Quick collagraph

 I went to Cheltenham yesterday to join a one day workshop led by my lovely chum Sue Brown. It was entitled 'Quick Collagraph' and I just felt that,despite supposedly knowing what I'm doing, that a day spent with other printmakers would kick start me into action for 2016.

I'd made a couple of simple plates at home but then threw the kitchen sink of techniques at them whilst I was there adding stuff like reinforcing rings  and masking tape etc. None of the plates were sealed so the ink did not get cleaned off between printing meaning we obtained interesting tones with each subsequent pull. We also played with chine collee techniques and whilst I love the quick prints I produced, as ever, I love the plate itself. How it turned out purple , blue and brown is just lovely.

 The other girls on the course said I could post some of their photos too:

You can see that for a small group we were very productive. Some were new to collagraph and you could tell they'd caught the bug by the end of the day. I spent my long car journey home full of enthusiasm and planning some new plates and some future workshops to combine books and print.

Sue and I are going to agree a date soon for me to run a book making workshop at her space at The Yard. This will be in the autumn in Cheltenham so if anyone is interested in being kept updated let me know or sign up for Sue's newsletter on her blog. There are lots of lovely courses coming up in 2016 and the atmosphere created there is fabulous. I met a really great crowd of people yesterday and now I'm raring to get to that press of mine... quick...

Look in, Look out

It was a couple of years ago now that I did a workshop with artist Jilly Morris but it is one that sticks in my memory for the sheer enjoyment we all had on it. Not surprisingly, I have kept up to date with her activities ever since and before Christmas Jilly was the latest artist in residence on the  Look In, Look Out project, based, to date, in Hampshire. The website for the project details its inception and ongoing issues and is host to other films as each artist in residence had one made during their six week tenure. They make for a fascinating collection and  reading through Jilly's blog for the period is also very thought provoking. I so looked forward to each week's installment dropping into my inbox. Now I can't wait to see what she will produce from the time spent on the estuary at Lymington Haven. Along with the responses from the other artists there will an exhibition in March. I feel like a short break to the New Forest coming on. See what you think. Let me know.

With gardening in mind

 I've always been a great believer in fate, coincidence, serendipity, call it what you will. I also believe deeply that you can make your own luck with positive thinking. Or maybe I'm just a glass half full type of girl and see everything that happens in the way I want to see it happen. Who really knows.... but here's a great example.......

In yesterday's post I received a printed postcard from Fiona and Barry, letterpress printed on their own equipment. The new year greeting on the reverse is accompanied by some fabulous plant related Australian stamps. As he handed it over, our postie - who had obviously read the greeting - said what a great thing it was to receive. He was so right.  I have long been drawn to Fiona's blog and her passion for books, prints and the written word and she was uppermost in my thoughts when I later went in to the local 'books for free' shop yesterday afternoon.

 I genuinely believe that I must have had thoughts of letterpress and typefaces at the forefront of my mind as I just walked over to an overflowing box of distinctly old books and found the signwriting and advertising books immediately. Now is that fate or is it  not? The other little book is destined to get its covers used on a special project but I've started reading it and it is entrancing so it is reprieved for the moment.

 There are some wonderful illustrations in the advertising book and the signwriting one has got me practising the drawing of shadow capitals everywhere. Then I realised that this book linked in to another thing that had arrived via e mail  this week. As a long time recipient of the Uppercase magazine newsletter there was a link in the latest one to German calligrapher Nicole Sprekelmann, who, alongside her writing, draws into a mindfulness journal. If you take a look at her website on the blog page you will see what I mean.....

 .... and it was seeing Nicole's drawings that made me think about mindfulness too. It's a word we cannot escape from these days. I was even given a book about mindfulness drawing for Christmas and whilst making this year's plans for our garden this week I found these lines from Andrew Marvell's 'The Garden' written in 1681:

Mean while the Mind, from pleasure less,

Withdraws into its happiness:

The Mind, that Ocean where each kind

Does streight its own resemblance find,

Yet it creates, transcending these,

Far other Worlds, and other Seas:

Annihilating all that's made

To a green Thought in a green shade.

 

 Now I call that fate that I should come across a quote in my reading that is so relevant to my thinking that day. So much so that is spurred me on to make a book that will record all the thoughts and plants and ideas that will be garden specific this year. I'd seen a book online and had no idea how to make it but tried out a few ideas and now have the perfect place to keep ideas and write plant combinations or draw things.

And the first thing to put in my book is my card from Australia. Folded neatly it announces the date and when the page is turned shows off the gorgeous plants on the stamps it came with. So, fate or coincidence or serendipity.... the right thing came at the right time for the right idea. I call that perfect.

So, at last, the year has begun....

 I love winter and the start of a new year. I've stopped making unreasonable resolutions for myself and pragmatically just take it a day at a time. I long for cold frosty mornings with a sharp nip in the air instead of this interminable dreary wet and windy weather. I feel for the many people who have had too much rain inflicted on them during recent weeks and long for respite for them and for us.

I become even more obsessed with trees now. I love their silhouettes and will make special detours when I'm out and about to see my favourites before they change in the Spring. My most favourite tree of all is the large ash tree at the house end of my garden and I've lost count of how many photographs I've taken of it over the years. I stand there most afternoons when it's not raining and watch the starlings fly over. There seem to be  thousands of birds and you can almost time your watch by them as they choose the same time to fly past every day.  A winter treat that never palls. Even better when  smaller groups appear during the day and decide our ash tree makes a great stopping off point. It can get pretty noisy but I love it all.

 On the few dry days we've had since the New Year we've managed to get out and about walking. The beach walks have been great but this week we had two consecutive dryish days with some intermittent sunshine so we managed to get down to our local woodland for a couple of really long walks. Recent winds have brought down trees and some pathways were blocked. At one point we had to limbo under fallen trees to keep going. We were there on our own on Friday and the only person we met was the ranger from National Resources Wales who was surveying the woods to establish what rain damage there was to remedy. The woods can be packed when there are lots of visitors and tourists around so to be there on our own was magical.

 I couldn't resist the skyline but became entranced by the reflections of the trees in the numerous puddles. This one below was small but the water was so clear and the reflection quite beautiful. It's a shame I can be seen leaning over it with my camera but the next one shows that all of a sudden it started to rain and the reflections disappeared, as did we, trying to get a bit of shelter!

Whilst we got soaked by yet more rain it was wonderful to have the freedom to just be outdoors. Since then the weather has returned to persistent showers and winds. It reminds me of a poem I found only recently by  Scottish poet, Norman Bissell, who I need to find out more about as he seems to say what I think. His words are a perfect fit for how this year has started :

Sometimes here

it's hard to tell

the sound of the wind

from the sound of the waves.

Or the sound of the waves

from the sound of the rain.

Or the sound of the wind,

and the waves and the rain

from the sound of my breath.

Keeping Christmas

 I have written on this blog before about the skills of Charles Keeping, one of my all time favourite illustrators, so this is a good opportunity to use one of his magical books to spread the joy of the season.
Back in 1967 Charles Keeping won the Kate Greenaway Medal for children's book illustrating. The BBC then asked him to produce the stills for the Christmas morning edition of Play School in 1968, subsequently published in book format. The reader that day was the late Roy Castle and although I was 14 at the time, he is a performer I remember well from my childhood, mainly for his long running Record Breakers shows.

I remember picking this book up for pence in a charity shop and thinking how lucky I was to find another Keeping jewel. Look at his wonderful graphic marks and composition. The photo below is of the end pages from the book and the others are a selection hopefully showing the energy and verve of his drawing. I think the cover showing a breast feeding Mary was definitely ahead of its time.

Taking the book off the shelf is as near as I've got to Christmas so far this year although I made a few cards and  I did lug that turkey home from the shops this morning so something is happening! The book reminds me that is a time for children and a time for reflection. As I write this we are sat through yet more rain and yet more high winds, not exactly the weather I'd have wished for to celebrate the Winter Solstice. I'd have liked a crisp cold snap of weather to make it feel like Christmas just like when I was a lass. Still, we live with what we're given and I have a lot to be thankful for, so let me just say Merry Christmas to anyone reading this. Best wishes for the season and the year ahead.

I remembered the camera......

 Today was the final book making workshop of the year and I made lots of samples of the cross structured binding which everyone attacked with gusto. They scoffed when I said they could easily make two books each today but then went and did exactly that. Some were still stitching the second one as they went out of the door but I know they will be finished quickly. Everyone loved the feel of this chunky little book in the hand and I foresee a few being made for Christmas presents. As I finally remembered the camera I want to share the fruits of their labours.

 Cynthia

 Halina

 Jennifer and Diana

 Sheila

 Catherine

 and last, but by no means least, Maggie, who had to leave early after finishing this colourful book from Khadi paper and a watercolour paper cover. Can't wait to see the next one.

As for me, I floated a few ideas for workshops next term. I suggested the Secret Belgian Binding but when I told them it was all about precise measuring and accurate stitching etc the idea seemed to pall for them. Back to the drawing board for 2016 then and perhaps a few workshops in some other venues. More info to follow in due course. Thanks everyone for your efforts this year. Great books and great company!

In out, up down, repeat

 I am enjoying a lull in what has been a hectic few weeks. Last week disappeared in a blur of sampling and preparing for three consecutive days of workshops. First one was my lifelong learning group on Friday  for a day of making books from just one piece of paper utitlising different folding and cutting formats. We employed mark making techniques and collage etc and some of their results were amazing......but I forgot to take the camera....

... then I spent the weekend with the Pembrokeshire Embroiderers Guild making books focussing on stitch techniques they were familiar with for decorative spine work. We worked with buttonhole stitch, running stitch and cross stitch as well as versions of chain stitch culminating in coptic stitch bound books. They worked hard and I did take the camera this time but forgot to actually take any pictures! Seems like I've forgotten how to do this blogging malarkey. They produced some beautiful books, going home with the knowledge now to mix and match the stitches and design their own spine patterns. That was my plan anyway, so I'm hoping to see the responses in a future workshop.

One more bookmaking workshop to go before the end of term and perhaps I might call it a day then and concentrate on my own stuff for next year.

 I'm making a note now though to remember to take the camera so that I can show their output and do their work justice!