press

My friend gave me a book press today. Someone gave it to him and although he makes books too he gave it to me. He is very kind indeed.


I can't wait to put it into action (I just need someone to help me carry it up the stairs...)

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Do you ever feel like theres too many things going on at once, too many things to do and you don't want to do any of them?


I've got too many things on my mind. I don't know where to start. I just want to hide really (maybe I'll go for a walk instead)

Those little ladybird larvae from yesterday are making me feel all itchy. Turns out they're harlequin ladybirds, an invasive species that eats native ladybirds and other bugs. They also bite! If you see any in your house or garden you should tell the harlequin ladybird survey people as they're monitoring the spread across the UK...

Anyway, I made a new book. It's square and grey with a paper lable. Can you tell what my favourite bookcloth and paper combo is at the moment?! This book is one of my biggest rounded spines yet and making it was a challenge, it took a couple of remakes to get the spine fitting just right, but I'm pretty happy with it. There was a point where I nearly gave up, just couldn't work it out, but pushing myself to have one more go was definitely worth it. It opens like a dream. I think if no one buys it I might keep it for myself... do some sketching :)

sunday

After crazy winds yesterday blowing away my washing (and the foam underlay we accidentally left outside and then had to recover from the park down the street...) today all is calm. I wonder if it was the wind that brought these strange little creatures to my garden...


I never knew ladybird babies could look so scary!

Brighton was lovely and sunny, a happy few days...


The wedding was also lovely (but now I'm nervous!)



The poem across the top is by Robert Burns...

O my Love is like a red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June;
O my Love is like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in love am I;
And I will love thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry:

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

secret book

A book for my friend for her birthday...


With grey book cloth and multiple endpapers (one graph paper and two grey). I could try and pretend this was me being fancy, but in reality I kept sticking the book together wrong which meant cutting it out and adding new endpapers each time. Oh well, it looks nice anyway!


All the pages fold out from the center. Useful for hidden drawings, for making people think your sketch book is empty when secretly its full...


I'm back to long days at work now. I fell asleep whilst eating my tea after a twelve hour shift yesterday, I just need to get used to it again. But I least I get Fridays off to compensate! I'm trying to make the most of that, and this weekend we're off to Brighton for a family wedding. Should be lovely :) (and I'll show you the present I made them when I get back)

saturday

Today I got up and started cleaning. That's a turn up for the books (and long may it continue!)

Anyway. I've been playing around with some new soft ground etching medium at work this week. We can't use the traditional method of soft wax as the hot plate needed to melt and apply the wax is deemed too dangerous, and the turps needed to remove it is pretty bad too. I've written before about the safe methods we use to produce etchings, but there doesn't seem to be a satisfactory way to reproduce the soft ground effect that happens to be my favourite (I sometimes use my cooker at home to melt the wax, but this isn't really ideal either!)

This new medium is painted on with a brush (or can be screen printed on to the plate for an extra smooth finish) then left to dry for the correct amount of time, a sheet of paper can then be layed over it and used to make a drawing, just like the soft wax. The tricky thing is knowing how long to leave it for... I tried it every 5 minutes and at first the paper just absorbed the medium (no good) and then it didn't work at all. 5 minute windows are obviously too long... next time.


So then I tried drawing directly onto the plate with a sharp pencil, which displaces the medium and exposes the copper below to be etched. This seemed more successful, but still, as the surface dried the pencil began to rip off larger bits of medium (you can see the on the picture below. Click if you want to see it really close :) ) There were a couple of minutes where drawing was smooth. I suppose it's not totally a bad thing; speedy drawing can free me up :)


I let the medium dry completely, then backed the plates with parcel tape (so the backs didn't etch). Then into the ferric chloride for 20 minutes...


The flowers I've been drawing are crocosmia, from my garden. I'm planning on aquatinting the plates next week, with some orange chine colle (that's tissue paper to you and me) for the flowers. Got to have the orange :)