learning absences...

Our wee girl child started her very firstest day at kindergarten this morning .... so for me it's been a day of mixed emotions - I'm pleased that she's so pleased to be embracing the whole thing (she's been counting down the days until this morning) but sad to wave my littlest baby goodbye.

I decided to spend the day working and reworking (and reworking) lettering for my booky edition as part of book*art*object project

 

 

(this is a sneaky look at something I think will be worked up into the final piece....

I'm finally getting somewhere at last!)

 

I've long loved the meditative process of calligraphic practice - letters/ words get into your muscle memory and your body seems to absorb a piece of poetry through the repeated practice. It seemed so fitting that I spent today writing out the words of Rosemary Dobson's poem - Learning Absences....

sigh

well I've kept my hands and mind busy.

(this is a version of something I posted earlier over at my home blog..... I've since collected the girlie from her school - she's had fab time - she may be the youngest and the smallest but she's the bestest smiler!)

some booky goodness for you

A non-book-binding friend sent me a link to this site http://teostudio.blogspot.com/ which I thought would be of interest.

And this http://www.happydragonspress.co.uk/tips/quizzes_and_things.html is one which will tickle the fancy of the letterpress people. Just for fun (and without the suggested cheating!) I did the quiz and scored 45%. Of course, I'm strutting around like a pigeon!Some of those questions are hard for non-printers.

And one more book-related treat here http://artpropelled.blogspot.com/2010/01/ancient-manuscripts.html

Well, a minor paper hiccup at this end has seen a rethink on my Dobson book. If I re-size what I intended to make I will have enough paper. The shop will re-order, but supplies come up from Melbourne. (oh! the tyranny of distance!)

I pulled 12 prints the other day and while some are OK, I am not happy with others so must hit the press again this week.

All this with a sprained thumb! Good thing I can drink ambidextrously!

Jumping the gun

I'm not about to rush into anything but as I'm enjoying our BookArtObject activities SO MUCH I keep encountering pieces of writing and thinking to myself, "Ooh, that would make a good BAO project!", and it's happened again.

Lesley at Printed Material wrote a post based on a poem by Wislawa Szymborska entitled 'A Word on Statistics', which I loved. So - in my 'I'll just collect that because it will come in handy for something...' sort of way, I thought I'd draw your attention to it as a possible future project and see what you think!




This photo has absolutely no relevance to the above post, it's just the view down the valley from my studio this morning!






I should also say that I am spreading the word about BookArtObject with the idea that hopefully more artists will join in, so please do the same. I can imagine it would be hard to have a project group of more than 8 people, as we have now, but there's no reason why there couldn't be more than one BAO project running at a time, with different people involved depending on which text interests them... but I am slightly ahead of myself, I know. Meanwhile Ronnie made the excellent suggestion of organising an exhibition at a regional gallery with the books from this project as a centrepiece and perhaps some of our other book-related work as well... Ronnie, that would be great! Let me know if there's anything I can do.

First Book

I just got Sara's book in the post. It was so exciting. I have been expecting some other books I ordered for work and i thought Judy (our mail lady) was deliverying one of them, so when i carried the box inside and saw Sara's name under the dangerous goods declaration, I had this wonderful surge of anticipation run through my body. The first book! (I know that sounds cheesy but it's true) 

And it is beautiful!!! Such a thoughtful and  original response to the poem.  I love it.  Thankyou Sara. I am going straight to the studio, but please don't expect mine too soon. Cheers Jane.

Work In Progress

Finally some of my work in progress for the book. The first thing that inspired me from the poem was the subtle traces left behind by the person who had left. Then I started to think about the body as an abandoned building and what would happen to it if it was left untouched. Mould, rust, dust, cobwebs etc. If your body was like an abandoned building and you were left alone, would you rust up, become covered in cobwebs and go mouldy?

The book which I think I will call - 7 Signs of Absence - (I think the Olay advert - the 7 signs of ageing - somehow got stuck in my head!) also connects up with other work I have been doing about 'Traces Left Behind' which explores ideas about emotional/mental wounds being shown as physical manifestations.

When I first signed up for the book club I was thinking do I really have time for this? I have so much stuff I need to do and I work full-time, but it has worked out that ideas that have been rattling round my head have now become consolidated into this book and become a cohesive piece of work rather than random thoughts. Its given me a much needed kick up the ass to do stuff.

I am currently working on Rust and hope it progresses quicker than the mould did! I also want to do blind embossed text on the cover, so far my experiments aren't looking half as good as Sara's boxes.

I am also trying a new binding that I haven't done before which is Pamphlet stitch with a hardcover. I've made a practice one using notes from 2 books [Creative Bookbinding by Pauline Johnson and Hand Bookbinding: A Manual of Instruction by Aldren A. Watson]. I was pretty happy with the result, but I tipped in the endpaper and it didn't work out to well. I think I will sew in the endpaper and it will be neater. Any advice about this type of binding if anyone's done it would be welcome!