Sunday 25 September 2016

playing with paper and thread


Time is of the essence.

My 'to do' list has 'food' on it. Signs that doing an MA distracts from normal daily activities.

I have to keep a reflective diary, and this week's homework is to play with paper and thread to see what 'book' forms I can come up with.

A book can be almost anything if you choose to take the loosest definition of the word.

Already I am confused about what a 'book' actually might be; it has elements of

  •  order
  • binding
  • sequence
but these might not relate to pages in a traditional book. A group of people telling stories..., a film, sedimentary rock, to name but a few of the suggestions I have come across so far.

I have been asked to make a book about a certain space/place. I have 2 weeks to do this. I have also been asked to play with paper folding and thread to see what variants of book form I can come up with.

I started with a palm leaf binding of some images about a walk.



very simple, and allowing the images to be kept in sequence while being able to view them as a sequence if the thread is long enough.

palm leaf binding

concertina with pockets

concertina

folded concertina and a paper cover

a more rigid structure with pockets

loosely bound pages using needle and cotton

It is possible to fold paper very intricately and mathematically.

If you have no other tasks in life, then that might be for you.

I enjoyed loose sewing and crushing; more in line with my fuzzy photos.

But for my space related book task I have chosen the seawall at Camber Sands. Rigid concrete on a massive scale dividing farmland and the sea.




 A place to breathe.



A short stroll on the shingle in search of ideas for my book revealed evidence of people making their own creations from natural and man made objects; stones, feathers, shells and a poppy stalk.



Is this a book?






I collected some bits of string, wood, stones and seaweed .

The structure of the book needs to represent the wall; strong and linear.

The content is going to be about the feelings and thoughts that I had while walking along the wall. Words that came to mind....

  • wind
  • sounds
  • space
  • dogs
  • birds
  • you get the picture

I had better get on with it.






Tuesday 20 September 2016

In which a very worried bear is rescued at Camber Sands


This is worried bear.

I rescued him with a  friend from a charity shop in Rye. He wants to go on adventures and tell stories.

I took him with my family to the beach to play.

He was up for it.









Lifeguards at Camber Sands

He was thinking about safety at the beach and had a good chat to the new lifeguards at Camber Sands.

He sat on a post and looked at the safety signs for the kite surfers.





And then disaster befell him.

He was blown by a puff of wind into a deep dark hole, between the enormous new granite boulders that are the new sea wall.

I couldn't reach him, and nor could my daughter.

Worried bear was worried.

We were worried.

The baby slept as usual.






He lay there for several days until OH ( my other half) came to the rescue

OH is obviously a Blue Peter baby; coat hangers and duct tape to the rescue.




Down into the hole they went





And out came a very relieved and slight fuzzier than before bear.




OH got a Blue Peter badge.




Worried bear ran off to play at Pontins and then went back to the beach to ask the lifeguards why they hadn't been there when he needed them.



There will be no stopping him now.




Wednesday 14 September 2016

Landmarks - Robert Macfarlane

image




Just arrived. All about words and the landscape......

more on this later.

Wednesday 7 September 2016

On becoming a student again



This has been a busy day.

I became a student again.

MA in book arts.

Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts, London.

Let the fun begin.

Monday 5 September 2016

And so it goes on ....... first the holiday, then the laundry

first the holiday

starting with the view from my hotel room

someone must have known about my cone fixation

the cones of Cascais

Sintra

Cascais


gardener at work

ceiling, Monsteratte


interior, Montseratte

Montseratte

Pena Palace
Looking up at Pena Palace; too many people on the ground; we left hurriedly having spent a long time hiring an electric car to get us up to the top of the mountain to see it.
electric car

Cascais

Cascais

stucco

wall plaster



Cascais

by the pool





then the washing......











More laundry.

The washing cycle....