mistake! That's the serendipity of printmaking for you. No wonder I love it so.

Last Friday I delivered the first of four one day book making workshops for the local authority lifelong learning department.Classes in the south of the county which had been structured to run for a couple of hours every week had not had enough take up so I was delighted when the all day workshops in the north of the county filled up to capacity and even more pleased when it became apparent that the majority of people had booked on every one of them. This meant I could start with basic stitching and structures and actually see the increase in their knowledge as I make each month slightly (lots...)  more complicated. We concentrated on 5 or 6 ways to make a single section book and with so many people - there were 14 - we had to go at the pace of the majority, so I postponed a couple of the ideas I had planned whilst everyone made their first books using wallpaper samples I'd brought with me for covers. They all kindly said I could put photographs of their work on the blog and then I forgot to take any! I will show the fruits of their labours next time as they made some lovely things. The books above are my samples I made on the day in my demonstrations.
 One of the ideas I wanted to show was that we don't always have to start from scratch to make a book, especially if you want to produce a single section hard bound plain notebook or sketchbook. So, I took along lots of small books, all unloved and free from Books for Free. I know I've mentioned this charity before and not everyone has access to a site but if you do, they are a great place to find A6 sized books to give a new life to. Prior to the workshop I'd been visiting them every time I went into town, often with my husband in tow so that I could have his quota of free books too. There are some wonderful old cover illustrations and titles out there that would make fabulous new notebooks.


 I picked the green book to make first for the workshop. Luckily the spine was still intact and tight so I was able to remove the text block and use the whole cover before inserting new pages in a single section with a five hole pamphlet stitch and with new end papers to cover the old ones. This is now my new notebook for all the odd jottings that come to me during the day. I must have something to write notes in or else I would be lost! I shall also keep the old text block for collage etc so that nothing is wasted. On another visit I found the 'Britain Needs Books' copy with a tatty spine falling off but I loved the cover and the whole message of it so a bookcloth spine was the answer.
I am so pleased with both of these and think they would make a great idea for gifts. I know some of my friends would find having a tatty cover a turn off but others would love the re-using of something, especially if it had a quirky, interesting cover. I think I shall be making many more of these and giving old books a new life. In the meantime I have to prepare for the next workshop. This time I'll remember to take photos!

I caught a radio programme about going blind the other day and it made me think really hard about what losing my sight would be like. I used to visit an elderly lady who was blind for Age Concern as a volunteer. She had studied at the Royal College of Music and had a promising career but the war intervened and her ability to hear changes in tone and pitch led to her working at Bletchley Park trying to decipher messages from the Germans. She was in her 90's when I knew her and arthritis had taken away her chance to play her beloved piano any more. She loved the radio, it was a lifeline and especially loved hearing books or poetry read aloud. In my online wanderings looking for more knowledge about blindness I found this wonderful poem about Monet. Just wanted to share.

 We've just come home from a few days in Somerset and Dorset, visiting some of the artists during this year's Open Studios event as well as managing to catch up with Jane of Marigold Jam for a lovely home brewed cup of tea! The weather was unkind and lots of rain necessitated many changes of plans. Planned visits to gardens for planting ideas were cancelled because of the torrential rain but out of every cloud comes a silver lining and by chance I realised we were close to the village of Moreton in Dorset, somewhere on my 'to visit' list for a while.

The church at Moreton is the burial place of Lawrence of Arabia, being a short distance from his home at Clouds Hill. It was on these local roads where he died in that famous motorcycle accident and  his grave is still visited by hundreds of people every year. The local Victorian village school has been turned into a fabulous tea room where his funeral bier is now laden with local handmade cakes and treats, something I did not realise until it was pointed out to me, so I was glad I had not succumbed to a chocolate brownie. I'm not sure it would have felt right!

I wanted to visit the church for another reason and another Laurence - Laurence Whistler , who was responsible for the beautiful engraved glass windows inside. Luckily for us, a lady who is both church warden and verger, was in the church to give a guided tour later in the morning, and, sensing our interest,  spent an hour with us explaining how the windows came about and pointing out so many things it was hard to take it all in.
 During a local bombing raid in the war a returning German pilot jettisoned his bombs and one happened to strike the church, destroying the windows and one side of it. Whistler was then commissioned to replace them all, something that took many years to do. Photos cannot do justice to their beauty or explain the significance of them all. I was entranced by them as well as other elements of the church such as the rare Minton floor tiles and Tudor oak furniture. I don't know if the fact that Lawrence's grave is there is why the church was restored after the war. I suppose it couldn't have been left as  it was.



 These days it receives visitors who come for the T E Lawrence connection, for the Whistler windows or  for the Minton flooring tiles which are also unique. I was fascinated with a memorial plaque in a small alcove blocked off to one side of the church and the warden explained that monumental masons  also come to visit this piece from all over the world because of its carving qualities. She took us into this small, usually closed, antechamber for a closer inspection and I took some head-on photos of it which were sadly blurry in the subdued light caused by the weather. It is hard to read it from the photo below but it dates from 1762 and commemorates the death of 36 year old Mary Frampton, wife of James. I have to admit that it brought a lump to my throat as I read it out :

'She was a rare Example of true Conjugal Affection, and of those amiable Qualities on which alone are founded the Charms of Domestic Happiness. The Advantages She enjoyed of a very ample Fortune, an engaging Manner and pleasing Form, were far surpassed by the inestimable Endowments of her Mind, by her Modesty and Gentleness of Manners, Cheerfulness and Sweetness of Temper, Goodness and unaffected Piety, with a most exemplary Patience and Resignation under the severe Trial of a lingering painful Illness: These Virtues endeared her to all Ranks of People and rendered her during an Union of Sixteen Years, the Comfort and Delight of her Husband Who truly sensible of her uncommon Merit and his own Unhappiness in the Loss of so excellent a Person Whom he most highly esteemed and dearly loved, Erected this MONUMENT as a Testimony of his Affection, Grief and Gratitude'
Although I'd wanted to see the windows I would have been happy if this was the sum of my visit as it was exquisitely rendered and so moving. If the church warden's party had not turned up when it did I think we would have spent even longer in the church but it is now on my 'go visit again' list as we walked away and never even looked at the grave of Lawrence of Arabia. After nearly having a cream tea off of his funeral bier it seemed quite disrespectful so we've earmarked it for a potential visit next Spring when we can also enjoy brighter light through those gorgeous windows.

 Locally, there are a few people I know who want to get together as a group and increase their printmaking skills. I'm currently trying to find a way we can do that together and pool our shared skills whilst following our own particular passions. In recent weeks I've been listing the methods I love working with and deciding which ones I want to do more of either with a group or on my own. One thing I've not done for a while is screen printing so I had a playday on Saturday and really enjoyed myself with some paper stencils and other materials. With only one screen there's a limit to how much I could do but it was fun. Of course I then had to scan in the rubbishy offcuts and play around in Photoshop, as you do, but it reawakened the thrill and immediacy that screen printing can give you and I intend to do more. Sometimes the best things come from spontaneous play don't they? .....why can't I remember that more often?