Re-imagining the shop

Once again, my art life is jumping this way and that at the moment. I am trying to stick with the book to be made for the Narratives exhibition; as well as get the second book of Silences printed; and do an unexpected calligraphic commission; and of course update the websites and shops, keeping them stocked and looking nice and friendly. And packing and posting as things get sold.

Oh, and designing and printing some new business cards! I have never had business cards that reflect my jewellery, so these ones now do this; and I have two more designs to consider and get printed then I should be able to include the right card with the right sort of item...

As ever, life is full and varied.

I did want to record and spend a bit time taking stock of the steps for the new shops in a way. The time we spent thinking through what we would and could keep doing after we left the big space was a fascinating time for me. It truly was a time of re-imagining. I had to re-imagine working in such a reduced space; I had to re-imagine what I might teach into the future; we  had to re-imagine how we would sell things if we couldn't display them in our physical shop; and we had to re-imagine what sort of work we continued to make.

It was a time of selection and farewell. Of commitment and release. Of reflecting on the past; but looking to the future. 

One of the jobs with the websites was deciding what categories I would use to put new items in (we deleted our entire inventory - gulp - and started from scratch). In thinking through 'how do the things I make group together', I went looking for through lines.

Previously my shop categories had been pretty descriptive - cards, artists books, posters and so on. Very descriptive of the item - the 'what it is'. What I felt was missing was the 'what it is about bit'. My sense is that people know me for my cards and my artists' books; a relatively frequent refrain when we had the shop space was " Are you the grief card lady???". And yes, indeed, I am. 

But they also know me for my women's work; and my grief work for example.

How best to reflect those sorts of things became a task I dipped into and out of. I would scratch down some thoughts and return to them. I would list things that might cover things;  and would then have to check if some items I wanted to keep making could still find a home. 

So this is where I landed (and may I say the logistics of getting that drop down menu to appear, and then get it in the right order was a Herculean effort for somebody who doesn't do website stuff for a living!).

I ended up with eight categories. Four of which are item categories; four of which are more thematic categories. 

Items: Artists' Books, Jewellery, Cards and Booklets

Thematic: Pebbles, Women, Grief and Pausing.

What I hope I have achieved (and the shops are still not fully stocked, because you know... life) is that when somebody clicks on Grief - they will find Grief cards and booklets (just not yet). If they click on pebbles, they will find jewellery an artists book and some calligraphic pebbles (again, not just yet). With Pausing they will find an artists' book and daily rainbow words... and I think this is where any peace work I do will land as well.

I think this offers options for folk; and also helps me see the interrelatedness of say my jewellery, and my grief is a stone book-ets. And also that I have enjoyed writing on pebbles for decades now... pebbles are a thing for me so I might as well own it!

To support these categories and the shops in general; we have re-imagined the entire shop and display into plastic tubs in a cupboard. What a hoot - so here is the behind the scenes look at our 'shop' these days!

Although I promise we are not selling the pandemic at all - that relates to work-work we did nearly two decades ago which proved rather prescient in 2020...

I expect that as my art continues and grows that I might re-assess these categories or groupings. New loves may appear and require their own name and place. It will evolve.

What started out as a task about "the categories for the shop" became a real investigation of myself as an artist; and a clarifying of what it is I do; what I love; and how I present myself. Fascinating.

Grief cards and beauty

 I had made a note to myself to try three new grief card designs out, and so I kept on keeping on. This is a new one, which simply says, healing happens slowly.

I reminds me that it can take very long time to 'recover' to be settled and feeling right again. That the cloak of grief can cover us for a very long time.

I wondered again if I could simply leave the words, with no illustration, but felt that I probably couldn't. Especially as I seem to print the words at the bottom of the page leaving a great big space begging for something!

I tried to think my way through images of time passing slowly. For a non drawer and pretend illustrator I need to keep things really simple. I was a bit taken by the idea of an hour glass and set about working out if I could do an illustration that could work.

My answer to myself was - well not really.

So it was back to dreaming about or thinking about something that might feel right. I wondered about a series of stems with tiny green shoots or leaves gradually getting taller until they became tall and filled with flowers. That kind of represented the slow process of growing and healing but I wasn't sure I could work out how to do it well.

And then I started to get the sense of a bunch of flowers, but also a horizontal flow of green leading to it. I have no better way of explaining it, but in the end, that is what I went with.

Works in progress... I promise I did the stems for the other flowers in the one on the bottom left!

I have one more grief card design to ponder but think I have done enough for now.

In other news, I was taken by the bright beauty of these flowers as I tried out a new setting on my phone's camera.

As I was making my black ink plate into grey by adding white to it and rolling and rolling, I stopped just in time to capture this fabulous abstract art.

And in another moment of serendipity, I managed to capture these magical shadows on the work bench through the week. The sun going this and way and that through and against one of my grief is a stone sculptures - just stunning. I think it is a shadow and a reflection of the shiny metal.

Grief breaks us...

 I enjoyed started to print these cards the other week; and then had those moments when awake in the night wondering if they needed illustration? If they did what could I possibly do? And I had a midnight moment of maybe Kintsugi???  

Kintsugi is a Japanese art that repairs fractured or broken ceramics with gold and lacquer. The bowl is repaired, it is functional and it is beautiful.

So I turned to the internet for some examples and came across three different bowl shapes that I would test to see which shape fitted with the card the best.

I liked the flatter wider bowl form the best, so that became my testing shape.

I played around with watercolour pencils, with different colours and with a silver metallic pen at first (in lieu of a gold pen which I could not find at home). See blue bowl top left.

Another midnight moment, and I thought - what about gold leaf? Like I had done with the Circles of Concern cards??? Oh me oh my, what an excellent idea that was. Although you can see from my note to self above - less is more - the whole thing looked way too in your face when I put in lots of cracks and gold.

So I made a cut out template for where I should draw/sketch the bowl shape, which worked pretty well. I wanted the imagery to be similar in style to my other illustrated cards, most of which are pretty loose.

And then to the gold. I collected my box of gold leaf scraps that I have been collecting for over twenty years and thought  I would use them up in this way. Slight diversion - when I moved the box home I picked it p to put in a drawer and did not realise it was upside down. The lid came off and gold leaf scraps fluttered everywhere... it was beautiful and magical and so pretty, but also a bit sad. I managed to save and rescue quite a lot, but there are plenty of scraps that now linger on the floor and around and about.

What glorious bling!

And so I tested the scraps out - picking up copper, gold and variegated gold leaf and seeing how it went.

I was NOT happy with the variegated look, so it was back to using some squares of gold leaf I had been gifted ten years ago. I just preferred the plain, simple, gold.

These cards will now make their way into the new online shop. In the end I was really happy with the notion of repairing, making whole and strong and beautiful. How I hope we can all be, as and when we recover from grief...

Some words of care and thinking and preparing

 So, it has been a dark start to the year. There have been moments of light and hope; but many moments of dread and despair as we watch the news from around the world and our own country. 

In chatting back and forth with friends, we have reminded ourselves of the Circles of Concern (all those things out there in the big wide world that scare us, worry us, make us fear for so many) and our circle of control (that sphere closer to home where we can do something that makes the world a little bit better).

And so I was happy to recall I had seen some templates for my Circles of Concern, Circle of Control cards as I packed up and moved. Even better, I knew where they were!

So I pulled them out and started to make the circles, and to add the gold leaf (whose whereabouts was also known!) and to get a few in the mail to folk.

And out of these nine cards, I have six of the smaller cards left.

If you would like me to send you one please let me know and then email me your details (info@fionadempster.com).

I know I find the idea comforting and helpful when things appear too awful for words. The words encourage me to look within my sphere of control; to look at my circle and to go forward and do some good there. Small acts of kindness, of reaching out, of connecting and checking in.

And in another task I have an artists' book to make for an exhibition. I have been thinking and planning and pondering and playing and touching this and that; and then looking at that over there and wondering...

It is such an intriguing time this uncertainty, this fumbling towards the light of clarity and knowing...

It began with the idea to re-work some words I had written about nests, and maybe feathers, and eggs and birds.

I recalled coming across these pages as I packed up the studio. Several of them were damaged and foxed, but these five were in good shape so I saved them.

I started to gather some notions - some things that might go with the paper...

And then I thought maybe the soft grey thread might be better...

And then I went hunting in the garden for some twigs...

Something is evolving. The words are re-appearing in new ways. The possibilities for the pages are changing. It is a dance of lightness and quick movements; then pausing to reflect and go back around again.

For whatever reason I am sitting to the side of myself observing and watching how it is coming into being and I am enjoying myself. There are lots of little moments of insight and discovery; of working out that I need to slow down; or I need to challenge myself and think really hard about why I thought something was good...

Oh I do a lot of miles in my head before I begin to make a book!

Finishing and beginning

Happily I got to sit and write my rainbow words with a much better blue-indigo colour and I am really happy with the result (compared to this too-dark-for-me indigo version here).

believe looks quite different from breathe colour-wise; and a nice step up from the blue of beauty.

So there are now two completed sets of rainbow daily words done. 

As I polished B's bowls today, I got an absolute sense of satisfaction and completion of the first real job I had done here in the new scaled down studio space. Yay.

Here they are, scattered in the first bowl.

And in the second bowl. And a bit of a close up too. This second bowl is much deeper, and more worn, but very lovely.

As we organise ourselves and our online shops, these bowls and words will soon to be for sale. I will let you know when we go live.

And to more beginnings...

I took the chance over the weekend to print some more grief cards, after the order that went out last week.

I cut some paper down to make the cards and grabbed the chase that already had the type set in it and went about printing the inside wording. It felt so good to be able to print again! I also managed to get the front page type printed, but am yet to complete the illustration. So another beginning has begun!

Proofing that the type was straight and the right distance from the bottom, and also the right distance from the end of the card.

And then I thought I might start testing a new card. You can see three proofs in this photo.

No. 1 (in the middle) shows that I decided that the second line of type should move to the right a bit. It looked as if the capital G had a bit of a non printing bit; and I was surprised to have picked up a non-italic 's' from the tray!

No. 2  (top) I liked the line positioning and then saw for the first time that I had the 's' in breaks upside down! Had totally missed that in the first proof.

And then No. 3 (bottom)is just right...

Endings, beginnings, finishings and beginning again. The life of a maker. 

Flower cards

I learned that these simple flower cards, blank inside, were popular when they sold out at the recent studio sale.

As a small gift to myself on a difficult day, I went to the studio and sat with them, quietly painting and drawing nine new cards.

Watercolour pencils were sharpened! It is hard to think of a more satisfying moment than having a box of beautifully sharpened pencils.

And so it begins with scribbled shapes across the card. I tend to follow the same pattern for them as it makes it easier for folk to select.

And then I add water...

And then the outlines get drawn in loose way.

And then I package them up with a lovely envelope and they are done.

I texted a friend the images of the finished ones and she promptly bought seven cards! 

So I am back to the drawing board, but in the nicest way.

Elements of this and of that...

 It's the time the year where demands seem to stretch you and pull you this way and that; and there is not often a steady run at anything. Life as a maker creator becomes about grabbing small moments; following up small things; taking a chance on a spare half hour; and doing things in small stages and with small steps.

This post reflects just that.

I handed over the wee book I stitched during the week; and was fortunate enough to view and handle the original. What a delight and special thing that was.

You can see how it would not have survived a new generation of regular interaction, so what a wonderful heirloom kind of thing to do, to re-imagine it as a new book, with lots of love.

I also started to play around with thoughts of my 2026 card. 

I pondered wood type; in a couple of ways, but am yet to land on exactly the design and layout I am after. And also yet to decide what colour I want to print with. But I have begun...

And the studio clean up and tidy up continues with decisions being made every which way (decision-making is exhausting may I say...). 

We have a bunch of collectable type things in the studio so we are in touch with our local vintage guy and are putting together a bundle of items for him to consider. I went through my calligraphy nibs and decided he could have a lot of them, but that I  would save the ones I use the most.

Which sent me looking through all the little packets of nibs I have and sorting and re-packing them. 

Starting afresh with full sets; buying new nib holder so they are clean and shiny (not stained and rusty...). 

And don't they look fine!

A full set of William Mitchells, 

and the spares below...

 

A full set of Brause nibs, with the spares above.

It's funny how good a clean and tidy up can make you feel!

Finding moments at the moment is gold; achieving small things feels medal-worthy.