Forthcoming exhibition

 I have an exhibition at Bulleen Art and Garden 

https://gallery.baag.com.au/event/p-l-a-n-t-w-o-r-k-s/

Contemporary Arts Society Annual Exhibition

 

I have submitted two of my cyanotypes from the three rivers exhibition and several unframed pieces with plant material embedded in mitsumata paper. Plus ten of these cards will be available for just $4 each.

Three Rivers Exhibition, better late than never

 Here are a few photos of my works that were in the exhibition

Rainbows in Lockdown

 It has been over a year since I last posted and one of the first things I said I'd do was to update my website, sorry that hasn't happened yet and I've had three months!!!
I'm posting this here as an addition to the Papermakers of Victoria magazine The Deckle Edge. I wrote an article about making some rainbow paper but there wasn't room for all the images so here is the article with all the images:-

Rainbows and light

When Anne Pitkethly threw out the challenge to put a paper rainbow in my window I accepted and broke up a batch of recycled letterpress paper into five lots. I dyed them red, yellow, green, blue and purple. I made my rainbow on a mould by pouring the pulp and couching onto a readymade sheet of paper. I then had lots of coloured pulp left over and I made some sheets with a watermark of my old school motto ‘Respice Lucem’ that means ‘Look to the light’. I already had the text cut out of waterproof cloth tape and stuck to fibreglass fly screen that fits on a mould the right size to fit one of the small lamps from IKEA. 

I needed an A3 sized vat for those sheets and was able to pull two of each colour before I drained the vat and started again with the next colour. I have put the watermarked sheets in my window along with my teddy bear and my pulp painted rainbow. I can read look to the light from the inside it could be interesting to see how lightfast the dyes are.

After emptying the vats I still had quite a bit of the coloured pulp left so thought I’d try some pulp marbling. I first learned about this technique from Christine Ballinger at the IAPMA Congress in Adelaide in 1998 and had only used it once before when I was doing a lot of floral pulp paintings and I made a vase using the technique.  What you need is formation aid and although I haven’t tried it you might be able to use okra or prickly pear. Have water and formation aid in a vat deep enough to cover the mesh of your mould but not so deep that it covers the deckle.

Weigh down the deckle so that it doesn’t float off. Mix some formation aid and water with your pulp so that it has the consistency of pouring cream; use a sauce bottle, turkey baster or slip trailer (ceramic tool) to pour the pulp onto the mould.

Once you have coverage you can use a skewer to move the pulp around.  

When happy with the result couch the sheet, then to support it couch another sheet on top or do as I did and couch onto a readymade sheet.

The dry sheet

Pear Prints

I just noted that it is almost a year since I posted so thought it was time for another. It isn't that I haven't done anything in a year but there have been a few changes around here, the biggest is that my partner has retired. Last year I taught a few workshops and spent quite a bit of time making preparations and samples for these. So far this year I have three workshops scheduled the first was last weekend and it was making paper from denim and making books based on the accordion or concertina structure. In preparation I made quite a lot of denim pulp and a blank accordion that I thought I should add some prints to. I pulled out some old lino and MDF cuts and printed them onto some 300 gsm hahnemuhle that I had left over from another project.

I had a whole set of pear prints but at the same time we had lots of pears on our tree and the lorikeets were really getting stuck into them so we picked them all even though they were very green. I figured I'd try cutting one in half and printing from it and I had a lovely time and was pretty pleased with the results.

Then I made some collages and made some cards with pear prints.

My first accordion I filled with collages and pear prints.

The next two are blank inside and have pear prints and collage on the covers.

Cards and workshop

There are still a few spaces left in the Beginners Papermaking workshop that I am running for Papermakers of Victoria next week.
You can still enrol at the papermakers website.
As part of the class I'll be teaching basic recycling and will cover fibre selection, pulp making, sizing, sheet forming, pressing and drying. In addition we will emboss paper, make paper with various inclusions and do a small bit of pulp painting. Participants will come away with around 30 sheets of beautiful paper.

I have been having a lovely time lately making gelatine prints and making cards from them, I've been really happy with some of the effects I've been getting.
I have added some to my Etsy shop and there will also me some for sale at the Alcove Art Shop and Open Drawer.

Website updated

After quite a hiatus and a lot of mucking around with iprimus and dreamweaver I have finally updated my website.
Also we had the opening of the Papermakers exhibition Paper is that is on at Mont de Lancey in Wandin yesterday, it rained most of the day so not a great day for an opening however we had quite a good turn out. Last Monday I decided that my leaves would look better green so I got out the paper dyes and turned them green, I think they look much better.

Paper is: Leaves

Paper is: Leaves

I have been having a great time with some abaca that I beat in the valley beater for 7 hours. It took two trips to Bundoora but it is such a wonderful fibre. This particular piece uses wire embedded between two sheets of fibre. The longer you beat the pulp the more the paper shrinks. The area braced by the wire becomes taut while the rest shrivels.

Paper is: Circulation

I have nearly finished my most ambitious piece for the exhibition next month at Mont de Lancey in Wandin. I've called it Paper is: Circulation playing on the title of the exhibition and on newspapers and the spots and other circular imagery in my spherical books.

When I took these photos I had made six books with cases but decided it looked better with an extra three so I have now made nine books and have nearly finished the cases and I've used each of the colours of the hemp paper that came from Bangladesh and has been living in my studio for around a year.

Herring Island Summer Arts Festival

 Each year a small group of volunteers puts on an arts festival on Herring Island, a lovely bushy island in the middle of the Yarra River. The first two for the year were Association of Sculptors and Basketmakers of Victoria and next up is the Contemporary Art Society of Victoria followed by A4 Art. I usually enter both Contemporary by Nature and A4 Art however this year I've just entered the first show and for the first time instead of framed wall hanging pieces I have entered these two artist books. The first I did some time ago after a workshop with Glen Skien and the second more recently.

Spore mixed media, collage, print and handmade mushroom paper

Spore mixed media, collage, print and handmade mushroom paper

Spore mixed media, collage, print and handmade mushroom paper

Circularity handmade paper pulp painting and gelatine print

Circularity handmade paper pulp painting and gelatine print

Circularity handmade paper pulp painting and gelatine print