'If I only had more time' - in which I make an edition of 42 books in 8 days in collaboration with Nina Rodin

Lac Leman, Vevey, Switzerland

Last week was one of the most intense weeks of my life.....

Back in September 2017 I was artist in residence in Trelex, near Geneva, .

Whilst there I made a little book about being artist in residence, and how there is never enough time to complete a project. It was a small hand sewn, not very well crafted book using materials lying around in the studio.

To my delight, Nina Rodin, founder of the residency invited me back to make a first edition of the book with the aim to raise money for further residencies and for charity. This was an opportunity not to be missed, and I jumped at the chance to collaborate with Nina who is a very exciting artist, a perfectionist, and who has a lot of experience of making books.

The chance to revisit such a peaceful place was also something I could not resist.

fields of grain, Trelex

We worked hard.

Very hard.

From dawn until bedtime in the studio with occasional visits to Vevey to collect materials.

First I made a tiny mock up to work out how the pages would run.

 And then we sent for some enormous rolls of paper and got started.

The shops in Trelex are rarely open, so there was no excuse not to keep working.

I never managed to get inside either of these establishments, and the bakery was closed too, due to 'hand surgery'. No delicious fresh bread for me. Just wonderful juicy cherries, fresh from the tree in the garden.

The book was printed on a very large printer.

The huge sheets were then trimmed into strips for a concertina book.

I trimmed 280 metres with a small pair of scissors. It took 2 days, and was not that exciting. I was very glad when it was done.

Nina made 960 folds for the pages with her creasing device. She, too, was glad when that particular task was complete.

creasing device

When making a 31 page concertina, keeping everything square is critical.

Otherwise you get a 'bad' book, in which the images are not square to the page.

More exciting was a trip to Vevey to the book bindery, to choose materials for the covers.

I was allowed about 3 minutes to choose.

The original book was shocking pink, which would have worked well for rasing money for breast cancer, but there was not enough card in stock, and no cloth.

So no pink.

I wanted it to be cheerful.

The orange buckram cloth just jumped out at me.

It had to be.

I thought about blue, but I keep thinking back to my book art course and how I wasn't allowed to display an orange sleeve with my work when we had an exhibition in the library.

Defiance is a powerful emotion.

I am now free to rebel.

We found a red-orange card for the soft covers that almost matched.

Done.

And then thinking back again to my book art course, and how I would have to write why I chose orange/red and how it works for this specific book I took a stroll in the village to think of all the possible connections to that colour.

This is the art world at its worst; pretending that there was a good reason for the choice, when actually it was because I felt rebellious.

So here are some orangy-red things in the village, which if anyone asks I can pretend were the stimulants behind my choice.

the only way is orange

at the station

world cup fever

geranium orange

village cones

hair and watering can

But looking deep into my subconscious, maybe it is because the fountains were full of orange/red petals last September, which is how my project on water and the local fountains got started.

petals floating in the fountains of Trelex, September 2017

The petals are not there in June.

The flowers have only just started blooming in the baskets above the fountains, and the water is free of debris.

It would have been a very different book if I had visited at this time of year.

Anyway. The job is done, and I think you will agree that the covers match the petals perfectly.

completed books

And for my other half, who prefers foody things to most things, it almost matches the sausages too.

Photography and collography.......... finding my way in the print room with Birgitta Wilson.

Collographs by Birgitta Wilson

I like to play with scissors and glue.

Photography is not meeting my needs for mess.

So I decided to learn how Birgitta Wilson creates her beautiful collographs as a way to get an opportunity to be messy, and to understand how my print making friends create their work.

Words like 'intaglio' and 'scrim' finally understood. And a chance to play again with the mighty printing press. Technology free, and a very physical process.

I spent two days at The Arches Print Studio in Hastings learning from Birgitta and other very talented artists who also wished to explore new ways to make art.

It is a very different way of thinking.

Find 'materials' .........      anything with texture. not too thick. PVA, tile cement, egg shells, different textured papers

Plan your image in your mind.

Create the image with sticking and glueing.

Then add more stuff to create texture and shading.

HOLD ON A MINUTE. I GOT STUCK AT STAGE ONE. PLAN YOUR IMAGE?

MY MIND  FAILS ME.....

So I created a very simple grid and scotred it with a knife, added some sellotape and brown tape, and hey presto; I have a 'collographic plate'.

Of sorts.


Ink it up, put it through the press, and bingo; my very first collograph.

Hmmm.

I think I prefer the plate to the print.

I also prefer the tissue papers used for cleaning the plate before printing.

And the marks on the work table in the room next door.

Self doubt creeping in, big time....

bird

A cup of coffee and a piece of cake restore my enthusiasm, and I get to work on my second plate.

I am still not thinking of a picture, but can manage abstract squares; no change there.

Everyone else is busy creating forests, rivers, trees, frogs, beaches, and other proper landscapes.

scrim and eggshells on tissue paper and tin foil

I am stuck in square mode

Adding plant material to the already inked plate creates a silhoutte effect.

This is not mine....

flowers and egg shells; also not mine.

It takes a very long time to ink up the plates and then wipe off the excess ink.

Too much ink and you have a dark splodge. Cleaning off the ink in the crevices with a cotton bud is essential.

over inked print getting a bit murky

But running the same plate thought the press again without inking futher creates a 'ghost print'; a paler and more subtle version of the original. Handy if you have too much ink the first time.

my ghost print of scrim squares

I prefer the lighter look.

I am not a patient person and all this cleaning was beginning to get me down.


I have only just got over the extreme ironing that I had to do for the wedding.

photograph by Istvan Magyar

 Thanks to Istvan for my favourite shot of me at the wedding.

The others were churning out elaborate prints of great elegance.

I knew this wasn't my style.

But then the lovely Birgitta handed me a gift.

She asked me if I would like to try blind embossing.

No ink required. She could obviously see that I was struggling.



I had to think what to make.

Agnes Martin came to mind, and I created a grid.

 First I printed it plain, without any ink, and was surprised by the pleasure that this gave.

Then she allowed me to choose a colour.....

I broke the rules with a pretty playground pink.

..... I was away.

Creating something that felt true to me.

pink collograph

ghost print

scrim inked up and placed directly on the board

 I finished with a  little piece of scrim applied to a little square of card.

I liked the result. Something about creating art from the materials that are used to create art......


 I knew that I would be back for more.





Less sticking and glueing and more cutting and inking seems to be the way foward.

And more photography.......


of course.

bird on wire

blot on the landscape