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!)

Box making class today.


I love it when students are enthusiastic and interested and really seem to 'get' what I'm trying to show them...


Boxes are quite challenging to teach I think, what with all the fiddly folds and precice measurement and gluing (I feel like I need to make a giant box, just to demonstrate the shapes to cut out at the corners. Hmmm. Perhaps I could?) but it's so rewarding when the class ends with 8 sucessful beginnings...