And finally...

After four years, I have come to end of the roll of admissions tickets picked up in Margate.  From them I have produced four collections of my own small admissions at a rate of one volume per year.

They'll be making their debut at the inaugural Frome Small Publishers Fair on 2nd July, do pop in and say hello if you are local.  All copies of the previous editions have now sold out after some were whisked off to America - I wonder if the admissions still rang true over there?


Two slightly bigger admissions that need to be made in relation to the new book:

The chaos of moving house during the year meant a change of venue and lack of routine in making, which has meant that though the tickets are all from the last quarter of the roll I didn't follow the same numbering sequence of tickets and copies in this fourth series - oops.

As I got closer to the very centre of the roll the tickets became more tightly curled, and in the process of encouraging them to straighten out some took advantage of their perforations to detach themselves  from their friends.  Three copies therefore future a 'mend' which I decided to highlight rather than hide.

A Fourth and Final Series of Small Admissions

Rubber stamp printing onto paper tickets with card end covers 

53 x 34mm

edition of 25

£4

BABE and other stories

In the usual style, a round up of activities and events from the last couple of months.

The Artist's Bookmarket at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh was great, we met up with some lovely people, old friends and new.  It was small enough to have a good look around and talk to artists about their work, but with enough readings and events that there was a steady flow of visitors throughout the 2 days.  I think next time I would allow a bit more time for travel and mooching about as the 5am start didn't really start us on the right foot, though a large bowl of porridge each morning definitely helped get us back on track!

After that, in April, it was the big one, BABE at the Arnolfini, Bristol.  It never fails to amaze me that you can fill a 3 storey gallery with artist's book-makers and there will still be people missing, just shows how many of us there are if you look in the right places. Tom made this great timelapse film to capture it all in 2 minutes: https://vimeo.com/124769276

I took the clocking in machine, along with a set of clock-in cards that I letterpress printed with 4 designs, as I wanted an 'action' for people to take part in as part of their book experience.  It raised lots of interest, some surprise that it was operational, and some hard decisions for those who liked their printed cards untouched, but also wanted to take part.

BABE was swiftly followed by World Book Night with the project this year based on Stephen King's The Shining.  I wasn't present for the event and resulting film, only contributing a tiny model to the film available here, but didn't they do a great job?

Coupon book

With only a week to go until the Artists' Bookmarket at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, I've managed to squeeze in another tiny book - an easy one to fit in the hand baggage thankfully.

Coupon book

Pamphlet bound 2 page book with original ticket covers and rubber stamp printing

52 x 30mm

edition of 20

£4

Next leg

First books of 2015 completed, the England leg of the Grand Tour series I've been putting together.  In contrast to the previous France and Germany editions, the tickets used for the covers of these are some London transport ones from the 1960's.  This was because I wanted some that had come to me from someone else's collection, as the others had, rather than collecting any deliberately.  The size and used quality of them works well with the torn paper pages inside.  I really like that each of these books is unique as the text and image combinations vary and cannot be repeated.

So the set so far looks like this, only Italy to add if the chance arises (ie I get any tickets!).

As before, I'll keep one copy and give one to the person who donated the tickets, so that leaves 3 to take to my next book fair, Artists' Bookmarket at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh 21-22 February.

Back on the horse

After something of a lengthy pause post-MA it is time to get back on the horse and introduce some new work.

A visit to the Pushing Print festival in Margate led to some foraging in Martells (a lovely printer and stationers) and being coaxed into acquiring a roll of tickets - thanks Angie!  I've been contemplating these for a few weeks now, and finally they have resolved into the following book.

A concertina book of tickets, each revealing a small personal admission on the reverse, in proportion with the scale and transient nature of the ticket.

A Series of Small Admissions

Rubber stamp printing onto paper tickets with card end covers 

53 x 34mm

edition of 25

£4, available via Impact Press at Small Publishers Fair, London, at Volume, Birmingham or by contacting me (email address on side menu).

An ode to the handmade

A conversation with a colleague over some particularly fiddly letterpress registration as part of a complex book composition, about how she knew it would have been so much easier to design on the computer and print digitally, and why even knowing this she chose not to do that, led to the comment 'because digital doesn't make you happy'.  This was meant not just literally, but as an acknowledgement that it is the hands-on process of making which brings some of us as much satisfaction as the end result.

At a course run by the same colleague, learning to print on an Adana press, I printed 'Digital doesn't make me happy' onto a set of postcards, one of which I gave back to her, the rest of which sold at the Manchester Artists' Book Fair, mostly to other letterpress printers, and I thought that was the end of that.  In the months following, I found the phrase was still in my head, with related sentences and the idea of putting them into a book.  I couldn't shake it off so finally I have printed and made the book, resisting the urge to compose the text in the form of a rhyme, and presenting itself in what is probably the cleanest, neatest book I shall ever make!

It is a celebration of the handmade, and doing things the difficult way because we like to.  It is intended as a light-hearted, humorous comment, rather than a deep statement, though it does reflect the overall ethos of my practice.

Digital Doesn't Make Me Happy
Edition of 20, letterpress printed and hand bound
Will be on display and for sale at the Leeds International Artists Book Fair in March, and at BABE (Bristol Artists Book Event) in April.

Making covers while the sun shines

It can only mean one thing - another season of Artists' Book Fairs in the offing.

I am trying to become a bit more disciplined about making all of the copies in an edition in one go, so that they are ready in advance for fairs and exhibitions and I don't have that mad scramble to make something to order.  It should also help with the development of my work as having to keep going back and make more of an earlier piece can disrupt my train of thought and new ideas, as well as the fact that it is always difficult to remember exactly the process and measurements used when you have had a gap since making the last one.  Plus of course it will mean there is more space on my table for exciting new things!

(I say all of this with the confession that in reality I am trying to make the remaining copies of an edition of 8, the first 3 of which were completed a few weeks ago.  So it is something of a resolution rather than actual practice at the moment, but definitely something to strive for).

Autumn dates

A summer of planning and making and reflecting is leading up to an Autumn programme of artists' book fairs.  Once again I will collaborating on these with Pet Galerie Press.


On Saturday 15th September we will be at the inaugural Plymouth Artist's Book Fair, being held as a part of Plymouth International Book Festival at Plymouth University.

October sees us in Manchester, where Hot Bed Press have expanded the event to cover Fri 12th and Sat 13th, and including a morning of artist-led presentations and discussions.  We are presenting work at this event under the umbrella of LEN, so all my work will have some element of letterpress.

And in November we will once again be attending the Small Publishers Fair at Conway Hall in London with Impact Press.

Sunset

The sun has set on another artists' book fair (Leeds - full report to follow soon), and in fact the last book fair in 'the season' for me as I can't make it to Edinburgh or Glasgow this time around.  So there is a chance to step back and reflect on how things went, what I might change, where I go from here.

On schedule

It's the usual rush to get just a few more books made before the next artists' book fair - which is in Leeds in less than a week.

Today I have been up-cycling some previously made work.  I originally printed these as greetings cards at the end of the print run of bookmarks for the Bookmarks IX: infiltrating the library system project last summer.  They are composed of 6pt letterpress ornaments, packed together to create the pattern and text.  I only had enough ornaments to print a single word, so these cards were put through the press 6 times to achieve this noticeboard look.

At the end of 2011 I up-cycled the leftover greetings cards into notebooks with blank pages, for the abc Christmas market.  I also took these to the Ffotogallery Book Arts Fayre last weekend, where I observed that people were very interested in them, but then looked disappointed when they opened them to find there was no 'book' content inside.  So I have been flexing my rubber stamps and have now added text to the pages, representing examples of delays and the reasons given that I have experienced over my rail travels.

Coming soon to an artists' book fair near you...

As a development of the artists' book fair activities I was involved in last autumn, and once more in collaboration with Pet Galerie Press, in the next few weeks I will be presenting work at:

Ffotogallery Book Arts Fayre 6 

(25th Feburary, Turner House, Penarth)

and

International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair
(9-10th March, Parkinson Court, University of Leeds)

These are the first artists' book fairs where I will be presenting my work 'independently' of UWE so it feels like quite a change.  Please do come along to see the books and say hello if you are near either!