Bookplate tutorial

This is my first tutorial so you are my guinea pigs, wish me luck!

I have designed two bookplates, one is a frog design and the other is a fairy; I call her "Bouquet Fairy" as she is holding a bouquet of wild flowers. The frog design was first offered to a website called My Home Library You can still finds lots of designs there. the version that I am offering you here today has slightly different wording.

To get your Free Frog Bookplate click here-



Your PDF should be ready to print; I like to use black ink on a good quality paper such as Conqueror, which comes in a range of colours although traditionally bookplates tended to be printed on white paper. Try experimenting on different papers to see which one you like the best, I prefer a cream paper but it is up to you.

Set your printer to print top quality, follow your printer’s instructions to ensure a good result.



The bookplates will need to be trimmed to size, allow a little space between the border and the cutting edge, I like to give about 5mm clearance all round but you can trim right up to the border edge, it is up to you. I use a craft knife and a metal ruler on a cutting mat but you can use scissors if you are careful.



When you have your plates cut to size you will need to glue them into your book. This procedure needs to be done with some care and preparation to give the best results. It is advisable to practice on an inexpensive book first. I do not always glue bookplates into all my books especially if the book is very valuable; instead I place it inside the front cover.

You will need a small brush for gluing, adhesive (I like to use PVA mixed with a little water to a creamy consistency). You will also need some waste paper and a small clean cloth.

Firstly, take your book and decide where you want to stick the plate. I find it useful to lightly mark the corner position with a pencil. You can use a ruler and a setsquare to help get an even space each side. You can erase the pencil mark later.



When you are ready, take the bookplate and place it face down onto a clean piece of scrap paper. Take your brush and carefully glue the back of the plate making sure that you apply a thin but even coat. Start in the middle and work your way out to the edges, you will need to hold the plate down with one finger but try not to get too much glue onto your fingers! Discard the waste paper, take your bookplate holding it carefully at the corners and gently position it into the book.

You can use your clean cloth to gently press your plate into position and wipe away any surplus that may have crept out from beneath. You will then need to leave it to dry before closing the book. This is important; you do not want to stick your pages together!

Remember, practice makes perfect so try an inexpensive paperback first.

The fairy bookplate pdf is available here in my shop

Good luck, I hope you enjoy your bookplates.

'tis the season for bookbinding...

We are now experiencing cool autumnal weather after an amazingly hot spell, which took everyone by surprise and made it hard to be indoors. I had to spend time working on Christmas artwork, painting snowmen and Christmas trees when the sun shone and the garden beckoned.

Our grandson George celebrated his second birthday and I had my … errr hmmm birthday too. The nicest part about birthdays is of course the presents and I am thrilled with my new press, which my husband bought for me. A bookbinding friend called Robert Hamer built it, he numbers all his presses and I am honoured to own number 8. He laminates the plywood to make an extremely strong structure, which is much lighter than metal so even a wimp like me can lift it.



Having the new press has inspired me to do more bookbinding. I rescued a lovely but very tatty edition of “Highland Pack” illustrated in black and white by Keith Henderson. I choose a grey/green cloth and a piece of paste paper, which I had previously decorated in a workshop, believing that it would come in handy one day! This was my first attempt at a half cloth binding. If you would like to try yourself I can recommend a very thorough but easy to follow book by Kathy Abbott “Bookbinding A step-by-step guide”. I also made some more little notebooks for personal use and experimented with printing an image taken in Venice with a “photocopy” effect filter. I printed it out onto thin grey card on my ink jet printer and used it as a cover for a simple single section notebook.



Of course I am eager to devote some more time to printmaking, my lino and wood engraving tools are looking forlorn and neglected, oh for a thirty-six hour day.
Before I go I just wanted to point you in the direction of Mangle Prints who has been printing some delightful Christmas cards, each one hand pulled and nice enough to frame.

Penelope's Labour in Venice.

This post is very late, we returned from a very wonderful trip to Venice last week but I have been hobbling about on a very sore foot since our return. Nothing broken but I am feeling very sorry for myself after walking into a piece of furniture on the last day of the holiday. If it had been the first day it would have ruined things entirely so I suppose I should be thankful for that.



What can I tell you about Venice that you don’t already know? We avoided the crowds and queues in St Mark’s Square, instead we explored the quieter parts, the secret alleyways, churches, gardens and squares.

click to enlarge.

Every turn a photo opportunity, so many tiny shops, bookbinders and stationers selling exquisite marbled papers and mask shops galore, Venetian glass glimpsed through palace windows and everywhere light and sunshine and water. We crossed The Grand Canal in a traghetto, a poor man’s gondola ride, for half a euro you can take this “ferry” across Venice’s equivalent of the M1. How we avoided the very many vessels traveling up and down is a mystery, I can only assume that we had right of way, it was a bit scary but fun too.



We saw amazing art in the churches, palaces and libraries. Venice was host to the Biennale but by far the most impressive art we saw was here, the day we crossed over to the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Penelope’s Labour is the name of a tapestry exhibition featuring works old and new. Each exhibit was delightful in its own way, I expected to be impressed with the antique tapestries but was completely bowled over by the contemporary pieces.


Craigie Horsfield - At 99 Posse concert. Via Gianturco, Naples. September 2008
2010, 375 x 855 cm, wool and cotton
Woven by Flanders Tapestries

The work by Craigie Horsfield was worthy of Carravagio, a scene from a pop concert has been woven into a stunning piece of contemporary art. If you look at the faces in the crowd you will see a Christ like figure, surrounded by faces who could have been disciples, some faces showing adoration, others menace. Some of the tapestries were displayed on the floor and provided you removed your shoes you could walk over them. I was puzzled at first, the works by Carlos Garaicoa appeared at first sight to be actual mosaics until closer inspection revealed the true nature of these extraordinary tapestries, with words and shadows woven into the structure. Do have a look at the links if you have time.

We returned home in time to celebrate the second birthday of our gorgeous grandson George.

A is for Apple.

It’s that time of year again, when apples hang ripe on the bough and children return to school. My garden is not big enough to accommodate a full size apple tree but I have an ornamental crab apple, which is laden with fruit at the moment, later this will provide the birds with some food when the weather turns colder.



My memories of starting school and apples are inextricably linked, maybe because my old-fashioned Victorian style classroom had a wall frieze showing all the letters of the alphabet accompanied with a simple illustration. Every day we would recite, “A is for Apple, B is for Ball, C is for Cat….” whilst the teacher pointed to the appropriate place on the wall. I was fortunate enough to be able to go home for my “dinner” at midday. My father would be home also, he worked in a nearby paper mill, mum would have spent the morning cooking and baking to prepare a two-course meal and home made apple pie was often on the menu.

My apple illustration is taken from “An Illustrated Address Book” published by Blackie and Son Ltd. The other illustrations are by Walter Crane and can be found here, a marvelous treasure trove on the web.




We no longer have anyone in our household who will be returning to school this term, instead we are planning something very exciting, so until then I hope you all enjoy what is left of the summer and help yourself to another slice of apple pie.

Children of the summer sun.

The design above shows an English formal garden with a honeybee skip. Just as important for our gardens and possibly for our survival as a species are the wild bees, or as the poet John Clare (1793 - 1864), called them, "Children of the summer sun"

'These children of the sun which summer brings
As pastoral minstrels in her merry train
Pipe rustic ballads upon busy wings
And glad the cotters' quiet toils again.......



I finally got around to doing some gardening this month; everything is in dire need of attention. The good news is the wildlife seems to be enjoying my tardiness. I came across a mound of mossy and grass, about the size of a football, at first I thought it was a bird’s nest on the ground and foolishly I picked it up. Immediately a swarm of bumbles flew out, naturally I tried to make good the damage I had done and in the few seconds available I managed to see the inside of the nest which seem to consist of many cells.

Despite many attempts to photograph the bees, I have only managed a few blurry attempts but if you look closely you can see what I believe to be a Carder Bee. Click on the photo above, you can see the blue/green fly, look to the left, behind the grass, can you see the little guy? It seems that they comb the moss and grass in order to make the nest, hence the name Carder Bee!

We also have another species of bee making use of the bee house. It looks like a Leaf Cutter Bee and if you look at the photo below you can see the tiny pieces of leaf placed in the bamboo canes.



Every year I try to hack back the Buddleia, it grows too big for my garden but I leave it alone whilst in flower as the butterflies love it. The Japanese Acer in the pot is a new acquisition bought at nearby Tatton Park Garden. I hope it will survive the winter outside, I have lined the pot with bubble wrap but am not sure what else to do other than placing it in a sheltered spot. The crab apples provide food for the birds over autumn and look more like cherries than apples when they ripen.


Last but not least, I have made a start on a new painting. It’s hard to fit in personal work whilst trying to keep on top of day to day “potboilers”, they sort of work that pays the bills like greeting cards etc. Goodness knows when I shall finish it but I feel so much better now I have made a start! I hope you all enjoy your summer too and thanks as always for visiting.

To find out more about bumblebees please visit The Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

Antiques for Everyone Fair

I’ve been very preoccupied recently with helping my mum purchase a retirement flat and feel that I have been wading through mud as far as creating anything new artistically. I seem to spend more and more time sitting at my computer, trying to get to grips with some new programme or other, at the moment I am doing battle with Indesign. It is always so much more difficult to learn from a book but feel reluctant to enroll on anymore evening classes so I suppose I will just have to carry on regardless. I have been thinking for some time now about getting some of my children’s books back into print through one of the POD companies, one of the reasons why I need Indesign.

Light relief has been found in bookbinding, making origami structures from folded Elephanthide. In case you are wondering, I have not skinned an endangered species; Elephanthide is a very tough paper, which lends itself to paper folding! You can see the finished result here-


I also had some illustrations exhibited at The National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham where I met up with Mike and Hilary Emeny from Books Illustrated Ltd. (see above) at the Antiques for Everyone Fair.The day I went they were very excited to have sold an original Arthur Rackham. Other works on their stand included Ernest Shepard, Edmund Dulac and Annie French.

Strawberries.

“Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did. ” William Butler

No doubt, like me, you will have been feasting on fresh, ripe strawberries, maybe even eating them at Wimbledon? Nowadays strawberries are available all year round, or so it seems, but there is something rather special about eating a homegrown strawberry in July. Is it my imagination or do they simply taste better when they have had the chance to mature naturally?

Strawberries have inspired artists and designers over the centuries, there is something rather irresistible and satisfying about that plump, red, heart shaped berry with the tiny, decorative seeds dotted around its middle.



This “Strawberry Thief” design by William Morris will always be linked in my mind with this time of year. Maybe because it was one of the first textile designs that I studied as a schoolgirl and needed to apply that knowledge to summer exams!

Morris was said to have been inspired by the sight of thrushes stealing fruit from his garden at Kelmscott Manor. It presented him with many problems during printing, which he finally overcame, although it took many attempts and several years to produce the desired effect, which used a red alizarin dye, and a yellow weld combined with indigo blue.
I think I love it the most of all of his designs and my heart still skips a beat every time I see it.