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”.