Workshops December and March

Christmas Cards and Gifts workshop 3 December
I'm holding a workshop at my home on Wednesday 3rd December and it will cover making paper with a Christmas theme and making gift boxes and a couple of simple books. The pictures here are of cards I've made over the years, I need to come up with a theme for this year but inspiration hasn't struck as yet.
Last year's cards:-


The year before:- I didn't make a lot of this one, just some for very special people.

Another year

Another year

Christmas 1999

Some early cards

The papermaking techniques we will cover will include embossing, pulp painting and paper with inclusions.

Here are some examples of the packages we'll make.

The books:-



Share the Journey - Plant fibre book workshop 21 March 2009
I spent a bit of time yesterday working on the sample book for the workshop I’m running in March next year. I had made a mock up using some cedar blind but it was time to make one close to how the workshop book will be, it has taken me a while to find the time but yesterday everyone was out and I could make a good start.

The mock up.
Marianne’s husband Rex has made a range of timber pieces from different Australian plants.



For the mock up two I chose a cedar pine, there were two pieces of that and it was one of the less interesting timbers. When drilling the holes I also discovered it was quite a hard timber and I slipped when drilling the first couple of holes, I worked out it was a good idea to use an awl to make a starting hole for the drill. I’ll be pre-drilling all the holes for the workshop so participants won’t need to be concerned.




While I was doing the preparation I was also preparing the notes for the workshop and keeping a bit of a note about the time it takes for each step. I haven’t started sewing yet, that will have to wait for another day soon, I’m still deciding on what thread to use. For the outside I’d quite like to use sky blue to tone in with the blue sky and to contrast with the timber but I feel that it would look wrong on the inside, so I might settle for off white.


The the picture on the cover is of one of the lights on Princes bridge and it has Victoria University in the background. The workshop will be held on the 16th floor of that building and the the exhibition Shared Journeys will be in the gallery on the 17th from 3rd - 21 st March 2009, there is more information at http://www.gailstiffe.info/ once you click on workshops.

Cyanotypes and Canberra

I have just returned from attending a workshop at the National Library which was held as part of the Community Heritage Grants Scheme. Women's Art Register of which I am coordinator has been awarded a grant for significance assesment. The workshop was great and I learned lots of things about preserving and documenting. I spent a day on digitisation and the picture below shows a simple set up for photographing pictures.

I even learned a lot about my camera that I didn't know and it has prompted me to plan to go back and read the manual again instead of just pointing and shooting with the camera on automatic. Mind you when I took the photos today for this blog and the postcard one I did it the old way with me climbing up a ladder and shooting onto the kitchen bench.
I stayed with my cousin in Fadden and here is a picture from their front balcony, great views across the valley to the Brindabellas.


On Monday before I left for Canberra, Zoe and I got together to do some more cyanotypes, this is one I did last time we got together, the paper is kozo and the image was made with a positive and a negative of the pardelote photo we took at Mt Hotham.

I then had a play around with toning the cyanotypes, I had done it before by soaking the cyan in dilute washing soda but when I googled it I discovered that if you then dip in tea you get a much browner result.

These are the backs of some pulp paintings dipped in washing soda and tea for a short time, the cyanotypes are of very loose nests.

These are on some Korean paper that I was testing to see if it would hold together for some larger pieces, the darker one was left in the tea for at least 20 minutes and the lighter one for about 5 mins.


This is a photo of one of the nests I made, it would have worked better if I'd inverted the colours and used the negative instead of positive image however I do like the effect of just some of the blue being toned.

Shared Journeys exhibition

I really should be working away from the computer now but it has been so long since I posted I'm feeling guilty. I caught up with my Shared Journeys and My Paper, My Land blogs yesterday but the deadline for entries is fast approaching so I need to bind the book and finish off one more piece. I'm working on a nesty piece which I'll either use for Shared Journeys or Nesting. I've made watermarks using blutac on fly screen with some text about nests and nesting and am making a series of nesting bowls. I have the kapok pod pulp and some corn husk pulp, I did a test run yesterday and the kapok seemed to work better than the corn husk which was nowhere near as strong.
Here are some I made a week or two ago without the text, I'll probably use those for the nesting exhibition.

Casting Workshop

The casting workshop I was meant to be holding this weekend has been postponed and moved to my home. It will now be a one day workshop on Monday 27th October 10am - 4pm, please contact me if you are interested in participating. We will be making some jewellery pieces using plaster, clay and paper.

Here is the blurb

Using Plaster to Make Cast Papers

Learn how to design clay pieces for casting in plaster and how to carve plaster to make low relief artworks. Then learn several ways to bring out the best in your pieces with paint and dye. Day one will be spent making a clay maquette and casting it in plaster. Then a slab of plaster will be carved to produce a low relief design which could be used for a book cover or a brooch. Paper will be cast into both pieces and left to dry overnight.

On day two the casts will be dried off completely and either painted or sprayed with paper dyes to pick up the design. More paper casts will be taken and there will be the opportunity to make changes to the casts if needed.

Materials fee $5 per student.

Shared Journeys workshop

‘SHARE THE JOURNEY’ – AUSSIE PLANT FIBRE BOOK WORKSHOP

Papermakers of Victoria Inc is mentoring a very special workshop in conjunction with the ‘Shared Journeys’ exhibition.

The workshop will enable you to make a one-off book using Australian plant fibres incorporating at least twelve different plant fibre papers. The book will include information about the plants and how the paper was made, printed onto handmade Australian eucalyptus paper. The white text paper has been hand made using an Australian plantation grown eucalyptus blend pulp. These papers were created using the
historic equipment employed by Kayes and Sonja van Bodegraven (Mould
and Deckle Paper mill) during a major commission of 15,000 hand made
sheets for the Crafts Council of Australia’s publication “Crafts of
Australia” - first World Crafts Exhibition - 1974 Toronto, Canada. It
was thought appropriate that the still attached watermarks of a
kangaroo designed by award winning graphic designer, Douglas Annand,
be retained to commemorate the ongoing commitment to and growth of the
art and craft of hand paper making in Australia since that time.

Each book will feature a spine of Australian timber and a unique binding that has been specially devised for this book by the tutor Gail Stiffe. Cover paper will include images of Melbourne. All materials will be provided.

Where: Victoria University

Time and Date: March 21 2009 10am – 4pm

Application forms available from: www.papermakers.org.au

Deadline for applications: March 1 2009

Cost: $100 plus a materials fee of $25

A ballot will be held for places, which are limited. Don’t miss this opportunity to make a uniquely Australian book – a stunning reference work. See some preliminary images at www.gailstiffe.info.