from little acorns...

A seed catalogue landed on the mat today. And I've been looking through it slowly, page by page, at the pictures of flowers and vegetables, the fruit bushes, trees. So many colours and shapes of flower and leaf, tempting me, though it's dark outside, turning my mind to summer, to spring...


I know I shouldn't be letting myself imagine the garden in the house we are buying. And I say buying, not bought, because it's not ours yet. Not yet. So I shouldn't be thinking of the little pink and white flowers that could tumble down the wall at the front, or the lavender bushes I could plant at the side of the path. I shouldn't be picking out perennials, annuals, shrubs for the patio. The bird table by the kitchen window, the bird box. And I certainly shouldn't be planning the raised beds at the sunny end of the garden, by the gate into the woods; the potatoes in buckets, tomatoes, aubergines, peas, beans, blueberries, rhubarb, cabbage...

And me in the sun. Digging and weeding and planting, dirt under my nails (maybe even a robin sat on my spade, maybe I could tame him and we could be friends? He could sing to me)


Oh seed catalogue, your full colour spreads and descriptions full of promise, look what you've done...


Patience.

Lots of things have been made recently, but there are no pictures (because there's barely been time to make them, never mind find the camera) and the gifts have gone to their recipients now. But items included a pencil case, a flex frame pouch with flowers embroidered on it, 2 rounded spine books with etchings on the covers, a paper bird mobile, some fingerless mittens and 2 felt beards. And there's still more to make...

I am feeling a bit more Christmassy now though. We had a big Christamas dinner yesterday with friends, and swapped presents before we go our seperate ways for Christmas, and it was lovely. Plates of delicious food, and mulled wine, candle light and apple crumble. Good company. I'm so lucky.

Have a good one :)

I've been quiet. I feel like I've been very busy, but when I try to think of what I've been doing, I can't seem to come up with anything solid. Working mostly, reading, talking, waiting for busses. And I'm fighting the battle to hibernate, which hasn't been helped by the fact my boiler was broken for a week last week and it was very cold indeed around here. Breath in clouds. But it's fixed now so I'm all thawed out. I've also been trying to suppress panic about my lack of Christmas present buying and making. I can't seem to get into the swing of it at all. A short burst in November then... nothing, and suddenly its the week before Christmas! I need to get going I think.


I've had a lovely weekend this weekend though. On Friday we got one step closer to owning the house we've been trying to buy for a while, so that's exciting! And I spent the rest of the time with 3 of my bestest friends who I don't get to see nearly enough. Catching up, talking, eating chocolate croissants. Then swimming this afternoon, floating on floats. It's all good.


But now its work again on Monday, and I definitely could do with another few days off. Couldn't we all I suppose.

Slowly but surely my tree quilt is coming together, half an hour here, half an hour there...


I've had so much fun just picking colours randomly, cutting out triangles without measuring, with scissors and no ruler; generally just making it up as I go along and not worrying too much about tree size or colour schemes or it all fitting together...

I decided to tackle the layout of the trees pieces in exactly the same way. I separated them out into big and small trees, mixed them up and then layed them out in a line with my eyes closed. I swapped a few round when two colours the same were next to each other, but I just tried not to think about it too much. I should work like this more often I think, because I think I over plan things far to much, sometimes to the extent that I never even get started.


Anyway, I sewed some extra bits onto the trees that were smaller, then sewed them into strips, then sewed the strips together. Done! Now I just need to decide on a colour for a border, and a colour for the back of the quilt. Green, brown or blue? Or perhaps just a random combination of all three?!

ps. I did take more pictures of the whole thing, but they just came out so awful I couldn't bear to post them, but when the daylight returns for longer than 1o minutes I be ready with my camera :)

sunday

I've never made a quilt before, though I've often often admired the ones I've seen here here here. The measuring and planning and, worst of all, colour co-ordinating (!) have always scared me off from actually beginning. But I've wanted to...

My godson is one in a few months, and I wanted to make something practical; something that he would like to look at, but also something to keep. And I like trees, so after looking in this book for a bit of technical inspiration, I came up with these...


I was surprised how much easier it is to match colours when they're layed out in front of me. Because I've been trying to do it in my head... So far I've just used bits and pieces of fabric I already have, bits from old clothes, from remnants of previous projects, pieces salvaged from my parents attic... but I quite like that, recycling, re-using, makng something with a bit of history, a bit of me. (And some new fabric is on it's way, which is good too ;) )


It took a bit of trial and error to come up with the shape I wanted (my first attempt was a circle, until I realised that was potentially a bit too complicated for a first go!) As I went along, cutting and sewing and altering I realised that it's easier than it looks to get the shapes to go together. Cutting across seams, pressing, squaring up, adding more pieces; its liberating, like playing... free styling is definitely the way to go :)


I keep popping into my little room, to cut a few more triangles, sew a few more together, and I'm really enjoying it. The little forrest is growing, and I'm beginning to see how this can become really addicive...

singer

I've been looking for a sewing machine for ages. Not a fancy one that does a million different embroidery stitches, but a simple, heavy, sturdy one, one that's made well, and will last...


I must have been talking about my search to my Grandma; about how all I could find were plastic ones for loads of money. And a few weeks ago, look what she gave me...


The sewing machine she received for her 18th birthday. This machine is over 50 years old and still going strong, it's still got the original bulb in the light, all the original bits and pieces in the little green singer cardboard box, including this scary looking contraption...


She used this machine to sew clothes for herself, for my mum and her brothers when they were little, countless things I'm sure. It sews beautifully; slightly slow, because when it was bought, it went too fast, so my Granddad altered it. It feels steady to sew, it's such a pleasure to use.

I'll treasure it.

New books at last!


I've been wanting to put some new things in my shop for what seems like such a long time now, but with one thing and another (work, life, eat, sleep, you know how it goes!) it hadn't really happened.

I really want the books I sell in my shop to be the best I can make (I've written about it before), and recently I've been on the look out for better materials; stronger more durable covers, thick heavy flexible paper, good colours... Last week I went on a great big paper splurge, surely the best kind :) and bought lots of new things to try (waxed recycled felt anyone? wet look paper?)


One thing I'm really pleased with from my shopping spree is the bonded leather used for the covers in these buttonhole books. It's strong, bends without cracking, cuts nicely, comes in lots of lovely colours and thicknesses, and its recycled too!

I've only listed 3 books so far, but there's more on the way :)


Take a peek!

saturday

It feels good today, having time to do what I want whilst it's still day light, not rushing about in the dark. I'm really fighting the urge to go into hibernation at the moment...

But right now, it's light, and breezy. Leaves are blowing off the trees, in the air, in circles on the street, and I'm going upstairs to do some book binding...

Thanks to this fantastic tutorial from Pied Crow Press, I've been learning how to sew endbands this week...


I've been wanting to learn how to do this for ages, and now, thanks to Iris, I can! I can't wait to have a play around with using more colours, and different cores (and better sewing!)


I did start to case this book into a cover, but when I was trimming off a tiny bit of the endpaper, I stupidly cut right across the stitching... dur. But I sewed it again, with a thinner bit of string for the core, and it looked much neater. So far so good.

I got the new cover all cut and measured and fitting, and got the book all stuck in and looking right... but then blobbed a huge glue finger print right in the middle of the endpaper.

And there was something slightly satisfying about getting a stanley knife and cutting the book from its cover. No pictures because it's too dark now. Perhaps I'll keep it as a kind of deconstructable example :)

This is drawing I was talking about the other day. The one I was having trouble with. I went back and had one more go at it...


Not perfect, but enough to give me an idea about what I wanted the etching to look like...

I transferred the image onto the copper plate using soft ground wax. There's no hot plate to heat the plate and melt the wax at work (they get pretty hot and aren't that safe), so I used a heavy frying pan covered in tin foil over my electric cooker. Probably wouldn't pass a health and safety inspection, but I was careful I promise :)

I then placed a piece of paper over the cooled waxed plate and drew my image. The soft wax sticks to the paper under the pressure of the pencil, and when the paper is peeled back the wax is removed. Here's the waxy mono print left on the paper...


And the plate ready to be etched...


The print below is a rough proof, to see how the lines had turned out. It's hard to tell when a soft ground etching has bitten far enough because if I touched it with my finger nail to check, like normal, it would smudge the wax and then I'd have to start again. So it's a bit of trial and error.

This time it was in for 6 minutes and the lines were quite faint, but they're only a guide for the next step of the process, so this time it'll do...


I then sprayed an aquatint ground onto the plate, which basically means covering it with tiny, tiny dots that create varying tone when etched for different amounts of time. It can be tricky as the tonal areas have to be blocked out in reverse, and I got some bits not quite right (have a look at the drawing at the top and you'll See what I mean) but overall it could've been worse.


Tomorrow I plan to tidy it up a bit, and then hopefully make some prints!

P.s. Its freezing here! I had to wrap the worm bin in bubble wrap to stop them turning into little worm icicles. Brrr.

Sunshine on my way home yesterday...




Seems like a million miles away from the dark windy rainy outside tonight, and I'm feeling grumpy beacuse I'm getting a cold and I have to work next week when it seems like everyone else in college has a holiday for half term. Rubbish.

I've been trying to do some drawings for an etching I want to do... they're not turning out exaxtly as I'd hoped. Most of the drawing I do these days is sketching, and I always forget that the kind of drawing I want to do today takes time. And I'm trying to rush.

I know this. But that doesn't make it easier to slow down. Perhaps todays not the day for it. Perhaps tomorrow.

I went on a little trip out to the countryside yesterday.

A walk round the woods near my house on Saturday made me realise that whilst I've been working lots and staying in my house, that Autumn is really happening all around me. The air smells different, the trees look different, it's dark so soon, everything's crisper... and I wanted to go for a longer walk through it all... breathe it all in...


It was windy, a bit rainy, starting to get dark by the time we reached the top of the hill. But it was good. Good for me :)

This week was the final class of the bookbinding course I've been teaching for the last few weeks in Headingley. We finished off the hard cover notebooks we've been making, triming the book blocks with a stanley knife, measuring and cutting the boards, gluing and fitting the covers... all in two hours, a bookbinding sprint!


And I'm proud to say everyone did a great job, all books fit into covers, all covers closed, and what a relief... because there's nothing worse than putting in all that work, folding, cutting, measuring, adjusting, measuring again, gluing, only to find out that right at the end your book won't shut (I've been there beleive me!) Pretty much the only thing you can do at that point is start again, so I was extra pleased it all worked out this time :)


Check out Hazel's fantastic work...

I've been busy this last few weeks. Hidden away in my studio, trying to turn it into a book binding factory... The reality is just the entire carpet covered in sheets of paper, gluey newsprint, bits of ribbon and tiny scraps, which I'm pretty sure is not actually what a book binding factory looks like (maybe?) but it still felt like it.


Its been a while since I made more than one book at a time. I've been concentrating on making one book really well (hopefully), on getting every step right, playing around with the design and binding, not really thinking about how long it takes me to sew it or cover it or finish it.


So, it was a nice change to work in a different way, think about streamlining the different stages, how to make them all the same size, the same design but still individual. Thinking about how long it all takes and how much I need to pay myself (never enough I'm sure!) I'm making out like I've made about a hundred books when in reality it was only about 16, but it was still an interesting process, one I've not really followed from start to finish since my degree show a few years ago. Unfortunatly I was so caught up in it all I forgot to take any decent pictures, and when I remembered, I only had my rubbish camera phone and no day light. When will I learn.

Anyway, hopefully you can get the idea...


These books are hardback with a rounded spine and ribbon page markers. The pages are a selection of different papers, with little inlayed paper sprouts on the covers...


I made some handmade paper covered books too, but the photos were just too awful to show. Out of focus and grey. I also made some little pocket notebooks, with mono print covers...



All available in the craft gallery at the bowery in Headingley (they do good coffee too if you're ever in the area)

Now I just need to get my act together and make some new books for my shop too!

thursday

The apple tree planted when I was born...


And apples for a pie (or a crumble)...


Yesterday I made 2 books. And as is always the way when there's a deadline, one spine was too small...


The other too large...


Third time lucky I suppose (I hope!)