Print and Bind with Emily Martin

To think that only last week I was on the Print and Bind workshop with Emily Martin. Three days of printmaking, then using a Drumleaf binding turning said prints into books. This binding is particularly useful for binding prints (or any other double page spread images) as there is no need to consider matching up images or text and the pages open nice and flat.

Gelatine mono-printing is a process that is new to me, but one I'd highly recommend - it's very satisfying, and so simple and quick, and if you want to, it's possible to achieve some very subtle and fine marks.

Water soluble inks are rolled over a 'plate' made of firm gelatine, with soft sponge rollers. You will need to make it as much as three times stronger than you normally would, then press items onto the surface. Lightly pressing onto the back of the paper with your hand will transfer the image.

Water based inks dry quickly, making it very easy to draw back into with oil based mono-printing.

Gluing pages together along the fore-edge (after the spine has been glued) to create small sample books.

New supplies! Soft rollers and half a kilo of gelatine . . . eBay has a lot to answer for!

For further information on workshops contact Lori Sauer

H is for . . .

I've been toying with the idea of a series of alphabet prints for a while, small British mammals . . . but what starts with an i, or a x for that matter?

Okay, so not only mammals but birds, fish and insects as well.

Q may be quail, as I've just read (in an old observer book of British birds, date unknown) that this plump little brown bird is a summer visitor. The book also goes on to mention that in winter these birds are shipped into the country for food, under most cruel conditions . . . plus ça change.

Still, u, x and z elude me, any ideas gratefully accepted.

Anyhow, to make a start. H is for hedgehog

First cut and colours printed,

adding further cuts and colour,

and the decision is made to remove some of the text. 

I have not mastered the art of planning a print on paper in its entirety. I draw directly onto the lino, and cut, print and change things as I go along. Had I drawn it out fully beforehand I might well have placed the H elsewhere. 

As it is, I may well remove the letter and replace it with a more carefully placed letterpress initial.

I'm happy with the colour choice, and now wait for the first colours to dry before adding the detail which will bring the image together.

And finally, the clear-up (my least favourite part).

Norwich sculpture . . . oh! and artists' books

Last weekend I persuaded Mr B to visit an artists' book fair in Norwich, after all, I said, we're almost on the doorstep as we're in Mersea . . . two hours and almost 60 miles later it was beginning to feel like a bit of a long way!

Wanting to park close to the forum we headed for the city centre and found a car park on waste ground behind the old Eastern Electricity building, lucky because a football match in the town meant the parking spaces where hard to find. 

And lucky too, because we could see that the walls are completely covered in text, an artwork no less! Commissioned by Sculpture for Norwich

And a very helpful parking attendant let us know that Moore's Utopia was written on the building by artist Rory Macbeth, and that the building is scheduled for demolition some time in the near future.

The reason for our visit was to see Turn the Page at the Forum. Turn the Page is an artists' book fair and exhibition, showing work by artists that are inspired by the conceptual and structural properties of the book form. In its fourth year, this book fair although small is perfectly formed, with a good selection of exhibitors, exhibits and the ongoing Norfolk Longbook project which invites submissions from artists and poets of all abilities.

Live music and stories provided by Two Coats Colder, an acoustic band from North Essex, who played beautiful new and traditional folk music.