I have finally finished my 'burn book'. Tick. The books meet on Wednesday and Fiona and I are pretty excited to see what we have come up with, considering the starting point we both had. This was one of those collaborations in theme and materials and we haven't actually spent time together working on the books so neither of us has any idea what the other book looks like. There must be a resemblance of course as we are working with the same materials. Watch out for our posts on Wednesday night.
For the last LONG while it seems, I have been playing with ideas for this book and most of that time seemed to come up with ideas which were much more along the lines of what not to do ....
We are hoping that these two books will form the centrepiece or highlight of our collaboration so it is quite an important book and as such necessitated quite a deal of thought and work. The photographs below are nothing like my book, but they were very earnest efforts in trying to visualise a way forward. To no avail. They make quite interesting photographs though, and maybe on a small scale, would work very beautifully as a book. But not this time.
As well as learning what not to do, I have learnt a great deal about burning, controlled burning. Well mostly. The house remains standing and I still have all my curls and eyebrows. Seriously though, I have learnt techniques about controlling burns to achieve the effect you are wanting. Not always easy where paper and fire are involved.
over to New Zealand to stay at Moeraki on the South Island. There we will be working with the
Moeraki Boulders .... finding heaps of inspiration I hope.
NICe to see your work and thoughts! thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThese burnt samples with their glimpses of black writing or symbols are most beguiling. I am fascinated by the effects you achieve as you over lay papers of different textures and fragility. You offer such food for thought!
ReplyDeleteThese images are indeed evocative, Susan! Very impressive examples of "what not to do" - ! - but that is always such an important part of the creative process. It will make seeing how the book did come out all that much more exciting. (And the importance of hanging on to your curls & eyebrows through it all shouldn't be underestimated!)
ReplyDeleteEnjoy Wednesday, Susan. I'm sure it will be a WoW moment when you bring your two works together. Also best wishes for a fantastically creative and restorative trip to NZ. Such a beautiful place to gather thoughts and creative energies.
ReplyDeleteWe could build a book - of not what I was trying to do - or what not to do I think - as you say there is much to learn about a controlled burn, and how different papers burn so differently. It will be intriguing to see where we both ended up - gulp!
ReplyDeleteThese images are georgeous, lloking forward to seeing what you have done with the materials in book form
ReplyDeleteanticipating the next installment where our two heroes meet, matches and papers in hand...
ReplyDelete