More on The Library of Lost Words -

I did promise that I would let you know as soon as I unwrapped a packet of lost words, so true to my word, here we are.

The top page is pretty badly affected, but the other eight in the bundle look beautifully worn.

What is left of the top page's word...

So having unwrapped a bundle I began to play with a rusty old tin.

Putting a tied bundle in...

And then the untied bundle with some fellow travellers alongside.

What's not to love about a bundle?

Bits of brown

It seems like every now and again you end up working in a colour theme or palette.  I can't really explain why but at the moment it seems to be brown. My previous post showed the work I have just begun - soft shades of brown and rust; and here are the two small extra bits of work I've managed this week in between the Collectables print show and a rather large commission that is keeping me busy.

The words of burning...

A while ago I mentioned I got playing with these words instead of working on commissions. The good news is that one commission has been successfully complete and will soon be delivered to the client; and the second one should be done by the end of the weekend and popped in the post on Monday. That would be a great relief!

Nonetheless in a lull between the two jobs I did go down to the sewing machine to see what would happen if I tried to loosely stitch a few words together. It was much harder than I imagined it would be in my head.

I didn't seem to be able to keep stitching into the void between the words for long enough to not have them squish up together too much.  Not the world's best explanation, but I felt like I just ended in a tangle.

I want these words to have a feeling of looseness and freedom, so tangling isn't great!  I then threaded a needle and tried to manually stitch and loop them together. A better result, but I'm still not sure if it is what I need.

But you never know unless you have a go, do you?

And now back to the next steps in The Library of Lost Words.  As mentioned in reply to a few comments, I left them out to dry crisply in the baking sun; and then a summer thunderstorm came and soaked them again! So here they are all moist again, about to head out into the sun to bake and be monitored more closely this time.

They survived that and so I took them in to brush the dirt off. With gloves, mask and in a well-ventilated area to avoid inhaling any spores of stuff.  That kind of worked, but there was still a bit too much dark staining for my liking, so I went and washed them! Yep they got wet again, and then put into the sun to bake dry once more.

Here they are drying on a stump in the garden bed.  They are now sitting inside again waiting for the next step. You can see some of the threads have begun to come undone as I brushed and washed them.  I honestly haven't had time to unwrap or unravel them, but I think I will soon.

New work and Collectables success

The end of the year is always a busy time with lots to do and get involved in.  I am working towards some pieces for  a small exhibition early next year, and found a few moments to play in the past few days - mostly snatched and stolen moments because our Collectables exhibition had to be hung, the opening attended and the show staffed over the weekend and taken down again.

Here are the beginning pages (I think) for a new book.  I am following through on some rusty ideas - my life seems to have come full circle as I explore works with my rusty tins and now back to rusty nails...

As is often the case, I'm not exactly sure what form it will take, but the elements are coming together.

Starting with some old book pages and the hint of another language.

Then rusting some tengucho paper with nails and tea...

Creating such subtle and beautiful marks.

Working out if they will go together...

Some books are finished before you begin; some books take their own sweet time and path. This one is one of the latter... I look forward to seeing where we end up!

I mentioned I have managed to grab  few moments for the book pages in between commitments to our Collectables exhibition. On Thursday afternoon we hung the Maleny Printmakers' Collectables exhibition. Several hands make light work and we seem to work out who does what and it comes together pretty smoothly.

The lovely long line of prints on the wall...

There is such an amazing variety, it is quite hard to choose which ones to buy yourselves.

We had a really good weekend of sales and visitors. There is a real delight in watching people examine in detail all the magic of these prints; as they ask questions and try to understand how things have been done.  Best of all, nearly everybody can afford take something home - as a gift, a reminder or a piece of art just for themselves.

It was another great show, and I really want to thank all the people who bought my work. I was thrilled that so many people fell in love with nests and feathers...

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.