Half hours at the Seaside continued ...

At last, after much sticking and glueing and cutting, my Seaside book slipcase is complete.  It took sooooo long to do, and was a headache at some points.  Here's the finished thing -

It's covered on the outside with book cloth and the coloured inserts are my hand-marbled paper.  This pattern just seemed right out of all the choices I had left.  The Seaside book looks pretty good placed inside its new cover, and I now need to work on the book some more.  So far, I have added a little collaging -

and a bit more ...

I'll be continuining with the collages, although need to spend time now on getting the watercolours I showed in a previous bog entry ready for the book.  No decision yet on how I'll include them - much problem solving to come ....

With Christmas on the cards, (and in the cards I have been getting!) it may be a while before I complete this piece but the odd mince pie and other seasonal food and drink might help it all along.

Fabrica Art Gallery

Fabrica have used one of my images in their Advent Calendar this year.  Check it out!  It's the one where I found a likely-looking stone on the seafront which turned into a Scottie Dog.  Fabrica.org.uk/exhibitions/

Icebook

Went to see the duo McGuires presenting their Icebook on Saturday at the Komedia in Brighton.  A tiny, fragile theatre set with pop ups and video projection.  Very enthralling and a mix of paper craft, video and book art. Just put Icebook* in your search engine to view a bit of the show, interesting to see some of it with lighting and some without, quite a contrast.  It was very small and miniaturised and the scale is shown by the presence of a person watching in some of the web pics.    *theicebook.com

More on half hours at the seaside

Have now started to make a slip box for the little seaside book, shown on the previous blog entry.  Here's a few pics about how far I have reached up till now -

They are all images of work in progress: hope to get it finished and lined in my hand-marbled paper as soon as I can.  It will make it look a bit more colourful at least on the inside -

Stage One, half done

Stage Two, a bit more done -

Still a way to go, although this is how it will look closed up with the book inside.  I might do some sort of image on the front later -

Half hours at the Seaside

Back in July 2012 I posted details of a book from the 1800s called 'Half Hours at the Seaside' and I have now started work on it.  Decided to include some of my watercolours on the seaside theme, to include paintings of driftwood, seaweed and beach stones -

I've found some lovely illustrations in the book as well, so may well use some of those to put together, although haven't decided yet exactly how they will appear.  I cut some out -

Having started, I now want to get this altered book completed so onward and forward.....!

The Paper Cinema

Went to see The Paper Cinema's production in Brighton recently, and it was marvellous.  There's a troupe of multi-instrumentalists who perform an orchestrated score, from keyboard, guitar and violin to playing a saw and various other sound effects are made.  The puppeteers use visual storytelling through bringing 2D drawings to life, all displayed on a large screen.  This is just such a wonderful use of paper cutouts, drawing, storytelling and music, and I would recommend it to you to go and see when it is next around.  This feature length piece was based on Homer's Odyssey.

If you would like to see their website, here's the link - www.thepapercinema.com

Some more collage

Here's a few more collage images from recent work - it all helps with the creative process ....

Book Art Forum

I had an idea the other day that it would be great if book artists in the area - Brighton/Lewes/surrounds - could meet up in a Forum from time to time.  I could imagine discussing our work, giving presentations about our work, attending specialised sessions delivered by someone in the know, sharing news items, listening to Book Art talks and so on. 

Bearing this in mind I have emailed a local place to see if they are interested in starting up something like that.  It seems to me it would be beneficial to them too, as it might create more interest in what they offer already and perhaps broaden horizons, although they seem to do a good job already.

If I hear any news on this front, I'll post it on here and any of you who are interested might want to come along  .......

Oversize 1900 era book

Recently I was at an Antiques Fair and spotted this lovely old book.  I did a deal with the stall-holder and was very pleased with the price I paid, although it took some work to get it.  It was a bit of a bargain because a lot of the loose leaf copies of engravings and paintings are missing, but as it happens that will be fine because I intend to 'alter' the book anyway and give it a new lease of life.

Like some of the books I have already bought it has an inscription in the front cover (frontispiece) and some decorative art deco.  Not only that, it is an oversize book, so wonderful to work on when I get round to it.  Also shown below is one of the remaining images that was left behind.

The following photo I took shows a more usual size book alongside the new book to give an idea of scale-

Latest news

If you are in the area of the Pen to Paper shop in the North Laine in Brighton you can see my friend Angela McKay's work in the window.  (See earlier blog for Angela's details).  I mentioned that she and I had written illustrated letters to each other, and she has included some of my letters in the shop window - shown on top of the post box.  Thanks Angela!

Another new book

Oh no I've found ANOTHER new book to work on.  I must stop finding new books - have to finish the ones I'm working on at the moment before going any further.   Anyway, the inscription written in English shows that this book was given to someone Christmas 1919, who could obviously read French because the book is written completely in French (see first pic below).  So it may be useful for some work about Christmas, or it could be that the letters and cards I found in France will fit in somehow.  Food for thought.....


As you can see, it says to 'dear Peter' from 'Uncle Victor'

 Here's the front cover -

The pictorial engravings are all in black and white, and I particularly like these -

More on the Skirt

I have taken a few more pics of the Skirt shown on the previous blog entry.  There's a bit more detail in these -

Some machine sewing, some hand sewing and some painting

 A mixture again of hand sewing, machine and paint

Book Art - Skirt

Have just finished my painted skirt to go with the Dressmaking Book I have been working on.  The two will now form one piece of work, which will be an installation.  Here's what the skirt looks like -

It took a while to finish.  I started it a long time ago, cutting the skirt out and then painting and embroidering the design on.  Have now finished all the sewing, seam, hems and fastening.  It is circular, so not an easy shape.










Here's another image -

It's quite difficult to photograph.

Anyway, will now put the finishing touches to the book which I showed before and get the two together.

Collage

Have been busy with some more Collage -



These were influenced by playing the game like Consequences
that I mentioned before, called Exquisite Corpses (see earlier blog entries)



Vintage Cards

A little while ago after coming back from France I showed some of the vintage letters and post-cards I bought at a flea market, and mentioned that I would show some of the cards I would make.  Well, I've been busy chopping them up (seems a shame, although what else to do with them?) and they are now recycled into cards.  Here's a sample - the two bottom left -



These letters and postcards from France were dated 1927, 1957 etc.



As you'll see, I also made some cards out of a recycled Daily Mail Nipper Annual, 1939, mostly black and white, a few colour.  There was very little colour used in those days for Annuals, so the coloured pages are a little rarer.  I bought the 1939 Annual from a shop selling bric-a-brac in Exeter back when we went there for the day whilst staying in Lyme Regis.  You can tell what I spend all my time doing when I'm on holiday!

Royal Academy Summer Show

Visited the RA last week and lo and behold there was some book art.  Alexander Korzer-Robinson had a cut encyclopaedia and John Dilnot, from Brighton, had a small book of worms.  There were some other book works, and lots of other stuff.  It's sometimes hard to see how some work was chosen for the exhibition - all down to the judging panel though.

Part 2 of my Boxed surrealism book

In amongst my older posts you may have seen a book I put together which was a boxed book.  On the pages were some drawings which were collated after a group of us, about 9 of us in all, played the Surrealist game 'Exquisite Corpses".  Its where you draw a head of some sort (it doesn't literally have to be a head - that's where the surrealist element comes in - it could be a cake, a plant, whatever), leaving the neck sticking down and you fold over the paper so the next person that gets your paper can't see what you've drawn, only the 'neck'.  This continues until a whole 'body' has been constructed, the more curious the better.

Here's a pic to remind you of what was on the blog before -

Go back if you would like to be reminded of what I said and to get some individual pages shown.

Anyway, just recently, the same 9 people sat down for a meal together and we added an illustrated tablecloth to this book project.  The tablecloth drawing is quite a popular game in the art world, and it seems to fit well with this book of illustrations because it's the work of the same artists.  They are not all artists, just people having some fun.  And who couldn't resist drawing all over my tablecloth.  Here's some pics - don't miss the huge red wine stain that happened in the middle of the meal -  See further down for some close-ups .....

and here are some close-ups -

A new book

When we were in Lyme recently I found this book in a second-hand bookshop.  It's dated from the 1800s, as shown on the inside.  It's one I'm going to use, especially as I have some 'botanical' watercolours I made of seaweed and some beach stones and lots of small pieces of driftwood.  Once I get started I'll decide how I can include these things with the book, and perhaps make a box to hold it all.   Some of these pictures are a bit blurry, but you can get the idea .....

A paper piece from Italy

Saw this in a shop at the design museum, couldn't resist -

Collage

Some recent Collage.  The one at the foot of this section is mostly made from the blue insides of envelopes -

South of France

During a visit to Antibes on the Cote d'Azur a week ago I went to Nice to see the antique and vintage market held there.  It was very hot and sunny - just the weather for browsing - and I was looking for some vintage letters and cards to use in my book art.  I found some post cards easily -

And some with scenes -

There is some wonderful old-fashioned writing on these, and the dates are around the 1950s.  They will also be good for collage, either stand alone or for use as collage in my book art.

It was a marvellous market and browsing was taking quite some time.  Eventually I thought it was going to be unlikely that I would find any letters, although we turned a corner and there was a basket full of old letters.  The postmarks on the envelopes show they date from 1940, 1950 and 1960, and they all hold amazing letters all beautifully handwritten, so I was very pleased to find them.  They all have that genuine patina of age. They were not that expensive and the owner of the stall was too busy drinking with his pal to worry about coming across to see what we wanted, so we went to him in the cafe where he was sitting outside in the sunshine, to settle up with him.

Anyway, here's what they look like -

And inside -

This gives me lots more material to work with and I'm looking forward to using these in many different ways.  For example, I also feel a card-marking session coming on.  I'll show some on here when I've made a few.