Rustnstuff: 07/20

Friday, July 31, 2020

Love heals - single sheet book

I have been working on a single page unbound book using a poem (..love heals..) written by our American artist friend Mary-Jane Dodd. Mary-Jane gave me permission to use this poem from her publication called Offerings.

.. love heals..

upon my last breath
may I know fully
that I have given all
my heart could give.

that the chips
and cracks
incurred along the way

served not to weaken it
but allowed the light
to enter
(and exit)

and made it all
the stronger.

The book has been printed using Deckled Edge Press' 1890 Lightning Jobber press. The book is printed with Times New Roman lead type (14pt); and was printed on single sheets of synthetic vellum and a fine paper (MAP). On the back of the sheets I have printed an image of one of my cracked and repaired bowls to reflect some of the imagery of the poem.

From the vellum prints and the MAP paper printed I hope to select two limited editions: 5 vellum books; and 15 MAP paper books.

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Of colours and clouds

We are in the grip-middle of winter so the plants and blossoms seemed to have accepted they will now wait for spring. Only a couple of hardy blossoms on my morning walk.

The valley continues to offer its winter cloaks of cloud and colour.

Fiona and I aught up with friends (Nola and Ken) for a picnic - a blue sky day and a little visitors.

Found this weathered peace weatherlgram amongst the leaves

Sunday, July 26, 2020

More printing ornaments for DEP

Fiona and I did a couple of trades with our friend Nola over the last couple of weeks. One trade was the ornaments in this post. Nola had bought the ornaments many years ago; but had not used them a lot.

I needed to raise the height of all the ornaments by between 1.5mm and 2.5mm so that they were type high and would print in our presses.

I did a test run on a few pieces once I had adjusted the height.

A few photos of the groups of ornaments follow.

I think there are quite a few that will give folk joy to print with.

Friday, July 24, 2020

Grabbing bits of creative time

There is quite a lot on in our lives at the moment so we grab bits of time to create when and what we can.

I cut some metal for the pendants in this post when I was making the small metal books. I got all the pendants stamped, drilled ground and polished; and managed to assemble three as you can see from the opening and following photos.

A few process photos follow.

I might finish assembling the others over the weekend; or not.

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Home and away and other fragments

Fiona and I have been way from the mountain for a couple of days of work-work.

What a contrast between the colours and outlook of the valley from our back deck; and the view from our accommodation window.

But Graham's orchids and other blossoms are little fragments of joy and restful colour.

Lovely to see bees at work on a sunny day.

Sunday, July 19, 2020

An artists' book

Fiona an I have set ourselves a challenge to make an artists book based on certain parameters including it will not be bound; and it will include words such as a poem.

I chose to do a book from a single sheet of paper. This sounds simple but when you combine it with the fact that there will be 8 pages (not including the back of the sheet); and the goal is to do one print and therefore one lock up of the type. I have never made a single sheet book before; and I never did the type setting for such a book - what could go wrong???

Well as you can see many things can go wrong. The layout and sequence of the pages is a challenge - odd sequence and half were upside down as well as back to front. Strangely I followed the set out I had on an instruction sheet - but of course that was how it should look once it was printed; and of course the end result was wrong.

Fiona and I did a brain storming session and we (mainly Fiona) worked out the correct typesetting layout. I used the challenge as an opportunity to improve the layout and lock up.

The outcome was right sequence etc - the proof was used to fix typos and slightly improve the alignment. Back to proofing - good outcome and now ready to print: but first chose the best paper. Fortunately I have an in-house paper consultant (Fiona) we tested 5 papers for print quality and folding flexibility.

In the end we chose two papers for two limited editions: MAP paper for the regular version; and synthetic vellum for the version that meets the transparency parameter of our project description. I printed about 19 for the regular version (I want an edition of about 15); and 8 for the vellum version (I want and edition of 5). I used the 1890 Lightning Jobber press for the printing.

The backs of the books will be printed towards the end of next week; and folding will occur when the ink on the back is dry.

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