5 in 5 - June 2019 - The Lighthousekeeper

Welcome to '5 in 5' where on the 5th of 

each month I post 5 photos that I have 

taken in 5 minutes.

In March I went to a Artbookart Exhibition to see the collaborative work of local artists and friends.  It was inspired by the book 'The Lighthousekeeper' written by Jeanette Winterson and I had not read the book prior to my visit.  However, I was inspired by the story and the artwork, so I promptly ordered a copy and was not disappointed. Some might find the flitting back and forth in time does not appeal to them, but for me it was a different and enjoyable read, where the characters came to life and my imagination taken on a journey. Sometimes surreal, sometimes sad, this book weaves a story about an orphan child who goes to live with a lighthouse keeper. Here are just a few of the exhibits that were part of the collaborative exhibition:  

Sculptured objects by Gwen Simpson

Bringing the imagery of 'Lighthousekeeping' out of the page

  Part of a textile collage by Karen Apps

"Carry your own light and you'll never get lost in the darkness"

 A Pop up book using Turkish Map fold and origami envelope fold by Chris Ruston
"All of us bound together, tidal, moon drawn, past, present and future, in the break of a wave" Jeannete Winterson

Sculptural Bookart by Sally Chinea

'Some wounds never heal'

I think you'll agree, this work is impressive and I was so glad I went a long to see it.  I also enjoyed the chance to catch up with the artist, Chris Ruston, and have a day out with my friend Ruth. A good day all round!

……………………………………...

As always, I invite you to join in this 5in5 monthly challenge and I hope some of you will do that. Trying a new way of doing things can spark new ideas and add interest, so here's how it works: 

1.  Choose a location.

2.  Have your camera ready.

3.  Set a mobile timer for 5 minutes.

4.  Take as many photos you can until the time is up.

5.  Choose 5 photos to download and share by using the link tool 

   

You have until the 25th of the month to add your photos and if you want to know more about 5in5 there are details here.

And one more thing - when you use the link tool, please click on your post title.  This will show the web address. Please right click, copy and paste this as your link.  This will take readers directly to your '5 in 5' blog page and be easier for them to find.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Book Art Day

Last week I went to London for The Society of Bookbinders Book Art Day. Would you believe that my friend Ruth came all the way from the Isle of Bute to join me?! I was super impressed by her intrepid journey for this one day event and it made the day even more special.  

The event started with an illustrated talk by Tracey Bush. In 1995 Tracey made a series of books connected to the River Thames and I really enjoyed hearing about stories and process behind these. Her latest book 'Dusk' is a beautiful work, each page carefully hand printed and hand cut out. This book was awarded the 2017 J.Hewit 'Excellence in Design' in the SOB International Bookbinding Competition. It's easy to see why when you see and handle the book.  You can see this and other books by Tracey on her website.   

Around the room were a selection of other book artists and it was lovely to see the wide range of techniques and designs.  Enjoy a few photos, and apologies to the artists - I was so engrossed in talking, looking and taking the occasional photo that I didn't make notes to attribute.  

One of my favourite stands was an Iranian lady who made journals using Photoshop and mixed media. And Dizzy Pragnell, who I met at Turn the Page in Norwich last year. Her fruit and vegetable books still continue to amaze me. I mean, really! Can you believe each page is a cabbage leaf?!   

I realised when I got home that I did not take photos of all the books that I admired, but that's okay. The ones I have show the diverse and colourful collection that was on display, and it was lovely to meet the artists in person. 

Turn the Page artists book fair - Part One

This weekend saw me at Turn the Page artists book fair, in Norwich.  I’d been looking forward to this for some time, and over the proceeding months and weeks I watched three of my friends completing work for their stands.  My heart missed a beat or two when I entered the venue because there was such an array of book art and some extremely talented artists. It was hard to know where to start! But the beginning is always a good place - so we visited the first stand and carried on from there.

It would be impossible to show everything so here are some of the works that most connected with me.  My husband doesn't have the same level of interest, and said that once he’d seen enough he would potter off and meet me later. The fact that he didn’t potter off shows that there was much to see and admire!  There was a lovely atmosphere and all the artists were friendly and enthusiastic. But 
what stood out was hearing the stories - of how or why the artists made the books. And everyone was happy for me to take photos of their work too, I appreciate that because it is nice to look back and enjoy the experience again through memory.

So come with me and I’ll show you around…..

Visually, this was one of the show stoppers for me.  These books made by Dizzy Pragnell are pages made from fruit and vegetables - I kid you not!  Each is a wafer thin pressed image and the photo does not do them justice.





These are cabbage leaves...

apple.....

kiwi....

and carrot...

Each book was exquisite and I could fill a blog post about each stand that I visited, but I need to move on.....

Next is Pien Rotterdam. One of my favourite books of hers had a collection of fabric swatches that belonged to her grandmother and great grandmother. Pien inherited these fabrics and over the years she has used them. It was only when she started to run out that she thought it important to hold on to the memory and keep a record of the collection.

On the back of the book a small label tells what the fabric had been used for. Pien remembers these... 

Pien also made smaller copies of the book to sell. Each has original swatches and as someone who appreciates nostalgia I really admired Pien's work.  She had lots of other examples of work too, including a stamp album in which she has added beautiful snippets.  Each page is a different colour co-ordination.

Next was Peter Knight.  He makes copper etchings and uses these to make amazing prints and three dimensional constructions.

This one had particular interest as I visited Down House in recent weeks and have always been fascinated by Darwin's work.

Another stand that held my attention was artist, Jane Sasanow. I love constructions and how shadows and surprise comes from folds and concealment. I have often used these constructions to make my own books, but I was inspired how Jane had put these together, to create collections and works of art. Jane will be adding photos to her new Instagram site.

Another series of work that captured my imagination was by Annette Kreiser. 

I love to use found objects in my own work, as it is a way to create longevity.  This is even better where stories are involved too, so imagine my excitement when I heard that some of Annette's marks are made by pieces of WWII aircraft, washed up on the Norfolk coast line. Straight away I was taken back to the crashed WWII plane I found in the Shetland islands. But I digress....

There was so much to see that it was necessary to take a brief break, but a short walk and refreshments gave the much needed energy to go back for more.

And I suspect you might welcome a break at this point too!  So I'll come back with the rest, tomorrow. Thanks for joining me in this visit and I hope you are as inspired by these art works as I am.

More Adventures with Alice

A few weeks ago I started to tell you about my adventures with Alice. This was a weekend of mark making on an island in Essex, organised by Alice Fox. We had such fun, but what made it stand out  (a part from being with such an inspirational and lovely artist!) was that it stretched me. My go-to  tool for recording is often my camera, or a pen to write down words. This time Alice encouraged use of marks.

On our first morning Alice gave us a list of ideas. These included making marks with natural materials and found objects, as well as our favourite tools. I opted for a thick graphite stick most of the time. We were invited to record a list of different sights and sounds, vague enough for personal interpretation, and challenging enough to stretch (I'm still working out how to record colour, other than words!) One of my favourite pieces was the map of my early morning walk, which I spoke about in the previous post. Here I had held the graphite stick on a wedge of folded card, and the movement of my body directed the marks. This time I thought about how I could record sounds, and decided to do it in a similar way.

Standing in the water I closed my eyes and just listened....

Wellington boots kept my feet dry, and at brief interludes it was important to check my footing because it was an incoming tide. As well as checking the depth of water, which was fast riding, I needed to make sure I didn't sink too deep in the soft mud. Otherwise, I just shut my mind to everything other than the sounds. Of course, I could have sat on the bank where I didn't have to think about my environment, but standing in water made me feel more connected to my surroundings, and part of it. My experience was better for it.

I came up with the idea of recording the sounds by letting my pen react to the sounds that I heard. There was no thinking or planning; my hand moved intuitively and I really enjoyed this. It's something I will do more of in future. Before this weekend I lacked understanding about making marks, and now I know that when I look at these marks again, I am transformed back into that time and space,  and that they have emotion attached. 

The two pages will be joined together to create a simple accordion book, with a cover. Ideas also include making a separate book with a few photos taken at the time, and some words of explanation; with a small wallet to keep the two together.

During our weekend we also did a collaborative project. 
While sitting round the large table we were invited to make a mark
on an A3 sheet of card - something that had meaning to us this weekend. I chose my early morning walk, with it's irregular line that marked my route and journey.  We then passed the sheet to the next person, and we repeated our same mark on the sheet in front of us. We continued doing this until we received our original sheet, with a mark from every person present. 

Alice showed how to fold the card and cut along the lines, so that when folded it created a small book.   We ended up with lots of interesting marks on pages, and each of us spoke about our experience. Hearing why some people chose the words or marks that they did added meaning to our piece of work, and even though everyone repeated their mark, each book was entirely different.

One of my pieces of work was inspired by looking at the landscape.

It took several attempts before the abstract shapes of the tree line and mudflats revealed themselves, and I discovered that this free expression takes practice and playfulness for it to shine. I have way to go, but enjoyed the experience! In the same spot, I watched birds swooping and others wading in the mud. More random marks recorded this, and back at the house I added feather prints.  

A lot of our work was on pieces of folded card, small enough to carry on our field trips. Later this gave us opportunity to use these in a variety of ways and I recognised different projects coming together. In this next one I sewed the landscape and the bird flight pages together. As with other work this is still in progress. I may add a cover and have a question mark about including a hint of colour.

I mentioned at the beginning about making marks using natural materials and found objects.  In this next book there are pages that have texture - rubbings from wood, the crazed paintwork of upturned boats, metal, and rust.

I recorded what I saw and heard in words and in marks, and discovered that flowers add beautiful colour when rubbed onto paper.
I had not tried this before.

Inspired by another in our group I also took prints of mud. I discovered this is not as easy as it sounds, although to be honest, I did not spend time and patience experimenting like the lady in question. She had sat the same spot for an hour, watching the change in mud as the tide went out. She took numerous prints, and some were really subtle and delicate, with signs of movement and flow. The mud I chose was quite dry, and to make an impression I had to apply pressure. It lacks the delicacy of her prints, but it left the mark I was looking for and later I used wax to seal some of these pages. This encaustic art has a lovely texture and I have since used some of these pages to make covers for small notebooks.

I mentioned that there is a lot of mud and that it can be dangerous to go off the footpaths.  One lady found this to her cost. One foot wrong and she slipped onto her back. With no foot

or hand holds she was stranded,  with arms a loft holding her expensive camera!  I was in hearing distance had she shouted, but out of sight and with panic held under control, she somehow managed to turn and lever herself out of this thick  quagmire.  I had previous taken a photo of this broken warning sign and drawn it on one of my sheets of paper. I even added smudges of mud, though not intentionally! This page took on new meaning after this ladies experience and I discovered new found respect for the sign and warnings. It's easy to get blaze' when an area becomes familiar so I was grateful for this reminder. 

I'll be back with part 3 because I still have more books that I  made that weekend.  And I'll leave you with my favourite view of the mud, with the sun reflecting at the end of another glorious day.....

5 in 5 - December 2015 - 5 BOOKS FROM MY SHELF

                                         Welcome to '5 in 5' where on the 5th of

each month I post 5 photos that I have

taken in 5 minutes. 

If you follow my blog you will know that making handmade books is a passion; and that I have book shelves and boxes bursting with books. I know I am not the only one, and that many of you love books as much as I do.  So for this months photo challenge I thought I would share some books that I have enjoyed reading or plan to read. In the spirit of 5in5 I gathered five together and set my timer....

The first three I collected from my bedside table:

I read this book and spoke briefly in a previous post about how the KonMari method has helped me. I plan to put the ideas into proper practice in the new year but meantime I can still feel the change. I no longer pile my shopping trolley with bargains or things I fancy but instead stop to think when or how I will use things not on my 'to buy list'.  I look forward to reading it again and decluttering in earnest. Every journey starts with small steps....

My next choice is another book I have read and will come back to. Liz Gilbert  writes honestly about her own journey and experience as a writer, and not only do I love her style of writing but her words are reassuring and resonate with me as a fellow creative. 

And now for something completely different! 

After thoroughly enjoying 'Miss Peregrine's home for Peculiar Children' I couldn't wait for the sequel, Hollow City. It is just as gripping and surreal and a great book to snuggle up with in bed. This book is not a 'light' read, but one I can't put down and don't want to end. 

My final book choices are ones I have not yet read.  I bought 'US' in a charity shop, and it has good reviews:

'An uncanny ability to make us laugh out loud, but also care passionately about his characters'  Daily Telegraph

I look forward to reading this next. When you have a good book to look forward to it makes the ending of another easier.

And finally, 'The Tao of Pooh & The Te of Piglet'. I bought this book for my daughter on her 21st birthday. The inscription inside the cover tells me so. It's one of the books she never took with her when she moved into her own home and one I have dipped into but not read cover to cover.

But I plan to. 

I love quotes and philosophical approaches to life, and sometimes it is important to slow down and breathe gently. It's interesting that the book cover shows Pooh holding on to the end of a kite, gently flying in the air. At an NLP meeting recently I was asked to visualise an image that would help me deal with something I found challenging, and I saw myself holding the string of a kite and letting it go.  I hope this book will help me to keep light hearted and playful, but unlike Pooh, I hope it will also keep me grounded!

One of my aims is to read books I already have rather than keep buying more so these here are a good start. I'd love to know what books you are reading or have lined up.

This is my last 5in5 for 2015. It's a time for reflection as well as celebration and I will be carrying on with this photo challenge into the New Year. Thank you to Eileen, Maggie, Helena and Melanie for joining in last month, and to everyone else who has done so during the year. 

And I'd love for you to join in too! So if you have time to pick up your camera for 5 minutes this is what you do:

 

  1.  Choose a location.

2.  Have your camera ready.

3.  Set a timer for 5 minutes (I use my mobile phone).

4.  Take as many photos you can until the time is up.

5.  Choose 5 photos to download and share by using the link tool below. 

   Please note: 

You have until the 25th of the month to add your photos to the link

and you can take  your photos any time. They do not have to be taken or posted on 5th!

If you'd like more details please go here.