Going, going, gone...

 Well it has been quite the process. We began thinking our way through how to downsize the studio space at least 18 months ago; and in January last year really began to focus.

We knew that moving some of our precious letterpress items on was going to be very challenging. We so very much wanted them to go to the right homes; and I admit to being scared witless at times that the beautiful Lightning Jobber press could end up as scrap metal if we couldn't re-home it safely.  It was tough to think about and did keep me awake on occasions.

But slowly and steadily we refined which metal type we wanted to keep. We worked out which wood type we would continue to use and which of the type cabinets would serve us best in the future, and began the very slow and steady process of transferring the type we wanted to the trays in the cabinet we were keeping. It took months.

We had three cabinets of metal type to find new homes for; as well as a few presses; some gorgeous wood type; and the beautiful Lightning Jobber.  We also had heaps of art supplies, lots of art works and lots of fittings and furnishings. We sent out feelers for the letterpress gear and were fortunate to find it all new homes where it will be loved and looked after and used.

We went about it all slowly and systematically. On return from Scotland in July last year  we held our first art supplies sale. In November we had an artworks sale; and this weekend we had our fittings and furnishing and other bits garage sale.

In between I sorted all the paper; all the art supplies, all the art projects working papers; all the teaching materials we had ever kept. A big job, and we are both weary. But oh so satisfied. Here are some images from the past year and from the weekend.

The Lightning Jobber being moved.

Art supply sale July 2025. Look at how full that studio space is!!!

Me trying to sort all the paper into its new drawers; and working out what is for sale

My final tray of type being transferred

The artworks sale in November.

Moving type trays in a unique way! Metal type is heavy and when there are 25 trays in the cabinet, you need to spread and share the load.

The sale yesterday went brilliantly. We moved pretty much everything, and it was a sellout. We didn't open today to sell, as there was nothing left really; instead we made arrangements for items to be picked up and/or delivered.

Saturday afternoon, not much left at all.

Sunday morning and we removed the signage on the front door.

High humidity hair!!!

And we have emptied the studio.

Wow. We have had the best time in that studio space. It has been a shop; we have taught; had play days; sold things; held exhibitions; hosted opening events; held community meetings; and had drinks on some Friday evenings.

We have worked hard to create new spaces at home which will allow us both to continue to create and make. I will still be making and selling my jewellery; my grief cards will still be hand printed and illustrated; my women's work will continue; and there will be calligraphy and artists' books made as well.

We are re-vamping our newsletters and will send them more regularly; and our websites and shops will also get new looks. We are busy and excited to see what happens next. We will keep you posted.

Thank you to everyone who visited the DEP studio; who purchased art; who talked art; and who explored and loved the letterpress printing we did there. We look forward to continuing our artistic endeavours with you.

Our newsletter will keep you up to date with sales; deals, and teaching and we hope you might subscribe. 

There is a form on the right hand side of the blog where you can sign up. We promise we won't annoy you or your inbox too often!

This blog will continue to capture the ins and outs and ups and downs of a making life, and Instagram will be like a mini blog maybe. Facebook will be a place to hopefully share information; but it all depends on ye olde algorithms...

A new website is launched!

Art-life is many things, and is never ever, as I have come to learn, simply about thinking about and making art.

There is a lot of other work that has to be done if you actually ever want to share your work with people - either nearby or far away. This would seem to include, but not be limited to, pricing work, photographing work, writing up artist statements, creating exhibition schedules, writing applications for exhibitions, writing articles for journals, creating logos and with compliments slips, stationery, blogs, websites, newsletters and a range of other items.

I have been rather quiet on the making side of late - still finding my way forward again after my mum died - but I have been busy designing the look and feel of a new website and providing loads of words and images into the new site, which has been created and built by Katie at Phoenix Design.

So, without much further ado, I'd like to introduce you to my new fionadempster.com website - my formal and more professional presence on the interweb.

I am thrilled with how it has worked out - of course we have little things still to tweak and the odd correction to make, but generally speaking it is in fine shape to share with the world.

Ta da!

The images on the landing page. If you hover over the image you discover a category of my work - artists' books, calligraphic art, letterpress, women, peace and war, off the page, commissions, pas de deus and recent highlights.

And this is the top of the page - the header and the menu as well as most of the images above!

My artists' books portfolio page.

And clicking on Beyond Books and Burning you get to this sub-portfolio page.

Similarly, my women's page.

Click on Time for Change

Then if you click on an image, you get an enlargement, showing the detail beautifully.

 A portion of my Exhibitions page (found under Places)

A portio of my Workshops page (found under Events)

And another new feature - a page where you can see my last ten blog posts and what they are about.

Probably I have done enough show and tell here and the best thing to do is head over to fionadempster.com and have a wander for yourself!

It has been a time-consuming and at times tiring few weeks as we focused, and decided, and wrote, and re-sized and named photographs and worked hard to find the best layout and colours and look.

It feels like a milestone has been achieved. It was time to renew and refresh and I love the square imagery throughout, and that the site is optimised for mobile phones and for tablets. Katie was brilliant to work with and I couldn't recommend her highly enough for artists' websites. The new site builds on the previous one, but just takes it the next level.

Barry has created a whole new website as well (barrysmithart.com) which is also worth a look - so many beautiful shiny things!

I am really happy - the site feels new and fresh and me. Bubbles all round I think!

Happy days and play

I have been enjoying studio time of late - lots of lovely little adventures beginning; but it is probably time to start focusing on some of the bigger pieces of work that are waiting for me to spend time with them.

There has also been lovely news in the past week or so.

I learnt that I have sold both of my Fragile Gains books, and that I also need to send my third in the edition over to 23 Sandy Gallery as well!  As I have said to Laura - it is  still 'under construction' but will hopefully wing it's way over there soon. I end most days smelling like a hippy smothered in incense at the moment…

It is so wonderful to know that books I care about deeply and which I respect are heading into University collections.

Another piece of good news has been that an article I wrote on the "A Letter a Week - Artistic Journeys Through the Alphabet" exhibition which I organised late last year, has been published in Issue 15 of Down Under Textiles.

It is a six-page spread and a visual feast. It gives such a great sense of the pieces and looks wonderful!

 One of the double page spreads…

Here's one of my transition projects - a little bit of fun before I begin some serious work.  I mentioned rusty birds the other day and I have played around with what they can do.  Different techniques, different results, and all a bit of fun!

Studio chaos and mayhem plus good news!

I'm not sure if this happens to other people, but my studio looks like it has erupted and spewed forth bits and pieces of everything, from everywhere.

Not a good look.

I find I get totally engrossed or focused on something and keep having ideas about it, needing to jot them down, sketch them, grab some paper that might be needed, try a bit of this, make a bit of that. Compare this with that, then a new idea is generated from that comparison and it's off again in a new direction. That is the current state of the studio.

Which in its own way is good I guess - it means I am working - but there comes a time when the madness and chaos no longer offers me goodness, creativity and bursts of enthusiasm; when the chaos actually offers me strife. And so we arrive at tidy up time.

Take the time to step away, breathe in and out. Potter here and there, put things back where they belong, tidy, sort, create harmony all over again.

It seems to be a bit of a cycle for me - start tidy, make mess until there is only a small area left in which to work because every other surface is covered, then tidy. Repeat.

Before the tidy up began…

I can't even begin to explain what half those things are doing there - they simply represent my grasshopper-flea-like mind jumping all over the place!

This is where I got to with my tidy up - I can think clearly again now and approach the next steps and stages gently…at least until the next time.

And then this arrived in the mail!  Bound and Lettered Vol. 11 No. 2  features an article on the exhibition I coordinated and curated last year A Letter a Week - Artistic journey Through the Alphabet. What is even better, the fabulous photos taken by Anastasia Karyofillidis are used throughout the article and made the front and back cover! Congrats to Noela and Lisa for the featured works on the covers as well. Happy dance here!

Apologies for the shocking shiny photos; but I was too excited to worry!

Website re-vamp and a shop...

Barry and I have been beavering away here and there, now and then, to try and update our websites. We like the idea that they are a place where people can see the best of our work, and get a real sense of who we are and what we do.

We haven't been particularly good at the updating thing we realise, but in the past few weeks have spent many hours uploading new photos, re-arranging the 'portfolios' of work and generally freshening things up.

What has been really good about doing this, is that we are now both quite comfortable and familiar with the software.  I think one of the things that kept us from updating was that we weren't all that confident; so we didn't, and we didn't keep improving our skills so we could feel more confident...and so the silly cycle went on.

But now we both feel confident to go in and do a quick tweak or add another image and that feels good. Almost as comfortable as blogging!

Another nice thing about talking about the website and what would go on it, was that it really clarified for us who we are and what we do.  What are we known for? Where are our passions? How does our work come together in a  group or collection?  We talked as we drove to Goondiwindi and back (twice), we talked on our morning walks, and we talked over a glass of red at the end of the day.  It was a really helpful process to clarify things.

So please pop on over to my website either here or through the link on the sidebar and see what you think. Barry's website can be viewed here.

The other item of associated news is that we have been working with a friend of a friend to develop an online shop each as part of our websites where people could buy some of our work, and we are thrilled to say we are finally live!

This will of course be a work in progress - what sort of things, what sort of prices etc, but its an important step for us and we look forward to seeing where it leads. If you ever see something that you like and it's not in the shop to speak, we now also have the capacity to make sales and receive money using paypal, so we can always explore options.

My shop can be found on my website here, and some of Barry's beautiful pieces can be found for sale in his shop here.

Phew! Time for a little lie-down I think, or maybe a glass of bubbles...

Southern Cross University Artists Books

I find the whole applying for selection into exhibitions a bit stressful. I don't like to jinx the whole thing by talking about it much and it can be particularly tricky when there are two of you in a family who are applying.

Last year, both Barry and I entered books into the SCU exhibition; and the big excitement was that Barry's book 'Censored' was acquired by the University for its collection.  This year the rules changed and you had to be selected to exhibit; and the news came through early this morning that whilst my book had been selected; Barry's hadn't.

So its hard to be excited and joyful when one of you misses out. His book is gorgeous and stunning and probably 'not quite a book' for some folk - in that he tends to build sculptural books using timber and metal.

Here is the award winning 'Censored' from last year.

And the sadly rejected 'Spirals' from this year which incorporates a poem by Poeticmuse on metal 'pages' in a spiral form.

I was surprised that my little 'book in a box' My journey is my way home was selected. There is to be a catalogue of the exhibition this year, and here is my page layout. My first attempt at taking a screen shot of a pdf and converting it to a jpeg, sounding like geek girly buy hey it seemed to work, except for the weird border thing - please excuse.

Even when I am selected for something such as this, I am very consciousof the random nature of these things. Who knows what they were looking for? Who was on the panel and how do they personally define the artists book? Do they prefer certain types of books or bindings? Did they want to see lots of blue books this year?  Does the idea of journeys resonate with them when spirals doesn't?

I am pleased for me, but sad for Barry, but also know that being selected or not for something like this doesn't actually mean your work is better or worse than anybody else's. It just is.

Newsy bits and the letter 'i'

It's kind of funny that I am up to the letter 'I' for my 2nd alphabet for A Letter a Week. I have been reading a lot about the practical, business side of promoting your arts practice and of course a simple message keeps appearing.  How will anybody know what you are doing, where to find your work or what you have achieved if you don't tell them?  Good question.

I would have to say that marketing and promotion of my work are not strengths I can own.  I have however, undertaken to mention three things here that are kind of promotional.

1. Some of my works were recently accepted into a soon to be published(by the Australian Society of Calligraphers) book of Contemporary Australian and New Zealand calligraphy. This is quite a 'wow' moment for me as I never would have thought to submit my work before I began blogging. Weird connection but this quietly telling and showing people my work has helped build confidence.

2. I have had interest from two galleries who are interested in showing my work.  I am excited by having work in their 'stockroom' showings; as well as exploring options for major showings. As a result I am quite busy beavering away on ideas of what could go where, would work in their space etc.

3. I have joined a wonderful book-making adventure called Book Art Object. Again this is another step in being out there - committing to produce an edition of around 15 books based on a poem. I'll talk more about it another time; but it's a wonderful, collaborative, exploration across the world.

So following all that 'I' talk; here is the letter for last week - 'i'. Stitched on rusted braille paper with a few pencil curves in the background.