Printing for peace

 Barry and I were lucky enough to have time on the weekend to print our peace weather grams for 2026. Even though International Day of Peace is not until 21 September, we head back to Scotland in the relatively near future and knew we needed to print them here before we go.

It was a great test of our new printing space with the two of us working alongside each other setting up; and then a team effort to print and set them to dry. 

I chose the simplest of phrases - Peace is beautiful.  As I went about it, I thought maybe it could begin a new series of Peace is ... but who knows?

I started with Mistral 72 point, but boy oh boy the word beautiful looked like it would go right to the edge; and it did plus more. So I thought I had better find another way.

There always plenty of problems to solve.

I left the word peace as 72pt, and then moved the rest of the words to 48pt Mistral, and think that looked better. I wanted peace to catch people's attention and then have quite a breathing space before is beautiful. I really like the handwriting stye of this, and the way it looks as if I could have scribbled it myself.

As ever, printmaking leaves you with such lovely images - the starkness of the black and white here and the ink and the tools.

We printed up a storm and our two sets of weather grams are quietly drying (with the aid of a dehumidifier given the rain and the mist we are experiencing).

Given we have had so much weather, it was no real shock to find that several of our weathergrams form years past had fallen from our peace magnolia tree (partly we think because we also recently had it pruned and everything was just a tad more exposed). So here are some fragments and some remnants resting on our chair by the front door.

And some other cheery wee ceramic stars that keep the wishes for peace alive...

The second book of silences (2)

Once again, the light is hard to get right here at home and the book looks duller here than it does in real life. In real life there is a softness, not a heaviness.

 And we begin again from the middle - where the silent pages rest quietly.

This spread gives such contrasting silences, with much to ponder.

More silent pages, slowing us down, making us feel and listen to the silence.

And yet more silences.

And yes, much gratitude once again.

I like how the soft Japanese paper almost muffles the book at the ending.

And further evidence of the lighting issues - here is one packaged looked light and bright and beautiful!

So, the books of silences are complete. I have enjoyed having a self-initiated, not-for-profit, community collaborative project to pursue for the past year or more.  It has been a gentle thing to be doing; it has tested my brain and made me practice a lot of things which now feel less daunting each time I do them. I will take a break from this sort of project for a bit now, and turn my mind back to making some jewellery; and a couple of ideas and works I have had burbling away in the back of my brain. 

The second book of silences (1)

 So... the second book of silences is complete!

I have also managed to wrap, pack and post those that need posting. Once again, posting to the US proves challenging as we negotiate tariffs, non tariffs and all the rest, so I have sent them off with my very best wishes and hopes!

I wanted to show the books in full, so have created two blog posts; this one and the next one so that all of the pages can be viewed without creating a single, huge post of almost 30 images!

This is a book of silences and a second book of silences, side by side. I had thought at the last minute that I might add a second line of pen 'stitching' to the bottom (or the top) to differentiate them, but when I tried to do it it looked really awful, so I quickly retreated from that thought. Instead, they look the same on the outside, but differ on the inside.

Siblings.

I tossed up between a book of silences ii; and a second book of silences and went for the latter. So many decisions.

And straight away, the book offers you silence.

And little bit more silence, then a perfect silence.

I can feel myself in so many of these silences. Either acknowledging a shared silence; or seeking one I am yet to experience.

And we reach the middle of the book, we pause, with silence.

The rest of the book can be seen in the next post. It is nice to take time and read the silences slowly as well.

So many steps to a book

Well, in between rain showers and storms I have been slowly pottering along progressing a couple of things. A calligraphic commission has been posted, the book for Narratives is edging closer, and the second book of Silences is oh so close to being finalised!

Here I am creating a prototype to double check that the pages I have printed are in fact the pages I meant to print; and that they are in the order in which I planned it. For some reason I reached the end of printing and worried that I might have forgotten something, hence the double check prototype and the good news was that all was on track. Tick.

Laying out all the printed pages ready to fold.

Folded.

Collated 

The delight of a deckled edge on the cover.

The task ahead after stitching - trimming the pages down. At this point I felt a bit sad we no longer had a guillotine; but I knew if I took things slowly and had some rests in between times that I would be able to hand trim the 21 books.

Evidence of ongoing trimming. I actually took this shot at what I thought was the end of the task; only to discover a bit later that there were 5 books hidden under a sheet of paper that still needed to be stitched AND trimmed! Laugh.

Now just some lovely closeups of the spines and the edges.  I never tire of looking at these.

And then I began to tag them and make piles for sorting - which ones get handed out; which ones get posted within Australia; which ones head to the UK; and which ones go to Canada and the US. I think I have it all straight in my brain.

Now to wrap, pack and post and take a walk through all the second silences...

International Women's Day

 8 March is International Women's Day - first celebrated in 1911, the Day seeks to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It also marks a call to action to accelerate gender equality.

As we sit and watch a world, led mostly by middle-aged or old white men, take us to war in so many places, wreak havoc, and cause death, despair and destruction I wonder to myself - wouldn't women do it better? And I am mostly certainly sure that they would.

But here we are. 

In small ways we do what we can to promote women; to uphold and support women, and to cheer women on. To have their backs, to bolster and boost them and to promote their excellence. Go girls!!!

I make work about women, and I make work about women friends. I hope to do a much larger body of work about women friends mid year; but for today, I am sharing my feminist poster works and postcards.

I have loaded them into the online shop and for the next week, all women's work is 10% off.

A sample of them along with two of my Fragile Gains series.

One of my favourite A4 posters...

This one speaks to me so much of all that is held within the Epstein files - such depravity and abuse of power.

We are so tired of it all - we have had enough.

Women still struggle to be heard when they are talked over or mansplained to.

This should be the starting point in any claim of sexual assault. So awful that so many women have testified to assaults in the Epstein files, and still...no justice for them yet.

We are all so much more than this; and women are worthy of respect, empathy, and understanding even if they aren't your daughter.

A catch cry for women everywhere to keep on protesting, to keep on resisting, to keep on writing and calling their political representatives...

There is only one set of these seven postcards left...

And these fragile eggshells, speak so eloquently of the gains we have made, which we must protect.