valuable days .....

Some days are just spent in a very valuable way and yesterday was one.  Fiona and I began our eighth collaborative artists' books and each time we seem to be confronted with a new set of struggles.  I guess that is really what this collaboration has been about .... pushing ourselves in directions we would otherwise not wander, certainly not alone.  Not that we encounter dark alleys but we do meander off course, through woods and out into the sunshine at various points along the walk.

Fiona posted very thoroughly on the process this collaboration is taking, using the cards designed by Julie Chen and Barbara Tetenbaum so there is no need for me to elaborate further.  Just visit Fiona's blog .....

So, our books will be abstract ones with multiple openings, asymmetrical with multiple muted colours.  They will have no text yet be high tech.  Simultaneously they must be photographic, simple and miniature.  After discussions on all these words and concepts, Fiona and I decided that miniature could also mean macro, detailed.  And as if this is not enough the books must be issue based and yet personal.  Phew.  It think it has taken us the last couple of months just to assimilate and juggle all those ideas and now we are moving forward with our books.

I already know that we will squirm and wriggle about with the ideas and perceived difficulties of using these prescribed parameters, and yet I am sure that we will end up being glad we swallowed and followed the guidelines. Already we are exploring new techniques which will give us the way forward with our thoughts.

borer markings 

some gorgeous wood marks, badly inked ..... I am learning not to leave lines right through the middle

texture marks

a cut slab end piece from one of the huge trees which came down in the cyclone last year

Burning off the beautifully smooth timber brings back all the lovely interesting marks.
The slab was full of chain saw marks and uneven cut marks and my friend Wade who works with wood, worked his magic on both sides of the slab so that I have almost glassy smooth wood from which to print.

A coat of shellac provides the necessary layer between the wood and the ink.

Sublime marks, the second pull is deliciously transparent on fine Japanese paper.

mmmmm - learning to blend ink on wood

I often prefer the subtlety of the back of work done on fine papers.

Now I need to work out how to use these marks and make the work 'mine'.

All these ideas and the last two postings on playing with wood, are leading towards the making of this book marking the memory of trees.