Libris Awards List

Well we have made the short list so to speak and I recognise a few names , locally and interstate so I am excited about the chance to view some beautiful books.
It makes the effort worthwhile to have put the hours, ideas and time into something challenging.
I shall keep you posted re my impressions, which I fully expect will be amazement as I have been so impressed with the works from artists in the past with B.A.O. and Libris entries , always a learning curve to view these pieces.

Working on Libris Award's entry

Hello everyone I have returned from a holiday and this piece was finished before I left.
A group of likewise artists have been collaborating on an entry for the Libris Awards this year.
The few rules we followed were to have all the covers the same colour but toned to blend together. Each member was given the choice of their bottle of paint which had been previously tinted either way, (darker or lighter) and a box was created to hold each individual book according to it's size with the understanding that they must not rest above the box as the box is a tiered design.They must be easy to remove from their sections for the viewer's pleasure to read. Also there was not to be adornments of any sort on the cover of the book, just plain simple colour.
Meetings were held along the way to check on our progression and this gave members a chance to make any corrections , such as myself when I had to make at least eight slipcovers before I was happy with the result.
However onto some photos I took along the way.

The first step for me was to make a dummy book to try my idea first.

 I especially wanted a spine "laced" with satin ribbon as my subject was corsets.

So far so good and I was bearing in mind the tightness of the ribbon on opening the book as I wanted it to lay open flat.

Now the exciting part starts to happen and as I knew I had various papers from other experiments and projects and with the mind whirling with ideas I bought some nice scrap book papers to compliment my own. I also wanted to do art works and not necessarily prints but felt that should be included.

In the meantime I was researching the history of corsets and had made the choice to not let that overtake the book itself so kept that to a minimum.

The following are some pages and I did keep them in their historical order as per year.

This was one I made early on so possibly not in order here. The ideas didn't always come to me in any ordered way, I let it grow and happen as it wanted .

 

 

Even though I am a printmaker/ water-colourist I didn't want to just use paper the texture of fabric was important as not all corsets were made from satin or silk. The working class woman wore cotton corsets. The original corsets were made form whale bone and other 'hard" materials so would have been very uncomfortable to wear and produced bruising. This page represents the higher class lady 's corset made from satin and adorned with nice ribbons,laces and buttons.

A" filler" page and this had been one idea for the title page but decided to use it elsewhere.

"Filler pages" were used to "bulk" up the book to height requirement and create interest.

Another example  and I attempted to place each one in a position to bind a story.

Ahh! one of my favourites and really enjoyed this page.

A preview of how the pages would be presented in the book.

This is one towards  the end comparing the differences over the years and how they were being worn outside of the clothes as a fashion statement.

This is another special page and the corset is a cut-out and the reverse of this page has historical information for interests sake. 

A drawing to show how the corset can achieve elegance to fashion. Each style of corset

could produce a certain effect to the ladies outfit. 

The end papers which I dithered with for a long time as needed to get it right. I tried images from the book itself but instinctively felt it wasn't right so rummaged around and found some marbled papers I had done a few years ago. It pays to let ideas lie , sleep on them and hey presto it happens.

 

The finished book and I did shorten the ribbon as proved to be a bit bulky for the slipcover.

   Open position and happy that it wasn't pulling the pages and making it hard to turn them.

Finished spine.

 

Slip-cover number eight which had to be remade as the curved edge was considered adornment so number nine hasn't been photographed. 

Because of the ribbon spine I had to make the slip-cover with soft "walls" and firm top and bottom.

 

 

Our entry has been presented to the selection committee but I haven't heard if it has been accepted yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tidying up Loose Ends

I have just been meandering through my own blog and thought I should update an earlier piece.
A while ago I made nameplates for the grandchildren and have not told you how that started. My first grandchild Aidyn was turning two and I had some old canvas lying around and feeling a creative urge approaching I got busy. She was at the time into Dora the Explorer character and this is what developed.

The top is canvas with the lower half a nice Japenese Paper and a montage of the family.

 

This is her nameplate and I made them one each for their second birthdays.

 

 

The first grandson but second grandchild's poster and nameplate.

Cousin to Aidyn and Jordan.

 

 

                                                                               

 

 

And the final one for Jordan and it is not this grey colour but red, white and blue.
Due to the layout of his room we had a couple of choices of design and this looks nice at night above his lamp.I'm not sure what the next project will be for them.

 

 

 

Awards exhibition, Christmas wishes and Bon Voyage

This will be my final post for this year so a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.

 It is also the printing groups award year this year and I entered a woodblock and lino reduction print. The image was taken from my own photograph of three ducks at Tamworth Gardens. It's not a large print and unframed is 28.5x21cm. The background(woodblock) which in the photo was the stand of trees they were resting under. When I pulled the print it looked more like water to me so decided to leave it alone and moved onto the ducks. I rearranged the centre duck to view it's head and to capture it's attitude better. The marking on the centre duck has been changed as well for artistic purposes but the two with the dark collars are genuine markings. These two were influenced by a family visiting our back lane about mid year and the colours are a deep emerald green turning nearly black in the shade against the white body. The positioning of the ducks is original apart from slightly moving the middle one and it was the perfect oppturnity to show the collar shape of the other two.

The foreground was handpainted with oilpaints, scratching and some drawing to enhance the grass.
I then cutaway the foreground and concentrated on the ducks using oil based inks and reduction method, handpulled on Fabriano watercolour 130gms paper.

 

"Duck Friends" 2012

 

The New Year will be exciting for me as I will be cruising to New Zealand with my sister for her 70th birthday. It is ladies only, hubbies keeping the homefires burning so to speak.

My very first cuise and visit to New Zealand  for two weeks with a few days in Brisbane with another two sisters , unable to make it on the return home. My camera will forever be ready to capture our wonderful experience and hopefully some nice prints in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                             

Secret Santa

Not only do my family do this but the art group I am with do it too so I'm not saying which one this secret Santa gift belongs to.
It's always handy to have a desk calendar sitting about so designed my own replaceable cover from two pieces of box board with a finer piece for the fold over spine. Rummaged around the left over materials drawer and found some nice printed experiment paper I had done a while ago and for the inside covers a couple of pieces from a friend which I have always liked so happy to pass it on in some way.
I guess the hardest part was working out how to attatch it all and still be able to reuse in future years should the receiver care to continue useing it.

As a bonus , or should I say necessary instruction on how to repalce calendar was included with a card and easy to follow instructions.

Outside covers with ribbon to tie shut.

 

The inside covers with pretty paper from my friend.

At this stage it was working out so well I was tempted to keep it and isn't that a sign of a good gift?

It has been said to me in the past if you buy some one a gift you would like to keep then it's a good one.

By keeping the wrapping on the lower half of the calendar with a bulldog clip it was easier to thread the ribbon through the holes . This is one of the instructions.

 

Calendar in place ready to tie off.

And ready to present with "instruction/best wishes card".

What I enjoyed most was matching left over materials and nutting out how to attatch it all.

 

                                                                         

Concepts by Two

I spent time sitting at the exhibition in the local library and rather a quiet afternoon so came home to a well deserved coffee. After all I do have other art related projects to attend to and unless you are involved with creating I don't think the general public realise how much time and effort goes into even just one piece. It's not as easy as having an idea and producing it.

So here are some photos of a few on the wall.Remember there are only 12 on the wall but more in the folio.

These are two of my prints with the one on the left some might recall from a previous post. Hand pulled print , both the print and background which was an experimental session one afternoon. I liked the colours together and the subject is one of my grandsons talking to the chooks we visit weekly.

The Bird on Lacy Wing is a remodel of a favourite lino plate with a precoloured background and the bird has been printed seperately and has cutout lace wings and glued onto the paper. I liked the bird shape and felt it had a bit more use left in the plate. Please excuse the reflections as hard to photograph with large windows behind which puts them on an unusual angle too.

 

This one is my "lino sculpture" or recyled plates. I developed this to hang on my back wall when the new balcony is finished and besides I liked all the plates and I did a post about them earlier. I am looking forward to hanging it in it's home soon.

 

 

I especially like this one of Di's print. It has a  delicate and simple arrangement to it as do her drawings some with just a touch of colour for emphasis.