studio stacks ......

                                                                  a blog for Jennifer 

No need to caption all these photos - these are just some of the stacks sitting on table tops around my studio - not taking into account stacks in cupboards and bundles in drawers.  Delicious bundles waiting for completion, or commencement, for inspiration or to be sewn together.  Quite honestly,  as one stack is turned into something creative, I am sure another bundle or two will appear in its place!  This is how we all work - or is it???

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.

from scribble to book .....

On and off since 1998, and very much more off than on, I have been part of the DaD project inspired by Adele Outerridge.  Drawing a Day.  Sounds easy but unless you are incredibly disciplined it is quite difficult to maintain.  In 1998 from February when I joined the project, I drew daily and then bound these drawings into a visual diary.  In fact one day I will blog on this book.  The drawings ranged from the inspired to the jovial depending on what was happening on that day - I had one 'drawing' where the page was smeared with chocolate and red wine.  Hardly a drawing in the real sense but certainly a lovely reminder of that evening shared with friends.

I speak of this because very often from those drawings, explorations often developed and from those explorations very often a series of artwork developed.  We all 'play' with our jottings and scribbles and in their own right, these are a significant reminder of our creative processes.  Out of those scribbles it is rather satisfying to see a work of art emerge, or several in the same vein.

scribbles from DaD 

scribbles from DaD

more scribbles

Playing with 'writing drawings' is something I have played with for years and this series of drawings from my DaD diary in 2010 turned into an artist's book which was exhibited and sold.  I actually added to the book post sale by making separate perspex covers into which the paper covers slipped.  The perspex was engraved with some of my writing scribbles and the contrast against the black paper was lovely.  The perspex covers gave the book a more rigid frame which enabled it to stand up in open display more effectively.

Artist's book by Susan Bowers

ink sludge and papermarks ..........

While other bloggers are sharing their gorgeous creations, I am thinking how serendipitous left over ink sludge and paper marks can be.

Quite literally, the paper marks were made from being the backing sheets of some rusting pages I was drying and the ink sludge was left over from some inking I was doing and  left these gorgeous marks in the bottom of the tray.

One day I will blog what was made using rust and layers of ink - but for the moment, I think these marks speak for themselves.

Scratching for inspiration .......

I imagined a blog would be somewhere I would be able to share points of inspiration and every now and then showcase my work - complete, resolved ....... 

For a couple of days I have been bouncing around ideas for a new artist's book and though I have been experimenting with a range of techniques,  I am not sure that I will be able to pull them together.  Rather than not disclose this, I realised that I am not alone with my scratching.  Very often we have ideas in place and start to bring them into play - only to find that all is not working out as planned, ideas sometimes have a way treading their own paths - mastering you rather than the other way around.  This is not the perfect way, but it is often the way images resolve ..... starting as one thing, metamorphosing, repeatedly, until the result is far from the initial intent.  Sometimes the talent is in recognising when this magic is happening, and letting the artwork speak for itself.

These scratchings are not yet there - but I have hopes that they may form a conversation of pages in one of my books.

No magic here yet. Maybe thread, more paint ........ it may be the rubbish bin after all.  

The book box has worked out well ...... transformed with lots of graphite powder and PVA.  Eventually there will be pages in the story.

woodbooks .........

I have been having fun down in the studio.

Years of experience in making both artists books and journals and this is the first time I have made a woodbook.   While frivoling in a local wood shop I came across two delicious pieces of Conkerberry wood   - gorgeous for book covers. Moreover, the pieces were shape perfect, narrow and elongated - 7cm x 58cm.  The narrow rectangle and the square are my favourites.

I am not at all sure about the archival integrity of the wood but I have combined it with creamy Hannamuhle torn paper and grey linen thread which suit the wood colours.  Some of the pages have been embossed with a knotty design and now that it is complete, I think it looks interesting.

I love the rich orange in the Conkerberry (Carissa lancelot) wood - apparently quite unusual in Australian timbers.  It grows in small patches in North West Queensland and in the Northern Territory where it is protected. The holes in the wood make it quite difficult to work but I think they add something  beautiful to the timber pieces.

We are a strange bunch

Recently I visited my good friend Ally and had the chance to witness once again, the strange way people view us.  By us, I mean those creative beings who see images everywhere and in everything.  I was underneath a table which had been left outside - a gorgeous warped table which I would love to have in my back yard.  To Ally it seemed particularly odd until I showed her the small images that had weathered in her wood.  She was amazed.

I am continually amazed, and delighted, by the small fragments of beauty that are before us every day - we find them when we walk, when we garden, when we travel, when we blog - really, just about every time we have our eyes open there is something to capture our visual attention.  Sometimes we are overloaded with it ........