Calling All Book Artists: Join a New Creative Group

Do you make books, by hand, using a press, or by imagination?

Whether you’re a printmaker layering ink on paper, a writer binding words between pages, an illustrator folding zines at your kitchen table, or someone experimenting with what a book can become, I’d love to hear from you.

I’m starting a new group in the Colchester area for artists and makers who work with books as a creative form. The aim is simple: to bring together people who love books, not just as things to read, but as things to make, share, and explore.

Why a group for book artists?

Because bookmaking, though often a solitary pursuit, thrives in community. A shared space can spark ideas, open up new techniques, and build lasting creative relationships. Whether you’ve been making books for years or you’re just beginning, this is a chance to connect.

Imagine the group as a welcoming, informal gathering where we can:

Share tips and processes

Give and receive feedback on works-in-progress

Collaborate on projects or exhibitions

Host workshops or zine swaps

Support each other with the practicalities of making, printing, 

        and distributing creative work

Who is it for?

Anyone interested in the book as art. You might be a visual artist, a designer, a poet, a craftsperson, or someone who defies all labels. If your practice involves, or wants to involve, books in some form, you’re welcome.

Books are more than just stories. They’re acts of making, spaces of imagination, and bridges between people. So get in touch, bring your sketchbook, a project, or just yourself and let’s see what we can make, together.

Interested? Contact: info@merseaartistsbooks.co.uk

Adana press printing

There’s something wonderfully meditative and deliberate about printing on an Adana. These compact, hand-operated machines, once common in home and small-scale print shops, are perfect for creating beautifully tactile greeting cards.

The process is slow and considered, and that’s exactly the point. Each card begins with hand-setting metal type, followed by carefully inking the press and placing each sheet through by hand. 

Adding ink to the ink disk.

Chase and type placed in its bed and inked up.

The results? Crisp, debossed lettering and subtle textures you can feel.

Unlike digital prints, no two cards are ever quite the same. That small imperfection? That’s character. That’s a part of the charm of a handmade item. In our fast paced world printmaking reminds us of the value of taking time, and the beauty of making something by hand.

And the magic at the end, seeing the layers of ink used coming to light. Cleaning the ink disk. 

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.