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!

Circles of Concern...

 In between times I have been doing the small tasks in the production line of these Circles of Concern, Circle of Control cards.

The steps involve printing the words, drawing the square, drawing the circles, laying on the gilding medium, waiting, then applying the gold leaf, waiting, and then brushing off the gold leaf.

And now they are done.

I managed to grab a few photos along the way - here are a couple where the gold leaf has been applied and is waiting to adhere, then be brushed off. You can see by how the gold is kind of all over the shop how flighty a sheet of gold can be!

Despite the weird angle, I think these two show the 3D nature of the leaf application.

I was quite pleased that I managed to get 20 good ones.

And then there are 5 wobblier ones. In the end, I kind of don't mind these ones as they suggest to me that even when we try to operate in our circle of control, we might be clumsy and/or imperfect!

This one definitely has the wobbles.

As does this one.

Once again, these are giveaways, so if you would like to receive one, please don't hesitate to send me a message or a comment and I shall pop one in the mail to you as soon as I can. If you would prefer a wobbly one, please let me know.

As things get tough and feel even tougher, it helps me to remember to come away from my circles of concern (so many!!!) and return to my circle of control.

2020 in review

 As is now a tradition of sorts on my blog, I spend time at the end of the year; or early in the new one , looking back over my favourite works of the year.  Sometimes I labour long and hard to find completed works; sometimes I have an abundance to select from.

This year my expectations were low.  I really did not have that feeling that I had completed much work. 2020 felt like the year of fiddling when one couldn't focus; of going across things not deeply into them. And yet.

I managed to discover 10 pieces that made me smile; that made me happy to think I had brought them into the world and that reflected the year that was.

As ever, they are in no order, except alphabetical.

1. A Place Among the Clouds

A beautiful book that emerged in response to some gecko poo on some paper.  I love looking through this book and sharing it with people. There is ritual in the opening and turning of the pages...

2. Circles

These little cards were definitely a pandemic piece of work.  They are simple, and the graphic details let you know what they say. They have been shared with many folk for whom they are a touchstone.

3. 54321

More pandemic inspired work - the theme around anxiety is strong! I loved these little cards, and whilst I haven't need to use the technique for awhile, it helped me a lot along the way. Let me know if you think I should print more and if you'd like some...

4. For James

In amongst it all we had  a lovely commission for a lovely man. Etched aluminium calligraphy. A gentle marker for some good friends.

5. Kindness mini posters

To mark our new studio, our first project was a rainbow of kindness. Barry printed four mini posters and I printed three. His are kinder than mine I think!

6. Mabel's Scrub

One of the few exhibitions I took part in this year! It was called Eco Women and was held here in Maleny. My print about Mabel Thynne with an embossed forest was on display there.  I love the texture of the forest in the background and the way the text fits within...

7. On joy

A beautiful book that emerged from a challenge to ourselves, and using the words of a friend. Playing with feather-like papers here was a delight.

8. On joy (mini)

When one beautiful book leads to another...this wee one was the result of testing registration of the printing for the book above; but it led me somewhere lovely as well.

9. Open

My first attempt at printing my own words in an edition of sorts. This is the cover sleeve for the poem. Printing into the counter must be becoming a thing!

10. Remembering

One of the greatest honours of work this year was to help make beautiful things to remember folk by.  This one has beautiful words and is so elegant in its simplicity.

And yet again, it was not until I had written this post and popped all the photos in that I realised what an avalanche of white there is.  I never think about it consciously, yet there it is - my stories are nearly always told in the softness of white; with white on white; with flimsy and light papers, with little or no adornment.  It's just who I am I guess..

Thanks for coming along on the ride looking back over the year that was. It helped me remember that there were beautiful things and moments of magic and that there will be again. Go well.

Paper, peace and pastries

As ever small things progress in this direction and that; nothing quite finished, yet things are busy.

I have been talking to some folk about different commissions and thought what might really help was a more serious swatch book. And so I cut most of my favourite and popular papers into A6 postcard size and wrote their names on them and their weight and began.

Am yet to work out how best to hold them together - or even if I need to - but they will be helpful when folk start to ask if they could get cards printed on x or y or z.

Sometimes it's the ongoing maintenance, the underpinnings of an art life that one has to attend to.

These are our lighter book papers - for small chaps books and the like.

These are our heavier papers for printmaking, letterpress posters, cards and such.

And these are the only coloured papers we have in stock! All are quite heavy 280-300gsm.

Off on another tangent it is time to make and send out some tokens of peace for International Day of Peace.  IDoP isn't until 21 September; yet here we are in early August and how did that happen?  Furthermore, given the delays postal services are all facing during the time of the Virus, we figure it's better to go early than be late. Fingers crossed these make their way safely to new home.

Never shall I tire of looking at gathered threads! In this instance brown jute string.  Just fabulous.

This year, I am using recycled cutlery pouches from a local coffee shop. Our cutlery used to be delivered to us in these pouches and I gather and collected them thinking they would make good weather-grams.  They are nice and sturdy.

One thing I like about them in particular is that they do have a pouch and I think folk might find little things to pop alongside the peace message...I know I hope to!

And pastries you may ask? 

We taught our first Introduction to Letterpress workshop yesterday and had a fine time.  One person was trying to look at how to bring letterpress into a business that they were thinking of.

At one point, we played around with variegated gold leaf to see if you could blind emboss it - and in rush we got this result; but it definitely made us think that if you attached the gold leaf first, then pressed into it that might get something worth something!

Anyhow, always fun to digress in a workshop. Grin.

Accepting this and that is it for now

Every time I sit down to blog these days I feel as if my work is a multitude of pieces; pieces of this and that.

I often times like to have a large or detailed project on the go that I can get into the detail of, research, make connections, link things together, work through the details, test things, try things and push some of my boundaries and expectations.  For a multitude of reasons that has not been happening and so I am coming to accept that blog posts for a while will be bits of this and bits of that.

Perhaps it is the skittery mind still; perhaps it is the fact that we are opening to the public next weekend (Saturday 6 June) and then have an Open Studio Saturday 13 June, and there is an awful lot of this and that to do to become a shopkeeper!!!

For starters those lovely SHINE squares have become cards...

And I must admit my main focus for the past week is printing and making more cards.

My grief cards have been selling well, and I only had three left so I printed and illustrated a dozen more.

For me, this is the point where I start to doubt myself... could this seriously work out?

And then it kind of does.

And the series of three muted colours work well.

Up until now I'v not paid much attention to the more prosaic cards - like birthday greetings - and realised if folk walk in they are likely to be interested in buying the basics, so have turned my mind to some of those in recent days as well. Never having really had a commercially-oriented mind these things come to me slowly and in small bursts!

A birthday bouquet underway - once again a fairly frightening stage!

And then it seems to work out OK.

And plenty of gift card packs of Go Girl in bright colours!

 And all the while the skies have been stunning.

This sunset creating the most beautiful coral pink glow everywhere and made the back fence and the maples really shine!

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