Pictures from our trip to Southern France a couple of weeks ago. Nice, Monaco, Cannes, Avignon, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Valence and the caves at Choranche. A bit of swimming in the Mediterranean, walking driving camping eating, a bit of wine tasting, ant avoiding, cave visiting, croissants and baguettes and admiring fields full of sunflowers and sunshine...

Lots of little sparrows, the most amazing chocolate hazelnut icecream shaped like petals into a rose, my vegetarian meals turning up with meat on top, wrapping the bottles of wine in a sleeping bag, hoping they'd survive the journey home...

Flowers turned to peas on my pea plants in the week we'd been away.

work in progress...

mixing

...colours for a screen print


I could spend hours doing this. Starting with one colour, adding a lit bit of another, stirring it up, watching what happens. Then starting a new tub, a new colour, adding a drop of this a drop of that, then a bit from the other tub, trying to get closer to what I want (as if I know what I want!) Rubbing a blob on the paper, letting it dry, adding a bit more brown/blue/gold/magenta/white. And I'm constantly surprised by what the colours do to each other, how unexpected the changes are to me. I'm trying to learn from this process but there are so many variables aren't there, perhaps I should stick to just a few to mix together...




Varying combinations of... black, white, paynes grey, burnt umber, cobalt blue, gold powder, cyan. Reminds me of the colour cards I seem to've been looking at a lot lately. Trying to decide what colour to paint the hall...

today

Today I've been doing a bit of bookbinding. I've suddenly found myself with a free day, no plans and a draw full of paper...

So far I've spent my time starting something, then jumping to starting something else, then picking up something I started weeks ago, putting it down again, all the time in my head thinking... but I could do this instead or that instead... it should be a concertina, it should be grey or brown or pink, or with screen printing! And also there's the voice saying rubbish rubbish rubbish not right. I can't settle.

It's no surprise really though is it. I always expect to get straight back into it, straight back into the feeling of something going right, of knowing what I want to do, of not rushing and slowing down and focusing. I know I've got too many ideas running through my head, and the knowledge that tomorrow I'll have obligations. I should just stop worrying about making something new that's (and here's the thing) also something good. Something new is very rarely something good. It may be good in the way that it has potential but it will not be something good as a finished, well structured, well made book. It can only be the start. And that's what stresses me out as I rush towards making. It can't be rushed.

I look at beautiful finished books and prints and feel I'll never get to where I want to be. But it takes time doesn't it.

sock thing

A pair of knee length stripy socks, a bit of wool and some stuffing becomes...

Sock elephant? Sock aardvark? Sock Cyril Sneer? Either way, I wanted to keep him...


A good combination of dangly legs and squishy body, and not too light due to the fact he's partly stuffed with the left over sock material (very satisfying, nothing went in the bin) As soon as I find space (and time) to unpack my sewing machine another is on the way. This time in fluorescent pink and grey, I've already got the socks...


Right. Back to wall papering.

today's achievement

This morning this door frame had about five coats of lumpy bumpy old yellowed paint. After a good few hours, some gas, some fire, some fumes and a scraper, it now has none...


And I'm off to sit out here for a bit before painting it all over again...


Maybe I should do some weeding instead!

box

I was recently commissioned by an artist to make an A3 clam shell box. Embossed on the front with the title '19 Minutes of History' it holds a piece of work looking at Obama's inaugural address...


I think this picture (copyright Sam Knott) gives a good idea of how the finished piece worked (click to enlarge!) I wish I got to see it in person :)


The making of the box was a challenge as it always is when making something for somebody else. I always hope my expectations of how a piece should look are the same as theirs, but it's always a relief when the response to a work (especially one that is commissioned via email without the commissioner seeing my work in person) is positive! And I was pleased with how this box turned out, just the right amount of space between box and lid, not too flappy or too tight, nice neat corners and no wrinkles on the lining, in fact I quite wanted to keep it myself...


Here's a close up of the test piece for the emboss on the front...


As this box was needed for quite a tight deadline, instead of etching a copper plate to emboss the text (like this one) which is quite time consuming, I tried out just embossing with a piece of thick card and then photo mounting the printed text into the recess and I'm really pleased with the result. Quick, easy (as long as it lines up right...) cheap, better for the environment (no wasted copper) and looks good too :)

I'm hoping to try out more embossing techniques soon; the woodwork department at work is getting a lasercutter and I have high hopes for lasercut embossing plates...

found it

It's raining outside but it's been very sunny. Sunny enough to turn a little white seed into this...


And after yet another shift around of boxes (maybe even the last shift around before they can be unpacked for good at last) I found my camera lead...

All the photos I found on it seem like they were taken oh so long ago. And in a way they were, so much seems to have happened in the last few months.

My good friend Roger died. I can't put it into words. So I've just been carrying on; today I lining papererd the stairs.