Thursday Thoughts...

“Memory is fiction. We select the brightest and the darkest, ignoring what we are ashamed of, and so embroider the broad tapestry of our lives.” 

Isabel Allende, Portrait in Sepia

That first sentence. Memory is fiction. Not what we expect, in a way, when so much of our lives continues along the path of what we remember and what we can can recall. Our judicial system demands it. Our schooling system needs us to use our memory to recall things and therefore to learn. 

I guess what Isabel Allende is saying here pertains mostly to the memories we make of our life and how we likely choose the high points and the low points as key markers, and so often can't recall the many and multitude of moments that make a life a life.

I can't recall every meal I have prepared or eaten; I can't recall every shower I took and each time I washed my hair; I can't recall every conversation I have had with staff at my supermarket; and I can't recall every goal I scored in netball. And yet these are daily moments that have made-up the days of my life.

She makes me wonder about the things I am ashamed of. I am not sure I completely concur with her, as I seem to be able to draw up several key moments of shame and some actions of which I am ashamed and they are big and bright and take up a heap space.  I daresay there must be many other moments I am ashamed of that I can't recall.

I do agree that we recall some things and not others, and in this way we embroider the tale of our life, and that in some parts, it may well be a fiction.

Embroidering facts, 2021.

Grief is a Stone Cards

 Along the way of printing and preparing the book-ets, I took a brief moment to print an extra 10 cards, just in case...

As ever, with letterpress printmaking, the hard work is all in the selection, set up and lock up whereas the printing sometimes happens in a trice. So I tried to make best use of all the hard work, without overdoing things and creating far too many things to ever be used, needed or wanted.

The cards were in a box - Fabriano Maediovalis and I am trying to find ways to use up the many papers I have accumulated over the years, so I also felt as if I was doing a good thing by trying this. The cards are relatively small, holding-in-the-hand size.

It was clear they looked pretty plain and ordinary, so I thought to add some watercolour pebbles to them.

I painted five small pebbles along the bottom of each 'title page'. With three poems, in an edition of 10, this required 150 pebbles to be painted.

As ever, I adore the look of multiples...

They are almost complete - one more thing to add in and they too shall be ready.

Grief is a Stone book-ets

And they are done. 

The book-ets have all been folded and prepared and stitched and signed and are ready in their editions of 15.

I blind embossed three different pebbles/stones on each cover - making them individual yet each being an integral part of the three works. I chose to stitch each edition in a similar vein, but with a variation so that each poem can be distinguished from the others; yet is clearly related.

The three poems evoke grief at different stages and how it can feel.

On opening, the title appears behind the beautiful, feathery, soft Japanese paper.

The centre opening has the poem, printed in Spectrum 18pt type.

The return has my name and the press website on it. I think I photographed them before I wrote the edition numbering on them, but they are numbered 1-15/15.

Poem II and the book-et has exactly the same layout and process, with the second poem on the central opening page.

Each book-et also has my mark embossed ever so gently on the Japanese paper at the back of it.

And poem III.

I like the way they feel in the hand - they are personal, intimate and gentle. Each of the poems follows a similar style and structure, but hopefully there is a sense of movement from I to III.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Meditate. 

Live purely. 

Quiet the mind. 

Do your work with mastery. 

Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! 

Shine.” 

 The Dhammapada

These are lovely and encouraging words. The introductory invitation to live a quiet and gentle and good life; and then to do your work, do it well and let it be seen and shared.

None of which is necessarily easy; and it is always the final three lines that speak most loudly to me. Encouraging and reminding me that it is OK to shine.

I don't think the words are about showing off, or pride or arrogance. I don't think they are about just doing stuff and willy nilly saying 'look at me'. I think the need to do the work with mastery - to really commit yourself to doing it well - is important here. And then, you should feel OK about coming out from the clouds and shining bright.

New book-ets underway

 I am working towards the Scotland exhibition as well as the Pebbles, Stones, Rocks exhibition and I am juggling the work and moving between the two quite a lot.

Part of my pebbles exhibition work is about pebbles and stones and grief.  I have written three small poem-like pieces each called Grief Is A Stone and have been underway choosing papers, cutting pages, cutting covers, setting type, printing, changing out type, embossing covers and generally getting all the bits ready so that as some point I can stitch them.

What a surprise - I am working with a soft grey cover (Magnani Pescia Grey 300gsm) which I have embossed here for the first book-et.

Inside will be beautiful soft Japanese paper followed by the title page, opening to the poem, and the back with my name and the press on it, followed by the other part of the soft Japanese paper.

They will be in a small edition of 15 each, but I always need to prepare a few more pages in case of stuff ups. Here the Title page for poem 2 and my name are printed; on the other side the poem will be printed. Apologies for the 'soft' focus, aka out of focus.

Here are the pages of poem 1 drying

And here I am mid-way in the changeover from poem 1 to poem 2. I leave all the blocks and lines in the same position, just replacing the type and spacers as needed for the new lines. It is sometimes funny if you get interrupted and wonder which poem you are up to when you return.

Here I am switching out poem 2 to poem 3 and trying to not have the type all fall out and make a huge mess!

Some of the drying racks in use - interspersed with some of B's printing of small cards.

Before I re-set the type I had a 'what if?' moment and printed each of the poems on some nice sturdy pre-cut cards, just in case I want to do something with them as well...

Here are the titles, with the poems on the other side.

It has taken a lot of work to get this far, but there is plenty more to do once they are dry. 

The Emigrants I

 I am delighted to share this finished work, based on the statue of The Emigrants, in Helmsdale in the Scottish Highlands.

I always appreciate and enjoy when serendipity comes along and let you accomplish things. This work has come about because I was a) doing the course Visual Narratives, through Fibre Arts Take Two; and b) because I have an exhibition coming up in Scotland later in the year and some of the pieces will focus on this statue. I was fortunate enough to then have the online exhibition for students of the course to be called In Retrospect which made me realise I could probably bring all three things together and make a piece that suited them all.

I used techniques from the course, the work fitted the theme In Retrospect, and would be a great start towards the Scottish exhibition.

The work is an unbound book, presented in a hand stitched envelope made from Japanese paper rubbings from our cottage in Scotland, and from our Maleny home, that had been stitched together by machine, and dipped in beeswax. Held with thread from Scotland.

An envelope seemed appropriate - they travel between places...

Inside the envelope are 15 pages of an unbound book, made using techniques explored in the course. The work contemplates and considers what makes a home, and what it is that you would be trying to re-create when you have been forced from your home, and then moved to another country. What is it that home means?

The pages are both landscape and portrait in orientation and the 'title' page reflects this, with home written in both directions using vintage Letraset. 

Each page is a collage of different papers, images and techniques. Each page contains an altered image of the statue, in particular the woman, mother, wife, who looks back at all that she is leaving.

Here, her foot orientated to the past and the land she is leaving whilst everybody else faces forward and away.

Detail of shelter.

I think we often find solace at home, and I imagine it can be hard to find that in the same way in a new and unfamiliar place, country, culture, and climate. But perhaps we know we have created a home, when we do...

I recognise home isn't always a safe place, but it is a place where I feel safe and I imagine one hopes to create that feeling of safety in a new home.

Home can be a haven...

Home can be a place we find and provide care...

Home is a place that holds many memories...

The work is an unbound book, with 14 pages and a title page. The nature of an unbound is profound in my view. It enables a story to be told and re-told in different ways, as needed. As times change. As life changes. As our understanding changes. 

This unbound book also reflects how the foundational elements of 'home' can be re-built in new ways, in new places, creating new stories...

The work can be seen alongside other work by student of the course Visual Narratives. This exhibition catalogue shows so many beautiful pieces, so much heart and so much beauty and skill. I highly recommend a wander through the pages.

The 'hard copy' version of the catalogue will be available within a week or so, and I shall keep you posted.

Thursday Thoughts...

"I do feel that if you can write one good sentence and then another good sentence and then another, you end up with a good story". 

Amy Hempel

I oftentimes wonder what I love about books, and how they have managed to become such a big part of my life, and the way I make my way through the world.  There are so many wonderful things about books, what they offer and how companionable they can be; but one big thing in their favour is when they are put together with good or beautiful sentences.

I am often stopped in my tracks by a sentence that is glorious. So succinct, or so elegant; so insightful or so sharply observed. Sometimes I am so moved that I think myself, I could die happy if I had written that line. Or how amazing to have been able to come up with that sentence, and then still have to write so many more to make  a full book!

I think that is why I shall probably never write a novel. I could come up with the odd good sentence, but doubt I could sustain it for the tens of thousands of words needed. This is good advice about doing it tho - one good sentence after another.

The Shape of Things 6

 I had thought that  in 2024, I would reduce my blogging to two days a week - Thursday Thoughts and Sundays. I thought the sometimes it seemed like I was just trying too hard to fill another day, and that didn't make sense to me, so for the first week or two this year I didn't blog on Tuesdays. Funnily enough I have realised I have so much work going on and so much to blog about that here I am back at Tuesday posting. 

It makes sense to blog on Tuesday when I have something to say; and then not to blog onTuesday when I am quiet. So that is my new approach - flexibility! Tuesdays are back whilst ever I have something to say; they will be quiet on those days not much has been happening...

In completing this final book of the exchange, I once again worked with things I already had in the studio - making the book fit the the shape of the things... 

This time I had pages of differing papers that I had removed from books - so they already had stitching holes pierced in them and were of differing sizes. For some reason I thought this might be a challenge that could work.

In the end the notion worked and the book holds, but the stitching result was not as neat or sturdy as I would have liked - I was trying to modify too many stitching styles to fit the different holes. Nevertheless, I persisted and made a book and I have learned so much along the way.

I again worked with Annwyn's blue coloured pages, and added some white Letraset to them to carry the words along.

Interestingly, the words happened just by working with the paper. They read:

of water, mist and dreaming.

The finished books are quite small - 8cm(h) x 10cm(w) x 6cm(d) when standing open. 

 

And only 8cm(h) x 6cm(w) x 2cm(d) when closed and in their wee pale blue paper cover.

So this is farewell to The Shape of Things, such a great theme to enable us to interpret it as desired, and to create a variety of beautiful and treasured books.