Woodblock Wednesday - last class this term

At home I reviewed my circle work and thought ahead to what to do next, then enlarged the "penumbra" of one of the fuzzy circles cut earlier.

In class - printing -

messy edges

Using a mask around the edge, and inking up in two colours

I also used the mask to print the lines in the centre and the fuzzy edges around them, but the registration was ad hoc and very sloppy. The mask should be the exact size of the paper! -

 End of term means we lay out our work and have a look -

 Some close-ups -

 At the start of the class, while we were waiting for blocks and papers to reach the required degree of dampness, we learned a little about bonsai - what a huge topic that is! Also on the table, natural pigments for printing experiments - some are said to need no nori...

I dug out the remaining "binders keepers" - what was intended as a way of carrying around the essential bookbinding tools turns out to be just the right size for woodblock cutting tools -

When I make more, there will be wider slots to accomodate tools with bigger handles.

A miscellaneous week

What are they? Nothing else was growing in front of the house; the entire "garden" was crazy paving -

Bloomsbury seen through, or in, a Claude glass - it makes you look at a reflection of what's behind you -

 Part of a "reflective" walk around Bloomsbury led by artist Sheila Ghelani, part of the Wellcome's events programme to go with their "Museum of Modern Nature" exhibition (till 8 October) -

 Changing trains at Highbury & Islington - gloomy and spooky, isn't it? -

 Walking to Stoke Newington, via the Woodberry Down wetlands -

 The back streets of Covent Garden

 Some "old work" - this is discharge printed silk organza, in a workshop with Bob Adams in 2007 -

 Young rose and old rose, Hyde Park Gardens -

 ... and further along in the park, birds take their leisure beside the Serpentine -

 near the coffee truck -

 This lovely mosaic doorstep is somewhere in W1 -

I discovered how lovely Kew Gardens is in the rain - so so green, and few people. The lanterns led the way to the Japanese event near the Minka House -

 ... and the rain came down ....

 ... but the activities carried on ...

Elsewhere, the Water Lily House was open as usual -

 Lovely tiles in the side streets of Kew -

 on the way to the National Archives ... first visit for me -

 This fellow looks resigned to the rain -

 Very pleasant inside, and an interesting talk on 14th-century shenanigans, with viewing of relevant court records. (Podcasts of previous talks can be accessed here.)

Later in the shop - it was hard to resist the 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles -

 and there are several bays of books about researching your family history; titles like "Tracing your Tradesmen [or servant, or artistocratic, or textile, or railway, or police, or ...] Ancestors" -

Fascinating; new to me, but not much use as my family isn't British.

This was the week of The Carpet Cleaning - "Lazlo" needed only two hours, and his machine needed many changes of water, to remove all the stains and spots. Magic! - no, more than mere magic, practically a miracle -

 I've also been looking for a waterproof walking-jacket -

The search goes on.

"Red sky at night" - here's hoping for some summery weather! -

In my notebook, reminders of talks - "Measuring what matters", insights on epidemiology (some of these events are available as a podcast), and "In search of the right words", insights on dementia (at the Wellcome Collection);  week 2 of the "geology of the British landscape" course (fascinating, and slightly overwhelming);  and two visits to the Hokusai exhibition (ends 13 August). 

Clearing the decks, a bit

With only four weeks to go till the HOFS book fair on 15 March - or rather, less than four weeks to go! - it's time to get on with some book-related making.

I'll be taking the little clay books, and Binders Keepers ... but find my stock of the latter is seriously depleted. Or else there's a dozen or so lurking in "a safe place", resistant to being found ... in any case, more are needed.

Before I left the house yesterday morning, the studio was ready for action. Shortly after I ran the errands and got back home, production was in full flow, with fabric and ribbon decisions being made for several BK at once -

It's the decisions that take the time - the sewing is quite routine by now. With Radio 4 purring away in the background, the great danger is of being caught up in a programme and not realising that work has stopped....

Two new Binders Keepers

Started some time ago, actually, and now finally finished.

More sewing kits - and a note on pricing

The tape-measure fabric seems totally appropriate!

Trying out the pieced-cover idea used in the Binders Keepers

Pricing is always a problem, isn't it - not too high or no-one will buy, not too low either - the low "perceived value" will make people not want it either, it's just not desirable if it's not "worth something". So, you need some good marketing talk to make the item desirable and worth buying. As for affordable, people will convince themselves they can afford something if they want it badly enough ... they will convince themselves they "need" it. 

The Binders Keepers sold at the book fair for £15, and at the open studio they and the sewing kits will be the same price. If/when I do the Etsy thing, it will be £20, to take into account the extra costs.

Is this an adequate pay-per-hour return? If I could get quicker at selecting fabrics, it would be! The sewing part goes very quickly now that I've had some practice. It's the fabric selection - the "creative" part - that takes the time, especially as it includes so many fabrics, some of which are scarp-sized, from my stash. 

But I don't look on making these small items as "work" in the drudgery sense - it give me a chance to catch up with radio and tv via the bbc iplayer, in the background, without feeling I'm totally wasting time. Also they are a project and even perhaps an example of structured procrastination - something to do while my subconscious is incubating the inclination to get on with a Proper Art Project.

All this may ignore the important issues of market value, income maximization, recognition of the value of craft-directed labour, and probably one or two other things I'm ignorant of.