printed material

 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.