A New Box Set of Books

 I first heard about the British Printing Society when I took part in, Making Friends With Your Adana Press, a course at CFPR, UWE Bristol. If you’re interested in printmaking, including letterpress, it could very well be the place for you. The BPS has a membership throughout the UK (and internationally) with a great diversity of skills and knowledge, and a willingness to share it.

That’s how I came to receive this book boxset. The idea for a boxset was considered on a zoom meeting in 2023 . . . fourteen members got creative (and two or three of them got the project on an organised footing) and now we all have a fabulous collection of mini books.

mysterious parcel arrives . . .

ooh

wow!

time to make a coffee & take some time to enjoy

snug in their lovely blue box

World Book Night 2025

World book night 2025 https://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/news/#wbn2025

Listen is made in response to reading, The Overstory, by Richard Powers, for Tell the Trees (Listen to the Trees) World Book Night 2025.

Amazing to think that some small groups within human society have taken dominion of the earth, regardless of the needs of every other living thing, all of which are interdependent. 

The assumption being that mankind is superior to all other species and is therefore justified in exploiting them to his advantage. Time is running out for humankind, it’s time to really Listen to our one and only precious world.

A6 pamphlet, with original Lino cut and digital text. The words taken at random by allowing the book (The Overstory) to fall open. Pamphlet made for Tell the Trees (Listen to the Trees) WBN United Artists exhibition and mail art swap.

Text in the pamphlet:

Untouched foreign language texts.

All those scattered explorations

Theirs to sample and to squander.

They have lived like

Flighty and forgetful gods.

The pine she leans against says;

“Listen. There’s something, you need, to hear”.

Interested in artists’ books? Be a part of a supportive community of artists making books and meeting on Mersea Island

Mersea Artists’ Books

Calling practicing artists and creative individuals who are interested in artists’ books, to come and meet monthly on mersea island. Share your knowledge, your work and ideas. Discuss techniques and skills, and explore what it is that makes an artists’ book. 

If you would you like to join a supportive community of artists who are interested in artists’ books, local to north Essex, contact me at info@merseaartistsbooks.co.uk

Regular projects, take part in workshops and the opportunity to take part in exhibitions. Meetings will be held in St. Botulph’s an 18th century fisherman’s cottage on Mersea.

Mersea island, with its salt marshes and myriad mudflats is the perfect retreat in which to think about, talk about and make books.

For further information about Mersea Artists’ Books, email info@merseaartistsbooks.co.uk

Making Memory Books by Hand

A project for making a concertina book with pockets.

9.30am - 1pm Wednesday 6th March, at No.4 West Mersea, Colchester CO5 8HT

Learn how to construct a unique, concertina fold (with pockets) handmade book that can be used as a ‘memory book’. This would make an ideal personalised Mother’s Day gift and is perfect as a commemorative gift. 

Concertina books are a favourite of mine. They are perfect to stand up and be displayed on a shelf or a table as well as be held in the hand. This workshop is for a hand-made concertina book with pockets.

My particular interest is in simple book forms, concertina (also known as Leporello & accordion fold) Japanese stab binding and pamphlets. For the majority of my books, I use the simplest of tools; a rule, a bone folder, cutting knife, glue, needles & thread, scrap paper and a hole punch. As a printmaker I use ink (of course) and also paint and pens, with stencils and collage for image creating and mark-making.

When any of us make a handmade book, we are following an ancient tradition. All the earliest books showed the mark of the hand at every stage, whether preparing materials (which may be as diverse as leaves and animal skins, or bark and silks) writing with reeds or brushes, letterpress, using handmade inks and making colour from plants and minerals. 

However, this was all very time consuming and we had to wait for the printing press and moveable type to come along before the democratisation of the book, Even so, the hand-made element reminded for many centuries after that.

Examples of concertina, pocket fold books collated to show students in my workshop, Making Memory Books by Hand, at No.4 West Mersea on 6th March (only four and a bit weeks away!) Spaces have booked up quickly, only two places left.

For further info contact: info@merseaartistsbooks.co.uk

Bookbinding for valentines on marvellous Mersea Island

 Come and cut and fold paper to make a unique heart shaped book, that you can fill with love, friendship and kindness, for that special someone in your life; your partner, a best friend, a new grandchild.

We will make a heart shape book in this workshop, filled with paper, cut to shape. There is a lot of cutting of the paper to shape, but as with all binding, satisfying to make.

The book will be sewn, lined and finished in red of course. The hard part will be deciding if you will keep it for yourself or give it away!

In this season of chocolates and red hearts, I wondered how and when did the heart become associated with romance in Western culture? The early Egyptians believed the heart was the seat of the soul, the Greeks, the seat of both reason and emotion.

By the Medieval era heart-shaped books were composed of hand written love poetry, often illuminated, folios stitched together, and when the book is opened it blossoms, so to speak, into a heart. The oldest surviving example is Danish, made in the 1500’s. 

Includes all materials and use of tools. Tea, coffee and biscuits are provided.

To book  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/516982076307

Google medieval heart books to see more.

The Magic of Mersea

As an artist who often makes prints that are inspired by nature Mersea Island is a gift, whether walking along the sea-wall watching birds and water running over the mud. . .

or seeing boats and the paraphernalia that comes through having boats on the shore, there is much to be motivated by.

I needed to make some prints larger than my usual format, which I initially found a bit of a challenge.

Translating sketchbook and photo ideas into prints usually, for me, involves drawing but in this instance I had to 'go big' and simplify, and the drawn line didn't really lend itself to where I was trying to go. . . it took me a morning messing around before I had the 'bright-idea' of using collage (doh)

I don't know why I don't use collage more often, one can't be 'precious' and it's satisfyingly direct.

I couldn't quite get the boat cradle images out of my minds eye, something so prosaic and usually quite insignificant, prompting me to spend some (overdue) time playing around with viscosity printmaking and making offset images.

It's amazing where a walk along the foreshore can take you!

Hanging the sky up to dry.

In both these pebbly beach prints I have used viscosity printing and of course I've promised myself lots of time in the studio to 'mess about' with this method . . . 

mustn't leave it too long!

Oxford Artweeks, May 2019

April and there's barely a bud on the wisteria which holds up the pergola over the path to the studio, perfect printmaking days in the studio in the run-up to my first Oxford Artweeks.

I love a bit of lino. . .  or ply. . .  or mdf and happily use any or all to make prints from.

For Oxford Artweeks I concentrated on making books. . .  these images from Setting Off are a mix of lino and wood which gives the different textures. 

Setting Off results from sketches made of stands of trees on long winter walks along the Wiltshire stretch of the Ridgeway, possibly Britain's oldest road. Metaphors of the woods are written deep in our language, going back into our collective folk traditions, often as places of mystery, menace and threat.

. . . Don't go down to the woods alone.

Hinterland, inspired by walks along the sea-wall in Mersea, observing the constant shifts in mood and light over the strood, and watching birds in flight.

I was so pleased to have a reason to use some hand-marbled paper that I have ferreted away in a drawer. The person who gave it to me told me it was made in the 1930's, I can believe that, as it's quite brittle but it does glue and wrap very happily.

Mapping the Edges, inspired by the sound of Red Kites calling over our garden, quite a heart-rending, mournful sound, which summed up ideas of being alone and the singularity of the human experience.

Meresig grew out of the excitement of spotting curlews while walking along the Essex coast. Curlews are in crisis and we don't have as many in the UK as we once did, I felt very lucky to see them. 

It's magical hearing the curlews call late of an evening in Mersea, particularly on a still evening with the sun dipping low on the horizon.

I've taken part in lots of open studio events over the years but never from my studio and rarely on my own. . . it's quite daunting, and of course there is so much to tidy away.

I opened over two weekends plus a day in the week, welcoming many curious and thought-provoking visitors. I don't think I've held an open studio quite like it, topics of conversation ranged far and wide, from process and concept, to literature and learning, to poetry and politics. 

Certainly kept me on my toes. . . and I very much enjoyed the experience.

The studio made ready for visitors.