The Shape of Things - Exchange no. 6

 The first books in the collaborative exchange between Annwyn and I arrived towards the end of January last year, after we had sent each other a bunch of papers for the other to work with and include in the books we would each make.

Our goal was to create two of each book, send one across the waves, and retain one for own collection and learning.

The final books in our exchange were to be posted the first week in January 2024 - after all the Christmas mail had gone. To each of our surprises, the books arrived at each other's homes in almost record time - around about a week!

So today I was able to take Annwyn's book down to the studio to meet my book. I will post on the process of making my The Shape of Things VI soon.

As ever, Annwyn's packaging was beautiful and there is always a degree of discomfort for me as I actually break into them!

The two books together, closed. I love the the little pops of red in Annwyn's book.

and then pow! The red on the inside covers is delicious!

One of the spreads with a print made using some of the braille paper I had sent, on soft feathery paper I had sent. It is a lovely book make your way through - the pages feel beautiful as you turn them.

Detail of the braille paper print.

One of my absolute favourite things about this book is the use of a plate as the back cover. Annwyn's plates are exquisite, so beautifully made, and so precise it is marvellous to be able to hold one and handle one. I am thrilled to bits!

My little books involve a number of pre-loved and pre-used pages which have been brought into service in a new form, as well as some of Annwyn's soft blue papers.

More details of the centre page.

This exchange has been a delight in so many ways. It has helped me focus and re-engage with making, whilst challenging me in ways I did not anticipate. At times it freed up my thinking, at others it made me squirm as I worked within tight (self-imposed) restrictions.

I am honoured to now have six of Annwyn's books in my collection and they will also be there to act as inspiration and reminders of blogging friends across the waves...

Thursday Thoughts...

“Because in the end, when you lose somebody, every candle, every prayer is not going to make up for the fact that the only thing you have left is a hole in your life where that somebody that you cared about used to be.” 

Damon Salvatore

Around this time of year it seems to me there can be a lot of sadness and reflection abut the loss of those we hold dear. Perhaps we feel their absence more strongly as families gather and celebrations occur.

This quote acknowledges that there is little or nothing we can do to fill the aching hole that appears in our lives when our dear ones die.  The notion of the hole is a big one around grief. Voids, emptiness, dark holes are all images that are used and words spoken to describe the huge absence. 

The quote acknowledges this hole - and the gaping nature of it - but doe not go so far, as others often do, to talk of filling the hole. My sense is it is good to acknowledge the hole and the emptiness, but to speak of filling does not feel right. Filling seems to reflect replacement or papering over or something like that. I think I like the thoughts about working around the hole, building strength around it, connections beyond it, and perhaps just leaving the hole with its edges protected a bit more as time goes along.

Perhaps the hole shrinks in relation to the size it started off as in your daily life, but it is there, and nothing really can replace or fill the hole your loved folk leave. 

Taking fabrics and threads further

 Work is progressing and whilst things are a little bit here and there still at this time of year, it feels good to be back and moving things along.

Both of these works are for a solo exhibition I have in Scotland toward the end of the year, and they form part of 6 relatively major works I am doing for the show. I have sorted out two pieces; I have these two underway and have no idea about other two yet - so am waiting for inspiration to arrive...

Nevertheless, we progress.

The fabric I was prepping back here has taken the next steps. I have measured lengths of differing widths as I will need seven pieces of different widths (well, one at 14.5cm, 2 @12.5cm, 2 @ 9cm and 2 @ 7.5cm wide) and different lengths, ranging from 1.7m up to 2m long, so quite a few lengths really. There has been a lot of measuring and calculating.

I spent some time this weekend tearing the fabric into widths and then calculating lengths and how to create the right length from a variety of fabrics. My brain did get quite mushy towards the end of it all, but here is how the piles are looking in preparation.

The next steps will be joining the different fabrics to create the right lengths, and then I begin stitching into them; once I have designed the stitching that is. As ever, my work is slow...

In between times I have been taking the work with the pegs further. I have found the frame I want to work with and have trimmed some paper to size to do my trial. I have selected the paper for the final piece after comparing three different ones for strength, weight and colour. 

Here I am checking that the pegs won't be proud of the frame when I have attached them to the paper and the canvas. A very hi tech approach - the eyeball.

I have worked out the layout, the direction of the pegs, the distance between the two columns of pegs and the distance between each peg in the column. I have worked out which way the thread will unfurl from each peg and think I have come down on the side of attaching the labels to the paper slightly underneath the peg (above the peg seemed to distract bit too much, although that is not yet completely resolved). 

I have played around with how the threads will come across from each column and intersect, what colours those threads might be and just how I might stitch them.

I have also selected the colours and the sequence of threads for the stitching , and also how I will attach the pegs to the paper; and then to the canvas. I still have to purchase some thin silver-copper wire for that. Each peg will be held in three places, so I will be piercing 6 holes per peg; and then piercing stitching lines across the page as well.

I intend to do a template-test-trial first just to make sure my ideas pan out; then I will have to do the final.

So, it is good to have started early with this one too!

Thursday Thoughts...

"An artist’s work is almost entirely inquiry based and self-regulated. It is a fragile process of teaching oneself to work alone, and focusing on how to hone your quirky creative obsessions so that they eventually become so oddly specific that they can only be your own". 

Lehmann Maupin

So many words in this phrase made me smile - inquiry, fragile, alone, hone, quirky, obsessions, oddly...

As I attempted to discover who this person was, I think I worked out that in fact, this is the name of an art gallery, established by Rachel Lehmann and David Maupin; and perhaps these words are extracted from a catalogue or some publication that the gallery made - with no attribution to an individual.

It nevertheless offers beautiful insight into how it feels to be a maker. An artists' work is very often solitary, and is in pursuit of answers to questions of process like What if? How could I? as well as questions of What am I trying to say? and How can I tell the story? How can I make my voice heard?

By describing a process of honing quirky obsessions, you really feel as if they understand the focus on a style or technique or product or theme that is uniquely your own and how that evolves into being you simply making your work - which no other person can make.

A joyful understanding of the artist-maker.

Art in the making, 2024, that feels as if it is absolutely work that could only be mine.

2023, the year in review.

 As is my want about now, I take the time to look back over my year of making and record the ones I like best. It is such a worthwhile thing to do as I can oftentimes barely remember if I made anything at all! In disruptive times it can be hard to keep track and time has become ever more fluid as I get older and the times we live in affect how I view and remember things and events.

And so it was once again, that I surprised myself as I went for a wander through the year and found a bunch of things I had made. In alphabetical order, no order of merit or preference here are the ten things I did this year that I like the most.

On reflection, our trips to Scotland meant that I undertook different types of making; whilst the collaboration I shared with Annwyn became a real focus for my book-making.

1. Charred I

I love this simple and elegant post, inspired by some charred fence posts, cove rocks, rope and rust it became a lovely sentinel in the front garden of the cottage.

2. Charred III

Its not that I didn't like Charred II; its just that I never really photographed it! Charred III is also a lovely reminder of how much fun it can be to simply play together and make something from random things. We had been so busy, and this small piece was just the remedy we needed.

3. Earrings

Still in Scotland, we try to take the opportunity when we can, to do a workshop with silversmith and jeweller Lindsay Gallagher. I really wanted to learn how to solder this year and was thrilled with what I managed to achieve (with help from Lindsay). I love wearing these earrings with their shine and movement. These pebble shaped forms have also become the mainstay of my own jewellery making and I have carried so many of the lessons with me...

4. Grief is a Stone

I was wanting to test and take my calligraphy in new directions and really liked the idea of a sculptural form. Working with rocks from the Scottish cove and beaches, these small sculptures have emerged, with a message that describes the weight of grief at times. 

5. Pendant

On return from Scotland I wanted to try and see if I could remember things about silversmithing and making jewellery, so pretty much went straight into the shed to put into practice the things I had learned. I like the layered movement in this pendant and am proud that I resolved each and every step.

6. The Shape of Things I

This was such a lovely way to begin to re-focus my making. The times of Covid had felt very disjointed and shapeless, so working on this really did help give shape and form to my work. This first unbound book just reflects so many ways that time felt different...

7. The Shape of Things II

By book two I had begun to see the shape or outline of some things...

8. The Shape of Things III

This book had lots of pages, and was a diary of sorts of our collective amnesia; the way in which we avoid thinking about or talking about or acknowledging those times of lockdowns and separation.

9. The Shape of Things IV

Whilst for the first part of our exchange I had focussed on time and Covid implications, for the second part I used the theme to encourage me to work with the existing shape of things in the studio. Book 4 used pre-cut and prepared Perspex as its covers, and some previously cut and prepared papers (extended slightly) for the pages) and took a different colour way entirely. Using botanical-like prints from Annwyn, this books tells a story of unfurling...

10. The Shape of Things V

Continuing my approach to using things up, for book 4 I turned to these pre-folded zig zag books of khadi paper. The addition of a pebble suddenly created ripples and the words began... reflecting how ripples grow, even as they diminish. 

There were quite a lot of smaller things that didn't quite seem as substantial art-wise: my YES posters, my pebble cards, my lovely pouches and threads and some wrapped pebbles.  I also did a couple of courses which helped mightily with my making, but didn't produce actual finished pieces, so it has been a varied year in many ways.

As ever, thanks for coming along on the wander and for being part of my year - I appreciate each and very person who reads and comments and shares their thoughts. 

Go well into 2024, and may we all find, and share, love and care and hope and kindness along the way.

Thursday Thoughts...

"If one publishes, then one is creating a public record of Learning to Write". 

Lorrie Moore

I really like the sense of humility in this quote, suggesting that even if somebody experiences the success of having a book published, that really all that that does is show people an example of learning to write.  I like the learning to write bit, rather than a how to write bit, and it's there that I think the humility is shown.

She doesn't suggest that if you read this you will learn how to write - she simply says this is an example of me learning to write, and it is now on the public record, rather than simply in a drawer in my office.

Its a lovely way to think about what all of those books we see in bookshops and libraries are - more lessons in learning to write! They aren't exemplars or some sort of pinnacle of excellence - "f I am published I know what I am doing" - they are simply examples of the process being undertaken time and time again of learning to write.

I think it could also apply to art - if you get work shown in a gallery and in a catalogue, it is now creating a public record of learning to make/paint/draw/sculpt/pot or whatever it is that one does.

My work on a catalogue cover...

Garden beauty and art

A few months ago some development was being done on a nearby block which meant that the old fence posts were torn down. In a mad dash I ran over to the folk who were pulling it down and asked them to save some for me. I must have looked like a whirling dervish as I raced across and into the long grass, and the young man I spoke with was desperate for me to not come near because there was a snake - just there- near the car! But I have become more relaxed about snakes and knew that as long as it wasn't a brown snake (he said it was black) it wouldn't come after me and was probably more scared than he was.  

So I rounded up our 80 year old neighbour and his ute and together we collected them and they came back and sat for a wee while whilst we pondered what to do with them.

Here they after, after Barry sawed the bottoms off them all.

We had some rain this week that made the soil easier to dig so we 'planted' them along our boundary line so to speak, creating a lovely sort of courtyard effect in our garden.

The view from the front door.

And on Sunday Barry moved our birdhouse bee house and fixed it atop the 'tree' with rusty birds in it, and it looks just delightful from the kitchen window.

And more garden beauty - a gathering for our festive season tables.

Art and beauty are everywhere...

Hope and peace

Another festive season is with us and as we turn towards family, friends, community, rituals, and gentle remembering, I wish for peace. 

Peace within, peace between us and peace between nations. 

I also seek hope - believing that what we do, in small ways will make life better somewhere and somehow for some others.

Wherever you may be, and however you may spend the time, may your days be bright and beautiful, may you be safe, and may you find and celebrate moments of peace.

More metal moments

Following on from my not so good pouring of metal last week, I released my wee cottage. It took me three pours to reach this globular mass and I think it might just get re-melted and I will try again!

The initial unveiling has quite a few marks and globs attached.

After breaking some bits off and trying to grind and smooth some edges.

No matter which way you look at it, it's not a smooth little cottage. Rather lumpy in fact.

Yet the remnants were impressive in their own way! Quite wild.

I am however, getting better at soldering, rolling and hammering silver.

A few pebble-inspired pieces emerging...

I have begun playing with how words might work with these pieces and am having fun with that too. So many things to do in so many different directions...

Thursday Thoughts...

“Time heals, after all — although the clock that marks that kind of time has no hands.” 

 Suze Rotolo

This is a piercing and yet simple quote. We all know the adage that time heals, and we suppose it must, because everybody says so and we know that we must move on and get over things, have closure and all the rest. 

This quote has you assuming that somebody else is reminding us of that, and that they have gleaned some sort of insight with the bit '...after all -".

And indeed they have, and it caught me when I read it.  Yes yes, time heals, but there is no way of marking healing, or measuring it, or recognising when it has happened. The thing that time does with healing is not recognisable as time, it may take forever, but we don't and can't tell. 

How can a clock without hands mark time? If it can't, then what is the point of suggesting 'time' heals?

I love the ambiguity it leaves you with.

Harum scarum

 Helter skelter isn't quite right, but neither is hither and yon, but there is something about scrambling around doing bits of this and that I need a better description for! I've gone with harum scarum for now.

Life is full and pulling me this way and that. My making is partly trying to happen to a schedule with deliverables all looming closely; as well as trying to get ahead with heaps of work due next year. 

So yet again, things are progressing on multiple fronts, with nothing yet being able to be ticked off the To Do list as completed. 

Nevertheless, the simplest things give me pleasure. I recently purchased this stack of remnants from the beautiful Ink and Spindle in Melbourne, with the idea of making gift bags from the scraps.  

I felt very bold as I moved away from my usual neutral remnants to warm remnants... some beautiful screenprinted Australian designs on this lovely linen (and cotton).

So far, my plan is not what you'd describe as progressing quickly, but the enormous satisfaction I got from making this double drawstring bag is incalculable!

Meanwhile over in the workshop, I have some metalwork to get done for a piece in an exhibition next year.  Lucky for me I have Barry to guide me in the intricacies and alchemy of smelting and pouring metal. I am however, not yet particularly good at it and I think we may end up re-melting this first effort and trying again. I overshot the mould by a long way and the molten metal just splattered everywhere...

Sigh.

Next time!

And just for the heck of it in amongst it all, we had some weather. It has been stinking hot and steamy here, which has produced afternoon and evening thunderstorms which have been pretty wild. Friends have been without power for over 24 hours, and we got away with simply several large branches down.

This is how we walk to the workshop from our place. Not so much nowadays!

The fence didn't fare all that well.

Our nearby neighbour was lucky that this fence took the brunt of the branches - his roof is covered in debris, but no branches did any damage.

Who knows what the rest of the week will reveal?? There is certainly never a dull moment.