Barnacle Goose Paperworks

The good news and the bad news

2012-01-28T19:18:00.001+11:00

The good news is that I've had three days in Sydney (on top of my week in Brisbane), staying with my NZ friend Sheila in Paddington. Paddo (we abbreviate everything in Australia) is a very upmarket suburb full of streets with charming 19th century terrace houses.

Sheila and I wandered the streets, window shopping, buying and eating delicious food, drinking NZ Sauvignon Blanc wines, and enjoying the ambience of this sophisticated and cosmopolitan area.

Australia Day, 26 January, was celebrated on Thursday, with parties, picnics, lots of drinking, and of course, the obligatory Sydney fireworks. We were just spectators, spending most of our day checking out the great bookshops in the area.

Next day I set out for my longish trip home, by bus and train. My car was at the railway station - and this is where the bad news comes in. Surrounded by shattered glass, with the back passenger's window completely smashed in, beer bottle in the glass on the back seat, and the ignition disemboweled, my car was a very sad sight.

Fortunately my family came to the rescue but while I was waiting for them a local security guard drove up to tell me he'd disturbed two young drunken men last night as they were trying to hot wire my car. They got away but he said one had an Australia Day flag poking out from his pocket. So much for their Australia Day celebration. Too much alcohol, no brains.

My son managed to wire the ignition back together so that he was able to drive the car home. Eddie, aged 2, commented "oh no, Cawol's car broken". That about sizes it up. Could have been worse of course- if they hadn't been disturbed they'd probably have gone for a joy ride then set it alight. So, the glass is half full...

Photos are of terrace houses in Paddington, sunrise over Paddo rooftops, and my sad little car.

Brisbane sun shower

2012-01-21T17:00:00.001+11:00

Or as Leone said as the rain appeared through the sunshine "It's a monkey's wedding", a much more charming expression than "sun shower". We got wet but it was quite pleasant and very cooling. This was on another excursion to the city to visit the Art Gallery of Queensland and the State Library.

All the galleries, the Museum of Qld and the State Library, are grouped together pretty much on the riverbank, which meant some serious damage was sustained during the Brisbane floods a year ago. However it makes a great cultural precinct and is easily accessible by public transport.

Leone and I wandered around the Australian paintings, many familiar to me and some new. My parents were very enthusiastic about the arts and I was fortunate to be taken to galleries and theatre from earliest childhood. I feel very much at home in art galleries and have enjoyed the variety offered in Brisbane with GOMA and AGQ within a few days.

Cameras are allowed in the galleries, though not in the paying exhibitions, which is fair enough. I did take a photo of a Margaret Olley painting and I hope it's okay to show it here. I loved a metal found object sculpture, took some photos, but couldn't find a name for the artist. Nor could I find it online but no doubt someone will tell me. I hope. I also took a photo of Leone at the great circle of stones in the foyer of the Art Gallery.
Moving on to the State Library, we went to a delightful travelling exhibition called "Look! The art of Australian picture books today". From Victoria, Look! features original artworks by more than 40 of Australia's most talented illustrators. Once again I was left wishing I could draw.

Out then and onto the street to get to the movies at The Palace Theatre. This is when it rained -very tropical. We saw The Descendants with George Clooney. For some reason we were expecting this to be a comedy so I was surprised to find myself crying a couple of times. NOT a comedy. We enjoyed it and who knew the Hawaii could be so beautiful away from the traffic.

My long awaited workshops have been cancelled for lack of support. After my initial reaction of Nooooooo! I snapped out of it and started booking myself into similar workshops. So, no Art is you..... for me in March. Hopefully I'll make it into some substitutes.

Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens

2012-01-20T09:07:00.001+11:00

Still in Brisbane (hot and so very steamy), I had the great pleasure to meet a longtime blogging friend, and fellow member of the artists book collective Book Art Object, Amanda Watson-Will.

Yesterday Amanda, Leone and I visited Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens for a walk in the shade followed by a welcome break in the coffee shop. There was lots of artist book talk and I felt more inspired to get back into making books than I have for a while. I would like to combine my new interest in rusty things and assemblage art with my old love of book binding - which will entail a complete reorganization of my studio. Organization is not my strong point, let alone reorganizing anything... Anyway, back to the Gardens.

Always a reptile lover, I was delighted to see several lizards crossing the paths or sitting statue-still in the shade. There is a large colony of Water Dragons in the Gardens so I am assuming that's what they were. Brisbane is home to Bearded Dragons too, so perhaps we saw both. Whichever they were, they were completely uninterested in the human invaders, barely giving us a glance.

Pictures follow, I suppose in whatever order Blogger chooses to place them. I apologize for the blurry dragon. He (I think "he" because he had a reddish underside) was a bit too far away for the iPad to cope with. The photos are of one of the ponds, a cycad, a lily I haven't yet identified, a charming koala sculpture, my blurry lizard, and Amanda and Leone by the river.

When I return home to my desktop Mac I'll try to improve on the dragon pic, and I'll add links. I love being able to use the iPhone and iPad to blog but it's just not the same as the full Blogger. If you have any hints I'd love to hear them.

Matisse and more...

2012-01-18T21:18:00.001+11:00

Back to blogging after a very long break. Belated Happy New Year greetings - I hope it will be a good one for us all.

I'm in Brisbane, capital city of the State of Queensland, familiar to many from the dreadful floods just a year ago. The city looks wonderful now but it is a tribute to the courage and tenacity of Queenslanders that their ongoing recovery is forging ahead.

I'm staying with my good bookbinding friend Leone, and today we visited GOMA, the Gallery of Modern Art. "Matisse Drawing Life" was the main exhibition and it was marvelous. Of course. Most of the works were from the Bibliotheque nationale de France, a wonderful opportunity to see more than 300 drawings, prints and illustrated books by one of the greatest artists if the 20th century. To be able to draw like that!

Two other exhibitions that we really enjoyed were extremely colorful and joyous. First was the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama : Look Now, See Forever. Rooms of mirrored sculptures, strange but beautiful flowers, huge paintings, red spotty things led us into a gallery of SPOTS. On entry we were given colorful pages of stickers - spots large and small. We were able to stick the spots anywhere in the gallery, walls, floor, furniture. The result? Spectacular!

The other exhibition was called "We Miss You Magic Land". Pip and Pop, artists from Perth, Western Australia, have made a magical, glittering landscape, a miniature world overhung with huge jellyfish-like beings, enormous egg-shapes, and as delightful to the adult audience as to the enthralled children.

I'm typing this on my iPhone so not sure if my photos will appear in order or at all. If not, I'll try again when I get home.

Some iPhonography experiments

2011-10-30T10:05:00.000+11:00

In response to "Dave's Apps Recipe Book Project" I'm throwing my hat into the ring and will try to show a few of my iPhone apps and what they do. As a complete novice at this I'm not sure how useful this will be to anyone else, but I can assure you that I'm having a great time playing with my iPhone and iPad. These photos are all from the iPhone. Maybe I'll do another post sometime on the iPad apps.

Using the 360 Panorama app, which takes a series of photos I took this untrimmed strip of our garden.

I then chose Stereographic Mode and got this result. It is possible to make a 360' photo if you take a full circle of the photo.

Using a photo of my bookshelves

I then used my Kaleidoscope app using 20 segments to change this image to this:

This is achieved by a bit of finger twiddling and makes thousands of varying images. Next I tried my FishEye app to the same section of my library.

I also have AutoStitch which stitches a series of photos into a panoramic scene, and is a lot of fun but I'm a bit more keen on 360Panorama. As well, I have Hipsamatic and CameraFlash, neither of which I've had time to master. I started installing free apps but have found it sometimes pays to upgrade to a paid one.

If you'd like to see more iPhone apps please visit Dave at Clearer Reflections Blogspot to see the list of other blogs taking part in this challenge.

Paper Stacks at The Altered Page

2011-09-21T21:20:00.000+10:00

The Altered Page aka Seth Apter, is hosting blogs featuring stacks - paper, books, stuff. My house is full of stacks so these are just a few of them. These are books I've made, a mix of artist's books and traditional bindings.

Then there's just stacks, all slightly wonky, ready to topple, and a bit scary. Boxes, and books.

Visit The Altered Page to see a list of all the participating blogs. Or just visit anyway because it's a really interesting blog for artists and book artists.

Playing with iPhoto

2011-09-20T21:54:00.001+10:00

I've just added a couple of photo apps to my iPhone and iPad and I can see that this could be a great time waster. But a lot of fun. Not sure how this works on Blogger so if photos don't appear I'll put it down to not reading the instructions, and try again later.

Photos are Suzy's 1964 Honda, some poly pipe, beach flowers, and a Lake Eyre shot.

Lake Eyre adventure

2011-09-08T15:39:00.022+10:00

Last weekend I was looking down on Lake Eyre, in flood for the third year after many years of drought, last filled to capacity in 1974. Covering an area of nearly 10,000 square kilometres, about the size of Holland, it is Australia's largest salt lake and the 13th largest in the world. Set in South Australia, our driest state, it was a thrill to see the dry land tinged with green, and the beautiful Flinders Ranges a misty mauve in the background. My photos of the Lake and surrounds are not brilliant - will I never grow out of being airsick? - but you'll get some idea I hope of how huge the lake and rivers are.

For really great photos of Lake Eyre go here.

Absolutely stunning was the country we drove through - in a very comfortable bus with the perfect guides - and we stopped at many small towns for refreshment. One of these was the Parachilna Prairie Hotel where lunch consisted of kangaroo salami, emu pate, goat pastrami - crocodile was off the menu that day. Fortunately for me there was a huge salad and lots of grilled vegetables.

At Beltana Station I made two new friends. First a Shingleback Lizard that was being harassed by the farm dogs. I reached in and snatched it away from them, only considering later that taking prey from strange dogs was a bit foolhardy. However the dogs befriended me, probably just in case I decided to give the lizard back, and I was able to get it to safety while others held the dogs at bay. The Shingleback looks rather the same coming and going as the head and tail are the same shape. Here is a really lovely video (read down a bit) of David Attenborough (my hero!) showing Shinglebacks, including the female giving birth to two huge baby lizards. Here is my Shingleback.

Another friend was this very cute little Alpaca, name of Chocolate for obvious reasons. Beltana Station is a restored homestead and worksheds, now having a new lease on life as tourist accommodation. There is even a modern day cameleer with a herd of camels for trekking.

What else do I have to show you? The most wonderful Flinders Ranges, the softness of the colours being truly amazing when one considers that this is virtually a desert. I'm still mulling over this trip, which was 6 days in Adelaide (capital city of South Australia) and 6 days on the road visiting the outback. So much to see and think about, and more than ever, I realise what a beautiful country Australia is.

More about South Australia next time.

My next major excitement will be next March when I go to a four day workshop in Sydney, at Bondi Beach. This will be run by Art is...You and I will be doing three assemblage art works shops with Keith Lo Bue and a two day book structure workshop with Judy Wilkenfeld. Here is the list of the faculty for this Art is... You event. Check it out because there are some great teachers here and I just wish I could double up on some. However, I've been promising myself to do classes with Keith and Judy for ages, and this time I'm taking the plunge.

Thanks to all the BookArtObject team who have sent me their Paper Wrestling books so far. This will need a special post to show what people are making.

Cold, wet and windy at the beach

2011-07-24T17:52:00.000+10:00

Sydney, and pretty well all the east coast of NSW and Victoria, have just experienced days of torrential rain and gale force winds. Hopefully over now but you never know. I love storms but it did get a bit scary as I watched the water rising into our garden and hoped the chicken pen would survive. Of course the chickens themselves were fine; they just moved onto the doormat and gazed at me sadly as Basil the Beagle and I sat huddled by the heater. Keeping their food dry and feeding them on the deck has meant that the local birds have stepped up to the challenge and tried a bit of pilfering when my attention strayed.

This is a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, one of about 50 that attempt to steal the chook food. However, these two Rainbow Lorikeets, way smaller but very bold, chased the Cockatoos and kept them at bay until they'd had their fill. These are wild birds, and I don't think should be fed, but they are accustomed to handouts from campers and spend their afternoons casing the neighbourhood for possible snacks.

The beach has been covered with seaweed and a wonderful collection of sea animals, most of them dead, but if I think they may be alive I toss them back in. Sea urchins of many varieties, starfish, small fish, all tumbled together out of the maelstrom of waves and onto the beach. For the first time I found a sea mouse Aphrodita australis. This is a polychaete, and I've read that the spines may be stingers but I had to pick it up to put it back in the water, and I didn't get stung. The photos show the top and underside of this weird little animal, which was about 4 inches long. The link is to the Sea Slug Forum, and this is NOT a sea slug. It just happened to be the best link I could find.

I finally finished my edition of books for BookArtObject and posted them off. I had worked on a spiral version but had a change of heart and instead made 15 copies of a Blizzard Book. As I'm not at home I don't have photos to show you but will post pics in a couple of weeks. Two more weeks to go here at Basil's house and I'm hoping for lots of dry weather.

Books, birds, beach

2011-06-12T20:17:00.000+10:00

I've mentioned Ed Hutchins in earlier posts - one of my favourite book artists and a most kind and generous person. Ed taught some classes in Australia and New Zealand a few years ago so I was able to fulfil one of my ambitions, to do a workshop with him. At the time he told us about this book, then only in the pipeline, so I was very pleased to purchase a copy when it did become available.

There is a review of this book by Miriam Schaer in Bone Folder, Vol 6, No.1, Fall 1909. If I may quote from the back cover : Acclaimed book designer Ed Hutchins creates artist books that spring to life in delightful and unexpected ways. Combining eclectic materials and ingenious formats with unusual printing techniques and advanced paper engineering, his hand-made books blow apart the traditions of the bindery, while infusing traditional forms with new meaning. Hutchin's inventions and variations expand the boundaries of bookmaking in unimagined, and not soon forgotten, directions."
To watch Ed make and manipulate his books is an inspiring experience and certainly one I'll always treasure.

My good friend GB gave me this book for my birthday - very clever of her, I thought. Thanks, GB. This book has some quite quirky ways of repurposing books, and a couple I'll be putting into use. My only complaint about this book is that the print is fashionably pale and I find it hard to read with my aging eyesight. I've noticed this trend lately when I've bought magazines and while a pale green page with yellow print looks very attractive, it just is impossible for me to read. No doubt this is all aimed at a younger demographic but I do feel slightly miffed when I have to stick my head under a lamp just to read a few lines.

I mentioned last time that I'm again doing an online course with Michael deMeng (power tools, vroom, vroom...) and after being lost in the mail for months I finally received this copy of one of Michael's books. I still haven't assembled anything, book making taking all my time and space, but my collection of rusty things grows apace and threatens to overpower me. I've discovered that I can sit and watch TV while dismantling electronic gadgets - though I am wondering how many circuit boards any one person can use.

I've finally completed my latest pile of books for "the shop", they look great, thank goodness, and tomorrow I will clear the decks to get down to serious work on my BookArtObject edition. I want to complete the 20 volumes by the end of June before I go off to puppy sit for a month. I suspect I'll be taking more books for "the shop" to do while I'm away.

I can't get enough of these Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. This one has picked a lemon from the tree next door and is busily chomping a hole in it. A few bites and the lemon is tossed to the ground and the cockatoo goes off to pick another. A flock of cockatoos can demolish your orchard with no trouble at all. In fact they seem to get a kick out of just picking and dropping fruit. They are the vandals of the garden, only topped by the fruit bats, who also do a lot of tasting and tossing.

Please have a look at my previous post - I've added some photos. More birds I'm afraid but I'm pretty much hooked on birds as you may have noticed.

Another beachy pic to finish. I just love these sand trails, don't you?

Autumn at the beach

2011-05-23T19:36:00.001+10:00

I'm spending an idyllic 4 day weekend at Bundeena Beach, an hour south of Sydney. After a few weeks of sick kids and even sicker adults, including me, I felt a few days away wouldn't go amiss. This is something of a practice weekend, because next weekend I'll be back again to dog sit Basil the Beagle, and in July I'll be here for 4 weeks while Basil's humans go to Europe. This is a gorgeous part of the world to live in, three very different beaches within a short walk, situated in the world's second oldest National Park, cafes, and a very artistic community. I think I could happily live here - if I could afford two houses, which seems most unlikely.

I'll try to add photos when I get home, especially of the birds that try to coax me to share my breakfast.
Done: First the Rainbow Lorrikeets, noisy, showy but very pretty. Then there's the Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, inquisitive, cheeky and as for noise, they make the Lorrikeets seem like amateurs.

At home work is piling up in my studio as I'm making a heap of books and picture frames for the QVB shop in Sydney, and also working on my edition of the poem "Paper Wrestling" by Claire Beynon for Book Art Object. Once "Paper Wrestling" is completed I plan to completely rejig the studio to make space for assemblage art, which I think is a generous but hopeful way to describe my collection of found and rusty materials.

This week I'm starting another online course with Michael deMeng, this time on using the Dremel drill and other tools. I love my Dremel (it doesn't take much to make me happy) and for my birthday I was given lots of attachments for it, so I can't wait for the course to start to really try them all out.

It's evening now, Basil is snoozing beside me on the sofa, and I'm listening to the flying foxes (fruit bats) squabbling in the trees, which reminds me of home (where they shriek all night). What I'm not used to hearing is the sound of the water ebbing and flowing just a few hundred metres away. The night sky here is just full of the Milky Way, a real delight, because at home we have too many trees to see the stars clearly from our garden. Beautiful Bundeena, beautiful Wamberal. I'm feeling very fortunate to have such lovely places to live.

I loved that someone produced this work of art on the beach.

Rust, gardening and new books

2011-04-03T11:38:00.003+10:00

Not sure if I've mentioned my new obsession with rusty stuff but I seem to be filling up my house (competing with the piles of books) with rusty tools, circuit boards and anything that has an interesting shape. Here's a small sample.

I'm resisting starting to make anything from this lot because I need to keep my studio rust free while I'm making my BAO books but once I've finished those I'll be dividing my space so I can have both occupations going at once. I've signed up for another Michael deMeng online class to start in May, on the use of tools, such as the Dremmel and heavier power tools.

I was delighted this morning to see that I've won a print on Diane Lou's blog. Diane is an assemblage artist and I've recently bought her book "Transfers and Transparencies ... and other fun ways to use your inkjet printer." To quote from the back cover: "Safe, easy, non-toxic techniques that yield professional results."

Suddenly it feels like Autumn/Fall and it's really delightful after all the heat and humidity. We've even had some rain so getting out into the garden is a pleasure. I planted another 100 bulbs yesterday, a little late for some of them but I'm hoping they'll surge away with the damp soil and the slightly cooler temperatures. I've planted belladonnas, daffodils, jonquils, freesias, and Dutch iris, and I have my fingers crossed for them. The Satin Bower Birds are back and stealing from the chooks. I still haven't managed to get a photo here in our garden but I did catch this male, also a Satin, when I was last in Queensland. His eyes really are violet.

Just to add to my collection of early animal books, I purchased a copy (reproduction of course) of Conrad Gesner's "Von den Hunden und dem Wolff". Gesner [1516-1565] was a Swiss naturalist and produced encyclopaedic volumes on natural history. My new book is in German and shows some of Gesner's dog illustrations.

I now have four issues of the Australian Book Arts Journal, which commenced last April 2010. This is an Australian journal dedicated to book artists, book binders, printmaking, letterpress and zines. There are profiles, interviews, articles, reviews and exhibition news. Each issue has had a theme : Beginnings; Women of the Book; Text as image, Image as text; and Men of the Book. See the website for subscriptions.

Daylight saving ended last night which means all the east coast of Australia is on the same time zone. I love it when it starts, and then I love it when it ends. Easily pleased, me.

More from the mailman

2011-03-22T15:47:00.000+11:00

Everyone loves getting mail, though these days it's probably more likely to be email than the real snail mail, and I'm no exception. Letters generally turn out to be bills but packages - now there's the thing. I know I should use the library but I just can't resist the real thing; which is ownership. My book! Or in my case, my several thousand books, which are bursting off my shelves, tottering in dangerous piles, and ensuring that I have no flat surfaces on which to work. So, in a tiny act of sharing, I'll show you one treasure that has come through the letter box in recent times.

I think I first saw this book when Anna talked about it and I thought then that it looked highly desirable. And it is. Unfolded : Paper in design, art, architecture and industry by Petra Schmidt and Nicola Stattmann, Birkhauser, Basel. I can't see a date but I think 2010. (I hope I'm just missing it - a book like this needs to be dated. Well, all books should be, but a book of modern design should definitely have a date.) ISBN978-3-0346-0032-3.

From the cover: "Unfolded" presents paper from a new perspective: as a high-tech material and substance for a new generation of engineers, designers, artists, and architects.

For a traditional book binder or book artist, this book doesn't tell how to make a book. What it does, with lavish illustration, is inspire and inform on the amazing and wonderful things being done with paper and paper products. About a third of the book is devoted to Materials and technologies: Innovative paper and manufacturing processes for intelligent lightweight construction by Nicola Stattmann and Marieke Gast. An extremely interesting look at modern technologies.

The cover of this book deserves a word or two. On the book the cover is folded several times, showing the title on the front, other information on the back, but removed and unfolded, the paper is the softly printed, very beautiful (I think A1) sheet depicted here.

This is longer than I had expected so I'll save some books for next time.

Here, there and back again

2011-03-10T13:55:00.000+11:00

As usual it has been a long time between posts but so much has been happening, and getting down to business is not my great strength. I've been working on my edition of books for BookArtObject, and I think I've reached a point where I can begin assembling them. Here are a couple of photos of my progress. First the paper on my work bench being ruled up for trimming.

Next the cut strips, Gocco printed, drying, before measuring and folding. I'm not a very competent printer and so I'm not completely happy but I've consoled myself with the thought that these books are very much hand made. The actual shape of the books can be seen here, though I've changed the measurements and they will be smaller than the one pictured.

On the family front we've had the first day of big school and a 5th birthday party. Very exciting happenings and Fia looks so grown up in her new school uniform. We are very lucky in that her little local primary school (government run) is considered one of the best schools in the state. The two little ones also go to preschool (right next door to our house) three days a week and they love it, so we have three happy campers, thank goodness. Look at their enormous school bags!

I have a new obsession to add to the others. I've done an online course with Michael deMeng, learning to use his paint effects. I've been collecting bits and pieces all my life, I have containers of anything that takes my fancy, which is just about everything, and now I want to actually make things with my "stuff". To do the paint effects I had to buy new paints - who doesn't like doing that? I spent a small fortune on them so now I am obliged to make use of them and I'm all set to start creating. Here are my paints. A warning. Buying them in Australia cost four times as much as if I'd ordered them from the US but I needed them instantly to do the course. And they are gorgeous!

I've just spent four amazing days at my daughter's beachside house - in Bundeena, in the Royal National Park in New South Wales. The Park is the second oldest in the world, after Yellowstone, and apart from wonderful walks and scenery, has really beautiful beaches. We packed so much into the four days that I'm feeling I need a little holiday to get over it all. Here is a tiny glimpse of Bonnie Vale Beach.

Here are a couple of links I'm enjoying at the moment. Advanced Style, which shows just how stylish elderly people can be in New York. As I've never been blessed with "style" I feel as if this is something to aspire to when I'm in my 80s. And a booky link. I'd seen some of these before but not all. I see that Brian Dettmer is in there - I don't think I ever get tired of seeing his work. Here is some more of it.

We are in our second week of autumn/fall and so far it's still hot and humid. In spite of most of Australia being flooded (still) we are in a mini drought here in sunny Wamberal. I'm so looking forward to autumn, with the milder days, cooler nights and that wonderful feeling in the air that you only get here in spring and autumn.

If you're an assemblage artist and find your way here, please let me know. I love to hear from everyone, whether your interest is in books, natural history, rusty things - or anything at all.

Books and butterflies

2011-01-25T16:30:00.000+11:00

Ages since I last posted but I have reasons. No excuses, just reasons, but I've made it here now.

I've finally made a decision on the format of my next edition of books for the BookArtObject collective and I feel if I tell enough people about it then it's all that much more definite in my mind. So here is a mock up and I have my fingers crossed that I can produce about 16 identical copies. There will of course be text, covers etc.

S & I had a wonderful experience in the garden last week. A mating pair of Orchard Swallowtail butterflies were swooping and dancing so close to us that they were almost touching, and S (nearly 5) thought they would tangle in her long curls.

The very next day we were examining the lemon tree for caterpillars when a female Orchard Swallowtail hovered over a leaf and gently deposited an egg on the undersurface. Can you imagine the excitement - I'm not sure which of us was more elated but it was a pretty good moment. Now this little lemon tree was already the host to several Orchard Swallowtail caterpillars in various stages, right from a tiny instar looking like a bird dropping (their camouflage) right to very fat and mature ones all bright green and black. In addition we also had two pupae attached to branches, so from watching the mating dance, S had before her the entire life cycle of the Orchard Swallowtail. The egg has now hatched to produce an almost invisible caterpillar who immediately started eating the leaf it was on, and we are waiting to see the pupae turn into butterflies in a couple more weeks.

I am indebted to Lesley Smitheringale for the photograph of the Orchard Swallowtail butterfly - I've never been quick enough to get one like this. Find Lesley at Oz Wildlife Studio where she has a blog, shop and art classes. I really love the work she is doing with children.

For more of Lesley's photos of the Orchard Swallowtail, go here. As you can see I handle my poor caterpillars, lovingly moving them from one tree they nearly demolished to another slighter bigger. I am constantly watching them and taking photos and they've never bothered to give me the danger display that Lesley has photographed in the above link.

I think just about everyone around the world has heard about the floods here in Queensland and now in Victoria as well. There are many artists donating to the flood appeal including Lesley. I purchased a delightful print of two lorikeets and all the money goes to the fund. From Lesley's page you can go to the Etsy group who are donating more items to the flood appeal.

If I seem to be a bit obsessed by the animal life here, I guess that's true. Between the caterpillars, stick insects, cicadas, lizards and most spiders, I'm in my element. However, I had another close encounter with a male funnel web spider last week, too close to my bare foot and I'm afraid he came off second best. He's the first I've seen inside this summer, and yes, I know I should be more careful...

I've signed up to do Michael De Meng's Art Laboratory, which is online and lots of fun. I went out and bought the most expensive set of paints for this course so I'm just hoping I learn a heck of a lot about paint effects and finishes. I've been looking at his work for ages and thinking I wanted to know more about it so here's my chance.

I've got some new books on books to show you but I think that will wait til next time.

Thank you to everyone who has asked about the floods and whether I'm near by. Not only am I well away but we've hardly had any rain here for weeks, which is unusual for us in summer. It seems very unequal that we are trying to keep the garden alive while so much of the country is under water - crops, livestock, native animals, people, towns, cities.

I suspect that the photos which matched the text perfectly when I've set out this post will not look the same when I hit publish. Sorry!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T00:48:00.000+11:00

It's nearly midnight and Blogger just swallowed my first attempt at a post. I've been dragging the chain a bit lately when it comes to blogging (that was an Aussie expression, hopefully not too obtuse) but I'm definitely going to make a better effort next year. As the new year is almost upon me I thought I'd just show you some favourite photos of the past month or so, with a little bit of commentary. First up is Christmas, the 80 year old tree from Vienna and the very modern children with some of their loot.

This is beautiful Luther, an old black cat turning bronze with age. About 16 or so, he is a loving companion, very much enjoying his life in the sun, especially now that the chooks are no longer able to harass him. Considering his age he is amazingly sweet and patient when the children want to carry him around.

I am of course a bit potty about natural history and got very excited about this spider's web that I saw hanging from our roof. It was about 3 ft wide and nearly as high, way up in the air and only visible when the wind blew it the right way. I couldn't resist taking a photo and I'm only sorry the owner wasn't visible, though I know quite a few of my readers will be grateful for that omission.

This wonderful tree is a prickly pear and when I was last out on the road, mainly in Queensland, the prickly pears were in flower. They are a terrible weed in many places but the orange flowers do develop into a fruit that is sweet and juicy and highly valued in many parts of the world. Sometimes to be found in fruit shops but certainly not a common fruit.

At the moment we are experiencing terrible floods in the state of Queensland. Over a third of the state, an area the size of Germany and France combined, is in flood - and the water is expected to be there for weeks if not months. It is heart rending to see streets, houses, farm lands under water. Just three weeks ago I was in some of the towns now flooded, thousands of people evacuated, property ruined. There was a lot of water lying around when I was in Queensland and this next photo shows a puddle we drove through. This same place, the road, the trees, and the paddocks behind, are now several metres deep in muddy water.

I'll end with a sunset taken in Gloucester, New South Wales, on a day of torrential rain. I was at a friend's wedding and as the sun set the sky just lit up with this amazing golden light.

I wish you all a most wonderful 2011, a year of peace, happiness, good health and prosperity. Thank you for your support and encouragement over the past year, I really do appreciate your comments and emails.

Happy New Year!

It's a book

2010-11-07T13:39:00.000+11:00

This is not a book. It's a hippeastrum. I just wanted a cheerful photo to start off this wordy post.

It's a book is a video I tried to upload but obviously haven't yet mastered the trick. I don't want to swamp you with things to look at but my computer is going away for a few days and I'm not sure when I'll be back here. So I have a few more links for you that I've enjoyed, or found interesting or been bemused by.

I was interested and bemused by Irma Boom's absolute dislike of hand made books. She apparently hates them. Each to their own of course.

Here is an interesting video on traditional bookbinding. Hmm... I can hear my two very traditional binding teachers spluttering in shock. I was never taught to put on a leather binding like this but I know that this is a quick and relatively easy way to make a leather covered case binding. Sawn-in cords, false bands, trimmed edges. Again, each to their own. Having worked for many years with rare books I have had many occasions to curse the bookbinders, both ancient and modern, who in rebinding trimmed great swathes of foredge, head, and tail from books, often cutting into text and illustrations. There are even instances of spines being hacked off and the text block held together with the sawn-in cords, over-stitching and glue. However, I think there are things to learn from this video and I'm going to try it, just because I can; so watch this space.

Meadow Press has a nice set of photos of making an edition of paste papers. Go to the second item down on the left hand bar. Every time I see pictures of paste papers I long to get my hands into paint.

The University of Iowa has a collection of bookbinding models, covering African, Monastic, Medieval and Modern. This is a wonderful site with excellent illustrations. I found all these sites through the Book Arts Web, a brilliant source of everything to do with book and paper arts.

And this is a photo of native orchids in my garden. I hope you found something of interest in the links. I'll be back when my computer's holiday is over.

Pop ups and other artist's books

2010-10-25T17:24:00.000+11:00

On my desk top I have a few favourite sites that I'd like to share. So I won't be saying much and I hope you enjoy these sites as much as I do.

The Movable Book of Letterforms, designed and constructed by Kevin Steele, 2009. Master of Fine Arts program, Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana US. I love the music.

Kevin Steele's amazing book was the winner in the Pop Up Books Exhibit "Pop Up Now", an international exhibition of movable artist books through October 14th. 23 Sandy Gallery, 623 NE 23rd Avenue Portland, OR 97232. Unfortunately the exhibition is over but the video gives a glimpse of the excellent books, of which Kevin's was one.

Book + Art: Artists' books from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, Duke University Libraries, curated by Christine Wells and Kelly Wooten. This exhibit is part of a semester long celebration of Book Arts done in collaboration with UNC Libraries. Start: October 12, 2010 | End: Jan 9, 2011 | Perkins Gallery.

Mapping the World

2010-10-20T10:39:00.000+11:00

Considering that I already have several metres of books precariously stacked around my walls in front of my bulging wall to wall bookcases, commonsense would indicate that I shouldn't buy another book until I find space for all the others. But yesterday I did buy another book, a big one. This one is called "Mapping the World" by Michael Swift, New Jersey : Chartwell, 2006. 256 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.) ; 31 x 43 cm. (12.5 x 17.5 in.) Landscape in format, this is a coffee table book full of glorious colour plates of maps from the earliest times (cartographically speaking) - from 1200-1085 B.C. to the end of the 19th century. Michael Swift is the pen name of a London publisher who writes about cartography and while this is more coffee table style with brief captions rather than a learned look at maps, it is certainly a feast for the eyes. Michael Swift does give an introduction to the subject but, disappointingly doesn't provide an index. This is a serious omission (my cataloguing prejudices showing) but I'm in a forgiving mood, and I did find the book on the remaindered shelf, after all. As some of the maps depict 16th century marine animals - my favourite subject - I couldn't resist. The photos show the front and back covers. As with so many books cheaply published (and sadly many that cost the earth), this book is badly constructed. Machine sewn, the sections appear to be glued together, with a narrow strip of mull holding the book, which is large and heavy, and without careful use the text block will fall out of the covers.

Eating, gardening and reading

2010-10-04T19:37:00.000+11:00

The eating was easy. I made a pavlova for last weekend's birthday lunch and here it is. Coming out of the oven it was puffed up high but the top cracks as it cools, leaving a crunchy top and a marshmallowy centre. In my family we just like to smother it in whipped cream and strawberries but passionfruit is served on the side for all those Australians who believe a pavlova has to have pash n'strawbs. Fruit salad is also popular but I think it's a bit messy for my pav. There is a huge conflict in Australia and New Zealand because country claims to have invented the 'pav', a dessert originally made for the ballerina Anna Pavlova. I don't care where it originated, just so long as I can keep making them.

In the garden I am very excited to see my first globe artichokes appearing on my one and only plant. This is such a beautifully architectural plant that I'd forgive it for not producing anything at all, but I am rather chuffed that these beautiful little chokes are growing fatter by the day. Now I'm torn between whether I actually eat them or let them develop into the most magnificent thistle flowers. For many years I daily drove past a paddock of neglected artichokes and I was captivated by the huge blue flowers in spring and summer. At last I have my own; and perhaps my garden isn't big enough to have a giant thistle spreading seeds everywhere.

Also in the garden we have two big lizards. One is an Eastern Bearded Dragon, quite big, very harmless, no photo so far. The other is also big, also harmless, and like the Dragon, loves to sit in the sun for hours on end. This fellow (I think) is a Blue Tongue Lizard, nearly two feet long, and we are thrilled to have them both in our garden. I took this photo this morning and I was about 4' away before he (or she) gave me a look and slowly moved away under some timber. I say I think he's a Blue Tongue but his very dark colour is making me a bit unsure, so if anyone has any better identification I'd be happy to hear it. By the way, a Blue Tongue Lizard has a very blue tongue.

I've had many months of migraines and then, to my dismay, sciatica - so I've had quite a lot of time on my hands when I couldn't really concentrate to read or do anything else much. So I've been playing with old paperbacks, something I did many years ago but had forgotten about. This is, I suppose, an altered book, and if I'd been feeling more capable I'd probably have tried to make it a lot more perfect. As it is, my faulty attention span has given it a few strange folds - but I rather like it. I think now I'd like to bind a book just for this purpose, and do some experiments with shape.

I've unearthed all my book binding books - what a treasure trove that I've been missing for the past 18 months. I thought I should tell you about one each time I post. I'm not very good at reviews because I seem to have an inability to be critical of everyone's work but my own but I'll get around that by telling you what I particularly like. The first is The Book as Art: Artists' Books from the National Museum of Women in the Arts, by Krystyna Wasserman with essays by Johanna Drucker and Audrey Niffenegger, c2007 NMWA. This is a substantial book, hard covered, lavishly illustrated, often with just one artist to a double page spread. Each artist's book is generously displayed with a simple description and the artist's statement. The essays by Drucker and Niffenegger are a valuable addition to the book, readable and fascinating insights into these two highly regarded book binders. Krystyna Wasserman's introduction to the book and to the National Museum of Women in the Arts has me determined to visit the museum if I manage to return to the US. I can't believe I've spent weeks in Washington DC and didn't know of the existence of this museum which houses over 800 artists' books! This shows 108 of those books, and thank goodness, has a comprehensive index. The listed artists read like a who's who of book artists I've heard of and many I haven't. The label on the back of the book tells me I paid AUD$110.00 for this book in 2007. Pricey, so unless you're obsessed with owning every last book, I'm sure this is one your library would get for you on Inter Library Loan. Do let me know what you think.

New books, some bargains and a gift

2010-09-20T17:23:00.001+10:00

A parcel came from Amazon a couple of days ago with three new books. Too big for the letter box, they came with the Delivery Man, a favourite visitor who brings very desirable stuff right to my door. This time I had two books by Ricë Freeman-Zachery - "Creative time and space: making room for making art" and "Living the creative life: ideas and inspiration from working artists". Feeling I needed a bit of inspiration, I couldn't decide which one to get, so bought both. They are very easy reading and good for dipping into, and as I've indicated before, I enjoy Ricë's style of writing. I certainly feel I need a bit of inspiration at the moment. You can see more about these books in the sidebar of her blog, Notes from the Voodoo Cafe.

The third book is "Miniature books: 4,000 years of tiny treasures" by Anne C. Bromer and Julian I. Edison. A miniature book is no taller than 3 inches and almost all the many books illustrated in this lavish volume are depicted in actual size. This is a coffee table book, very pretty, with lots of beautiful illustrations and a descriptive text. Nice to have in the book binding library and maybe I'll get some inspiration from this one, too.

With a good friend (and fellow binder) I went to a silent auction over the weekend and put bids on a few items. I usually look for things for the garden and I was pipped at the post for a wonderful fountain with a pool and carved fish. My bid was the same as the winning one but mine went in later so the first bidder got the fountain! However I did get a small metal box in a style I collect, and a little metal plate with three rabbits holding it up. I think this would look lovely at a birthday party with a heap of chocolate crackles on it. I'll do anything to have the opportunity to make chocolate crackles...

And this afternoon the wonderful Delivery Man arrived again with a parcel from Dinahmow. Three frangipani cuttings, ready to go into the ground or a pot. A most welcome and appreciated gift. Thanks, Di!

And a few links to blogs I've been reading this weekend: Rhonda (Canada) at My Handbound Books; Andrew (US) who does good book reviews and makes lots of books; and Ronnie, who is an amazing artist and bookbinder - and is an Australian. Have a look and enjoy them.

Fish indulgences

2010-09-14T10:29:00.001+10:00

I've admitted to this before - I love the look of fish. Not enough to have one in a tank but if I did, I'd really want this fellow. His name is Strawberry and he's a four year old Giant Gourami, still growing. He loves to eat strawberries, hence the name. He lives in a large tank in a local plant nursery and is quite sociable, peering through the tank at visitors and scaring the daylights out of small children when he opens his huge mouth up against the glass. I couldn't find an image of a Giant Gourami eating a strawberry but here's one eating a tomato.

Drawing fish is a very unscientific activity for me. They sometimes start with a touch of fact but they go off into fantasy quite quickly.

I took the fish fantasy to great lengths when I tiled my shower with hand painted sea life tiles, made by my daughter Suzy Spoon. I was pretty sad to leave these tiles behind when I moved to the Central Coast, especially as Suzy has moved on in her artistic career, now working in film and TV.

So, speaking of the talented Suzy, may I put in a request that if any of my readers would like to help her with her non-profit business, here's how to go about it:

Suzy Spoon’s web program Iron Deficient Chef has been chosen as a finalist in the Voiceless People’s Choice Awards 2010. We need your vote to help Suzy win. Voting closes on 20 September.

Iron Deficient Chef, series two – SpoonCapers : a series of five-minute webisodes each containing a delicious vegan recipe and an important animal protection message.

After a successful series of six five-minute webisodes in 2008, SpoonCapers is ready to begin producing series two of the popular vegan cooking show, Iron Deficient Chef. Each episode deals with a different ethical issue associated with what we eat – from the growth of the factory farming industry to the commercial kangaroo slaughter, live export and pigs in sow stalls, as well as providing the viewer with a delicious vegan recipe. “Iron Deficient Chef makes viewers aware of important issues about animal cruelty, and is delivered in a non-confronting way to maximize its appeal and reach a new audience,” notes producer, writer and host Suzy Spoon.

http://www.voiceless.org.au/Grants/People_s_Choice_Awards/People_s_Choice_Award_2010.html

Voiceless is an independent non-profit think tank dedicated to alleviating the suffering of animals in Australia. Voiceless envisions a world in which animals are treated with respect and compassion.

The annual Voiceless Grants Program has seen over $1 million given to organisations for inspirational animal protection activities over the past six years. The People’s Choice! Award is your chance to be part of Voiceless’s work in funding projects that help animals in Australia. This $10,000 grant, awarded to the project which receives the most public votes, is funded by public donations throughout the year. Now in its fourth year, the People’s Choice! Award is your chance to have a say in what we do.

To vote for Suzy’s Iron Deficient Chef, please go to the voting page, highlight the 4^th button : Series of vegan cooking/animal protection webisodes. You will receive a validation email. Please don’t forget to validate this to make your vote count.

http://www.voiceless.org.au/Grants/People_s_Choice_Awards/People_s_Choice_Award_2010.html

Spring time in the Southern Hemisphere

2010-09-05T17:50:00.000+10:00

Who doesn't love spring? The bulbs are popping, freesias, primula, azaleas flowering but in my part of the world there is also wild weather. As well as severe wind warnings here in Sydney and the Central Coast, other parts of NSW, Victoria and South Australia are in major flood, and in beautiful Christchurch, in New Zealand's South Island, they've had a serious earthquake. Spring in the Southern Hemisphere can be quite savage!

I was fascinated by this video of a book binder making a very traditional book and then subjecting it to a decaying process. http://vimeo.com/6470412 I can imagine that 20 years ago I would have been shocked by this; in fact in the years I was learning traditional bookbinding I probably wouldn't have dreamed of altering a book - we all know that books are sacred! - but over time I've come to appreciate the many ways of producing books and art and I hope there's not much that I wouldn't consider as legitimate, or innovative, or just downright hilarious. If you just want to see the book being made, watch until he finishes it and then switch off. But I'm sure you won't. I found this link on Dymphie's blog, always full of interesting books, art, news and links.

Some book arts bloggers I've visited today have been Pam at Book Arts Studio , Elissa at Blue Roof Designs and Niko at Anagram for Ink. I'm sure, if you love fonts as much as I do, you'll enjoy The Scriptorium.

I'd love to hear from you - so please leave a comment.

Some sparkle, some inspiration and an award

2010-09-03T15:51:00.000+10:00

I love a bit of bling, not so much to wear, but to look at, and in Auckland a couple of months ago I was introduced to this fabulous fabric and glitz store. Hundreds of rolls of fabric stood on the shop floor, some absolutely gorgeous, but the amazing effect was produced by the walls, covered entirely with beaded embellishments. I obviously have no idea what they should be called so the best I can do is say "Look at the photos."

I'm so far behind in my reading of favourite blogs that I have about a thousand posts to read. I think this will have to be my early morning activity for a while and now that the weather is improving I think I can manage to get up about 5.30 and get reading. Today I visited Notes from the Voodoo Cafe, where Ricë Freeman-Zachery just about always puts life into perspective for me. Ricë is a straight talker, absolutely true to herself, and today I really enjoyed her post I Want to be Your Flying Pig. If you haven't come across her, dip in. I personally believe that pigs are very superior animals and could fly; they just can't be bothered.

It's a while since I've seen a blog award but Louise of The Fig Tree has very kindly awarded me this Beautiful Blogger Award. Thank you so much Louise, I'm not sure I deserve it but I do appreciate the thought.
The regulations state the recipient of the beautiful blogger award must:
*Add a link and a note of thanks to the person giving the award,
*Pass the award onto the most beautiful blogs you love
*Share 7 things about yourself.
Seven things about myself, presumably that I haven't already told you.
1. I once had 3 pet rats.
2. I once had a pet scorpion. As scorpions live under a rock or dark place and only rush out to grab the live food you've given them - well, I found I wasn't really up watching that happen so I gave the scorpion to my niece.
3. I have been foster mother to baby flying foxes (Grey-headed Flying Fox), carrying the baby in my shirt for warmth and feeding bat formula from a tiny bottle. This is a bat with huge personality and there is nothing spooky or scary about them.

4. I collect Hippeastrums. And lots of other lilies.

5. I love photographing reflections. This is at Picton wharves, Marlborough, NZ
6. I love dogs.
7. I'm a current affairs junkie but Australia's hung parliament is wearing a bit thin with me. And with most Australians I imagine.

Now some links to favourite blogs:
Dymphie at Papieren Avonturen; BookArtObject where you will find links to all the members of our group; Valerie at Acorn Moon; Gracia & Louise at High up in the Trees; Roz at Roz Wound Up; Jackie at Drawing a Line in Time; and Gail at Papergail. I'll try to add links each post because there are so many wonderful book, art, craft and life blogs that it really is impossible to keep up without we help each other.

Please comment if you like - or perhaps if you don't agree - with what I say. I love to hear from you.

Spring time

2010-09-02T14:41:00.000+10:00

Just before spring launched itself with warm days and balmy breezes, the little red-headed boy had his 1st birthday. The weather was perfect for a day in the garden with Bat Boy & several fairies, all accompanied by fairy bread, chocolate crackles and huge bubbles. And of course a wonderful birthday cake.

Toes barely touching the ground, he loved his new hot rod and was heard to say "brooom brooom". Truly his father's son.

Spring has gone to the heads of the birds and the dawn chorus starts with the kookaburras, followed by magpies, currawongs and the smaller birds. Listen to some bird song here.The chook yard is popular with a family of Satin Bower Birds who appreciate the delivery of food each day, and I'm trying to keep the parrots at bay by putting out seed far from the chooks. Rainbow Lorikeets and Sulphur Crested Cockatoos are rife but I'd like to win over the wonderful Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, who are less sociable, at least in our garden. Or perhaps less greedy.

A favourite bird in the garden is the Tawny Frogmouth, often confused with owls but more closely related to the nightjars, and a night hunter. By day they sleep in our pear tree, very close to the action in the busiest part of the garden. When things get too noisy (usually from the sandpit where 3 children are playing), one of the pair will ruffle feathers, open one eye, and give us 'the look'. This is mating time so I imagine ours will have a nest somewhere perhaps a little more private. They mate for life so I hope they stay safe.

One other springtime delight is the appearance of Nodding Greenhood ground orchids which completely disappear for most of the year but suddenly produce flat leaves from which these tiny orchids emerge. They don't last long, but are just one of the ephemeral joys of gardening. This year the patch is bigger and another has appeared a few metres away. I'm told that if I want to move them I should wait until the leaves disappear and then dig up some tubers but I feel this would take away some of the mystery. I rather like the way they come and go with no help from me.

I've been very slow to post and I intend to bump up my frequency. Part of my problem is that I intended this blog to be about book arts - and at the moment I'm in a slump. So for a while I'll just try talking about things I'm doing, bookish or not, and add some photos as I go. Thank you to all those who have persisted in reading my posts, in spite of their irregularity.

I love to read your comments and would like to know what you think. I'll reply to your comments here and of course visit you at your blog as well.

BookArtObject is expanding

2010-08-02T16:15:00.000+10:00

As many of you know, I belong to the BookArtObject collective, until recently a group of eight book artists, each of us making an edition of at least 8 books on a set theme. This meant we each received a full set of the books, and I can't tell you how exciting it was as each of these treasures arrived in the mail.

This is the cover of my book, set on the group theme "Learning Absences", by Australian poet Rosemary Dobson. A poem about loss, I chose to interpret it through the very personal journey of my parents, as my father drifted into oblivion after the onset of dementia.

The illustration on the cover is a reproduction of one of my Dad's oil paintings, one of my favourites among several that I treasure. I titled the book "Drifting: living with dementia".

The book is A5, very simple, containing photos of my parents in their 20s and then in their later years, Dad in his late 80s, Mum at 93. The text is just lists of words, describing Dad as we knew him for most of his life, and then as he was when in the grip of dementia.

I'm not sure that I'd want to do something so personal and confronting again, and yet I feel it was very therapeutic and in spite of thinking many times that I'd abandon the entire project, I was supported and encouraged by other members of BookArtObject, and my family and friends.

The group coordinator, Sara, has put a group photo of our books here but has also placed several more photos on her Artist Books 3.0 page, well worth a look to see the different approaches we all took.

The collective has now expanded to fourteen and I'd like to welcome the new book artists/calligraphers/printers. I'm sure you will get as much enjoyment from the challenges presented as I have. Follow our progress on the BookArtObject site and meet the new members.

A poem for paper lovers, book binders, printers, marblers...

2010-06-18T16:51:00.001+10:00

PAPER WRESTLING by Claire Beynon

Pretend you're breaking in a horse

don't be intimidated

let the paper know who's boss

acknowledge its memory

encourage it to relax

if necessary, walk on stockinged feet

tune into its voice

don't mind its splutters and coughs

treat its fibres with respect

rein it in, but not too much

breathe

recognize the fact that it's breathing, too

place your wine on a bookcase

kneel down in anticipation

caress its surfaces

ask it what secrets it knows

listen

look at it against the light

take it to the trough

have an old towel handy

make sure the water's not too cold

you don't want any shocks

see that it's not too hot either

lest your best intentions come undone

keep in mind green tea left too long

lazily served in a wide-brimmed cup

wait for the sign that indicates it's time

take the plunge and lunge

move fast or the paper will think

it can get the better of you

handle it firmly, addressing it

in low and patient tones

trust that with time and persistence

it will succumb, may even let you in.

From: "Open book: poetry & images" by Claire Beynon

c Claire Beynon, 2007, Steele Roberts Publishers, Wellington NZ

ISBN 978-1-877448-15-7

www.clairebeynon.co.nz

Thanks to Claire for permission to post this poem which I found in her book of poems and paintings (details above) on my last visit to New Zealand. As an unashamed paper lover I felt an immediate connection with the poem and I hope it speaks as eloquently to my readers as it has to me.

NZ North Island 1

2010-05-11T20:15:00.000+10:00

Muriwai Beach

Close to Auckland but a million miles away in atmosphere. A beach set on the edge of wonderful farming country, Muriwai is a west coast black sand beach, very unusual to a Sydneysider who has grown up with golden sands. Unusual but extremely beautiful - and treacherous as I think most west coast beaches are in NZ. The don't call it the 'wild west coast' for nothing.

One of the most fascinating places I visited 20 years ago on my first visit to Auckland was the Gannet Colony at Muriwai. In those 20 years, the gannets have expanded their territory from the rocky outcrop to the cliffs along the shore. I believe this is one of only two onshore gannet colonies in NZ, with about 1200 pairs of birds coming here to breed each year.

This time I was at Muriwai late in the gannets' season, and most young were out getting their own food, but some huge and apparently fully fledged chicks sat on the rock screaming for food, a parent making an unerring landing next to its own offspring to stuff fish into the gaping maw.

Two more pretty pictures of Muriwai, both taken from S&T's balcony. Not a bad view to live with.

A misty morning above and the big sunset below.

There are more - I took 2000 photos but I'll just pop in a few now and then. I feel I have two homes in New Zealand, the one in Picton and the one in Muriwai, and while the views are stunning it's the friends who take me in and care for me so lovingly that make both places feel like home.

NZ South Island travels

2010-05-07T15:36:00.000+10:00

First of all, a photo to prove that Meg and I actually managed to get together for lunch at her favourite gallery in Nelson, The Suter. Meg is the incredibly energetic weaver/blogger from Unravelling and we met a couple of years ago at a writers' retreat held in the Marlborough Sounds at The Portage Resort Hotel. I also met chef Maree Connelly at the same retreat, and while Maree & I also met for lunch, this time in Picton, I didn't take a photo. It was great to catch up with them both, though we do all meet frequently on Facebook. Picton is the gateway to The Marlborough Sounds - just gorgeous in all weathers.

I'm afraid it's been a month since I last posted. So to catch up I thought I'd progressively add photos of my trips to New Zealand and then bits of Australia, so today is South Island day. I stayed in Picton with my friends, the owners of The Portage, lazed, rested for most of the two weeks, ate good food, drank lots of NZ Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc wine, played with black poodle Anoop, and had a couple of trips out to the hotel by water taxi (see pic above) - and more great meals there. The hotel is more easily reached by water than road (long and windy) and there is something wonderful about zooming along in the salt spray between the hills of The Sounds. One of my most memorable moments was coming home late in the evening and seeing the entire Milky Way spread from one side of the Sounds to the other. Sheer magic.

Once at The Portage the views just continue to be wonderful. You don't have to do a thing - just be there. Can you imagine sitting on the verandah, glass of wine, fish & chips at hand, watching the sun set. Can you tell I'm pretty much in love with this place?

After two wonderful weeks of this it was farewell to A, D & Anoop - thanks dear friends - as usual, it was a wrench to leave you all. But then, onto one of my other favourite modes of travel. The InterIslander Ferry which plies between Picton on the South Island and Wellington on the North. The InterIslander takes cars, trains (goods not passenger) and people and on most days is a very compfortable three hour trip. On a rough day, and I've only experienced one, it's not so good and when the seas are really too rough the sailing is cancelled. I love watching the cars rolling on board and the general busyness of the scene.

Sailing through Cook Strait is very beautiful, first with The Sounds on either side, then a short stretch with just the sea and vague outlines of land in the distance, then suddenly the North Island comes into view. Having said that, I think this is still the South Island in the next photo.

Once at Wellington I got a taxi to the airport, did a bit of hanging around and then caught a flight to Auckland where I was met, taken off to dinner in the city with my hosts S&T and finally, after a long day fell into my very comfortable bed in the house above Muriwai Beach - another gorgeous location! How lucky was I? More later.

Home, but going again...

2010-04-06T07:05:00.000+10:00

I've had a marvellous 5 weeks in New Zealand, just home long enough to draw breath, open my mail, find two fabulous books from Book Art Object members, and pack up again to head off this morning into western New South Wales. Don't know where, just going. I did want to go to Longreach in Queensland but they've had a lot of flooding up there and I don't have enough time to make a real trip of it, so will stick closer to home.

When I come home I'll be finishing my edition of my book for Book Art Object and I'll show you some of my photos of New Zealand. But just for a teaser, please have a look at More Idle Thoughts where Di shows some photos of a wonderful exhibition we went to, including a photo of Di and me. We have been communicating by email and blog comments for ages but hadn't met until that day. Funny that we both live in Australia but had to go to NZ to meet up. Di has posted quite a lot of photos of the two exhibitions we saw that day, well worth a look. Mine will be coming sometime soon.

I'm off now, to load the car and go. Talk to you later...

Beautiful New Zealand

2010-02-23T16:13:00.000+11:00

Fia has had a very successful 4th birthday party with friends old and new, and now can proudly say she's going on for 5. Nine delightful children, their very pleasant parents and a delicious birthday cake made it a very happy afternoon. I think she enjoyed the party more than getting presents, which seems like a nice attitude for a little girl to have.

I'm heading off tomorrow, first to stay with friends for a couple of days, and then to New Zealand. I had my first major bookbinding lessons at the Auckland Institute of Technology and Bill Downie, the first of two wonderful teachers, set a very high standard. I saw Bill and his wife on my last trip to Auckland and he remains one of my bookbinding heroes.

The first half of my month in NZ will be spent in the South Island in the Marlborough Sounds, at Picton, staying with friends of many years, who own The Portage Resort Hotel in Kenepuru Sound. One of the most beautiful places on earth. The Marlborough region is famous for its Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc wines, and I'm looking forward to trying new labels developed since I was last there. I'll also visit Nelson, and track down some blogging and Facebook friends. Then I'll catch the Interislander Ferry, a 3 hour trip in a very large car ferry, hopefully on a calm sea, which will take me to Wellington, capital city of NZ, on the southern tip of the North Island. A quick plane trip will take me back to Auckland.

The second half of my holiday will be spent in and around Auckland with bookbinding friends, some of whom I met all those years ago at Auckland Inst. of Technology. We have a lot planned, people to see, places to go, and I hope a little book making thrown in. My hosts live at Muriwai Beach, another beautiful place - one thing you have to say about New Zealand, each place is prettier than the next. Do click on the link to see this wonderful beach and the Gannet Colony - just spectacular. I'm taking my new camera, lots of art materials, and just a few clothes. Something to do with priorities.

I'll be home on 30 March, with all batteries recharged I hope. I'm leaving my Secret Garden in the hands of my capable family. I'll be glad to get back to my garden but even more to see the little children again. And then I have books to make, and even more books...

One World One Heart give-away winner...

2010-02-15T18:34:00.000+11:00

The winner of my Magic Carpet journal is Diana at Adventuring through Life - a really warm and gentle blog and one I'll be visiting often. Diana comes from Olmsted Falls OH, United States, makes beautiful earrings and bracelets and you may see these in her Etsy shop. Congratulations Diana, I hope you will enjoy using your new journal. I'll email you to get your address details.

At the last minute I decided to choose another visitor (both were chosen by a random number generator) to receive a magazine that showcases country Australia. This goes to Sandra, from Virginia, United States, who lives in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains on Thistle Cove Farm. Sandra, I'll email you too, to get your address.

Do visit both these blogs - they are delightful and heart warming. I'm so pleased that my gifts are going to such good homes.

I'm sure I've already said I was overwhelmed by the response to my journal. I had 490 comments and I would have gladly given every one of them the book. People generally put effort into their comments and it made me feel people were really talking to me. My intention is to visit all 490 visitors but I'd like to do that at a gentle pace so I can read, look at photos, visit shops and leave comments. I imagine this will take a long time but I'll do it. Thank you to all those who became following friends - I'll be visiting you too.

Thank you to everyone who commented, to Lisa Swifka of A Whimsical Bohemian for organising the event and to Eva (Lady Artisan) who alerted me to it. Now I have some emails to send - to Diana and Sandra.

Something that makes me smile

2010-02-13T22:13:00.005+11:00

I thought this post shouldn't go by without a book photo. This is a tiny concertina I call Mardi Gras, a very simple exercise in sewing pages into concertina folds. Quite cute, totally useless but pretty in a rather tizzy way. Every time I come across it on my shelves I can't help smiling at the silliness of it, and we all know that smiling is a Good Thing.

The response to my One World One Heart giveaway has been overwhelming to say the least. There just aren't hours enough in a day to respond to everyone (at this time over 480 comments) but I will try to visit everyone over the next few weeks, or maybe months. I will certainly be visiting my followers to say hello.

Drop in on Monday 15 Feb at 6:00 p.m Sydney time when I announce the winner.

My Magic Carpet Giveaway 2010

2010-01-25T18:03:00.006+11:00

14 Feb: Okay, this is the moment when I cut off comments on this post. Any comments past number 490 will not go into the random number generator. That sounds so unfriendly but that's the rules, sorry to anyone who makes a last minute visit. Thank you all for visiting, I hope to get around to everyone eventually and I'll announce the winner tomorrow at this time.

MEMO 13 Feb: this was meant to be my cutoff date, at 6:00 p.m. Due to an electrical storm the time has passed so I'm now going to extend to Sunday 14 Feb (Valentine's Day!!), still at 6:00 p.m. Sydney time. I will announce the winner in my blog and by email to the winner on Monday 15 Feb, 6:00 p.m.

I'm a Magic Carpet Ticket Holder 2010 - One World One Heart - join me in this adventure!

I'm giving away my Magic Carpet journal. With its luxurious paste paper covers, exotic 16 needle Coptic binding with Celtic overtones and 216 pages, it's just waiting to be filled with your thoughts, dreams and desires. And just one of my lucky readers will win this potentially magical book (you have to supply the magic, of course) simply by leaving me a comment on this particular post. What could be an easier way to become the owner of a Magic Carpet to your dreams? Please be sure that your email address is in your comment or a link that I can use to contact you. I'd be dreadfully upset if YOU won, and I couldn't contact you. The winner will be chosen by the completely impersonal "Random Number Generator". Apart from that, this exercise should be a warm and friendly experience allowing bloggers from all over the world to make contact with one another.

The hand made paste paper covers of my Magic Carpet journal.

While visiting Lisa at A Whimsical Bohemian I learned of her project "One World One Heart", an event for bloggers world wide. Here is an opportunity to meet other bloggers and possibly win one or more of the many give-aways offered. Every contributing blogger lists a prize which will be given to one lucky reader when names are drawn on the cutoff date, which in my case will be at on Saturday 13 February at 6:00 p.m. [This is Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time which (I think) equates with midnight California time. I'm sure someone will tell me if I'm wrong.] I will announce my prizewinner on my blog and by email at 6:00 p.m. on Monday 15 February. Visit Lisa for a list of other participating blogs and check some out, leave comments and put yourself in the running for other prizes.

Just a note about the Magic Carpet book: The paste papers are my own and the covers are wrapped and non-adhesive. The binding is Coptic, sewn with 16 needles, using Irish linen thread, and embellished with a two colour Celtic stitch. The pages are torn edged, the paper is very basic cartridge, which makes it more suitable to writing in rather than water colours or other really wet materials. I'm rather fond of this book but feel that this is an occasion when it really is nice to be able to give away a favourite.

Lisa started One World One Heart in 2007, when she had over 85 participants. In 2008 this number was tripled, and in 2009 there were 911 participants representing 28 countries. The chance to win something is a great draw card but in the end, as Lisa puts it "it's about finding kindred spirits." Personally, I'm all for finding kindred spirits and as I've already found a few wonderful people through blogging, I'm sure this is a way to find some more.

Remember, a comment on this post gives you a chance to win this book. Visit other participating blogs and leave a comment for a chance to win their giveaway. Good luck and have fun. I hope you meet some great bloggers.

Book Art Object and some unrelated photos

2010-01-22T15:18:00.000+11:00

Gardening is sometimes an excuse not to make books. At other times making books is the excuse not to work in the garden. Both are a reason to avoid housework. First a cucumber photo - one moment they are tiny, the next too big. The girls love them.

We also have an great harvest of tomatoes, so totally different to the bought ones. This became tomato soup, which eaten cold was just fabulous.

Now to something bookish...

About 6 months ago I joined a group called Book Art Object. The original idea came from Double Elephant and, in her words, (far more coherent than my attempt to explain) - "a group of artists interested in books and book objects is using different texts as a starting point for making a small edition of artists' books. This is the inaugural project and about eight artists are going to make an edition of nine books each; participants will get a full set of the books and the final set will be available for exhibition."

Originally one set of the books was to be entered in the 2010 Libris Awards but we later decided to work towards an exhibition later in 2010. The eight participants are Double Elephant, Amanda, Ampersand Duck, art and etc. , Ida Musidora, Dinamow, Precious Little Birdy, and myself.

The theme chosen is a poem by Rosemary Dobson titled Learning Absences, 1986. We have all come at this from different directions and I could see that it possibly concerned the loss and absence of another, perhaps through separation, divorce or death. However, my primary feeling was something that concerned me personally, and that was the loss of the other person through dementia; the virtual absence of the other while still physically living in the home, and the heartbreak of living with and loving someone who no longer recognised you. I wanted to produce a tribute to my father, a loving, gentle and talented man who just drifted away from us. I wanted to do it for my mother, who never stopped loving him, even when he didn't remember her.

My head was filled with ideas, sleepless nights were a pleasure as I worked out my book in my head, wrote pages of notes, developed text, made so many plans - but it was an emotional roller-coaster. A normally quite private person, I was about to make all my feelings public. That's where I came unstuck. The deeper I went into the experience the more panic stricken I became until I realised that what I was planning was way too big for me to handle, both technically, financially and emotionally. So I went back to Square 1, where I found I was out of ideas. Lots written down but I could no longer contemplate them because they weren't my Big Idea. Two months ago my mother passed away and I almost reached the point where I thought I would abandon the project altogether.

However, the wonderful Double Elephant, under extraordinary difficulties, produced her set of books and my copy arrived in the mail. An exquisite book, in an embossed handmade (of course) box - my spirits lifted immediately and I knew I couldn't drop out.

It has taken months for me to finally admit that I need to simplify, pare down, and - for goodness sake - make a book. Not only one book but an edition of at least nine! So, I'm again planning, drawing diagrams, making models and I think this time I'm on the way. I'm not ready yet to share any pics (I am a loner, after all) but putting this in writing is something of a committment. Now I'm still doing it for Dad and Mum but most of all I'm doing it for myself because you can't call yourself a book binder if you stop making books.

I recently bought a really beautiful, very tiny book from Eva at Lady Artisan. I bought it for a gift so I'm not about to show a photo of it but I'm very tempted to buy something for myself.

And for no reason whatsoever, except that I love the little buildings we have on our property, and because I'm so impressed by my son's ability to transform timber into useful things, I'm ending with a photo of our rustic garden shed. I may well end up being the old-timer sitting on the verandah, talking about the good old days with my equally old friends. I can only hope...

On my shelves

2010-01-07T16:17:00.000+11:00

Over the years I've collected quite a few books made by New Zealand bookbinders.

One of my favourite books is made by Michael O'Brien, a traditional binder making wonderful books in Oamaru, South Island. Michael's description: "This Hand Bound Book is made from Recycled New Zealand Paper. It is Hand Sewn with unbleached thread on strong tapes forming ties at the foredge. This style is a variation on the Sixth Century Monastic Tradition of Saint Benedict and carried on in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the Nineteenth Century by William Morris. This Book was made in my Bindery in Oamaru's Historic Precinct in response to the need for sound Ecological values in contrast to the market forces of the consumer age."

Michael's description again: "Old Age Book. This Hand Bound Book is made from Recycled New Zealand Paper and boards reminiscent of old book covers in aged materials. Hand sewn in the flexible style with unbleached linen thread on five raised cords. This method of binding evolved in the Monasteries of the Dark Ages. It is very strong but seldom used today as it is considered overly labour intensive. This Book was made in my Bindery in Oamaru's Historic Precinct with an awareness of the value of Age Old Contemplative Traditions."

The above two photographs show a Paste Paper book as described by Michael: "This Hand Bound Book is made from high quality Acid Free Paper, hand sewn with Irish Linen Thread on strong tapes. This style of binding first came into popular use during the 1830s with the advent of bookcloth. Paste Papers, which were one of the earliest forms of decorative papers, were used for both cover papers and endpapers from the 16th century. A mixture of Starch Paste and Pigment is spread on paper which is then Patterned or Textured by drawing or printing onto it. Each sheet is unique and cannot be reproduced. This Hand Made Book was bound in my Bindery with Care and Contemplation in contrast to mass produced commodities."

I haven't met Michael but I believe his values and care show in all he does. I hope you enjoy this video about his Oamaru shop and the man himself. I hope he feels I've done him justice in this brief look at his work.

I want to mention two blog sites that I really enjoy. The first is Judy's Red Velvet Creations. Judy, a Sydney artist, makes the most sumptuous creations and her other site Visual Anthologies is simply stunning. These are places I go when I just want to be inspired. To go to one of Judy's classes is on my list of dreams to be carried out one day.

Also from Sydney, Shey, is one of the most prolific and multi talented women I've found on the net. And she shares a great many of my interests so I love visiting her blogs. See her here at Have Journal Will Travel and then explore her other sites.

Do leave a comment when you visit. I love to know what you're thinking, even if it is to tell me my interest in spiders is over the top.

Christmas spiders

2010-01-02T21:00:00.000+11:00

Here's our Christmas spider, sitting outside the window (probably the best place) for a couple of days between Christmas and New Year. The photo is dodgy, as I tried to get the spider and my hand in shot to give an idea of size. We decided this was a gravid female huntsman spider but I'm happy for anyone to come up with a better ID. She was way too high up to get a close look, except through the window. I know huntsmen have eggs in a sac and they stay with them for a while after hatching but could this huge abdomen be pre-egg laying?

If you have a real problem with spiders maybe you won't want to click on this next link but we keep it on our desktops for quick ID and treatment advice. I am certainly not an authority on spiders but maybe could be called an admirer. If I ever kill a spider I'm wracked with guilt and feel just terrible for ages.

Spiders do rule here, funnel webs, trapdoors, wolf, mouse, redback and window spiders - and the children have learnt that shoes are necessary in the evenings out of doors. We all grew up in funnel web country along the eastern edge of Australia, and when I think about it now I realise what freedom my parents gave me, and that I gave my children, to explore and be enthusiastic naturalists. Now that I'm a grandmother I'm much more concerned about the spiders but we collect everything that moves, have a good look and identify if possible, then let them go. I have a collection of already dead-when-found spiders in a bottle of gin, just so we can remind ourselves what a funnel web looks like when we fish one out of the swimming pool. Trapdoors, basically harmless, are unfortunate in that they are hard to identify when they are on the bottom of the pool and I think quite a lot meet a sticky end because they look pretty much like a funnel web. Spiders don't just fall into the pool and drown - they are often quite stroppy when they come out of the pool and you have to be careful not to get on the biting end. Most spiders aren't deadly but many have a good bite which can be painful and best avoided.

That's enough about spiders. I think there have to be some Christmas photos of the children, just to even up the score. Christmas was a delight for the two little girls, and the red-headed boy just enjoyed the attention.

A new tutu for Christmas for the big big sister

A Christmas dress for the little big sister

First Christmas for the little red-headed boy

Christmas with children was magic, followed by new year fireworks reflected in water. Beautiful. Now it's time to settle down and get our lives back on track. But we must never, ever, forget the magic.

Happy New Year

2009-12-30T13:35:00.002+11:00

My posts this year have been few and far between so I'm hoping to do better in 2010. Thank you to all my readers who have stuck with me and been so encouraging and kind with comments and support. Next year I plan to make a lot more books and to ensure that there are lots of book binding and book arts posts on my blog. And maybe a bit about gardening which is so important to my life.

After 11 months in my new home I'm still unpacking boxes - possibly a never ending story - and yesterday I unearthed two little volumes that have great appeal for me and I hope will be of interest to others. My photos are not great, I'm still struggling with the new "good" camera and suspect I was doing better with my little point and shoot, but I'm persevering. Just need to take time to read the instruction book I guess.

These two books are both in a very fragile state and I'll make conservation boxes for them rather than try to restore or mend them in any way. Their subject matter is similar, pressed flowers from the Holy Land. As I have no religious leanings in any direction I have bought them simply because I am fascinated that these flowers have survived in this form, and because I love the old illustrations.

This book is titled "Flowers and Views of the Holy Land. Blumen und Ansichten aus dem Heiligen Lande. Fleurs et Vues de la Terre Sainte. Jerusalem". Published in Jerusalem by A. Monsohn, after 1894. The size is 165x105x23 mm, landscape.

The covers are bevelled olivewood, with titled cloth spine, and the front cover is engraved with the title Jerusalem. The cover opens to the right and pages start from the left as in Hebrew texts. (I apologise if I put that badly.) The cloth spine is red and the endpapers are a faded red decorative paper. The title page is in English, German and French, and is surrounded by a decorative floral border.

This is followed by 12 pages of chromolithographed views of the Holy Land, with 12 pages of pressed flowers, each facing the town from whence they were collected. The views are Jerusalem, Zion, Mount Moriah, Siloah, Rachel's Tomb, Bethlehem, Hebron, Mount of Olives, Jordan, Jericho, Tiberius and Jaffa.

This is the city of Jericho.

These are the flowers from Jerusalem and Mount Zion. Faded but intact, as are all the others. Surprisingly, since the title page is in English, German and French, the text on the plates and on the flowers is in English, Hebrew and Russian.

From my reading I can see that there were other plates showing different cities and towns and these had the flowers relevant to those places, but each book was bound with 12 sets of illustrations and flowers, giving the edition some interesting variations. There is also a deal of difference in the olivewood boards, some having more decoration than mine, and at least one apparently bound in a western orientation and another with a leather spine. Another copy can be seen here.

My other little book is titled 'Flowers Plucked in "Those Holy Fields"'. Jerusalem. Printed at the Office of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews. This book was "Arranged by Rev. A. Hastings Kelk, M.A. Christ Church, Jerusalem." The book isn't dated but from research it seems the date may be 1900. There are 28 pages, with the flower description and/or scripture reference on the left and the dried pressed flower on the right hand side. The cover is dark green 'leather look' paper, with gold decorative tooling and title on the front cover, and with yap edges. The cover is very battered with a piece missing from the back cover.

The flowers below are

'Artedia Squamata - The Madonna or Crown Flower"

and

"Reseda Alba - Wild Mignonette", "Scabiosa Palestina - Palestine Scabious" & "Puff Ball"

These books are not particularly rare and their condition reduces what value they may have had. The "Jerusalem" volume was produced as a souvenir of the Holy Lands and I suspect there are a good few stashed away in attics or chests, or even perhaps sitting on bookshelves, as mine soon will be. The other one, "Flowers", may not have been produced in quantity, though perhaps was sent back to England as a money spinner for the mission abroad. I don't know, but I find them quite charming in a purely bookish way. They're fragile and they're survivors - and I like that.

A time for reflection

2009-11-12T11:27:00.000+11:00

My wonderful mother, Lina, passed away on Wednesday 4 November, 2009. She had celebrated her 93rd birthday two weeks before and had declared it the happiest day of her life. We are so sad to lose her but relieved that she was able to die in her own home, surrounded by her family, as she had hoped. An only child, I am truly fortunate to have my children, their partners, my extended family and good friends who have been so supportive and loving during the past difficult week.

Lina's funeral service was joyful, as she had wished in our many conversations about death, dying and funerals. As Mum had been born in Vienna, Strauss waltzes were played throughout the service, a very beautiful photographic tribute put together by my son was shown, and the congregation left the chapel to the stirring sounds of the Radetsky March. This has become a family tradition and I certainly hope it will be played at my funeral.

Discussing funerals with Mum often shocked people who thought it was a morbid subject, but to know what Mum had wanted was a real comfort in that awful time of organising and making decisions, at a time when the family is shattered and almost disbelieving that this time has really come. No matter how old or frail the loved person is, death still comes as a shock and huge loss.

Since the funeral I've returned home to immerse myself into gardening, making books, and enjoying the exuberance of the little girls and the beautiful little red-headed boy. Gardening is great for reflection and I'm enjoying memories of my Mum and Dad. They gave me and my children wonderful guidelines to live by and we will always be grateful and never forget them.

Off and away

2009-09-30T08:38:00.000+10:00

I've fed the chooks, I've packed up everything but the kitchen sink and I'm just about ready to go. Don't know where, just driving to new places, to find old country pubs, and especially to find junk shops and antique/collectible stores. I'm looking for old children's books, power pole insulators, miniature kitchen ware, especially if it's enamel, and for my friend Hope, I'll be looking for rusty old keys and other metal treasures. And maybe more plants for my secret garden.

Before I go I'll water the vegetable garden with a watering can because we have savage water restrictions. Though apparently if you own a boat you can hose it off whenever necessary! I would have thought trying to grow vegetables to feed your family was more important than any boat but maybe most of the local councillors have boats but no vegetable gardens. We do live on the coast, after all. Where possibly today we'll be having a surge following the awful tsunami that has hit Samoa and the Pacific islands. I don't think it will be a problem here but the news from Samoa is not good.

I'll be back in about 10 days, hopefully with lots of photos (I'm reading the manual now and it helps) and with some treasured junk. One of the great (!) things about being with Vodafone means I'll be out of mobile range most of the time. Sorry Vodafone, but your coverage is really pathetic.

Dust storm dawn

2009-09-24T20:53:00.002+10:00

Yesterday much of central and eastern Australia was covered in yellow dust. The sky was yellow or orange, visibility was very poor and while there was something very beautiful about it, there was also a strange other-world-ish feeling about the day.

However, we woke today to bright blue skies, the savage wind had dropped and water restrictions were lifted for a day or so to give everyone a chance to remove the yellow dust from every possible surface. Even the plants in the garden had to be hosed off.

Great Grandma Lina, aged 93, with young EJ, aged 3 weeks. They seem pretty content with one another.

A set of sample books I've made for the 'shop'. These are journals, recipe books, 2010 diaries, address books and guest books. They were well received so I'll be making a lot more before Christmas.

I've bought a new camera (a Canon digital SLR) and so far I don't seem to be doing much better at taking photos than I did with the little point and shoot. Maybe I need to read the manual and watch the DVDs that came with it. That will be on my to read list when I go away for a few days next week, bird watching and doing absolutely nothing.

Welcome to the spring gastro club

2009-09-15T08:55:00.000+10:00

said the cheery nurse as she hooked me up to the drip! Yep, I've been sick, which is my excuse for not posting, not reading anyone else's posts, not doing anything at all actually, except feeling very sorry for myself. After several awful days which don't need description, I had lost so much weight (only fluid of course, nothing useful), my son took me to the local hospital for a day on the drip. What a difference that made to my spirits - I wasn't cured but it gave me the strength to start getting better.

So far today I seem to be way better than yesterday so that has to be a good thing. I don't have the energy to spend more than a few minutes at the computer but I'm making the most of my lying-down-time by designing what will be my Secret Garden.

The real down side has been staying away from the little kids though S has been coming to give me very serious looks (from a safe distance) each time her Dad comes to visit, and she always asks how I am feeling and hopes I'll be well soon. I hope so too because it's spring, the weather is fabulous ( the family were in the pool while I was in hospital!) and there is SO MUCH TO DO.

New baby boy!

2009-08-31T17:14:00.000+10:00

I've barely had time to get to the computer but here is the newest edition to our family - little EJ, born on Monday 24 August 2009. In this photo he is just 24 hours old, weighs about 8lb and has a mop of very dark reddish hair. The little girls are fascinated with him of course. S had been hoping for a boy and L is still a bit bemused about it all but I think she likes him. His parents are delighted, as is all the family, especially my Mum, almost 93, and very pleased she has stayed the distance to see her great grand children.

I'm spending time outdoors with the girls because the end of our winter has been amazingly warm, even hot most days. It means the garden needs a lot of attention and water restrictions, which I think we may have forever now, mean there's a lot of hand watering with bucket and watering can. Winter vegetables are still thriving and it's time to plant seeds for the summer crops. Then there's the other parts of the garden, in particular a large area of grass that I'm trying to remove to plant a native ground cover. The chooks stand around me, clucking conversationally and hoping I'll toss some delicacy their way, and when I do then there's a scrum as they all compete.

I have a big book order starting soon so I want to get as much done in the garden as possible before I find myself indoors for days on end. I love making books - and I love being in the garden. It's a bit of a toss up I suppose but the books will generally win.

I just love getting mail...

2009-08-22T11:01:00.034+10:00

These gorgeous papers are from Rhonda at My Handbound Books and across the top are two handmade papers and two paste papers; across the bottom are two suminagashi and two ebru marbled papers. All made by Rhonda and my gift for winning her monthly newsletter draw. Thanks so much Rhonda. I'm torn between want to use them and squirreling them away in my marbled paper collection - that's the collection of other people's papers as opposed to my own marbled papers.

Another parcel in the mail was this recently purchased Hedi Kyle Festschrift 2009 published by the Guild of Book W or kers . The dedication page states "We are pleased to honor Hedi Kyle Lifetime Achievement Member of the Guild of Book Workers. Delaware Valley Chapter". The publication is supported by the Philadelphia Center for the Book and the MFA Book Arts/Printmaking Program at the University of the arts, Philadelphia. This spiral bound book of 238 pages has articles, drawings, instructions and images by a veritable who's who of the binding world, making a great tribute to Hedi Kyle and offering the reader many insights and inspirations. We all know Hedi Kyle's flag book though not everyone may realise to whom they should be attributing it. This book is packed with readable information and understandable instructions and I think I'll be working my way through it for some time to come. Copies may be ordered at rutherfordwitthus.com/festschrit/orders

My third welcome package in the mail was this book by Hilke Kurzke from Bonn. Hilke has been experimenting with Coptic headbands and has come up with this nice little book "Six Ways to Make Coptic Headbands", Buechertiger Press, 2009. As I enjoy making coptic bindings but I have serious doubts about the strength of the binding for such things as albums, I am always pleased to find information that may give that extra bit of support. This is another book I'll be working through in the next few months. You can purchase copies of this book, which I must add is very nicely and simply bound, from Hilke via her blog here.

I mentioned before, but didn't have a photograph, that I also received a copy of Melior's "Happy Bus" zine, so here's the cover and it really is a happy read. I don't know when the next issue is due out but I'll be getting a copy. Meliors is producing some beautiful embroidery of sea fossils, along with her other skills book making and photography.

Also into fossils and things scientific is Hope, whose blog can be found here and her Etsy shop longleggedfly here. I will very soon be wearing two of her fabulous silver trilobite pendants made into earrings. Hope is also a weaver and knitter.

Everywhere I look there are such talented artisans, so many people combining a variety of arts and crafts. Most of us do it for love, a lucky few are able to earn a living from it. Luck is the wrong word there, it takes a huge amount of effort and talent and I guess the luck is in finding a market or being in the right place at the right time.

Thanks for reading this long missive, do visit the people I've linked to and leave them a comment to say hello. I love your comments too of course. And after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing I've put my blog on Facebook and I'm still not sure if it's a good idea or not. Please tell me what you think.

My Ideas book and another award

2009-08-19T16:22:00.024+10:00

I received this very pretty award from Susie a few weeks ago. Susie is a mine of information about blogging and I've learned a lot from her blog 1st Floor Flat. Thank you Susie for the award - I'm honoured.

I must apologise for the quality of these photos. I'm not sure what happened but I think I need a new camera. Either that or the anti-shake isn't working. Sorry.

I want to give you a quick look at one of my everyday books that I use to write down my ideas and add snapshots of books I make. I made this case bound book when I was doing my book binding training at Sydney TAFE in the 90s and it is holding up very well to many years of use. Cloth covered, it has commercially made headbands (how dreadful that seems to me now) and I've trimmed out pages in every section to make room for all the bits and pieces I've pasted in. At one stage early on it looked as though it was going to explode so I took to it with a scalpel which seemed drastic at the time but saved the integrity of the book in the long run.

Above are journals I've made to write family history and to document some of my history of natural history information.

This is a rather poor photo of the book that made me realise that I wanted to make artist's books. I was researching in the Rare Books Library at the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, I think in 1996 and I was lucky enough to be given a special viewing of the exhibition Science and the Artist's Book. Do look here to get a better look at this book [M.L. Van Nice Plinitude Somerville, Massachusetts, 1994 [seeds, bones, insect wings, feathers, wood, leather, paper, acrylic]] and the others in the exhibition. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that this book and the entire exhibition changed the direction of my work, and in many ways, my life.

Above some coptic/celtic/icicle bindings that I've talked about elsewhere.

On the left are some cross structure bindings and on the right my Jenny Hanniver : the unauthorised biography - a book I will be completely overhauling soon because I can't live with the faults.

More bits and pieces including a star book based on Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.

Above are many different book structures, most of them purely for fun. I make books for the challenge and commercially, but the greatest joy for me is making a book just for fun.

This book is actually titled (in silver) Marbling Muses, a bit of a hopeful title really, especially as I have difficulty capturing any kind of muse lately, let alone the one dealing with marbling. So here are photos from Marianne Peter's brilliant oil marbling workshop with a few notes visible from her paste paper workshop. I've just noticed that in the book I've said Marianne comes from France. Wrong - she comes from Belgium!

With great enthusiasm I've sketched pages of marbling guides to favourite designs. Of course when I actually marble I completely forget to follow the instructions and I get very excited if my paper turns out the way I intended. I also enjoy the surprise of the unexpected.

This is the head of the book, showing some of my marbling, which I like, the "made" headband, which I don't like, and the stubs of the pages I've sliced out.

I think on the 'post-it' is a recipe for guar gum base for the marbling I did with Marianne Peter.

So - not an amazingly beautiful book but one I would be most unhappy to lose. It not only has years of plans, ideas, recipes, instructions, photos, drawings - it is chock full of great memories of people and books and the wonderful fellowship with other people who love to bind and marble. Like the people I'm meeting through blogging.

Friends, family, an award & great blogs

2009-08-10T19:48:00.021+10:00

Just a few photos of my recent time in the country. As usual the hospitality was wonderful, the company all I could wish for. The nights were very cold but the days were sunny and warm - what more could you ask for in mid winter? From the wrap-around verandahs there is a view in every direction, often with grazing cattle or horses or just the chooks doing their own thing.
The orchard is presently laden with mandarins, producing wonderful juice at breakfast time, and the stone fruit trees are in flower giving promise of much eating, bottling and preserving to come in summer.
The morning turns from complete fog to this beautiful mist then to brilliant sunshine.
Driving to visit friends we stopped to move this young Echidna (Spiny Anteater) [in link see Monotremes] off the road and to the comparative safety of the ditch. At the sight of me he curled up into a spiny ball, far too spiky to safely pick up in my bare hands. I nudged him gently with my shoe and very tentatively with my hands and succeeded in getting him off the road. On our return trip we looked out for him, hoping he hadn't ended up as roadkill but there was no sign of him so I hope he was safe. Of course I have no idea if "he" was a male or female but can't get my head around saying "it".
Back home this weekend we had a family lunch and the little girls made a floral installation which they attached to the fronds of a ponytail palm. Actually the big little girl made the camellia and clothes peg arrangements and the little little girl did her best to help.
The Karma Friends Award. It has taken me ages to acknowledge this award from Cheryl at scrappy cat. Thanks so much Cheryl. I'm meant to pass this on to 8 bloggers but I think I'll just tell you about some fabulous blogs I've found and if you want to pass on this award then that will be lovely but I know many people are avoiding awards so just consider yourself awarded with no strings attached. Blogging is great for making new friends so this is a very apt award.

I read a lot of blogs, particularly book binding ones so here are a few. I must say that I do like to leave comments because I think it's important that we know we aren't just blogging into a black hole. I'm always surprised when I see that a blog has a lot of followers but there are no comments. So please, if you see something you like, do take a moment to say so.

Shannon at bathtubdreamer has used Keith Smith's Woven Chain Binding;
Have a look at Handbound for beautiful books and boxes;
Congratulations to fellow Australian Rhonda Ayliffe who has been commended by the judges in the East Gippsland Art Gallery inaugural book awards;
Meet book arts instructor and author Pam Sussman;
A most prolific and successful binder is Kristen Crane;
Look at the books, boxes and earrings made by Monica Holtsclaw of Boombox Bindery;
Holly at Often Medieval in Mood (just the name drags me in) tells of Fantasy in the Forest;
See books, boxes and albums by Wendy at Windy Weather Bindery;
and for something completely different, Cake Wrecks for those who haven't come across this usually hilarious, sometimes beautiful, often creepy but award winning site...

I have, possibly foolishly, networked my blog on Facebook. Having done this I now realise I haven't the slightest idea why I did it and it has left me with a huge blank spot near the top of my blog for network followers. I'm not sure what the point of it is, why it will be useful - in fact it is making me think I'm just a complete computer nerd. If anyone has any advice, good ideas (or bad ones) about this, please tell me. I don't even know what questions I need to ask.

Blind as a bat ...

2009-07-16T21:13:00.009+10:00

I can't believe this but I've wrecked my reading glasses and life has become a blur. I'm struggling with a pair of multifocals which make me dizzy and make reading a nightmare. I did think being forced to use them may be a good thing and I'd get used to them - and I'm still trying - but I really don't like feeling that I'm about to fall over all the time.

In the morning I'm abandoning the family for a few days to go north to Gloucester to visit my lifelong friends on their beautiful farm. It's raining steadily so I hope it doesn't turn into a flood that strands me in the country. My friends have been rained-in twice this year when their creek flooded and cut them off from the road. Of course it's a wonderful place to be stranded and their hospitality is legendary so I can think of worse things that could befall me.

My workroom had a new addition today. We bought a very solid timber table and two chairs that are perfectly sized for a three year old, and assembled them. As I couldn't read the miniscule instructions I had to make an educated guess at the assembly but it wasn't too hard. S put in the screws and learned to use an Allen key and was extremely proud of her new skills and I was pretty impressed with her too. She is very proud to be setting up her workspace in my workspace and I know she will be good company for me. She has already cast an eye over my tools and suggested that we can share some things so I feel it will be interesting to see how we both deal with that. There will have to be very strict rules about sharp instruments and they will be kept well out of reach and some locked up.

My mother was very creative, and I have always felt because of her imagination and generosity in letting me make a mess, that I had a charmed childhood. I tried to give that same experience to my children and now I am fortunate enough to have another generation of children to "create" with. As we have a new baby due in a few weeks I expect to have plenty of opportunity to work and play with S (3 1/2) and L (15 months). My house may be chaotic but the little girls don't care which suits me just fine.

Two books

2009-07-12T19:41:00.008+10:00

I can see that my unpacking is going to be an ongoing, and probably to the reader, invariably tedious business so while it will be in the forefront of my mind, I don't want to bore everyone else by going on about it. Except to say that it will happen eventually and one day I'll be able to say "All done" and then I'll show you photos of my [potentially] wonderful workroom. Perhaps by then I'll be confident enough to call it my bindery.

While I'm waiting for books to be made in the here and now, I have a few photos of books made last year. This first was a farewell book for a longterm member of staff. I was called in to plan the book and to assemble it, something I was very happy to do for an old friend. These are the A4 sheets, folded and made into sections. The staff had written and drawn on the sheets and there were enough pages for quite a substantial volume.
I did a 6 needle coptic binding, using waxed Irish linen thread.
I normally make my board attachment through the boards but for some reason (and I can't imagine what it would be) I attached around the boards. I know many people do this but I always feel the stitching is more secure the other way. The book looked fine and the recipient was delighted but now I wish I'd taken that extra step with it.
I made this blank journal for a raffle prize and wrapped it in beautifully soft leather.
I used my own marbled paper for end papers and because I had less than an hour to make it I used an Italian made book block, rather than sewing my own.
How do I happen to have such a thing close to hand? Remember those books I make for the shop? That's a clue... But the leather is gorgeous and the endpapers were pretty nice.

My new beach & some book works in the pipeline

2009-07-06T20:46:00.010+10:00

I always felt privileged living at Coogee Beach and it was quite a wrench to leave it behind. It didn't take me long to get over that - the moment I saw Terrigal Beach on a sparkling summer day, I knew I was hooked. Now that I've moved to the NSW Central Coast I realise that there are many magical beaches and at least 7 of them are within a 10 minute drive of our home.
This is Terrigal Beach, which morphs into Wamberal Beach as it meanders north along the coast. South to the right the beach makes a turn around a rocky outcrop and forms another small beach with a boat launching area, a place for hopeful pelicans to hang out looking for scraps from fishermen. At The Entrance, another town a bit further north, there is a daily pelican feeding time, to which hundreds of pelicans flock, as do hundreds of tourists.
For more on pelicans, see here. One of the things I really love is watching these huge birds flying in V formation over our garden, taking a short cut from lagoon to beach.

I had an interesting afternoon yesterday with my friend P, as we worked on developing a new range of books for his shop. I managed to clear enough space in my work room so that we could lay out leathers and beautiful papers, cutting board by hand and making some serious policy decisions about what we'll make. I'm sorry to say that I was so engrossed I completely forgot to take photos but considering the state of the room, still piled high with boxes, that may have been a good thing. I'm really looking forward to making beautiful books for P's shop. I promise there will be photos as this ongoing project develops.

Thank you to all those bloggers who posted, welcoming me back to the blogosphere. I do appreciate your kind thoughts and I enjoy reading your blogs in turn.

After nearly 6 months of silence ...

2009-07-01T18:01:00.015+10:00

... I've surfaced! Still not organised, not completely unpacked, but renovations are done and I love my new house, the surrounding gardens and of course, seeing my little grand daughters daily. The vegetable garden is under way with winter veggies taking off, and even though it's winter we are picking lettuce and rocket every day for salads. The chooks love it and you'd think the old black cat had lived here all his life. I've even bought a car, after many, many years of not driving.

Thank you to all my blogging friends who have supported me through these months with comments and emails; I can't tell you how much I appreciate that. For quite a while I didn't have internet access and the first thing I did once online was catch up on all my favourite blogs. I try to comment as often as possible because I know how encouraging that can be.

At the moment I'm working to get my work room unpacked and usable so that I can make some books. I've done one commercial job and I'm about to do another, so that is a great incentive to get organised.

I received 2 wonderful parcels recently from Gracia & Louise. These contained collaged zines by Gracia Haby - "Tumble & Fall", a magical book of stars, and "A vagary of impediments & a sneak of weasels", an illustrated list of collective nouns. Beautifully presented and packaged, the parcels also contained cards, and a most welcome surprise - a copy of "Tweak, Tweaked, Tweet", a concertina of Australian birds, by Louise Jennison. Visit them and see what they are making. Thank you Gracia and Louise. Oh, and if you are fascinated with collective nouns, do visit their other site here.

Another surprise came my way a few days later when I read in Melior's blog Bibliophilia that I'd won her June give-away. This, #1 of her zine "The Happy Bus" has now arrived in the mail and I'm delighted with it. Original writing by Meliors and others, a fold out map showing Neural Pathways to Happiness and a little packet of stickers - plenty to read and think about. Thanks Meliors. Now, if you don't know Melior's blog I suggest you visit and leave a comment by 14 July. You'll be in the running for her July give-away - a staghorn coral brooch, embroidered to represent a fragment of bleached coral.

Way back at the beginning of this year Astrid tagged me. In response, rather than list things about myself, I think I'll just lead you to a few new blogs I'm reading. There are so many interesting book binders and book artists out there now and I find more each day. In fact Astrid's blog is a great source of new blogs for me. I'll try to add a couple each new post. I think it's important that we support one another.

Blue Roof Designs; Books by Rachel; CaiLun; Moonbindery; Buechertiger; Paper Curious - so read them and enjoy. And don't forget to leave a comment now and then.

Moving house tomorrow

2009-01-15T05:27:00.004+11:00

One last day to pack, tie off loose ends, try to send as many email messages as possible because tomorrow morning I move into my new house and workspace. I won't have internet access for a few days because my internet provider doesn't "provide" in my street. We were hoping to get cable but it seems only 12% of Australia has cable and certainly not our little rural area, close as it is to Sydney.

I'm helping my family pack and we are really struggling with the heat - 42'C (107'F) yesterday and expecting higher today. I'm just hoping it doesn't rain on Friday when all my vast store of paper gets moved. In this entire saga of moving twice in a month, my greatest concern has been for the paper; except for the fate of my antique china in the hands of a very dodgy removalist. I always assumed that labels like "TOP", "FRAGILE", "NOTHING ON TOP", "THIS WAY UP" and "GLASS" were pretty obvious indicators but not to these cowboys. We've hired a different company for this move but the damage may have been done.

The main thing is that I get there. I suspect a dip in the pool will be first on the agenda to get us in the mood for unpacking. But right now I have work to do, packing, packing and more packing.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T10:26:00.010+11:00

Wow! 01-01-2009! Last night (instead of going out celebrating or watching the fabulous Sydney fireworks on TV) I caught up with a lot of favourite blogs. That was a kind of celebration for me and a very satisfying way of spending an evening. I read Meg's page of resolutions with awe, because I rarely make resolutions, but I was quite inspired (thanks Meg) and think that as I'm starting a new life I too should be making a few plans for improvement.

I'm quite good at living in organised chaos and my last house did become almost out of control. Well, to anyone tidy I'm sure it looked completely out of control, but I knew where everything was. However, new year, new house, new workshop - what an opportunity to have a place for everything and everything in its place. I'll try. I think that's as close as I can get to a new year's resolution.

Last night I also caught up with Judy who dyes beautiful fabrics and has a most handsome white Poodle, Barker,
Dana and Daisy - Dana makes beautiful things and has great style, and Daisy is a Calico cat and is the Supervisor,
Di who is a fellow Australian artist and has cats, possums and a wicked sense of humour,
Astrid in Germany, a most talented bookbinder,
Amanda, another Australian bookbinder and ceramicist,
Sarah at Little Paper Bird, a bookbinder,
Barbara at Moon Bindery,
the aforementioned Meg, weaver, philosopher,
Rima at The Hermitage, an artist of extraordinary talent,
Meliors, from New Zealand but travelling around Australia, printer and bookbinder - if you want to know about the Top End of Australia, look a few weeks back at Meliors lyrical adventures, also beautifully photographed,
Rhonda, a bookbinder, always generous with her advice,
Gracia, and Louise, great artists,
Jackie at the wonderfully named Dog Daisy Chains ...

There are still many more favourites to read like Lesley, Sues, and Wendy (QuirkyArtist), whose blog address I can't log onto at the moment and many others. I really love these blogging friendships and to be able to keep in contact with artists who have the same or similar interests is such a privilege. A very happy, creative new year to you all.

Hot, stormy days

2008-12-28T16:24:00.003+11:00

I've survived my first move and now I'm ensconced in the granny flat behind my kids' house. I have everything I need close to hand including the two little grand daughters, who continually make my days joyful, fascinating and exhausting.

Christmas was wonderful, the food was great, the day hot and steamy. Every day is hot and steamy actually, and at the moment it's 90'F here and I'm just hoping the afternoon storm will arrive any moment. What will probably happen is that it will be bucketing down with rain just when I have to put the chooks to bed at dusk, as it was yesterday.

We will start packing up the big house next week ready for our next and major move, and as far as I'm concerned I'm really hoping it will be my last move. I'm dying to get into my new place, which is already called the Dooken Hut (because the children call me Dooken). I've spent the day looking at house design books, getting inspiration and trying to remember what my new space looks like and how I can set it up.

The most exciting thing for me is the separate workroom which is attached to my house but can be locked off to keep the little girls away from knives and guillotine etc. It already has a lot of shelving and a sink, which is great if I'm marbling, and my workbench and plan drawers full of paper will fit really well. As I've spent the past 14 years working in my kitchen and spare bedroom, I really can't quite believe I'll have a dedicated workspace. No excuses now if I don't make books. I won't be there until the end of January so at the moment it's just nice to think about it.

Thanks to all those wonderful bloggers who are patiently following this drawn out saga of finding a new home. I really appreciate your support.

Season's Greetings

2008-12-15T20:54:00.004+11:00

After more months of silence, and so many wonderful messages from blogging friends, I must tell you what I'm doing. In my last post I said I was leaving the beach for a new life in the country. That was what we'd planned but since then we've looked at lots of properties and have finally settled on a smaller block of land, 1 acre, but big enough to have a beautiful established garden, a tennis court, a solar heated swimming pool, a big vegetable garden, fruit trees, a huge shed for my son and a large house for the young family and a very generous separate apartment for me. And as if this is not enough, there is a workshop, just waiting to be set up for book binding!

This is in a semi-rural area but, wonder of wonders, it's on the Central Coast of NSW, not far from Sydney and there are the most beautiful beaches within a ten minute drive. So now I'm really happy. Back to the beach... can't wait.

I'm moving out of my little Coogee house on Wednesday 17 December and will stay with my son and his family at Galston for a month, until we all move together to our new home at Wamberal. This means I'm packing my computer and will probably be silent again for a while, though I'll try to keep reading all your posts once I'm not frantically packing and making books. The last thing to go in the removalist's van will be my binding bench and materials. I have a large box of books waiting for the courier to deliver to the shop for Christmas.

We'll be celebrating Christmas at Galston with my 92 year old mother and all my family. This will be the first Christmas that Sophia, nearly 3, will really appreciate and Lucilla, at 8 months, will enjoy all the excitement as well. The little girls are such a joy and I feel very privileged to be such a part of their lives.

I wish everyone a joyous Christmas and holiday season and hope we all have a wonderful year to come.

Such a long silence but now, a decision

2008-09-07T18:33:00.003+10:00

Can I possibly be planning to leave my beloved beach to move to the country life? I think so. I've decided, after many years ago abandoning life on the land, to sell my very comfortable home close to the beach, close to the city, close most importantly to friends, to join my son, daughter-in-law and two small grand daughters in co-ownership of a small farm between Sydney and the Blue Mountains. No more coastal warm climate but a cold winter and a hot summer, but in exchange the pleasure of seeing my grandchildren growing up, spending a lot of time with my family and - very appealing, the opportunity to have a go at becoming as self sufficient as I possibly can. I want to grow vegetables and fruit, make my own bread and of course, make books. I've yet to put my home on the market but we've been looking for the perfect small farm and think we've found it, so we have fingers crossed that it doesn't slip through our fingers.

For now, I'm going on a holiday, just out into western New South Wales, no destination, just driving, looking and relaxing. I'm hoping that when I return I'll have retrieved the blogging muse. Thank you to all those who have checked to see if I'm okay. I am - I'm just overwhelmed by life.

Arte y Pico Award

2008-07-23T14:37:00.005+10:00

Barbara at Moonbindery has been kind enough to give me this very striking award, which I really do appreciate. Thanks Barbara.

The rules for this award are:

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributing to the blogger community, no matter what language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award-winner, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4) Award-winners and the one who has given the prize should to show the link to the "Arte y pico"blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) To show these rules.

It really is hard to choose 5 blogs from the 20 or so I regularly read but these are some of the wonderful bloggers who invariably enrich my day:

Amy at Nature Morph, whose delicate paintings combine plants and animals in a most beautiful way;
Judy at judyinthedyes, a dyer, quilter, artist and a good listener;
Cheryl at Scrappy Cat, an artist in fabric, paper, photography, and a journaler;
Rhonda at My Handbound Books, a prolific and generous bookbinder;
Amanda at amandawatson-will, an Australian ceramicist and bookbinder.

Others like Astrid and Dana already have this award and there are so many more who deserve it. Thanks again Barbara.

If my image of this award is way bigger than it should be then that's because I've given up trying to make it smaller. If by some miracle it is smaller than I think, then that's all right then, but I have my doubts. Sometimes I think I'm computer literate and then other times I just realise I'm not... If anyone would like to give me instructions on getting that image smaller, please do.

Cross structure bindings

2008-07-17T12:22:00.024+10:00

While in New Zealand recently I was able to attend part of a workshop held by Elizabeth Steiner at the ABC bindery at MOTAT (Auckland's Museum of Transport and Technology). The workshop made two Crossed Structure Bindings (CSB) using paper bags and because I only flew in on the evening of the first day, Elizabeth and the participants kindly allowed me to join them for the remainder of the class. I had brought my bone folder and a knife but apart from that I was empty handed so instead of paper bags I cut and folded old calendars into sections, and for my covers used an interestingly patterned piece of cardboard from an old avocado box.

I didn't manage to finish in the remaining time because we had to pack up for the ABC (Association of Book Crafts) Annual General Meeting, which I think was only the second I've managed to be in NZ for in my 15 years of being a member. It was wonderful to see old friends and I really appreciate the ABC for the great support they give their members, even those overseas, like me.

I did finish the book with Elizabeth's help and while it's not exactly a glamorous item, it is a good example of this particular style of CSB.

I think I first came across crossed structure bindings when staying with Barbara Schmelzer, a very experienced book binder, then based in Wellington New Zealand, and now in Sydney Australia. Barbara had made some very desirable paper bag books, and was only too happy to share this with me.

Through Barbara, I also became aware of Carmencho Arregui, who developed the crossed structure binding (CSB), and I recommend her website for more information and instruction. I made this book from some glitzy paper bags I'd been hoarding with the odd heavy quality plastic bag thrown in, one in this case used as part of the binding.

Some time later I decided to try the CSB on a book of photographs taken in New Zealand's beautiful Marlborough Sounds at the Portage Resort and combined them with examples of my marbling. I called this Blue as the Marlborough Sounds and did some tricky placement of wording to almost get the name on the inside front binding strips. This book is mainly useful as an example of what I hope to master some day when I devote some serious time to CSB but at the moment I'm still dabbling.

I think CSB is a great structure for the artist's book and I have my head full of plans as always. So many books and so little time...

My Coptic swap

2008-07-13T17:42:00.010+10:00

There's been an enormous gap in my blog posts but I hope from today I'm back on track. Over the past few months I've gone back to work cataloguing rare books, I've spent a month in New Zealand and - well, that's enough for excuses. My last post was about the book sent to me by Astrid in the Book Arts Forum swap so I thought I'd show you the book I made and sent to Jackie at tjbookarts. The theme of the swap was My Town so I decided to produce a coptic bound book of my own photos of Sydney and Coogee - my city and my town. Each photograph had a description on the facing page and there were two or three pages of information about Sydney and Coogee.

I used my own paste paper for covering with the title inset into the front board, and did an eight needle coptic stitch using waxed linen thread. I love the challenge of using multiple needles but eight is probably enough. I've used twelve in the past and decided I didn't really need to put myself through that more than once. I had (foolishly, as I soon realised) printed the photographs on single sheets so had to do a complicated matching and pasting to join each two pages to make a single section.

I intend to make this book again but will give a lot more thought to the way I print it and will have sections with more pages, which will give the book extra strength. Not that I didn't give it a lot of thought to start with but I seem to need to learn from experience and I certainly learned a lot from this one. I hope Jackie liked it. I found it quite daunting sending my book out into the world in a swap - quite different from selling or giving a book as a gift or donation. Daunting but very enjoyable and I certainly hope to take part in more swaps.

A swap and a gift

2008-05-22T18:00:00.031+10:00

I recently took part in a book swap on the Book & Paper Arts Forum and yesterday received a wonderful package from Bookarat from Germany. The theme for the swap was My Town and while I knew that this book was coming from Germany, I had no idea of how Bookarat was going to interpret that. As I opened the parcel I first came to a big surprise - 3 pages of German scraps (see my earlier post to know how generous and kind a gift that was) - then the beautifully wrapped parcel with a hand painted card - and finally the book itself! This is a very clever book, beautifully made and photographed, of signposts from the city of Kaiserlautern, with maps for endpapers, and an explanation in English of the names of the signs. I'm absolutely delighted with this book - thank you so much Bookarat.

I received another book last week for my birthday from my dear friend Vi. In 2002 Vi & I went to the Marblers' Gathering at Arrowmont and while in the US we had three meetings with the bookbinder Dan Essig. I had been very interested in Dan's books for some time so was thrilled to be able to buy two examples of his bindings. I bought the larger and the smaller of the three pictured and Vi bought the middle sized one.

The large book is 5 x 3 x 2" [12.5 x 7.5 x 5.5 cm.], has wooden boards with a mica window in the front cover, containing an arrowhead. The binding on all these books is a 4th century Ethiopian coptic style which perfectly suits the materials Dan uses. The small book is 1.25 x 1 x .75" [3.5 x 2.5 x 1.75 cm.] and the mica window contains a tiny fossil shell.

My present from Vi was the middle sized book - an absolutely stunning gift and so generous I really can't express my appreciation. What an amazing friend! Thanks Vi...
This little book (which looks quite large compared to the tiny one) measures 3 x 2 x 1.5" [7.5 x 5.5 x 3 cm.] and has a fossilised shark's tooth behind the mica window.

I have quite a collection of other binders' books (and now have added my lovely new German book to the shelves). I feel very fortunate to have 3 Dan Essig books and while I am a long way from achieving it, I think my aim is to someday make books that make me feel something of the satisfaction I get from handling Dan's books.

BookGirl had some wonderful posts when she did a week of binding at BookWorks with Dan. I felt I was vicariously attending the classes through her blog.

Happy birthday Judy
I have some tagging to do so that will be next post.

Iron Deficient Chef

2008-04-22T21:07:00.007+10:00

Iron Deficient Chef is an internet based vegetarian cooking program made by Suzy Spoon & Tracy Smith.

Tracy and Suzy started pre-production in July 2007 and launched the site on 5th April 08. They transformed Suzy’s grandma’s double garage into a production office-come-studio where they make most of the show. Some of the cooking segments were shot with a crew of 8 people in a friend’s industrial kitchen in Alexandria. Each episode goes for 5 minutes and covers topics such as ethical eating and vegan cooking techniques.

Suzy's great passions are vegetarian cooking & making TV, radio, film & all sorts of content. Often she combines them. She has been a dedicated vegetarian since the age of 16 and in the past 10 years had her own vegan cafe, MacDonnas, in Newtown, (Sydney, Australia,) and a vegetarian cooking show, Cooking Cleverly with Beverly, on community TV. Suzy's fabulous recipes are appearing week by week on the website along with short but very entertaining videos, and other relevant information.

Tracy grew up in the small country town of Glentunnel, just out of Christchurch, New Zealand. She studied travel and tourism before venturing to Australia in 1999. She then worked in catering for several years where she developed a passion for food and the arts.

Combining these passions with the editing skills later attained from North Sydney college, Tracy's freelance editing experience, quirky sense of humour and ability to be 10 people at once are invaluable in this uniquely styled cooking show, Iron Deficient Chef.

You don't have to be vegan or vegetarian to enjoy the Iron Deficient Chef. If you'd like to be on the weekly newsletter to be notified as the program changes, please email Suzy and Tracy at biteme@irondeficientchef.com

The Barnacle Goose Tree

2008-03-25T15:58:00.012+11:00

My business name, Barnacle Goose Paperworks, derived from my fascination with the story of the Barnacle Goose Tree, which I first read about in my work with rare natural history books at the Australian Museum Research Library in Sydney. I came across strange illustrations of trees with unusual fruit, usually overhanging water of some kind, on which swam ducks or geese. It wasn't too hard to find information on this phenomenon and I soon discovered that a fascinating story unfolded.

During medieval times it was noticed that the Arctic bird, the Barnacle Goose, arrived annually on migration in England and Scotland at about the same time much timber was washed ashore, the timber being heavily populated with goose barnacles. A legend arose, which continued from the 12th to the 17th centuries, that the geese had actually hatched from the barnacles.

Here Conrad Lycosthenes [1518-1567], in his volume Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon, quæ præter naturæ ordinem, motum, et operationem, et in superioribus & his inferioribus mundi regionibus, ab exordio mundi usque ad hæc nostra tempora, acciderunt … Basil, 1557
illustrates barnacles growing on a tree (alongside some other wonders of nature which I'll write about another time). I'm sorry my illustrations aren't great but you can just see the geese in the water at the foot of the tree. This amazing book is a chronical of the known world, describing unnatural, strange and portentuous happenings. Beginning with the Garden of Eden the narrative follows chronologically to the year of publication, 1557. The book is illustrated with 1540 woodcuts, depicting comets, floods, fire, monsters, and pestilence of horrible proportions.

Just to put the Lycosthenes illustration into perspective, this is the full double page spread showing the terror and wonder of the seas. It always gives me a touch of satisfaction that the rather innocent barnacle goose tree made it into such an amazing depiction of wonders.

In this more complicated illustration Ulysse Aldrovandi clearly demonstrates the life cycle of the Barnacle Goose, not only showing the tree but the progression of the shellfish to the fully fledged goose. Illustrations such as this continued in the literature for centuries as did many other fanciful stories which sat quite comfortably alongside stories of actual fact.

At one time the Irish clergy were guilty of eating the flesh of the geese during their fasting periods on the grounds that the birds were not flesh, but having originated in the sea could be safely eaten as fish. The Church hierarchy was quick to put a stop to that. And the Dutch, thinking the English and Irish were very gullible, were quick to decry the whole story, insisting that geese hatched from eggs like other birds.

Scraps, swaps, oblaten, German die-cuts - a forerunner to modern scrapbooking

2008-03-08T20:49:00.016+11:00

One of my earliest and most vivid memories of school is the tiny corner shop where Mr and Mrs Stagg made lunches (a meat pie or sandwich in a brown paper bag), sold sweets in tiny white paper bags (10 for a penny), and, for me, the greatest joy - their large wooden tray of scraps. I can't remember how much they cost but I imagine I must have been able to buy a few tiny ones for a penny, and larger ones were perhaps a penny each. This was 60 years ago and a small child got quite a lot for her penny or threepence. I feel quite certain this where I developed my collecting habit which I've never been able to shake off. This illustration of individual scraps is part of my collection bought from the Stagg's tuck shop so many years ago.

Scraps are a Victorian phenomenon, first produced in the form shown here from about the 1820s in Germany. They go by many names, one of these being Oblaten, and the little illustrations were sometimes pasted onto wafer type cakes which are still made and known as Oblaten. The chromo-lithographed scraps were embossed, die-cut, often in very complicated designs, with small ladders of uncoloured paper between the pictures to hold the sheet together. They were used on Christmas, Easter and Valentine's Day cards and became very popular when decoupaged onto screens and room dividers. Scrap books still exist with the most intricate designs devised from the separated scraps.

There are scraps being made today from the original dies and templates of over 100 years ago and I have many of these new versions in my collection along with those of the past 60 years. The new ones don't quite have the charm of the old, though at all times in their production there has been a shameless sentimentality running through many of the designs. However, it's not all flowers, angels and cute children. There are sheets of animals, transport and occupations, even if the girls all seem to be teachers, nurses and mothers while boys can be firemen, policemen and ambulance drivers.

For a long time I searched almost in vain to add to my collection because suddenly stickers became innovative and popular and to my horror I found that many of the scrap designs were being produced as self adhesives. I seemed to be forever asking uncomprehending shop assistants did they have any scraps, and then had to explain what a "scrap" was. The only time I got a glimmer of understanding was when the shop assistant was of my vintage and suddenly remembered buying scraps as a child.

Now there is the wonder of e-bay and there are scraps out there as long as you have the money to buy them. Some are expensive. Some, the very old ones are very, very expensive. But now that I've found them on e-bay, and I can see how freely available they still are, I no longer have the driving need to collect - well, most of the time.

I have them in full sheets mostly, and I haven't yet found a way to display them to my satisfaction. I know, I make books, so this is something that shouldn't be beyond me, and it probably isn't. It's just something I keep putting in the to-do-another-day-basket. I don't want to break up the sheets, though if I did I could make a traditional scrap book, so that's worth thinking about. If anyone has any unusual ideas about what to do with several hundred embossed, die-cut scraps, that I'm quite passionate about, then I'd love to hear from you.

A Kind Heart Award

2008-03-03T21:51:00.021+11:00

Many thanks Wendy for giving me a Kind Heart Award. Actually it's Wendy who deserves it for all the help she patiently gives in answer to my questions. I need to pass on this award to up to five other people. It's hard to choose from amongst the generous book artists who give so much of their time and knowledge so this is just a smattering of the people I appreciate.

Judy, just for sharing and listening. Actually, these are all for sharing, especially those who freely give step by step instructions for books and materials and certainly give me a lot of inspiration to keep making books. So Kind Heart Awards also to Tulibri, Rhonda, and Bookgirl. And I must mention Marloes, who makes the most beautiful books. See her flickr site here.

I wish everyone could be in Sydney right now. This is the first week of autumn and the weather is just magic. Not too hot, a mild breeze and a deep blue that encompasses the entire sky. Down at the beach the waves are thunderous and only the intrepid are daring the surf today. After a cooler than usual summer (except for those days when the heat combined with humidity to take your breath away), it will be interesting to see what winter has in store. Gosh, now I'm talking about the weather. Time to go.

Weekend in the country

2008-02-21T21:14:00.021+11:00

Pass through the NSW town of Gloucester, (stopping for provisions at Perenti Cafe), take a very sharp turn off the Bucketts Way, cross the river, and wind up the driveway to one of my favourite places on earth. Set in green rolling hills, my dear friends Jenny and Phil, and their Border Collie, Flute, have made the perfect lifestyle change from manic Sydney to the peace of the countryside. Not always so green, and recently in the grip of a long drought, the past weeks have seen a lot of rain across eastern Australia, and it is a joy to see brimming dams, green pastures and glossy horses and cattle.

Fran and I drove up from Sydney to spend a few days doing what seems to be the most natural thing when in Jenny & Phil's company. Sitting on the wide verandah, taking in the views from all directions, laughing, talking, doing crosswords, eating fabulous food from Jenny's stunning country kitchen, (see the homemade bread with the smoked trout), drinking good wine and spirits, more talking and laughing... I'm sure you get the picture.

The property has cattle on agistment, horses and foals in the next door paddock, and a flock of free range Isa Brown chooks, egg suppliers to the family, and beloved by Flute, who believes her mission in life is to keep them in sight in case they need to be rounded up. That is what Border Collies do best - rounding up.

Jenny, Fran and I took Flute for a walk up the hill behind the house and every direction was a picture postcard view. We were very excited to find some swan plants growing in the paddock, excited because these are the food plant of the wanderer or monarch butterfly, and there were actually caterpillars feeding on the bushes. The swan plant is a noxious weed
so not popular with farmers.

Many years ago I made Jenny and Phil this laced-in guest book and I always enjoy writing in it and reading all the comments made by other very happy visitors.

To live by the beach at Coogee as I do, and to be able to get away to the countryside now and then, seems to me to be to leading something like a charmed life. To have such wonderful friends is one of life's greatest gifts.

I've been tagged

2008-02-05T21:51:00.000+11:00

Yes, I've been tagged by Celia . The tag rules as I understand them are:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2 Post the rules on your blog.
3. Post 7 facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

Seven facts about me:
1. I'm an Australian with a Viennese mother but to my sorrow I never learnt to speak German.
2. I live close to Coogee beach but have also lived in western New South Wales on the black soil plains.
3. I started out as a preschool teacher but then worked for 25 years in the Research Library of the Australian Museum and became impassioned about rare natural history books, natural history illustration, book binding and artist's books.
4. I've travelled a bit (but not as much as I'd like) to Tuvalu and Fiji in the South Pacific, the US, Vienna, Prague & Budapest, and to New Zealand (more times than I can count).
5. I love dogs. And I'm fascinated by wolves, coyotes, dingoes...
6. My family and friends are more important to me than I can say.
7. I have two great kids, a beautiful daughter-in-law and the most wonderful little grand daughter, Sophia, here wearing all her Christmas finery at once.

I've tagged these people whose blogs I read daily. (I didn't tag quirkyartist because she was tagged a few days ago.) There are many others I also read but 7 is the limit so I had to stop. I hope you don't mind being tagged. Until this week I'd never heard of tagging (in relation to blogs) so here I go. Please have a look at these great blogs.

1. Amanda Watson-Will, an Australian installation artist, ceramicist and book artist.
2. Judy Carpenter, a US fibre artist and quilt maker, and owner of Barker, a very handsome poodle.
3. Rhonda, from Canada, a prolific book maker and book artist.
4. Gail Stiffe, an Australian paper and book artist. Gail runs the Women's Art Register.
5. BookGirl is a US book artist and marketing professional.
6. Mary Lee is a US book artist and arts manager.
7. Beth Lee is a US calligrapher and book artist.

Marbling with children

2008-01-29T17:41:00.000+11:00

A few weeks before Christmas I spent a most exhausting but very enjoyable day marbling with children at a local heritage field day. I belong to the Ray Park Heritage Group, formed to celebrate and preserve the old farming memories, knowledge and photographs of a part of Sydney now very suburban. Each year we hold a themed open day, the latest one being on Farming and Orcharding. We had many agricultural activities as well as old fashioned crafts for children to enjoy and I volunteered to set up a marbling table. I also volunteered my friend Nerida, who knew nothing about marbling in the morning but by the end of the day could answer any question put to her.

I normally marble on carragheen (or carrageenan) but some years ago I did a workshop with Marianne Peter, a Belgian marbler who had us marbling on guar gum. I decided to use the guar gum with the children and found it easy to prepare and it worked reasonably well. I used acrylic paints thinned with water and with a drop of ox gall to make them spread. I alumed 80 sheets of cartridge paper the day before and prepared the gum and the paints on the day. As we were marbling in the Boy Scout Hall there were many restrictions and I had sheets of protective plastic for metres around the work table in case of splashes; just as well because the children loved spattering the paint with the whisks.

Most of the children were aged between 4 and 10 but there were a few 3 year olds and a few mothers who couldn't resist having a go. We started at 9am, finished at 5pm and had a 30 minute break in the middle of the day. There was such a constant queue of children that Nerida and I didn't get outside to see any other activities; in fact we didn't have time to eat.

Because we were so busy helping the children to marble their sheets of paper neither Nerida nor I managed to take any photos of the children's work. I feel rather sad about this because there were some really lovely papers and it's a shame no one took a photo of the colourful hanging racks. I know the children were delighted with their efforts and after hanging them to dry they very proudly took them home. The next day when we were cleaning up (and what a huge clean up it was) children were coming in to ask when could they marble again. Maybe next year, though I rather think I'd like to make books with them next time.
Certainly I wouldn't have been able to get through the day without Nerida and my willing helpers for setting up and cleaning up, Jacqui and Rosemary.

I do have two pieces of marbling I produced at Marianne's workshop, illustrated here. These were don e on guar gum, with printer's inks and onto shiny white paper. Marianne is a stunning marbler and her workshop was an eye opener for me, being used to water colour marbling. As I've said before, I'm only a dabbler when it comes to marbling, so it was a great thrill to produce these two pieces.

Caterpillar, Centipede or Millipede?

2008-01-18T16:27:00.000+11:00

I had seen and admired Keith Smith's caterpillar spine sewing in his Non-Adhesive Binding Volume II [keith a smith BOOKS 1994], and in fact the book (with all his others) was on my shelf, but I had felt daunted by the complexity of the sewing. Keith credits Betsy Palmer Eldridge with teaching him the caterpillar.

A couple of years ago Adele Outteridge (Studio West End, Brisbane, Australia) taught several coptic binding styles in Auckland, NZ, including the caterpillar, but I just missed getting to the class. I live in Sydney, Australia, but I try to get to New Zealand each year to make books with my friends in Auckland (on the North Island), and that year my timing was wrong. However, generous Elizabeth Steiner allowed me to photograph the books she made in Adele's class and I decided to try making the caterpillar from the photograph. I prepared a few book blocks and covers while staying with binder & good friend Sheila Coltman, and then went on to the South Island to stay with my friends Alison Evans & Dain Simpson at their resort, The Portage, in the Marlborough Sounds. I knew I would have plenty of time for sitting in the sun and sewing a book or two.

After doing a 4 needle coptic stitch I had the book secure but I had no idea how to start the caterpillar. I had already punched the holes using Elizabeth's photos as a guide and after a couple of false starts I got into the swing of it. I was delighted to find my caterpillar forming, though I suspected, quite rightly, that it left a bit to be desired as far as Keith's caterpillars go. I also decided that mine was a centipede because a caterpillar only has 6 legs.

I did all my sewing in the sunny lounge at The Portage Resort Hotel, looking out over the glorious blue Marlborough Sounds, and occasionally being offered hot chocolate or a glass of NZ wine (Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc of course) by the bar staff. The other guests were fascinated and I had to overcome my desire to go and hide and instead gave quick off-the-cuff explanations of hand book binding. I found this very satisfying actually as most people are amazed that it is possible to make a book and they loved to see the books taking shape.

When I returned home I started another smaller book, also a coptic, sewn with 6 needles. The caterpillar, now a centipede in my mind, was made following the instructions in Keith Smith's book [pp 265-271]. In these instructions each caterpillar actually attaches the book block - in other words sewing the sections, but mine were already sewn so I sewed into the 2nd and 3rd stations. At first sight the instructions are incredibly complicated, as are just about all of Smith's diagrams but if you really concentrate they are quite wonderful in their intricacy and detail. You just need to be fairly dedicated and desirous of the end result.

Another version of this stitch has been developed by Abi Sutherland at The Evil Rooster Bookweb. Keith's stitch takes 7 stages to make each section of stitches but Abi has designed her Half-Hitch Millipede Stitch which takes 4 stages. This is an elegant solution and Abi's instructions are wonderful. In fact her entire site is wonderful so please have a good look.

On the rocks above Coogee Beach

2008-01-11T15:13:00.000+11:00

Coogee Beach, located 8 km (5 miles) south-east of the Sydney CBD, is on Coogee Bay, washed by the Tasman Sea, and just a few beaches south of the famous but rather more brash Bondi Beach. To the left is a photo from above the Bay, looking north.

From Grant Reserve above the beach it is possible to explore the Hawkesbury Sandstone cliffs and this is one of my favourite picnic spots. This is mid summer and while we are enjoying hot and fine weather in Sydney we should never forget that Australia is a huge country and right now vast areas are in drought while others are in flood, and still others are experiencing massive bush fires. But living on the coast it's hard not to take advantage of the beaches and the weather while we can.

Last night, with friends, we took Crystal Bay prawns from North Queensland and Allan Scott Sauvignon Blanc wine from New Zealand and had a feast in one of the most beautiful places I know. What could be more celebratory than good friends, great food and wine and a million dollar view. Which is exactly what the view does cost for many of the big houses on the headlands.

Hawkesbury Sandstone makes up the sculpted cliffs and hundreds of thousands of years of weathering has produced wonderful honeycombed effects. The cliffs are very exposed but these shallow cave features usually make it possible to find some form of shelter from the wind and the salt spray.

Seagulls hovered above us to check out the food possibilities but they weren't really interested in us. They were probably too well fed from the pickings of fish and chips over at the beach to bother with a few scraps of prawn shell, though it did seem rather out of character. You certainly can't sit anywhere on the beach with food without being mugged by seagulls.

This is a favourite place to bring visitors to Sydney, close to the sea but without the problems that come with sand getting in the food. It's not just a great place for a summer picnic - winter is also beautiful on the cliffs, as long as you can get out of the wind.

I'm very conscious of how privileged I am to be able to live in and enjoy this wonderful part of Australia. Our beaches and coast line will be threatened by global warming but I really feel for the low lying islands I have seen in the Pacific, such as Tuvalu. I hope our new government will be generous when faced with the plight of the peoples of the Pacific.

My fish fetish

2008-01-07T21:31:00.002+11:00

How can I put this? I have a passion for fish. Not to eat. Pictures of fish, and even more particularly fish drawn in the very early natural history books of the 15th to the 18th century. I collect reproduction volumes of early ichthyology encyclopaedia and I'm fascinated by the fantastic shapes and colours of the fish. I have a two volume facsimile set of Louis Renard's Fishes, Crayfishes, and Crabs or Poissons Ecrevisses et Crabes, ... que l'on trouve autour des Isles Moluques, et sur les Cotes des Terres Australes. Amsterdam, MDCCLIV [1754]. See original. The facsimile was published in 1995 by The Johns Hopkins University Press.

I have been using some of Renard's fish to illustrate my own version of fishy things, at first sticking quite closely to the original shapes and colours but gradually finding I can deviate and make them more my own creations. Some of my earlier attempts I've used in miniature concertina books but I'm now working on a more ambitious book that may eventually see the light of day, perhaps even here on this site. I don't really have enough confidence in my drawing ability to be sure of that, though I feel okay about my ability to produce the book itself. I've been making books for over 20 years but only drawing for a year and I have no illusions about my talent in that regard. But I figure that I need to keep at it in the hope that I may improve.

However, last year I spent a wonderful week in Brunswick Heads with my marbling friend Joan Ajala, and I produced some tiny monochrome marbled fish. I filled a small shallow dish with carragheen, used mostly china black (though I did a few with colour) and manipulated the ink with a needle and ox gall. I used very small pieces of alumed paper, (Arches from memory,) and worked very quickly on each fish. I found this much more satisfying than drawing but I suspect this was because I enjoyed the element of hit and miss - it's very easy to have your fish become a muddy puddle when you work on it too much.

How I made my slot book

2008-01-03T19:17:00.000+11:00

Happy New Year!

After a lot of emails about slot books I've made another one and taken photos in an attempt to describe the process. Thanks to Wendy who emailed me the information in Alisa Golden's book. It was interesting to see that although the principle is the same, my book has a different slot and tag system. My original book is small and is made of 110 gsm paper which gives it a nice firmness. This one is larger and made of 80 gsm photocopy paper and is rather sloppy. Okay for a trial but not very impressive.

I used 20 sheets of A4 long grain copy paper which gave me 80 folios. Fold in half and slit. Fold in half again and slit. Then fold in half and crease with folder.

Stack the folios and press. Mark spines in pencil into thirds.

Divide into two equal stacks. Stack 1: Cut a 1mm slot into the centre of each fold. These are slot folios. Stack 2: Cut a 1mm slice from the third above and below the centre third. These are tab folios.

Alternate slot and tab folios and stack.

To assemble:

Open the first slot folio (in this case purple).
Take the first tab folio (pink) and gently roll from the head to the tail of the right hand side.
Slide this roll (pink) through the slot of the first page from the inside.

Then slide the same roll (pink) through the second slot folio (white) from the outside.

Open up the roll and it becomes a new page (pink).

Take the next tab folio (blue), roll and slide through the inside of the (white) folio and then straight into the outside of the next slot folio. Continue in this way until all tabs and slots are assembled.
The spine looks quite pretty and you can make whatever cover you think would suit. I haven't covered this one yet.

I hope this description makes sense. It's very fiddly and the pages that get rolled look a bit sad when unrolled. I'd be pleased if this just gave you some ideas, which is what it has done for me.
I'll be trying Alisa's version sometime soon.

Thanks to everyone who emailed with thoughts, opinions and questions about slot books. You gave me a lot to think about.

Marine marvels

2007-12-30T13:34:00.001+11:00

One of my major interests is the illustration of fish and other sea animals as depicted in the 15th to the 18th centuries. Authors of natural history encyclopaedias include Gesner, Aldrovandi, Lycosthenes, Rondolet and Renard, and while they used the best illustrators available to them at the time, often the artist was drawing the animal from a very decayed specimen, or relying on a description from someone who may have seen the living animal, or they simply fell back on to using their imagination. Consequently many fish drawn in the 16th century are recognisable today, while others are delightful fantasies in both colour and form.

An example is this illustration of whales from Conrad Lycosthenes' Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon... published in 1557, a chronological history of the known world from the Garden of Eden, through the birth of Christ, to the year of publication. This is a detail from a two page spread depicting the terrors of the seas.

I'm no artist, but I do enjoy having a go at redrawing some of the more fanciful marine life and I'll probably put some on this site when I get a bit more courage. I made some tiny books during 2006 with photos of baby Sophia for family members and some of my drawings for friends .

My title illustration is a slot book

2007-12-29T13:20:00.000+11:00

I've been asked about the book illustrated at the head of my blog. I made this "slot book", which I believe was originated by John Wood, while at a week long workshop with Adele Outteridge and Wim de Vos at their Studio West End in January 2006. The book really does slot together, has folded covers, and is completely non-adhesive. The pages were torn with a palette knife which produced tiny curls. Wim, printmaker and perspex guru, made a perspex box for my little book to protect the curls. Studio West End is in Brisbane - 35 Mollison Street, West End, 4101, Queensland, Australia.

Not quite so happy this morning...

2007-12-28T10:25:00.001+11:00

Sad this morning to wake to the news that Benazir Bhutto, Opposition Leader in Pakistan, has been assassinated. I know we generally wake to bad news but I've been impressed with the courage of this woman and also that of Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma. To put your life on the line for your country as they, and countless other women do, fills me with awe and makes me appreciate the freedom and wonderful lifestyle we have here in Australia.

A happy ending to 2007

2007-12-27T14:20:00.001+11:00

Setting up this blog is more stressful than I anticipated, mainly because I don't seem to be able to make a sensible decision about size, colour or layout. I think it will be a case of trial and error for a while. I'm certainly not sure why I'm doing this but I hope it will be an impetus towards working on my web page. I've had the empty site and domain name for 4 years so it's about time I made a move.

Christmas has been wonderful, two days with my family, and made especially memorable because my 91 year old mother Lina was there with my 22 month old grand daughter Sophia. They get on well and there will be plenty of photographs and videos of them together so that Sophia will always be able to remember her Great Grandma.

We have clung to some family traditions from our Viennese background. Lina has always made Viennese biscuits and Christmas bread and her mother, Mizzi, who lived into her 90s, was always the apfel streudl maker. Somehow Lina and I never mastered the streudl, mainly because Nana guarded the secret, but this Christmas, Suzy my daughter made the biscuits and bread, and Karen my daughter-in-law, made the streudl. What fantastic young women! Sophia will be learning as soon as she can wield a rolling pin and pastry brush.