The North Sea is only 4 miles from where I sleep but it is as far as these times are concerned it is as distant as the Cape of Good Hope eight and a half thousand miles away.
But the sea waits, it will be there waiting when this passes.
And while we wait we can remember past voyages.
Decks is a spiral accordion fold with transparent prints from journeys between the Hebrides. A tailored envelope finishes the books.
As lockdown continues we all surmise we aught to be doing something but lacking any inclination or creative thought repetition might be the answer.
Mini meander books meet a number of my modest goals –
The project uses a Liquitex basics acrylic paint set of 48 mini tubes (some colours I can think of no other use for) and some A3 FlatWhite paper (which is good for pencil or acrylic sketches on but useless for printing or water soluble media as the plastic content in the paper allows the inks to lift.)
The book form is as simple as possible.
Painted, cut, folded with a couple of dabs of glue to hold everything in place.
They multiply…
Madeira is an island of verdant greenery, the variety of plants and flowers intoxicating in shape, colour and scent.
Cyanotype prints ane hand toned with green teas and bound into a letter-cut accordion. Closed with a matching blue elastic band. (Edition of 5)
Having known each other for over a decade and reconnecting at a woodblock printing class a few years ago, our collaboration on Forth Margins made for a very satisfying project.
During the class we were both inspired by the local shoreline and its historical sites. Rowan continued with the project developing over a dozen plates following the edgelands of the Firth of Forth Estuary while I went on to develop blocks of a series of details from the Steam Ship Explorer.
Printed on recycled bamboo paper as a hard cover accordion and tied with string. Edition of 20. Suitable for use as a book or a linear display of prints with the accordion form fully extended. A map is included to allow you to visit each of the viewpoints.
Forth Margins is available for sale at Art Walk Porty, Gallery 10 Edinburgh, Print Space Dundee and other select events. (Edit – Edition I – SOLD OUT)
Developing books for the Art Walk Porty “Pleasure Ground” theme led our collective to consider the carousel, not only of significance in the fairground as a swirling ride but also to photographers as the holder of memories in sequence – the slide projector carousel.
Thinking about the theme for several months the final project formed when I encountered a boarded up Merry-Go-Round in France. It was 37 degrees, the ride abandoned by the sensible folk who didn’t want to melt in a plastic tent. Time alone to make multiple exposure medium format colour kodak images of the structure.
These photographs formed the ground of the work. Four photographic prints, an installation of transparent floating circular accetate ‘bubbles’ on a glass balustrade and the book works themselves.
Experimenting with the circular form led to the main work Merry-Go-Round. A hard cover double sided accordion variant with paper cut letters. The slinky book could be displayed in a variety of round forms, but also stretched out to permit the prints to be seen. Edition of 5. (Edit – SOLD OUT)
Taking inspiration from the transparent installation further artists’ books were developed utilising origami and map folding techniques to make additional carousel forms.
The final book in the series – with a nod to our hosts at Twelve Triangles – was a work of off cuts, recycling the cut off papers from the other works to form a unique triangular structure with loose pages and many display possibilities.
Working up some new maquettes on the theme of “Carousel”.
Testing out a structure to use for publishing some poems – part mini poster, part bookmark.
The beautiful colours suggested by this poem by Emily Dickinson were fun to find for the text.
I’ve been taking part in – Write_On – 30 days of letter writing challenge and my plain envelopes and writing papers are just a bit boring. Time to design some new stationery from some scans of alternative process photography prints.
If you would like a set to print at home they are available to download as two PDF files. Print, trim, fold and glue – et voila ready to #write_on.
Free to download during April 2018 – Van Dyke Brown over Cyanotype
Geranium Print Envelopes A4 PDF.
Geranium Print Writing Paper A4 PDF.
The first book in this series uses images taken as the sun set on New Years Eve, or Hogmanay as we Scots call it, 2017. The last light of the old year.
The land and sea fold, shape and reform in a continuous origami map fold which can be displayed in a variety of sculptural forms.
The second and third books in the series are also available.
1. Boddin Point.
2. North Berwick.
3. Seacliff.
Available from 17/02/2018.
(c) Images by Elaine Robson.
Photographs in Scotland, 2017 – 2018.
Designed. printed and bound by Lost Path Press, Edinburgh, Scotland, January 2018. 6 pages, sculptural map fold with clip. Each series a limited edition of 5 copies with 1 Artists Proof.
Printed on recycled paper. SOLD OUT
Delighted to be on the Edinburgh and Elsewhere stand on the 3rd and 4th of March. Let’s hope the weather co-operates!
