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.

belated update

I have been doing some work this year, though you wouldn't think so from here, I am just not documenting very well. The first piece is one that I made for a show in Bulgaria as part of the Amateras Foundation's Sofia paper Art Fest, there are five panels each approximately 80 x 40 cm.

Signs of Life - Natural 2013
Various plant fibre pulps, pulp painting

A very good friend of both of my daughters got married recently and asked me to make the invitations. She and her fiance also invited us to the wedding so I made them a guest book in the colours of their wedding. The yellow pulp was left over from the invites and the blue from my Christmas cards. I decided on a concertina format so that several people could sign at once.

Wedding Book for Claire and Simon
Recycled paper with dye and digital print of a cyanotype
Unique state

My book Obsolete was shortlisted for the Libris Awards at  Artspace Mackay, the exhibition runs from 10 May until 30 June, I don't expect to win but it is good to be there, I very nearly didn't enter because I felt it was too expensive but I relented on the last day!

Obsolete 2012
mixed plant fibre and digital print,  tunnel book
Edition of two

My daughter Katy was keen to enter St Lukes Palette show again and talked me into it too. I was uninspired for along time then elected to make shaped pages and turn it into a book with the palette sawn in half for the cover. I kept seeing a face in the palette so called my book Oddbod. Katy has done a fabulous one based on Alice in Wonderland.

Oddbod 2013
Wooden palette, paper made from cotton nappies, abaca and recycled board, cotton thread and ceramic beads
Unique state

Oddbod 2013
Wooden palette, paper made from cotton nappies, abaca and recycled board, cotton thread and ceramic beads
Unique state

Katy Stiffe
Rabbit Hole 2013
Acrylic paint and fabric collage

Butterfly Book 2013
Book board, marbled paper, turning mechanism, black cover paper, New Zealand flax and other plant fibre papers.
Unique state

I have entered these two books in the East Gippsland Art Gallery 'Books Beyond Words - Revolution' Show. The Butterfly book is an extension on the butterflies I have been making for the last six months or so and it revolves when the handle is turned. I scoured our local op shops until I found a music box with a ballerina, I pulled it apart, removed the music and made a new box to hold the mechanism. The other piece 'Revolution' is largely the result of an etching workshop I did with Liz Powell a few weeks ago. In the workshop we used zinc plates and copper sulphate but at the end Liz mentioned that you could also use clear acetate and that is what i used here for the line drawings. I carved the letters for the word from soft cut. Each page is larger by one letter than the one before and I felt the need to have the book circular in format.

Revolution 2013
Paper made from cotton nappies and abaca, acetate etching and block printing in posting tube.
Toji binding Edition of two