Days away...

 A year has passed since we went into lockdown here; a milder version than other places; yet very real just the same.

We have not ventured far in that year and nor have we ventured forth often. But we have tried to do some short circuit breaker trips to one of our favourite places - Cotton Tree.  It is a 45 minute drive away but feels a million miles from home in a way, so you get the feeling of holiday when you go for a few days. 

Here are some time away images...

Early morning sun across the water.

That big blue sky - and a palm tree that reminds me of tv's Los Angeles!

A fabulous tree shadow in Kin Kin.

Storms around sunrise

Stormy weather as we left.

And the moods of the water.

All very relaxing...

Thursday Thoughts...

“What in your life is calling you, when all the noise is silenced, the meetings adjourned, the lists laid aside, and the wild Iris blooms by itself in the dark forest, what still pulls on your soul?” 

 Rumi

Oh what a beautiful set of words.  

The words still me; they calm me and they make me want to explore that dark forest.

I guess in many ways this one could speak to life, but for now I have chosen to think about it in terms of art. What in my art life is calling me?

So often we (I) can get caught up in the multiplicity of things that seem to need to be done; or that seem to be really interesting to do.  Curiosity, inquisitiveness and all of that can see me get distracted by a bunch of options to try, experiment and play with.

But in the end they pull me away from what is quietly calling.

I regularly feel that I have raced away from what is important or what matters; and regularly feel as if I need to stop and listen to the quiet voice; the quiet tug and follow it along.

When I have removed all the clutter and all of the buzz, what is it that I need, deep in my heart, to do?

Such lovely marks and stories...

Armadale Horizons - testing and trialling

 I have had an idea for some work for a while (a long time!) and even blogged about it way back here.

These images of the sky and the sea and the in between from the cove near our wee cottage in Scotland...

In between times, in the year of times away from normal, I have played with them intermittently but haven't pushed through on any of it.

I am edging closer to doing something with them.

I have 42 images and I have spent time looking at each one and writing some words that link to it.

I have been exploring the notion of blessings.  As I think and write about what a blessing means for me; some of these thoughts emerge...

For me, blessings issue from one person to another, An act of kindness, they offer hope and company on a journey; in a moment; through our lives.  A generous encouragement, seeking the best for another, they  take us from being to becoming, with the most positive of intentions.

Blessings as benediction mine are not . Overtones of religiosity, invocation or annointing should melt away. We circle back to the beginning, to simply the space between two people and a gifting of hopes for another.

I have approached a person in town who can print digitally onto high quality paper and have asked him to print the imagery at 10cm x 10cm size; and positioned in a particular place on an A3 page.

Because I want to combine traditional letterpress printing with contemporary digital printing I was checking through our drawers for type that might wok with the imagery and be legible in a single line.

These were my four choices - Gloucester Bold Condensed, Granby Bold, Colonna and Univers. All 18pt.

Slightly fancy and with serifs, this is Colonna 18pt.

This is Univers 18pt

Heavier this time with Granby Bold 18pt (with a random y in may!)

And for whatever reason I must have dismissed Gloucester Bold Condensed as I didn't bother photographing it for comparison! 

 

Another combination - does the darker imagery suit the darker typeface?

Does the lighter typeface suit the brighter images?

So yes, lots of testing, checking, trialling, pondering, combining and wondering.

In the end I have come down on the side of the lightest typeface Univers 18pt.

It felt  like it would be legible, yet not attempt to confuse or dominate.

And whilst that seems like a lot of time spent, it  is nothing in comparison to the time I am spending fiddling this way and that trying to position the type in the right position below the image, and somehow fit the A3 paper through the Lightning Jobber; and keep the whole thing straight!

Still not solved or resolved so watch this space. About now I begin to wonder if I shouldn't have checked the likelihood of being able to print before I committed to all the other steps - laugh!

Rainbow Words...

 I have been undertaking the loveliest of commissions.

Someone has asked for 5 sets of daily words; each in rainbow colours with four sets of verbs and one set of nouns.

Each set has 70 words in it (10 of each colour of the rainbow) so that means 70 x 5 = 350 words.

Plus I decided to make an extra set of verbs just in case...so really 70 x 6 = 420 words.

And 420 slips of 300gsm watercolour paper,  cut down to size at 1.5cm x 5cm.  Lots of cuts and quite small to work with! 

I use my trusty Windsor and Newton watercolours. With the mixing palette at the top, my mixing and loading brush; and my nib.

And my trusty water jar.

I started with all the red words and worked my way through the colours from there.

Gradually making it through orange, yellow, green and blue.

Pushing through to indigo and violet.

Until they were all done.

My arms ached.  It took a couple of solid runs to get through the writing of 420 words.  My right hand gets a bit cramped holding the pen ; but my left elbow gets the sorest as I use my left hand to hold the tiny bit of paper down and steady as I write.

The point of my left index finger is still a bit numb from the sustained pressure!

My test sheets, my mistakes and my paper towel for cleaning my nib.

And after the few weeks we have had in Australian politics and the lives of all women who have been silenced, assaulted and not believed, there I was, late Friday afternoon, writing this word, in purple.

I decided to cut quite a few of the slips just in case I want or need to do a few sets more in the future.

I popped them in a cellophane bag for protection and looked inside and thought - magic!

Now for them to dry and for me to make a pocket for them and then send them on their way into the world...

Thursday Thoughts...

"A book is a gift you can open again and again."  

Garrison Keillor

Do other folk re-read books? 

I have always kept a bunch of books with me that I want to read again. Perhaps because they are beautiful and elevating; perhaps because they told me a truth I had not previously known or understood and I want to keep the reminder there.  Sometimes I keep them so that I can lend them to somebody else when the time is right.  

But re-reading can do two things. It can either make you wonder what on earth you saw in a book, and make you wonder who were you that you thought this was special?; or it can reinforce the message or the feeling and the delight and can be helpful and calming.

I have been reading some gentle, light, mindless books of late as I have found the external world far too daunting to challenge myself with difficult books. They have done their job... the familiarity of them; the comfort in knowing how it will end; and the escapism they have offered me has been just what I needed.

These books have indeed been, the gift that keeps giving.

Ahh, the love and comfort of books...

Pocket Book

First up, apologies to the kind folk who comment - it has taken me too long to respond, but I think I have now caught up again. I really do love hearing your thoughts and undertake to do better...

The wee pocket book is now complete. In the end an edition of 15 which was unexpected, but a good outcome.

Even lying flat on the floor, I like the look of them.

And as ever, I love the edges, and am pleased with the regularity of this stack - stitching and paper edges.

They were stacked in an alternating pattern when under weights, which also looks nice.

The title page in the green of the thread of the poster...

And a couple of spreads.

All up there are 9 pages with related paragraphs on them; a title page and a colophon, as well as a few blanks.

It is a grand little book and one of the first in the newly hatched deckled edge press editions!

The books will be for sale but I am just working out how and where and how much! Let me know if yo u are interested and I shall email you details.

Feminist printing

 Its been a terrible few weeks for women in Australia - especially women who have been victims of rape and sexual assault.  One story has seized our attention - the allegation of rape in Parliament House; after hours in a Minister's office. Allegations of repeat assault by the alleged perpetrator.  Allegations of assault in other offices.  Allegations of historical rape by a Cabinet Minister.

The layering of shame, victim-blaming, cover up, diminishing of the seriousness has left many of us enraged. Like the Women's Marches in 2016 and onwards, we are so sick of this sh**. 

One particular moment infuriated me, when after a very lame and dismissive response on day 1, our PM suggested he had checked overnight with his wife who suggested he think about this firstly as a father - what if this had happened to his daughters?

The fury that a male leader cannot imagine the horror of sexual assault unless he is related to the victim. Could not think to take any action in response to an alleged serious crime unless he was related. Was not concerned that the alleged assault had occurred in our home of democracy, on his watch, unless he was related. Could not imagine the fear of a workplace that allowed this to pass, except if he was related to the victim.

So I printed this small poster.

and eventually ran out of ink.

Whilst my anger urged me into the print; I showed it to my Dad, who took it in quite a different way.  He thought it was beautiful, and that folk would like it because it recognises that their daughters are far more than just daughters.

So, my blazing anger was turned around and I could see that it might be interpreted in a positive way as well. The personal is political; the political is personal.

And so to domestic posters. 

I love teatowels and think they are a subtle, subversive way to protest.  They hang over dishwasher handles, on oven doors and other places in kitchens, bearing silent witness with their messages.

I printed a few of one of my favourite phrases  Go Girl!!! - different letters, different layouts, different colours.

I really wanted to use the beautiful Italian typeface we have Amelia; however it doesn't have any exclamation marks.  It is higher than regular type so I taped together a bunch of !!!s and then attached them to a piece of card to lift them up enough to be able to print. 

Leftover teatowel texture.

A more positive note to finish on!

Thursday Thoughts...

 "Only two words lead to success. Yes and no. You've mastered saying yes. So start practicing saying no"

Jack Canfield

A funny little one to choose, but I was speaking of this with a friend the other day so when it popped up I guessed it was meant to be pondered.

Apparently Mr Canfield is an author /motivational speaker which is why, I imagine, he chose the word success.  I had thought to myself it always depends upon how you define success - and in my case if success is defined as living a clam, steady, kind life, then I'll take it.  If it means climbing over the top of somebody and self-promoting along the way, not so much.

But back to me and my friend. We were chatting about how it can be hard to say no to requests, for our time, for our skills, for our knowledge.  I think as I grow older I realise the value of weighing up how much saying yes can impact on my capacity to do the things I want to do and to live in the way I wish to.  

My willingness to say yes is fuelled by enthusiasm, curiosity, a commitment to help, a sense of duty or responsibility and a bunch of other things; but it truly doesn't work in my favour if I find myself stretched, strained, tired and tight having run out of time to do things that need doing; or finding no time whatsoever for the things that nurture me.

I guess I found a grain of truth in what he says, even tho we work with it in different contexts...

like making time to go gathering sweet peas...

More pocket progress

 More progress on the pocket book.

In the end, the bottom line is that a handprinted a book takes time.  There is a lot of time spent planning the size and the layout; choosing the words to write and the order in which they will proceed. Then comes the typeface; and the size.  And then the question - do I have enough of that typeface in that size? My mind turns to paper and how that will work out, and so on.

Here I am after setting a couple of pages - trying to work out which paper works best.

I decided on the lower as I felt there would be too much bleed through on the top paper - even tho I loved its tactile nature.

Yep, too distracting to see through to the other side as much as this.

And so of course to setting - working out where to position the type on the pages so that they are consistent throughout the book. How to work out which lines are the longest; and how many lines are needed. These pages reflect a 5 line verse and a 7 line verse. Tricky spacing to manage.

But I printed 15 of each hoping for an edition of 10 by the time I could have stuffed things up along the way.

The final page is set.  

 

And so the covers are covered and the inside cover papers 'stitched' and glued.

The Title page is printed in green and the other pages are printed, all ready for collation.

And stitching.

And then just because I love the shadow play of these flowers and leaves. You would almost think somebody had painstakingly snipped each of those leaves to make the serrated look so brilliant, but no, just nature!