A Day Out!

This post is a bit late, but I wanted to write about a lovely day out that I had on July 2nd.

A few weeks ago, I received an invitation, as a blog writer, to attend the Press Event for the release of the new Autumn/Winter/Christmas items from Rex London (DotComGiftShop).

If you've been a follower of my blog for a while, you may remember this post about bunting, which Rex London (DotComGiftShop) sent me, with a request to review it on my blog.  I'd been a fan of their lovely retro-feel bits and bobs for some time (see also this post from 2009!) and responded to a call for submissions from blogs, when they were compiling a list of favourite blogs that they had found.  
 

Anyway... It seems that they kept my blog on their list of favourites, because I received an invitation to attend the Event and bring a friend.  The Press Event was in London, so I set off in the train and met Keri-Anne at Euston Station, where she had arrived on her train.  

We walked down to the gallery where Rex London (DotComGiftShop) were holding their event and were made very welcome.  

Drinks in little jars, sweets to nibble... very welcome after our walk from Euston. 

...

Then this is what we saw...

...a roomful of wonders and treasure!

There was So Much Lovely Stuff, that it would take several blog posts to show you all of it (of course, you can go to their website/shop and have a browse for yourself).  Here are some of my own favourites from the Day: 

There's a big wildlife theme going on - in various styles - and I loved these little storage suitcases, with wild birds painted on them. Who could resist? 

There was a whole range of lovely items with the wild bird designs all over.  Coasters, mugs (in lovely giftable boxes), storage tins, a tower of lovely lidded glass bowls, glasses and drinking bottles, even a flour or sugar dredger for your kitchen.  Oh, and not to forget the pretty case for my glasses... Tempted again! My favourite is the Blue Tit design - I really like blue-tits.  

Still on a wildlife theme - Rusty and Friends.  A second set of suitcases, this time with woodland creatures on them, along with a number of other goodies, including these brilliant breakfast sets in melamine.  I could cope with eating my porridge, toast and orange juice from these and I'm sure my little nieces would love them! 

Then there were some great retro-themed items: 

Kitchen timers!  

A row of adorable and gorgeous china cups, that look like old-fashioned enamelware (memories of camping, anyone?).  The red one is my favourite, though I remember my mum having a white enamel mug, with a blue-painted rim... and actually, I love all four colours.  Have been trying to think of a good excuse to buy these - perhaps an "accident" will occur with our existing mugs (all 20 or so!)?  Maybe I can find someone to gift them to next Christmas! 

Alarm Clocks! Old-style clocks, like the ones I used to have on my bedside table when I was a very little girl.  Updated now to have a battery-powered clock and a beeping alarm, instead of the old bell-alarm that I had in mine; still just as appealing and I love the colour range! 

Then there was the Japanese Design Porcelain... 

Look at these!  They draw inspiration from Japanese pottery designs, each one being different and special.  I would love to have All of them in my china cupboard.  They are just lovely... sigh... There's a Mediterranean Stoneware range too, which is also gorgeous! 

There were items to appeal to all tastes - it wasn't just "pretty things" and items for children: 

For the Bicycle Fan in your life... 

For the Dapper Gentleman... 

For the Gardener and Nature Lover....

Keri-Anne and I had a lovely time browsing the little Aladdin's Cave full of treasures. 

You can see that there were loads more things to look at - I just haven't room to tell you about all of it!  If you are interested, do go and browse their website shop - it's full of great items, for yourself or to give as gifts.  After all, there are only five months to Christmas! ;-)  

We were sent on our way with a little shopping-bag full of goodies - aren't these lovely? And look, blue-tits on a cover for my new tablet pc! 

Many thanks to Rex London (DotComGiftShop) for your invitation and hospitality.  I had a really fun time and a lovely day out.  

...

And then we had Pizza for lunch before heading back home (spot the Selfie in the mirror!).

The End. 

Printy Inky Messy Day!

I spent last weekend in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, staying with friends.  However, the reason I was there, was to attend a day of Monoprinting at The Yard Artspace, with Sue Brown.  

We had a really good day, trying a great technique for producing pieces of work, using a sheet of clear acrylic plastic, inks and a small press, with cut out card shapes, pieces of non-absorbent materials (such as lace, textured wallpapers) and dried flowers and leaves.

I enjoyed the day very much and was quite pleased with the results that I achieved. There were four of us, plus Sue and we all produced some very different results, using the same basic techniques.  

The large red area is ink (oil-based relief printing ink) rolled onto a sheet of clear plastic (which just shows up as slightly grey against the magazine behind it).  Over this I placed some torn strips of textured wallpaper - face down.  This was rolled through the press, to leave ink on the surface of the wallpaper.  

Here you can see the strips of wallpaper, with red ink on them, also the plastic, with more red ink.  This time there are two birds, cut from shiny (non-absorbent) card offcuts, plus some dried leaves.  Again, the idea was to transfer ink onto the surface of those items, in order to print from them.  You can see that the birds were inked in yellow for a previous print... 

These two prints were made from a plate inked with deep blue, with the bird shapes and some dried cow parsley placed on top.  Paper was then laid over the whole plate and it was put through the press.  The shapes & flower acted as masks, preventing ink being transferred to the paper (the blue-inked birds and flower were used for another print later).  I then used those red wallpaper strips, over the top of the first blue print.  Work in progress.... 

 

Here you can see the original bird prints, before the red strips were added... also some other basic prints from a blue-inked plate and that red-inked plate that I showed in the photo above, with wallpaper strips on top.  

The second print from the left was made from the plate After the fifth print (the deep blue with outlines of ferns & cow parsley, using the ink that remained after printing and removing the plants from the plate.  The same thing applies to the third and sixth prints, with the birds & cow parsley.  

The fourth print is from a plate that was printed in green, after the plants had been removed; the print was then run back through the press, with the blue-inked plants from the print to its right, thus making a second print on top of the green.   

In this way, prints were worked and re-worked, to build up layers and patterns.  I was very pleased with some of the results... 

Left) A basic one colour print, with the shapes of cow parsley and ferns showing as white paper (where they had been placed on the plate, to act as masks). 

Middle) The red print with yellow birds and white leaf outlines was made by re-printing the red-inked plate, after removing the wallpaper strips, birds and leaves.  I inked up the birds with yellow ink (by rolling the ink directly onto the bird shapes) and placed them over the empty area where the original masks had been.  The whole was rolled back through the press (with a sheet of paper!), to make this impression.  

Right) The right-hand print has been worked in several layers.  First a red print, from the inked plastic sheet.  Then a green-inked plate; I scratched a design into the green ink, then placed a dried flower and the leaves over the green ink, before printing again onto the red print.  I then re-printed by laying the blue-inked ferns and a piece of plastic mesh - also inked with blue - directly onto the printed paper, covering with scrap paper (magazine paper is shiny and doesn't stick), then rolling through the press. 

Various attempts at producing interesting layered images. 

I also tried a print in silver, onto kozo tissue paper - a loose-textured hand made paper.  I wanted to see what would happen.  In fact, it made a very good impression, though the ink soaked through the paper.  I hope to float it on glass, in a frame, so that the print can be seen, as I think it looks pretty nice.  

The third print from the left is an attempt at collage.  After printing in silver, with various feathers, leaves, flowers and pieces of handmade paper as masks, I attached some of the mask items to the print.  Not sure about this one... I'll leave it a few days and then take another look.  

Layers...and no layers - the blue print is just a second impression from a blue-inked plate, after the mask items were removed.  It's very simple and I really like it.  

And more experiments...  The left-hand item is an experiment in print and collage, using a page from a magazine as the support, then overprinting with red, green and silver and finally adding collage elements.  Again, I think it needs a few days before I can decide if I like it! 

So, those were my own pieces of work.  I have mixed feelings about the end results, but the process itself was good fun and a very rewarding experience.  I'm very grateful to Sue, who is a great teacher and very nice person! 

The others didn't mind me photographing some of their work to show you.  However, I'm afraid I am hopeless with names and I have forgotten all but one...and there were only three to remember! I do wish I'd written their names down. Sorry ladies!

Some beautiful results from experiments with ferns, snowdrops and allium flowers.  Also simple shaped masks, overprinted with different colours.  I like all of these very much! 

The four prints to the right of this photo are Sue's demo prints, using cut-out shapes, dried flowers and textured wallpaper.  

The other seven prints belong to Kate, who used leaves, flowers and strips of textured paper, also a bird cut-out.  I love how she has achieved some very delicate prints from her inked-up leaves and flowers.  Also the lovely results from the textured paper - not sure how she achieved the orange... by careful over-printing I think.  Really lovely prints! 

 

These landscape-like prints are really quite fabulous!  The artist used masking and overprinting to produce the layered-up prints.  They looked even better in real life.  You can actually see their creator through the window there - making herself a cuppa! In her "day job", she is a printmaker, who creates work inspired by Dartmoor - the area near where she lives.  I just wish I'd asked her to write down her name, website etc... So silly of me. 

Anyway, thank you for reading.  If you've made it this far, you have done really well!  I hope you enjoyed seeing what can be achieved, with a sheet of plastic, six colours of ink, a printing press and some bits & pieces.  Such different results from five people, all using those same materials! 

* * * 

And just for a change... some Bunny cuteness!  This is my friends' house-rabbit. Her name is Cassie (though everyone calls her "Bunny") and she is ten years old and still going strong.  She sleeps all day, but can be very lively in the mornings and evenings - especially on warm sunny days.  

Wednesday Worktable - Wednesday 1st April 2015 - An Adventure!

This is my contribution to WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday), over at JuliaDunnit's Blog. Each Wednesday, Julia invites fellow crafters and bloggers to show a photo or two of their worktables, and explain what they've been doing.  

So, this morning I took this photo of my work table:

A set of cut and folded pages, ready for a new leather journal.  The lovely piece of buff-coloured leather to the left, will be the book's cover and the piece of paper printed with golden umbels and dandelions, will be the lining of the cover.  All ready to be assembled and stitched! 

* * *

This afternoon, I had a bit of spare time, so took the opportunity for a little adventure. In a small town about 15 miles from here, there is a leather supplier, called Harmatan Limited.  They supply high quality leather to all kinds of places, for furnishings and upholstery, but also for crafts and bookbinding.  I went over there, for the first time, to pay them a visit.  I had already bought some beautiful leather pieces online, as they have an Etsy shop; but I wanted to visit and see what else was available.  

I came home with all this:

 
A super-exciting selection of leather pieces.  I have Plans for all this gorgeousness (though if you have a request, or suggestion for what I could make, I'd love to hear from you!)

The chaps at Harmatan were really nice and friendly.  They went out of their way to be helpful and find me what I wanted.  I had hoped for some larger pieces, but the next size up, after their "large" pieces, were full skins - which limited me to one or two colours only, as I couldn't afford more than one, or maybe two skins!   The smaller pieces there would make one pocket notebook, the larger will make a leather journal - so I'm happy enough.

Something I haven't photographed though, is a whole (small) skin I bought, in a lovely duck-egg blue.  Excited to think of Plans for that blue leather!!

So, this evening, I'm a Happy Lizzie.  Off to make dinner now - I think a glass of wine may be permitted, by way of celebration (just a small one; I don't want to fall asleep over my bookbinding tonight!)

* * *

That's my contribution to the WOYWW Story this week - thanks for reading.  

Why not pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and see what else is going on in the crafting world?

Up, Up and Away!

I was standing upstairs a couple of evenings ago, when I heard a familiar sound from outside. 
A whooshing kind of sound.  I knew that if I looked out of the window, this is what I would see:

Rising into the air, taking off from the meadow on the other side of the river.  I had heard the whoosh of the burner, as it was switched on and off, to warm the air inside the balloon and lift it above the house-tops.

What I didn't expect was this, just a few minutes later:  

A second lovely balloon, taking off from the same place.

And then this:

A Third Balloon! 

Totally unexpected - balloons are a fairly regular sight over our village in the good weather, but three at once hasn't happened before.   

 

 

Floating away on the evening breeze... Wishing I could be up there too!

Palm Leaf Book - Artist's Book Workshop Day with Mia Leijonstedt, 9th June 2012

I spent Saturday in Cambridge again. This time, it was to attend an all-day workshop, with artist Mia Leijonstedt, who lives close to ArtSpace Cambridge.

I have been looking forward to this workshop for a couple of months, as I think Mia's work is very beautiful and inspiring. The workshop was to make artists' books, in a Palm Leaf style, but with wooden covers.  Mia's own books are fabulous and I wanted to have the opportunity to meet her and hear what she had to say / see what I could learn from her.  She's about to take a break from much of her bookbinding work, to concentrate on a new venture, making rather beautiful jewellery (see her Etsy shop and be amazed and delighted!)

9:15am - setting up, ready for a 9:30 start...

Mia brought some of her own work for us to see.  I love her use of texture, colour and contrast and choice of materials.  The shiny metal bits are melted tin, which she heats up, pours and cools, before attaching to the work.  

Mia uses a lot of natural materials, such as wood, bark, feathers, coral and stones, combined with lovely beads, coloured cord and twines, leather, paints...  There are lots of different papers inside the books, with various textures, patterns and colours (and you all know how I feel about paper...). 

All very lovely and quite inspiring!  You can see more of these here.

This is the smallest of the books, above. I loved the circle of gold-embossing on the leather, also the little beads that embellish the ends of the cord ties.  The covers are of hand-dyed wood. 

* * *

So, we were to produce our own Artist's Book, using a Palm Leaf style of binding.  The Palm Leaf binding is a very simple form.  It's basically a top and bottom "cover" with "pages" in between. The binding is achieved by making holes at either end of each cover and page, then passing a cord down through one set of holes, along the bottom cover and up through the second set of holes.  The cord is cut long enough to be used as ties, to fasten the pages and covers together. 

This style of book originates from India and Southeast Asia, where the books were really made from leaves of trees, such as palms - hence the long, narrow form of the book.  This is the Wikipedia entry for Palm Leaf Books - it also has some photos of original books, which are interesting.

Mia even produced our course notes in the form of a palm leaf style book - look how lovely it is!  Each of us had one of these, embellished with little scraps of paper, beads and leather.  A gorgeous little thing - it was like having a present!

So, Palm Leaf Artists' Books.... wow...

We weren't just given materials and told to get on with it.  Nor did Mia do that "follow me, step by step" thing that is sometimes useful for something complicated. 

The book form is very simple.  She chose it so that we could each come up with a very personal item, interpreting the book form in our own way.  Before we started making any books, we "made something", then did several exercises, to help us get warmed up, creative, inspired. 

Firstly, we were asked to go and select one item from each of five little heaps of things.  The piles had stuff like leather and felted scraps, buttons, beads, stones, cords, strings, shells, little tin scraps, feathers, flowers etc and each pile consisted of similar items, but was a bit different to the other piles.

We were then to use the five objects, to make "a talisman" object.   This was fun - everyone had chosen items independantly and we all came up with something quite different. Mia said she thought our item would say something about our individual personalities. I don't know, but I think she was perhaps right about that; my item was just a little thing, made from bits that I liked, but that must say something about me really...

Mia examines one of the pieces of work.

Our work laid out on the table.

We then had three different creative exercises. The first was to imagine ourselves reaching out an invisible finger, from where we sat, to touch each of the objects that Mia lifted up for us to see.  There weren't many things - just a few items with contrasting textures or "feels" - a smooth metal ruler, with printed on markings;  a rough piece of bark; a soft natural sponge; a large piece of quartz with crystalline structure.   It just woke up the imagination and made us think... 

Then we had a small stack of paper sheets (not very large ones) and a black pen. Mia gave us a word for each sheet, one at a time. The idea was to draw the word - like sort-of automatic writing, only drawing.  It was just a doodle of our impression of that word. We ended up with about 5 or 6 doodles, all different.  Most people's doodle of a particular word had similarities, but no-one produced the same doodle.  It was very interesting - and quite liberating really.  

The final exercise was a guided meditation. Mia drew the blinds down slightly, put up a big Do Not Disturb notice on the door.  Then she had us get comfortable, close our eyes and imagine what she told us.  It was a kind of story... we started on a warm sunny beach...  paddled in the sea... found a shining object which transported us to a beautiful building... inside the building we were guided to an object in a glass dome, which we couldn't see at first...  there was just a symbol visible to begin with, until we wiped the glass clear... we were allowed to hold the object... the curator of the gallery told us it was our own object... we left it in the gallery and went out of a door...to find ourselves back at the lovely beach. 

Then we were asked to draw - the object, the symbol, an impression - whatever.  I ended up with a nice little drawing of a beautiful book - which I may try to make some time!

I have done this kind of exercise before, but somehow there was always some kind of embarassment or discomfort about it.  On Saturday, it just "worked" and I found the whole thing very relaxing, inspiring.  It got me "connected" with my creative ideas and thoughts.  I was raring to go. 

Perhaps it helped that I had gone to Cambridge with the mindset that I was going there for a Challenge and would be doing something creative, different and new.  So I was all ready for whatever was offered.  It seems to have worked anyway, as I just had the Best day!

The Books

The remainder of the day was spent on our Books.  We each had a pair of covers - all pieces of wood, except for one student, who opted for some black board covers instead, as she liked the more delicate feel of these.

There was a big pile of assorted papers for us to select from - any that we wanted.  There was paint, inks, coloured and natural cords and threads, pieces of leather, fabrics, stones, beads, glass, bark, metal objects... Also a pyrography iron, for experimenting with covers or pages and a little heater, with a melting pan, plus pieces of tin to be melted into interesting shapes or designs. Several people tried one or both of these techniques.  We had no restrictions or rules - we were just allowed to do what we wished.  Mia was available to help with tecnical enquiries, materials, ideas if we needed someone to bounce them off... but she never said "you must do..." or "you shouldn't do..." (except for burning/melting outside because of the smoke alarm indoors!).

All the books, laid out for us to admire.  Quite exciting!

At the end of the day, we had eight (almost nine - someone started a second project) books.  Each was very different and all were really quite beautiful.  The students all came from different places and different artistic backgrounds.  Some were already bookbinders and/or artists, some were not.  One lady was a writer, who was exploring bookbinding techniques because she wanted a vehicle to showcase a special series of poems - a Book of Hours.  Everyone produced something to feel proud of.  Even Mia seemed excited to see them all laid out on the table.  Much photo-taking ensued!

Mostly, I don't know whose book was whose, but here is a Gallery of our work:

The blue book is covered in hand-painted/dyed paper.

A close-up of the wonderful metal mini-sculpture on the red book!

One of those is mine, but I'd like you to look at all of them and appreciate their gorgeousness, so I won't tell you which one it is! 

* * *

A "Gallery" slideshow of my own book is below.  I have also added a Page about my book, with notes describing its creation - there is a new tab at the top of my blog, or follow this link when you've seen enough of the slideshow:

Journey : A Palm Leaf style Artist's Book