Alcove Christmas Sale

 The Alcove Art Shop is holding it's annual Christmas Affair at the Box Hill Community Centre for the next couple of weeks. it opened on Monday, I haven't seen it yet but am on duty this Friday evening and again on Wednesday next week so hopefully there will still be some bargains left for my Christmas shopping. I finally got around to putting some books together using Gelatine prints, cyanotypes and some batik papers.

cyanotypes on hanji for the covers and random cyanotype on the outer pages of each section, paper inside is zercal

Gelatine print on handmade paper for covers and on outer pages of each section, paper inside is zercal

Batik on handmade paper covers zercal pages with hanji surrounding every second section

I was invited to be part of 'Camberwell on Canvas' an exhibition that is held in shop windows around the Bourke road hill. I entered one other time when the theme was 'What you like about Camberwell'. This year the theme was tied in with the shop where the work is displayed. The organisers supply a blank canvas for each participant. My shop is a Malaysian restaurant called Masak Ku (my food), I visited one night to try the food and come up with an idea for the work. Just inside the restaurant is a fish tank with some beautiful tropical fish, I took some photos with my phone and made negatives and positives of a couple of them. I wanted to connect the fish with the restaurant and felt that the Malaysian kite Wau represented Malaysia. I made the kite shape from some non slip plastic sheet with little blobs all over then drew on it with permanent marker and tied some thread to the ends and left space for the negatives. I used hanji coated with traditional cyanotype chemicals for the image then glued it to the canvas. I called it Wau ku, my kite. It is currently in the window of Masak Ku, 732 Burke Rd, Camberwell VIC 3124.

Wau ku Cyanotype on hanji

More workshop prep

These books are some examples I have put together for my forthcoming workshop in Ballarat, all the paper has been made using the mould and deckle that will be made in class. We will have a theme for the artist book that we will produce and I am thinking along the lines of flight but we will do some brainstorming once the class is underway. There are still a few spots available but it starts in less than three weeks so I had better get back to making pulp!

Rainbow Wings
recycled abaca and mount board, shaped, embossed sheets Coptic binding

Natural
Mixed plant fibre with cotton paper and ginger-lily, nature printing, W binding

Gitan
Recycled mount board and abaca, shaped sheets and hand written text, toji binding

Snappish were having a sale on photo books so I made one of my artist books, I will be selling these in Ballarat along with the more expensive Blurb books that I put together that include my binding instructions. 

The new books, 20 pages hard cover (will be $15 each)

The other book, soft cover 32 pages ($40 each) with instructions for ornament, 2 needle Coptic,  oriental,  W,  piano hinge and long stitch bindings as well as notes on paste and scraper papers.

reinvented butterflies

It has been way too long since I posted, here it is almost the end of February and it seems that the year is just starting! I haven't been producing very much lately, seem to have been spending too much time on administration and on clearing out a room and a couple of sheds. I am only partly done on both those counts and we are in the middle of a heatwave so it is definitely a day for either staying inside or heading out somewhere that is air conditioned. We don't even run to a fan but our house is well insulated so it is still bearable inside.

I decided to reinvent some of the Butterflies that I made as part of the Yabbers contribution to Earthworks, the Papermakers of Victoria exhibition that was held last year so I went ti IKEA to buy some deep square frames and wouldn't you know it they didn't have any of the size I wanted. They did however have some rectangular ones and as it turns out they work perfectly. I will be submitting the set of three to the Contemporary Art Society exhibition that is on at Herring Island (in the middle of the Yarra river at Burnley) from 2 until 17 March, weekends only 11.30am to 4.30pm. I have called the piece Papillon in Three Parts, very original!!! The black is commercial card that I've hand cut and the colour is mostly New Zealand flax paper that has been dyed with Cartesol dyes.

The large stamp is my name stamp that I carved at a workshop with Miho Araki and the smaller one is an antique soapstone chop, I don't know what that says.

 Since Christmas I have made one batch of books using the papers that I dyed last year with rust and plant materials, the covers are book cloth that has a photocopy of one of the pages from the book. These were all done in a stainless steel pot with bits of rusty metal and the bundles of paper a la India Flint. I have since inherited an old copper and a cast iron pot but haven't had a chance to test them out yet.

Sculptural Books Workshop, shaped book and cover

I am teaching a workshop in making sculptural books next week and thought that participants might be interested in making and coving a book with shaped pages. I also decided to set up the pages for sketching by pre treating with some coffee and dilute acrylic paint. I cut the pages from 130gsm cartridge paper, here they are laid out ready for painting.

I dipped some cotton thread in the paints to get a different effect on some of the pages and I used the threads to bind the book.

Here are the pages drying.

And the covers, covered with some scraper paper (another example for the class).

I made pockets inside the covers for bibs and bobs (and leftover scraps of decorated paper)

Then sewed with double needle Coptic stitch using the acrylic coloured threads that I waxed by pulling through a slab of beeswax.

Moonah workshop Tasmania

Next week I am heading over to Tassie to teach a three day workshop on sculptural books, here are a few images of the type of books and decorative techniques we'll be making to whet my students appetites.

Credit card technique

Sons of Wallace - Piano Hinge Binding

Collage Paste Paper

Nest Book - Two Needle Coptic Binding

Torn - Sections in a Concertina


Greetings from India - Flag Book Variation

Two Needle Coptic and Celtic Binding

W binding

Roses Flag book

IAPMA Flag book

Childs Play - Piano Hinge Binding

Childs Play - Piano Hinge Binding

workshop two

Afternoon tea at the Windsor for Auntie's 90th birthday, I was meant to take my mum but she wasn't up to it so I got to play ladies!

My book class had the last session on Saturday and we made two needle coptics, here is my example.

The previous week we made flag books from postcards and again here is my example.

I

I used a couple of Alisa Golden's book for the instructions and for inspirational examples.

The participants made some great looking flag books especially from the IAMPA cards. They are quite keen for me to go back and teach Papermaking and another book class.

I have been making a few photo albums lately with 300 gsm Hahnemuhle, here are a few pics of my newest books.

And this is a miniature book work in progress for the Valda Quick Paper Arts Biennial which is to be held at Bundoora Homestead in November.

Lastly, in preparation for a workshop with Glen Skien the weekend after next I went around the garden taking a few photos and found these fungi.