Re-discovery and transitions

We had a little bit of rain on Monday night which was very welcome, but which did make us think it might be worth a look at my little bit of whimsy that I had planted in our vegetable garden a little while ago.

I had checked them on the Sunday afternoon and it was all a bit dry and dull, but the rain did make me think it was worth another check.

So today, when I was out in the garden gathering spinach and rhubarb, seemed like a good time to do it.

I scrabbled around with my hands and happily re-discovered my wee parcels.  I took them out and popped them to dry on the rusty wall. Lots of happy photos.

As you can see I had happily found my five.  Barry queried me and asked weren't there seven?  I said hmmmm, maybe.  I came and looked at my blog and yep, there were two more to find! Laugh.

So he kindly did some major scrabbling around and we re-discovered the spare pair thank goodness.

So here they all are sunning themselves to dry out the dark bits, and when they are dry I shall safely dust them off and see what lies beneath...

It was quite sunny and warm, and occasionally the sun went behind a cloud. This is a real close-up shot when the sun was out; amazing how the light dazzled in...

I'll keep you up to date as the transition continues; such a lovely thing to observe.

Packaging and Pretext

Barry and I often remark how the work of an artist is never just about the art.  So often, we want to think that once we've made the work, the job is done; yet my past couple of days have definitely proven this to not be the case at all!

Next weekend is the Maleny Printmakers' Collectables exhibition, with lots of small prints, all originals, all selling for only $25. We are each making about 10 prints, in editions of 10, (give or take depending on life circumstances etc). That means I have about 100 prints.

10 packs of ten in their bags. The photos are pretty average given it was my iPhone and there is so much cello in the way.

A selection of colour ways for ABC.

A trio of feathers, originally titled Feather I ,Feather II, and Feather III!

So, I spent time writing the edition number, the name and signing 100 prints. The next job of course is to package them - slip the print in, add a business card, seal the pack and add a sticker to identify whose print it is and which number.

The bags we use fit neatly and mean you can see the print quite well.

Turn it over and you see the card and the numbering system.

We have a great system of shopping lists, so people come in, grab a shopping pad and pencil and go around writing down the name and  number print they want - FD6 for example - and come up to the sales table with their list and get to make their selection from the editions there.

This year we will also have a little side table where those of who want to, can also show/sell some of last year's prints.

Here are my four from last year.

We chose to differentiate them by using the same approach for numbering but adding in 13 - indicating they were from 2013. Simple yet effective.

So they haven't exactly been making days - but they have had lots to do with art!

And now, switching subjects...

Pretext is a place for folk to read about the world of artists' books in Australia and New Zealand and is run by Caren Florance (aka Ampersand Duck). Caren was at the conference in NZ and asked if I would submit my presentation on collaboration to the website for her to publish there and share.

I was thrilled and have spent a bit of time, tweaking it, turning a power point into photos and text and distilling bios etc. All art-work, yet not about the making.

If you click here, you can access the presentation in all its glory so to speak - just imagine me talking and it's almost the real deal!

Reflections on return

Susan and I have returned from Auckland with our heads still full and buzzing with ideas.  The conference was a remarkable gathering of primarily Australian and New Zealand book workers. I liked the term book workers as it so nicely embraced us all - artists' book makers; conservators; fine press book printers; artisan book binders and probably some other variants as well.

The first keynote speaker was Julie Chen who shared so very openly the processes behind the making of her books - the years of research that go into them and the highly considered ideas and content that form the basis of the books. She also spoke about how structure and content must support each other and it was a really engaging talk.

This a photo from her website of a book called "Invented Landscape" she spoke a length about her research and how she worked so hard to find the right imagery of the grass and how the format indicated that sense of wide open grasslands...

She was a warm and knowledgeable speaker and it was a great talk.

The other keynote speaker was Dominic Reilly, a master book binder if ever I saw one. I was completely and utterly gobsmacked with how beautifully this man could cover a book. The absolute detail and perfection in his covers, and the days and days of work to get there.  I really liked how he read the books and then worked out what he wanted to express on the cover, and how. His use of abstraction was also wonderful - and very helpful to have him explain where the elements were, they were often so cleverly obscured.

This is one of his designer bindings - The Dead (not exactly sure of the title) by Thomas Hardy.

Because of the format of concurrent sessions, it wasn't possible to attend every session, but we did get to hear a lot of different people. I listened to some amazing talks on conservation and preservation as well as some beautiful presentations on binding and letterpress.

Many of them held me spellbound and I kept wondering how I could use and or incorporate some of the ideas in my own work. Caren Florence (aka Ampersand Duck) spoke so wonderfully about text and poetry in book work and Monica Oppen showed us through some of her collection - in details and with the wonder of an owner explaining why the books are so meaningful.

A fragment of a work Caren shared.

It was heaven on a stick for booklovers; with wonderful trade tables of conservation materials, bone-folders, leathers for binding and letterpress broadsides and books.

Susan and I had not managed to book into the studio tour that was held on the Monday; but as serendipity would have it, when we got downstairs to start our own wander of Auckland, the group was assembled in the foyer waiting to be picked-up. They had had a couple of cancellations and we were welcome to go with them! That turned into a wonderful visit to the Museum of Transport and Technology - to the printery and bindery there; a visit to Paul Taylor's Spiral Path Studio filled with conservation and preservation things and books and tools, and a final explore of Elizabeth Steiner's studio.

Here are some snap shots of the day...

Happy days in the printery at MOTAT - ahhh, letterpress.

A fabulous wee binding in the bindery at MOTAT

A book awaiting conservation at Paul's, along with his nipping press and a map waiting to be restored.

A page and a book in Elizabeth's studio.

So much wonder to absorb, and such a great way to spend time - with lovers of books in all their forms. I had never been to a book conference before and will definitely go to more. You learn and absorb so much and meet such great people!

It flowed really well, the food was great, everybody was so welcoming and so generous with their time and knowledge.  Thanks to the organisers of ABCNZ014 - Inside Outside a case for the book - you did a fabulous job.

Quick pics from NZ

This will be the quickest touch base with a few  photos of books and things from our bustling weekend at the Conference here in Auckland.

My mind remains boggled with the amount of information, the skill and the talent that I have observed during our time here. So much to process and consider, so more on that later.

Instead some iPhoto images of things we have seen along the way so far..

This fabulous book-spine piano wall art is in the building we have been in at the Uni - tickled my fancy.

       

There was no information about the maker though...

On Friday night we went to an exhibition opening, books from the Janus Press in the US with work by Claire van Vliet and some by Elizabeth Steiner as well.

This one, ABC of Bugs and Plants in a Northern Garden Season (2012) uses one of Elizabeth's binding structures, called Gioia.

 

And as we walked back from the gallery, this beautiful book caught my eye in another gallery window...

We have spent most of each day inside absorbing information and sharing information. My talk went well and we had lots of chats with folk about our work. Sadly that's all for now - this boggled mind needs to rest...

A busy weekend ahead

It often seems to be the case that Spring in the hinterland is a very very busy time. For some reason we seem to explode out of winter and every weekend is filled with things to do, places to go, events to attend and activities to participate in.

This weekend is no exception as we are hosting the Maleny Celebration of Books - a weekend of activities and events for people who love books and reading. There is the Big Book Club gathering where the discussion will be all about Dave Eggers' book The Circle - a slightly creepy, too close for comfort look at a world without privacy - where everything we do and say is shared on line.

There is a great Forum with some fabulous authors; 22 of our own local authors will be available to talk about and sign their books; there are two films based on books, book launches and activities for children. AS well s the ever-popular Book Swap Tree for adult sand Book Swap Bush for children, and more I am sure I have forgotten.

I have prepared a small display on the wall at the Library, celebrating books and all the joy they bring. Some details of the work are here.

Which is just as well, because for the first time ever I won't actually be here to do anything else or help out on the day (although Barry has promised to go up the ladder and hang the books in the Book Swap Tree so we're still kind of helping).

I will be in Auckland in NZ, with Susan, attending the ABCNZ2014 Book Arts Conference.

I am really looking forward to hearing the speakers and seeing all the different books; maybe meeting some folk as well. Another part of me is looking forward in a different way to doing a presentation myself - about collaboration, and using Susan's and my work to date as a vehicle for exploring collaboration.

It has been nice to go through our books and remember each of them; and just fabulous to be able to share them with a different audience.

I've also really enjoying pondering collaboration and the many ways in which you can do it, coming up with a schema of sorts and just spending time exploring it and thinking about it.

It is a great opportunity and I am thrilled to be heading off, even to I miss the Celebration of Books.

A little bit of whimsy

I began a little whimsical journey the other day - sparked by an old rusty tin, I started thinking about buried treasure, lost libraries, lost words...and before I knew it, I was preparing pages for a new 'book'.

I wondered if there was a record of lost words; words that had been in use, but which were now considered extinct in a way. I discovered the website Phrontistery and trawled through all those beautiful lost words.

I tore some paper, painted it front and back with black tea.

Sat down with walnut ink and in a deliberately unimpressive handwriting style wrote out the words onto the wee pages.

I made seven bundles, wrapped them with crochet cotton and went out to the vegetable garden.

I dug a smallish hole, not too deep, and buried them.

Whimsy.

I will see what they are like in a few months - but Barry warns me I probably should check them a few times before Christmas as we have loads of worms in there and they might devour the pages, rather than just nibble them.

I'm not sure what creative muse struck me or why, but the deed is done. Lost words have been buried, to be resurrected later and maybe if I'm lucky, to form a book of sorts.  No idea if it will work, but it's been a little path I couldn't not go down, once I'd started thinking about it.

Whimsy indeed.

The Lightning Jobber

And what a great name that is!  I had never heard of a Lightning Jobber until a month or so ago,when on a random interweb wander I found myself looking at the Letterpress Classifieds at Australia New Zealand Printmakers...my first ever visit to their site.

My breath was taken away when I saw they had a press for sale.  This may not be very exciting to those in the US where letterpress presses are all over, and in the UK and Europe where there are also probably many; but here in Australia we just don't have a lot. We seemed to toss them out when they were done with; and we didn't have many to begin!

So... I took the plunge and approached the fellow who was selling, and after much convolution and stress (organising to move a very very heavy 1897 press from Melbourne to Maleny is no task for the faint-hearted) my Lightning Jobber has arrived.

The box of tricks that accompanied it - I will have fun familiarising myself with them all!

On one of our recent quick trips to Melbourne we had about 15 minutes to visit the fellow and see the press before rushing off to a meeting.  Here it was in its garage home in Melbourne.

And here it is in its new studio home in Maleny - I think it looks like it belongs.

I have occasionally mentioned my love of letterpress and dreams of owning such a press, here on my blog, and I can hardly believe I've made a start!  I don't know when I'll get a moment to spend time playing, but it is wonderful to think about all of the opportunities that now lie ahead. Big happy sigh.