my stash from fiona .....

I should be washing and ironing, preparing for my trip to Sydney tomorrow morning but I have just come home from Fiona's where me met briefly to hand over the papers we had prepared for the other to turn into our next collaborative book.  I have been completely distracted from the 'must do's' (not sure about the punctuation there!) and absorbed by thinking about our next project.  A gorgeous distraction indeed.

This is the stash I brought home.  Some very subtle almost marbled papers in soft grey inks.  Beautiful patterns emerging on these papers.  A large sheet of Arches and a slightly smaller sheet of transparent paper over which Fiona has written - in some instances very loosely with thick graphite sticks and then also in her fine script.  And there's more ........... some metallic ink, thread and a couple of metallic pens should I choose to work with these as well.

Once again there are few rules.  We have swapped papers, given each other a starting point for the next books.  We can choose the structure and the content of the books - we need not use all the paper we have been given.  My first thought is that I want to work with everything Fiona has given me as that is part of the challenge, and the fun.

Driving home, I remembered the metal book covers I have been holding onto for a number of years and was able to lay my hands on them in the studio which in itself is a miracle.  Using one of these may work well I think.  I also have joss paper lying around and love the silver in that too ..... it may find a place in the book.  I also found some gorgeous thread which works in very well with this bundle and it too may find its way into the book.

This time we have given our pages to each other a couple of weeks before we spend the day together working into the pages.  I am glad as it means we have a chance to give more thought to various options in both structure and content.

Fiona has given me words to play with.  Of course.  They are beautiful.  She has chosen words that reflect our working together - gifts, wonder, kindred spirit.  Whether I choose to work with those words or leave them as a visual subtlety I have no idea yet.  Plenty of time to wonder about that ......

Our next day working together, this time in my studio in Montville, will be on the 6th July and I am sure we will both be posting all the details of the day. I can't wait!

Artist's Book or Journal?

Don't you just love having friends who are 'on the same page' as you.  Friends with whom you can discuss your work, dilemmas with your work or ideas that are slowly unravelling.  I have such friends in Fiona Dempster and Barry Smith who very often say EXACTLY the right thing to me when I most need it.

I had been planning to make this book into an artist's book but realised that I didn't really want to invest an inordinate amount of time into bringing it to completion.  Barry (or was it Fiona) suggested that some books really beg for partnership in their creation.  I have made the book and put in a certain amount of content - certainly enough for someone to be inspired enough to take it to the next level with writing or imagery.  Someone else will the book from being a unique journal, to a completed art piece.

The concept of partnership in creation is a delightful one - and one I hadn't really considered.  I have made many unique journals, most of them quite large, all incorporating beautiful French or Italian papers and usually embossed, often boxed, sometimes leather bound and strapped.  I have been thinking about what Barry and Fiona said about a work you have made taking on another life and am intrigued to know, or see, what those journals that I have sold, now look like - what have their owners added to them.