A special book

Barry and I have been collaborating on a special artists book for my parents. They are both celebrating 70 year birthdays so we decided to give them a joint gift. As a starting point we used a set of Tabernacle doors from a decommissioned and deconsecrated Catholic church - the metal and Gothic nature of them was so beautiful. Barry's blog probably best describes what he did with them to make them look even better.

We placed them onto a wedge of rose gum timber and I then went away to design the insides and write some words. The Scottish island of Iona has a special place in my parent's hearts, so I used some words and images from the Cloisters of Iona Abbey - a very special place.

The cloisters have four sides - East, South, West and North and a meditative walk through them brings you quietly back to the beginning point. The carvings reflect birds or plants of Iona, Scotland or the Holy Land and I used some verses of the Cloister poem and wrote in uncial which has links to Scotland and those times. The Book of Kells has links to Iona as well.

Here is the finished product - we were both proud of the outcome and pleased that it was welcomed warmly to its new home yesterday.

Christmas box

I have made a few gifts this year for Christmas so can't show many of them until they have been received and opened. I can however show this one because my dear friend couldn't wait until Christmas to open it!

He is a collector of Tibetan art and earlier in the year showed me this beautiful set of Tsakli cards he had received. Tsakli are Tibetan initiation cards which usually involve a drawing/painting on one side and some calligraphy on the reverse. I thought at the time they deserved a box for safekeeping so we took some measurements and I came home and ages later made a box and popped it in the post.

Here is an example of the tsakli with measuring tape and shadows (it was after dinner & wine after all); and some images of the finished box. The good news is the box works - the tsaklis fit and all is well! The box is decorated with some Buddha figures we found in Thailand and brought home and gilded ever so slightly with gold leaf.

Christmas Colour

Christmas is nearly always colour-coordinated in the Dempster-Smith household (as the Smith part has come to accept).

This year we are hitting it with intense purple and blue which has worked out to be a stunning combination. My Christmas Day outfit will also match this theme (which is too much information I expect).

In addition to colour themes, our decorations are strictly minimalist as evidenced by the tree below. I also collaged the tissue paper onto some card; and then initialled each tag which will hopefully identify the recipient.





BTW - it is still raining. Our first tank has filled and now rain is flowing into the second tank; the tanks over at the shed are overflowing so all good.

Rain but no Rainbows (yet)

I've discovered just how powerful this blogging thing can be! The rain is here! We have had 25 mm at least since it began; and here is what the radar looked like at about 5.30pm. It is blissful and a delight and feels so right. Maleny is up the top in the yellow bit.

The sound of rain on a corrugated iron roof is a wonderful thing. And I can hear frogs croaking too - all is well with the world.

Rainbow paper bits

I am dreaming of rain. I look to the skies and try to envision rain clouds with water pouring down. I am contemplating a rain dance on the water tank...but the full moon is still weeks away.

So my mind has turned to rainbows yet again - because you get rainbows when you get rain.

I came across this blog today and haven't really had time to work out what it does and how it works; I think she collects and sources beautiful photos of books, paper and the like. I loved her rainbow paper bits pictured below, along with some of the rainbows we find in our house in the early mornings as the sun hits the bevelled edge of our louvred windows. Think rain!

Type-writing

I am just a little bit in love with type. The old fashioned letter press type that is; and would dearly love to discover a letterpress nearby. We hope to do a course in February but in the meantime I just get to play with this alphabet of wooden type we bought in Paris.

All the letters belong to different alphabets which I like to think were used for Parisian broadsheets advertising the Moulin Rouge and so forth, but as I scrambled through the bins of type(!) I just wanted a complete alphabet; so in muddled French I expressed my hope and voilà we made up an alphabet. This picture is one of my ideas of heaven...



I used the type in an artists books called "Postcards home" in which I wrote the names of places we have visited in the recent past and made them into postcards. Because I only have one of each letter I could only write places that didn't repeat a letter! So no Melbourne, London, Glasgow, HongKong or so on. Here are a couple of the places I could use. One day I'll even ink them up somehow and print.

Printmaking

I have been thinking a bit about printing today as I tidied up my studio (after the chaos of the past few weeks it needed some care and attention) and itching a bit to get in and make some images.

I can hardly believe it its almost a year since we did a workshop with Glen Skien. I have admired his work for a long time and it was wonderful to spend time with him - he made printmaking accessible for me for the first time. I learnt from him how you could create simple, quick images that appealed through layering and simple dry point.

Here are some images from that workshop - I have since gone on to use some of the techniques in artists books and prints (the pandanus hanging books are below). I have been plotting and planning some work for 2010 and expect that these techniques will get another run...

To market, to market...

Saturday was a big day - we were up early (like too early for coffee at our usual cafe in town which momentarily looked to be an inauspicious start to the day) and off to Montville. We drove thru mist and gentle drizzle which was beautiful; but also potentially challenging for those doing the outside markets. In the end the weather was overcast and beautifully cool after our recent heatwave temperatures.

We set up in the charming hall along with three authors with their recently published works and another book artist; whilst out on 'the green' there must have been another twenty artists' stalls. In the end we had a reasonable day - never rushed off our feet; occasionally slow, and we did sell a couple of books.

It has been interesting to reflect on markets as a way of selling your work and already I have ideas about how I might do it differently another time!

Here we are all packed up and ready to go and a couple of shots of the set up. At the end of the day, Kim showed me her photographing 'box' and let me try it out - the timber book came up so well using this creation I think we need to make one.

Timber books

The production line has been in full force as the weekend market gets closer! I had asked David Linton if he could cut me some timber for book covers as I liked the idea of timber and paper coming together, the same element in different forms.

I collected them on Saturday and have been ripping paper and stitching ever since. Along with some hand decorated and hand stitched journals, I have been making these beautiful timber ones; some on tapes, some link-stitched to the covers.

Here are four; there are six now and the pile of books is growing - hopefully something for everyone? The market is just another one of those challenges, steps forward you take - testing if there is a 'market' for hand made journals; seeing if I enjoy the whole production and selling experience. It's all new and different; and in the end life's about trying things and having a go...so here we go!

Book and more books

Barry and I have recently joined ArtsConnect another group of local artists sharing information and promoting their art. I am participating in my first Market with them this weekend and have been busy ripping paper, cutting boards, covering boards, decorating pages and stitching books.

I plan to have a number of my artists books with local poets' works in them; along with a series of blank journals for people to fill with their thoughts, ideas, lists and so on.

Here are a few shots of the production line late last week!

Risky rusting

Last weekend my friend Sue visited and I introduced her to rusting paper. It was hot and we worked outside on the back deck. We figured we had enough time before a major storm hit, but we kept an eye on the wind and the weather as we worked.

We had just about finished when we thought the world ended. A lightning bolt hit our block about 50m from where we stood. The world went white and made an enormous noise, and I saw the bolt come down in front of our neighbour's trees. I think we both screamed. It was eery afterwards - silent, but thinking the thunder must happen now; but of course it had happened simultaneously. Lucky we weren't holding any metal!

A few shots of the fun in the pre-storm and some finished pieces.

Andy Goldsworthy visits

Andy Goldsworthy is a remarkable artist. I think of him as an environmental artist who works in the landscape with nature and natural materials. I learnt about him and his work in 2006 and have been a fan ever since.

So he had hero-kind of status in my mind, and I did the classic, literal double-take when I saw an email saying he was going to be in Kenilworth (a town tinier than ours, about 40km west). I re-read it, clicked on the link to check we were thinking about/talking about the same man, because it seemed surreal and unbelievable. But yes, he was visiting.

We went and listened to him talk about his work and views slides of his last 12 months of work. It was wonderful to hear him and realise he was a nice as you would have hoped he would be. He spoke with passion and care, respect for the land and materials and had a mind that was open to wonder.

You can view some of his work and hear him talk about it here.

Below (courtesy of my friend Sue) you can see my friend Susan I being 'groupies' - getting our books signed; and Barry talking with the man himself. Sigh.

A month of mountain mornings

I mentioned previously that I belong to COMA and that we have a group exhibition opening at Maleny Artworks on Saturday 12 December.

We delivered our pieces to Ken today and I am happy with the quirky nature of mine. Interesting how quirky continues to appear in my work and appeal!

Some people say the view to the mountains from this block is a different postcard every day. My challenge was to photograph the mountains every morning to record the changing moods and colours. I chose to present the images in a book form – but one which reflects the original grid we all chose from. I like the idea that this book could be repeated over and over again and always be different.

I also love that it is so interactive - it appears folded up, flat out, turned over and in strange permutations. I used 32 photographs to create my double-sided book; and of course, then had to make two books using different parts of the same photograph; luckily Ken let me enter them both!

Remembering Peace is every step

It's funny I should be posting about this beautiful new book I made in the past few days given that I really need to be reminded to believe in the words I used. It has been quite a week and as I said to somebody today -sorry, but I am really up to my "ear balls" this week!

I flew to Sydney to work - started at 1pm and finished at midnight then got up and did another half day - then flew back to Brisbane and instead of a 1.5 hours trip home got caught in a mess of traffic and it took 3 hours. There is plenty to blog about since then - hearing Andy Goldsworthy speak, playing in my studio with Sue rusting paper, salting ink and so on; openings attended and then a couple of commissions to finish, entries to finalise, dealing with no phone/internet/email for 48 hours, then having the car battery die and leaving us stranded twice, having a report to write, a crown fitted at the dentist and dinner for 8 to deliver tomorrow night!

Hence the need to remind myself that peace is every step. This is my entry to the Libris Awards in Mackay, QLD, managed to send it off yesterday in amongst it all (thanks Barry). I enjoy making metal books and using peaceful words within them; the contrasts are strong yet I like that the strength of metal supports the message - it will remain not disappear. This is the third in the series...see the first here. This one uses recycled copper - I love the patina - and is stitched with waxed linen thread.