I made a book...

 It's not often I land where I have, which is I have made a book and I don't know what it is. I guess that reflects my time at the cottage a bit - I am less purposeful and more explorative; more open to trying a bit of this or that simply because I don't have a full set up or I have fewer commitments or goals to hit.

So I started painting marks with an acrylic ink onto some lovely kraft card squares I had brought with me. Payne's Grey and White.

Not knowing where I was going, I turned them over and kept going.

And then I cut them down and put them together and they were a BIG book - heavy and hard to handle, so B suggested maybe make two books. So I looked for some paper or card to make extra pages and found some beautiful Vintage Paper Company paper which I could use; as well as a test page where I had laid out all the stitching mark for my peg piece - as well as some test  stitching. 

I embossed some lines I had previously cut for my first book in my exchange The Shape of Things with Annwyn way back in 2022 into some black paper/card I had here, and then stitched them using some thread that a friend had passed along to me after her mother died. All together a compilation of things that I found along the way.

Here they each are standing - quite firm paper means they stand well!

And a selection of openings.

So my question is are they done? There is already so much in them it seems to me that it could be hard to add to them. I have pondered writing in tiny writing around some of the marks, between some of the marks and maybe begin to tell a bit of a story of sorts?

Is there any way the marks could guide me to a narrative or story? Could they support and enhance a storyline?

I have pondered are they just lovely things to look at?

Or are they book-like journals with pages begun and space for new ideas to be jotted down, sketched in? Something to be added to?

It's quite the confusement for me. I am usually far clearer in my intention before I begin; these wee ones evolved and became something, but I remain uncertain as to how best to use and appreciate them. 

Thoughts welcomed and gratefully received!

And in a weird sideline; as I was connecting my phone to transfer these photos across, I opened to this photo. 10 years ago I made these books with Susan Bowers, and I was struck by how similar they are to the shapes, tones and marks of the ones I have completed here. Very graphic in their sensibility. In these wee ones we deliberately left the pages unbound so the story could be told and re-told in whatever way one chose. My new ones are firmly bound.

Interesting.

Continuing with calligraphy

 Having been a bit excited by the calligraphic play I finished up with in my journal back here, I wanted to see if I could expand the notion a bit.

So I got out some better paper, drew some lines, sketched the letters in pencil and then drew the words with a fine liner pen.

Thinking that at some point I might like to try and cut the letters out of paper, I thought to thicken the lines and try to attach the dots above the 'i's. no pencil this time, hence the slightly angled lines. Done with a 3mm calligraphy marker.

Together the page was looking good, although I did write many an edit/idea on the second one.

I wanted the G to be wider to balance the N+ E at the other end better, but overnight I dreamed of curves and tried them out a bit.

 

And no, the F will not continue below the line!

I then coloured it in. Interesting.

Having played with curves and filling in bits of letters, in the same night time awakening I remembered I had some ideas from my online works shop with Brody, back in December-January. I followed up with one of them, using a William Mitchell #5 nib. Handwriting to extended and looping writing to filled in pieces. And ink blots.

To finish them off and see them properly, I went and rubbed out all the pencil lines.

I used some white-out correction fluid to hide the blots a bit.

 

I didn't rub out my notes to self.

And was very happy with the options that were appearing. I am not sure how they might be used, but there  is some lovely imagery within them.

I was over printing some peace weather grams in between times and as I cleaned up, I thought to myself - why is it that such lovely random marks can appear as one cleans; but rarely when one tries?

A jumble of things

 A life of art can be a jumble of things, and I am often intrigued by the many threads of artiness that run through our days. Art does not simply qual studio time and making.

It seems to me an artful or art-full life is about noticing, re-visiting, thinking, planning, packing, preparing, practising, and posting at times.  The last week has held many of these moments!

To begin, I was excited to get the first book of the book exchange with Annwyn (https://annwyndean.co.uk) in the mail. We have no idea how our postal systems will cope with parcels heading off across the world at the moment, but we posted them on the same day and I know I am eagerly awaiting notice that mine has arrived; and am also eagerly awaiting receipt of her.s

Packed before posting.

We have been able to do quite a bit of walking into and around town during the break, and we passed by the log I wrote on outside David Linton's wood shop in the early hours of Christmas Day, when nobody else was about. It was nice to be able to stop and quietly observe its gentle and graceful ageing.

In sequence here is the first blog post about it in 2009; the second; the third once it was installed; the first weathering blog post in 2012; and here we are a decade later and weathering even more.

It seems to be at that point now, where legibility is reducing. The shapes of letters are still there; yet you need the other letters to put together words now. Sense is made by a sentence.

The way the swirls and whorls  in the wood play with the letters now is lovely. The letters ORY are almost missing from GLORY, yet the L remains strong. Which is kind of funny because I originally missed the L and it read as the GORY of God...the re-working may have meant those letters didn't last as well.

I liked that SHINE was still there.

And so too was LIGHT.

But some parts were well and truly faded...

I wondered if some of the letters had fallen down that crevice which has opened!

Practice continues.  One thing I have not been able to emulate from Brody's workshop is ink splatter. They I hold hte pen, load the pen, move the pen, the paper I am using, the ink I am using, the pen I am using. All of these might be the problem. I really want to be able to splatter ink! It is so expressive and enthusiastic, yet I do not seem to be able to make it happen.

Here I am with a large Automatic pen just trying to move it swiftly and create some marks; but also trying to see if splats might emerge. One or two did...

More practice needed I think.

And then to noticing. The rain had been hovering just beyond our reach - it seemed as if storms might be passing by just the other side. We stepped outside to see this - mist rolling in from the weather we weren't having, as the sun set; and the fragile, ethereal dance that they did together...

The commission completed

 In the end, the work was all about the map. I used map references in the book; we incorporated map imagery into the wall work and Barry etched a map outline into aluminium for a wee sculpture.

The wall work...

I had written some words (poetic prose?) for the book; and wanted to incorporate some into the wall work as well.  Here is my calligraphic rendering in ink. The property is large, and in western Queensland, and the land goes on forever...

Of course once I had done it, I took a photo from directly aboveand was horrified by the blank space top left. So I tore a piece of the map up and popped it on.

Still not quite enough, so a tiny fragment of the map was added and I could feel the trio of left sided elements making me calm again.

Sadly the clarity of the photos is not transferring well into blogger today - I promise the calligraphy is not blurry!

And so to the book.

It rests with a wrap around cover and band in a custom made perspex box.

The stencil motif was repeated

These words are shared between the two pieces.

Thinking about returning, leaving and memories.

There are five sets of words - some directly from the map; some more personal as I imagined the place from afar. 

And of course, I love the edges.

Barry took the outline of the map and etched it into aluminium, and placed it on a cube of gidgee timber.  The map describes stands of both mulga and gidgee/gidyah so we wanted to reference the timbers where we could.  The bark lines on the wall piece are mulga.

I love how he carefully folded the metal to appear map-like and tethered it in three corners.

And here they are all wrapped and ready to be received.

We had a nice home made lemon and blueberry cake with a sparkler, and the gifts were opened and we spoke about what we had tried to do and it was all very lovely!!!

The commission continued...

In typical fashion I was trying to push both the book and the wall work along a bit together, figuring that I often feel anxious if one thing is left behind; that they needed to be sympatico; and also making sure I didn't use up all my ideas and techniques in one and leave nothing for the other - Laugh!

Testing writing styles and tools on some rusted paper.

I bought a frame! And then I started to check if some of the elements would work with it.

The map mentioned a five-wire fence, so I thought about how to create that...stitching twigs but resolving the wire approach with Barry's help.

I was beginning to think this could work.

I received the hi res scan of the map as a file, so was able to print it onto fragments of papers to see whether they could be incorporated into the wall work or not.

And started playing with layouts

And then a twig broke when I started to stitch.

So a replacement was found and all was well.

Next up - the final pieces revealed.