In this workshop you’ll explore a variety of experimental book structures, beginning with books that require no stitching, just glue. The course will then move on to coptic binding using different sized pages that can frame or extend an image. You’ll explore using the spine as a support for shaped pages and ways of using inserts in some structures to add more information. Text will be incorporated, so simple writing exercises will form part of the preparation.
Liz writes:
As for the content of your work, I suggest you use a walk, a travel experience or any other type of journey that is significant to you. This suggestion is not compulsory but an approach to developing a visual narrative. Feel free to incorporate any subject you want to explore. Over the three days, you will have ample opportunity to resolve and develop ways of ‘saying’ something in a ‘book’ form and have fun doing it. Plus, I will supply most materials so you won’t have to bring your whole studio with you!
Mount Kembla Studio 29-33 Stones Road Mount Kembla NSW 2526
Bookings: Email Liz directly at ejeneid@ozemail.com.au
Celebrating 50 years of the Print Circle, a group of women printmakers established in 1970. This exhibition displays work shown with the group during the last 50 years by current and past members.
Gallery Lane Cove & Creative Studios Upper Level, 164 Longueville Road Land Cove NSW 2066
2 – 26 June, 2021
Monday – Friday 10am – 4.30pm Saturday 10am – 2.30pm Closed Sundays and public holidays
Space Sample 36 detail, 2020, 164 x 132 x 15cm, hand dyed paper
In Ilhwa Kim’s sculptural landscapes, innumerable paper seeds form densely packed rows and folds, with multi-colour valleys winding throughout.
White Portrait 36, 2020, 164 x 132 x 15cm, hand dyed paper
This South Korean artist arranges individual units of the rolled material in a manner so that the colour, shadow, and texture of the final pieces shift with each viewing.
Each art piece starts with a blank white sheet of paper which Kim dyes and rolls into tight tubes. These are then sliced using heavy machinery, before moving on to the placement of each component. No gluing takes place until the entire composition is in place, allowing for changes right up until the final stages of completion.
In her interview with Interlocutor she states (in part):
Depending on the dimensions, the work takes from three weeks to three months. The idea stage can be either a rough sketch or just throwing up tens of thousands of paper units on the canvas. However, the idea has never been about final forms or the final destination. Once started, sculptural aspects dominate. The movement of paper units and color flows throw light into possible new routes separated from the idea stage. Listening to the internal logic of what’s been piled up must be the most important guide of the work process.
Space Sample 7 detail, no other details published
As the artist dyes her paper individually for each project, and hundreds of works have so far been created, she has amassed a huge reservoir of coloured sheets for future use. Hand-dyed paper has the benefit of colour irregularities which creates textures and contrasts, adding to the originality of each piece.
Due to the brittleness of commercial glue, which begins to crumble after 10 to 15 years, her studio has a created their own non-chemical glue developed from traditional wheat-based glue. Regular drying processes, using this product, take between 10 and 15 days until cured.
Click on the links below to read more about her and see other samples of her work.
An enthusiastic group of six members braved the cold to meet at the Woodies Cubby House in Como. After a warming cuppa we were shown Betty’s bright and beautiful vessels created from tissue paper that she had made into yarn.
Our first project was to learn to make Explosion Books. Each person’s book was personalised by their choice of papers and colours used to decorate the page. Betty used irregular shapes of bright paper she had decorated with “shaving cream” marbling. Mandy used some of her eco-printed papers.
There was some discussion about the number of squares that could be used to make a book. One square makes a lovely card, and Mandy made a great little book using only two squares. Peter had a book made with more squares which worked well as a book but could not be laid out flat.
We then made little boxes starting with origami paper and moving into some “gelli printed” papers which gave a bit more body to the boxes.
Janet had some strong bright paper which made great boxes – one of the pages was quite “fuzzy” and so makes the photo look unfocused.
We also experimented making a box top that was the reverse of the basic top and showed lines between the triangles – best done using double sided paper.
After lunch we experimented with Hedi Kyle’s Blizzard book binding which is a folded binding that uses no sewing or stitching to hold the pages.
We played with the width of the binding and the number of folds used in the binding which both define the depth of the flaps that will hold the pages. Mandy made a book using more of her eco-printed papers.
It was a most enjoyable day with much playing with paper and lots of chat and camaraderie. We hope more people will join us for the next meeting in July.
Fiona is a calligraphic and book artist who loves books, words and paper. Her work is elegant and spare, and seeks the essence of things.
Her artist statement, featured on her website, reads:
Books have always been important to me, and I love words and telling stories. No matter what I make, text is nearly always present – in beautiful calligraphic words, in letterpress type, or in burnt book pages. My work often responds to social issues as I seek to promote peace, raise awareness of family violence or consider the impact of war.
For me, artists’ books create an intimate and personal space to view and reflect on art. They let you interact with them, touch them, and go back through and re-read them. You can experience the work one on one and discover it at your own pace.
In making, I work slowly and meditatively, and all my book and lettering processes take time – from setting type to designing layouts for calligraphy or hand-stitching books. My work is quiet and thoughtful, as I strive to make work that can be quite complex, appear simple and elegant.
Images, left to right: Peace Emerging, Learning My Lines, The Unbearable Whiteness
Peace Emerging, pictured here, is one of two of Fiona’s artists’ books to be acquired by the State Library of Queensland for their prestigious collection, the other being I would have loved a sunburnt country.
With regard to the book form Fiona writes that she loves the myriad ways it can be used to create and share meaning.
She enjoys sculptural bookworks and those that allow the viewer to observe and engage with artwork in an intimate manner.
Turning to her calligraphic art she says that she rarely does traditional calligraphy, preferring to use words in a calligraphic manner, hinting at them, encompassing them into work where there is artwork to support them.
Images, left to right: Under Construction, Inspiring Words, Blackbird
She owns a 1890 Lightning Jobber letterpress and several other small table-top presses and enjoys both lead and wood type as well as the traditional old ways of setting type and creating books, cards and pamphlets.
Working in partnership with sculptural artist & metal worker Barry Smith, together they run Deckled Edge Press, a small boutique press where they print small editions of booklets, poetry, posters, cards, postcards and other items, all offered for sale through their dedicated site.
You can learn a lot more about Fiona from the following places:
This book is the product of a day of mono printing with another PPA member, Claire Brach.
Cropped and assembled, these prints presented me with a funky outer space theme, but needed something more, perhaps some words, before I could make them into a book.
Another friend suggested using vellum pages between the prints. These create a sense of mystery about the print beneath.
The text on each vellum page is a line from the song, ‘Space Captain’ sung by Joe Cocker, with funky piano played by Leon Russell, the Master of Space and Time, during the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour.
Webmaster Note: You can see some of Claire’s prints and more made by Lee, many of which are included in her book, in our previous posthere.
One of our members has recently been experimenting with Suminagashi and we found this youtube tutorial by Linh My Truong which explains the process. Suminagashi, which translates as ‘floating ink’, can create some wonderful and very complex effects.
In this art exhibition, biophilia, mindfulness and the elemental inform creative processes and outcomes including drawings, handmade paper, installation and printmaking.
Anne Numont’s work is concerned with place, ecology and memory referencing her artist residencies at Gunyah and Primrose Park, her personal experience of migration and resettlement in Australia coupled with awe and lamentation of the natural world.
Bernadette Facer’s work responds to her concerns around our persistent role in nature’s demise: in particular the declining river systems through nitrate leaching and the failures within current water management schemes.
Creative Space 105 Abbott Road North Curl Curl NSW 2099
