Making tracks

At last the books and bits are made, bags packed, and we're off to the 6th Annual Manchester Artists' Book Fair.  I've not been before so I'm looking forward to seeing how / if they do things differently, and have a whole day symposium talking about Photography and the Artist's Book to enjoy first.

Bookmarks are GO!

The bookmarks made for Infiltrating the Library System IX are now launched at the venues.  For folk who can't get to a venue they are also being distributed online by Bibliobuffet who have published this essay about them by Laine Farley.

Art&Fiction have also got a nice link in French on their website.

Blankety Blank

Unseasonably, its been the season to crochet some blankets, here are the latest incarnations.

A purists' blanket made only in shades of grey (and named the In Grey by its recipient), fun to make as I made it up as I went along, inspired by and experimenting with different stitches garnered from Pip over at at Meet me at Mikes.

A surprise for a baby that I heard was soon-to-arrive.  I haven't seen the parents in a long while so I just hope they are into the crochet revival!  Ripple pattern as ever from Pip Lincolne as above, and I have to say, one of the fastest to make I have encountered so far.

Revisits exhibited

The summer has felt like a bit of a catch up, getting some books prepared for exhibitions that I committed to some time ago.  This has included making some more copies in the editions of the Ghost Train and Ticket books, and revisiting and reconsidering some older works.

For a joint exhibition between Universities in the UK and US I have chosen to display Journey, 2006 - the result of a mail art project asking people in global locations to write a postcard describing their favourite journey.  The images on the cards are identical and are displayed together make up one large repeated image or card, as shown in these very dingy photos (note to self to take some new ones when the work is returned).

Journey, 2006

For the  exhibition Correspondence, which will be travelling around Poland in 2012-13 I chose to re-examine the book project Returned, 2006.  This consists again of postcards, sent between the UK and US and I decided to present it in a new format for this exhibition.  

I wanted to use thin light paper reminiscent of airmail letters and settled on layout paper.  My intention was to photocopy the cards, to create a quick rough reproduction, using double-sided printing to create a true copy of each card.  Tests showed that a black and white copy did not show all of the markings on the cards so I used colour copying.  The book is compiled from single sheets, rolled over and stapled on one edge.  The end result is a light, flimsy, temporary feeling book.

Returned, 2006.  Re-delivered, 2011

Travel update

From this...

...to this!

A couple of travel text collages I made have now been transformed into stickers and badges to accompany the next issue of The Blue Notebook - I love them!

Play your cards right

After admitting to Graham Rawle that since attending his talk, where he described his upcoming book The Card and his own collecting of lost cards, I had passed up the opportunity to pick up a dropped 5 of clubs on the platform at Paddington station, I was compelled to pick this up.  It was lying on the pavement on my walk to the station at 6.20am on a sunny morning after a rainy night, making it a little soggy and grubby.  I tucked it into the inside cover of my book to dry flat and forgot about it until the train ride home.

Closer inspection revealed that it was not a playing card but a language translation flashcard, which disappointed me at first.  However, after glancing at it every morning over breakfast I have fallen for it and set off for work repeating the words over to myself. As yet I have no picture in my mind for what it will become, but there is definitely a project in there.

Stamped out

Had a brilliant time at the Homemade Rubber Stamp and Book workshop taught by Stephen Fowler at UWE this week.  Who knew carving into rubbers could be so satisfying? (well I had an inkling) and I learnt so many tricks and tips that will help in my future making thanks to Stephen's expertise!  I arrived somewhat unsure of what to make, but drew on my now familiar world of ticket and text related ephemera to make some stamps I am really pleased with and can use again.

As a group we made 2 books, one based on the concept of the game 'consequences' or 'exquisite corpse' where we each made a 3 part figure and then shared them to stamp a mixture of top, middle and bottoms to make 8 unique pages.  The second book was a chance for us to each display our favourite stamp creation in an edition of 8 books.  So great to have something to take away at the end of the workshop with a reminder of other peoples designs to provide ideas about techniques.

Here are a few pics of the day: