The fishbone fold book

I have been meaning to have a go at the fishbone fold book as shown in Hedi Kyle's book "The Art of the Fold", but found the diagrams rather daunting.  However, I came across this video by Paula Beardell Krieg which made it look a little easier.

My piece of painted paper was a bit stiff when it came to making the narrow folds (Paula makes it look so effortless to get everything even), but I was quite pleased with the final result.  I didn't try the second version with added pockets.

Glued spine instructions

Someone was asking me about the glued spine book I posted a few days ago.  Although it is quite a simple structure, it is not so easy to explain.  I have made a short video which I hope will help.  It is preferable to make up pairs of pages then go on to glue the pairs together to complete your book. Here I have used some scrapbooking paper.

With your first page make a fold on the lefthand edge (I have allowed 3/4" or 20 mm), turn it towards the back.    On the second page, using the same allowance, make your fold and turn to the front.  Tuck your second page into the fold of the first, only glueing the fold of page 2 to the body of page 1, i.e. leaving the 3/4" fold of page 1 free.

Once all your page pairs are completed, they can be joined by glueing the free flap of the first set to the front of the next pair, and so on.  All clear so far?

In the video below, I have used paper clips in place of glue.

Lino printing workshop

Yesterday I attended a lino printing workshop.  Karen Carter an experienced artist, illustrator, printmaker and tutor treated us to a well-organised and informative day's experience.  Some of those present had never used lino before and were a little daunted to begin with, but soon got to grips with the process, resulting in some really nice work.

In addition to single colour printing, Karen explained how the process could be expanded with the use of coloured backgrounds, ink blending, spot colouring, jigsaw printing, collaging, etc., showing us examples of these techniques in her own work.  There wasn't time for us to fully explore these additional techniques, but we are hoping to arrange a follow-up session in the not too distant future. A really inspiring day, thoroughly enjoyed by us all.

I knew we would be working on a piece of lino 6" x 8" and had pre-prepared a reasonably complicated floral design to utilise that size.  However, on the day, I realised that might be a little ambitious for the time available, so opted for a simpler design at half that size.My prints were definitely not all perfect, but I wanted to try out various different papers (book pages, mulberry paper, painted tissue paper, etc.) as well as the spot inking.  I had not used proper oil based printing inks before and I was interested to try these out (these were Caligo Safe Wash Inks).  I have used water-based printing ink in the past, but this did not suit my practice as I often like to add watercolour or fluid acrylic to enhance my finished prints and this ink would be reactivated once liquid paint was applied.  My solution to this problem has been to use gesso, black or white, adding liquid acrylic to the white if needed - this doesn't allow for an extended printing time, but so far my projects have been quite small.

Easy-Cut lino - cuts almost like butter! (size approx. 3.5" x 5")

Painted and gesso printed tissue (left), packing tissue (middle),
gesso printed tissue background with spot-colour over-printed

Spot-colour printed on mulberry paper (left); black print on book page (right)

Some of the prints produced by the rest of the group:

The following are some examples of Karen's work:

Some very small prints making up an interesting accordion booklet.
(Copyright Karen Carter)

A puzzle block - the initial block has been cut into
three separate pieces, inked with different colours,
reassembled and printed as one image
(Copyright Karen Carter)

The same block - one printed white on black (left),
the other printed black on white (right)
(Copyright Karen Carter)

(Copyright Karen Carter)

An effective use of one small block printed onto various different papers
(Copyright Karen Carter)

Chinese brush painting

At our Art Society meeting last night, we had a demonstration by Maggie Cross, who has been painting, tutoring and demonstrating Chinese brush painting for a number of years.  She has also written three books about the subject. Her art encompasses both meticulous and freestyle disciplines and on this occasion she used the latter style, at the same time explaining the various traditions, materials and symbols surrounding both the calligraphy and painting.  A very interesting evening.

After initially demonstrating the various brush strokes, she painted three studies (as shown below):

Wisteria (copyright Maggie Cross)

Rooster and family (copyright Maggie Cross)

Cat and Mouse (copyright Maggie Cross)

Several members bought brushes, paints etc. and at our next monthly meeting we are going to attempt  to put into practice what we have learned from this demo.

Loose watercolour

In July our local art society hosted a demonstration by popular watercolourist Jake Winkle who produced a couple of very vibrant paintings of animals.  Thus our theme for this month's evening workshop was to emulate his style with birds or animals as our subject.

Images copyright Jake Winkle

In the interests of speed (and acknowledging that my bird drawing skills are not good), I traced my subjects from my own reference photos and concentrated on trying to achieve flowing, colourful washes.

Approx. 9" x 12" watercolour and Graphik line painte
 on Hahnemuhle hot pressed Britannia paper

Approx. 9" x 12" watercolour and Graphik line painter
 on Hahnemuhle hot pressed Britannia paper