Book stand

Oooh this was so much fun to make, just a different use for the many mini books I have been making lately. Demand has been really high at the craft fairs but people definitely want choices so I am making loads more, if they dont all sell then its more for xmas stockings.

Contemporary art & craft fairs

I will be having stall at The Bluecoat in Liverpool over the Christmas period. Starting with this evening we will be braving the December weather (as long as this rain stops) and opening up from 4.30pm until 8pm, so while you’re doing your late night shopping pop into us and see what wonderful unique handcrafted gifts you could pick up.

The fairs will be running on the following dates and times:

Thursday 3rd, 10th & 17th December from 4.30pm-8pm

Saturday 5th, 12th, 19th December from 11am-5pm

Apples and pears

Just a bit of an update on the apple book that I did, well I tried to make a pear to go with it, unfortunately I have temporary run out of old books to cut up, and chose to use something a bit more modern. The paper was too thick and the spine too stiff, so although you get the idea from the photo, the final version will definitely be made from an old poetry book just like the apple was.

Indian printed papers notebooks

I bought some packs of beautiful printed coloured papers from India. The texture of the papers is really delicious, and the colours are so vivid and lovely to work with. I just made some simple small notebooks with ivory paper inside. Each one a different cover. The covers are made from card not too thick, so the covers have some flexibility and the books are not too heavy.

Greece

One place I have travelled to many times is Greece. The Greek Islands to be precise. The first time I went, was in 1987, the hottest summer in years, a massive heatwave with temperatures not dropping lower than 30 degrees even at night. Hundreds of people died across Greece and I was really ill with sunstroke and had blistered shoulders. But I remember that visit to Corfu, with the half sunk ships in Corfu Town harbour, and renting a boat and almost making it to Albania before being warned off back to Corfu. First encounter with snorkelling and fish <—-THIS—-> big. A few trips to Kefalos Harbour in Kos, a trip to Kefalonia and many trips to Skiathos Island, Skopelos, Alonisos, Tsougria and Arcos Island, and I have collected many images both on my camera and in my memory of the most beautiful back streets and old buildings I have ever seen.

Travels in Mexico

I have been drawing small images for a long time, but as lovely as they are to draw, they never really turn into anything. Deciding that everything really should matter and be a part of something, I decided to print out these pages of little squares (well, almost squares) and started to fill them in. I was looking at houses in the desert in Mexico for a project I did in university about 3 years ago, and something about them stuck with me. After looking through the sketchbooks of the incredible talented and simple illustrations of Tom Gauld (see my links for his website) I decided to create these images. I didn’t get to fill a whole page but have posted them as individual images on my Flickr page, I can’t wait to get up in the morning and finish the page, I have so many more ideas. And a huge thank you of course to Tom for his inspirations. I have been following his work each week in the Guardian newspaper. Great stuff. The plan is to turn these into a little book for the upcoming artists book fair in Manchester.

 

Apple

I have been folding books for a while now, making shapes from books and it’s been really enjoyable, but I took this really old poetry book with really thin pages, and removed the cover before trimming it into the apple shape, then rubbed the edge with a sandpaper block and dipped it in ink (mixture of brown and yellow). I rubbed some pages in the ink diluted with water, and it all wrinked and stuck together. I took the first and last page and stuck them together before blowing the whole thing with the hairdryer on hot which puffed the thing up like it is now, and added a bit more crinkle to the pages. Yum. It feels lovely to touch.

New bindings

I bought myself one of those staplers that can go through loads of pieces of paper at once the other day. I wanted to staple loads of papers together that I had lying around the place, just to keep them together really. But Then I came across this idea for a binding using one of these staplers. Anyway it seems to work as long as the spine is no thicker than the papers. It’s lovely that the front cover opens flat, would be nice to use for binding artwork or photographs together.

Business cards

Ok so not the most interesting title for a blog post, but I have been tormenting myself for a long time about creating something a bit “different” to give to people when they ask for my card. I currently have 3 styles of cards, one quite illustrative, one a bit more design oriented, and the other just a bit of collaged fun. To be different I have made these little week planners. They basically fold up to be a little tiny card sized book and have my contact details quite small on the back, but big enough to be useful, and something to encourage people to doodle or write on them. Something a bit more fun and interesting than your standard card. Maybe I am investing too much time and energy into something that should be simple, but then thats just me.

Tweeters

Recently the BBC have shown their latest nature program. Gone are the usual style programs with Sir David Attenborough is his blue shirt and beige chinos, and welcome the exciting ‘real’ expeditions of excitable entomologists and explorers from all over the world. These top class wildlife film makers venturing deep into the heart of the remote tropical islands of New Guinea to explore a giant extinct volcano -Mount Bosavi has had myself and my family glued to the television. In episode 2 of 3 they were watching the antics of the rare birds of paradise and I was completely amazed by these incredibly beautiful birds. I have seen them portrayed in other wildlife programs but this one made me feel like I was actually there. I didn’t realise how many doodles I had drawn when watching this, which prompted me to create these illustrations. Only 4 so far, but the rest will be done in time and I will create a set of mini-books out of them.