Enchanted October

“Retard the sun with gentle mist; Enchant the land with amethyst..” October by Robert Frost

October here in my neck of the woods can be magnificent, golden sun on autumn leaves, misty-moisty mornings clear to reveal blue skies, the smell of wood smoke, all is magical until the dreaded turning back of the clocks. The extra hour in bed is welcome; the dark evenings are definitely not!

Before the clocks went back we did manage to fit in a few grand days out. We drove a short distance over the border to Wales and visited Chirk Castle; driving through early morning mist and heavy grey skies it was rewarding to find ourselves in an enchanted place. The mist evaporated to reveal the castle and gardens in all their glory. I was particularly taken with a small tower, which put me in mind of Rapunzel. Chirk is a National Trust property and you can read more about its seven hundred year history here.

The gardens are truly beautiful and are filled with tall clipped yew trees. You can wonder past herbaceous borders and through woodland walks and on a clear day there are great views of Shropshire and the Welsh hills.

Work has kept me busy but I did manage to finish the hare painting that I started in the summer. A whole season has past and at times I thought the progress was more akin to a tortoise than a hare, I thought I would never finish it.

I bought a Canon iP4950 which produces incredibly detailed prints, the printer itself was very reasonably priced but as with all ink jet printers the cost of quality inks are almost as expensive as the actual printer and I am restricted to A4 size.

It did used to be the case that dye based inks had no longevity and could not be regarded as archival in the way pigment inks could but the new Canon Chromalife 100 plus inks are now expected to have an album life of 200 years or more. I did consider buying a pigment based printer but had to take into account the fact that they have a tendency to dry up if not in regular use. Forgive me if I sound like an advert for Canon, I assure you I am not being paid to say all this.

You can see the finished print here in my Etsy shop

There has been a little time to play and I enjoyed attending a book-making workshop with artist Louisa Boyd. The concertina books we made concentrated on paper surface manipulation techniques, including, cutting, scoring and piercing. Lou had pre-prepared the images we used and explained how she had used Thermofax screens to print her designs. As with all good workshops I came away buzzing with new ideas and a determination to do more screen prints. Lou also showed us some of her hand bound artists books and I encourage you to see her highly individual work for yourself here-

and she has a Facebook page here.

Playtime.

First of all, before I forget, I would like to thank Olivia at 4roomsandthemoon for nominating me for a blog award and also Julie from beadholder.etsy.com for listing one of my books in a treasury.

I would also like to thank everyone who visited my blog over Christmas and left kind messages. We had a very enjoyable and busy Christmas with family and friends but now the last guest has departed, I have been enjoying a bit of time to myself, time to play!

In September, my husband gave me a set of wood/lino cutting tools. Now, some women like perfume, others bags and shoes, but for me, I just love receiving craft tools! Last Christmas I got a Japanese hole punch which works like a dream, this year I treated myself to needle nosed pliers and a crimping tool, aren’t I the lucky one? However, I digress, I have been playing with my lino cutting tools and have managed to make several prints of a barn owl feather for a little book project I have been working on called “Silent Flight”.

Cutting lino is fraught with difficulties and I have many failed attempts which I consigned to the bin. The wood cutting tools gave a much better result than my old "school" set but as a print maker I feel I have a long way to go, however I have enjoyed myself immensely and have made a great deal of mess in the process.

Artists' Books

When my last book publisher went out of business I looked into the possibility of publishing my own books. I own the rights to several titles, mainly children's picture books which I have written and illustrated myself and often get requests from customers who wish to purchase new copies of old favourites. I was cautioned against doing this by several people who told horror stories of people who had houses filled with unsold books! My house is very small and already over full and although it doesn't cost too much to print a book, warehousing and distribution costs can be high.

I had so much enjoyed the business of illustrating and designing books and was reluctant to give up on the idea altogether so I decided to learn as much as I could about desk top publishing and other related computer skills. As an author/illustrator of children's books and being married to a teacher, I was often invited into schools to give talks and run workshops. It soon became clear to me that I needed to know something about book binding in order assist children to make their own books. This led me onto a whole new adventure as I joined The Society of Bookbinders and was introduced to the world of artists' books and the private press. I am a great believer in the adage "as one door closes another opens" and now I look back I can see that I would never have found this new interest without the loss of my publisher - which leads me onto Zybooks and Gandha Key.

Gandha owns and curates a site dedicated to the book arts called Zybooks artists' books online. She showcases the work of artists' books from around the world as well as providing space for information about events. mail art projects, exhibitions etc. I have been very impressed with Gandha's work and asked her how she came to create her site, here is her reply;

"I studied art and design and printmaking many years ago in the UK and was fortunate to have found some great people at Farnham who taught us to make artist's books, so I developed an interest in them then. In 1999 I visited the London Artist's Book Fair and saw so many wonderful artists' books that I decided to promote them online. I had just got my first computer and had gone online so it was one of my first internet projects. I contacted people I met at the fair and asked them if they wanted to show their work online"

That was ten years ago and in that time the website has gone from strength to strength and is archived by The British Library. I think she deserves a special thank you for her services to the book arts as she showcases the books free of charge.

Gandha has very kindly agreed to show two of my miniature "Little Leperello" books and I have been delighted by the response as I recently sold a copy of an A-Z of Flora to a British University Library. If you are interested in artists' books I am sure you will love her site, it is well worth a visit.