Impressions | De Walden Press

Creating an Artist's Book

Sun, 18 Jan 2015 10:55:27 -0800

Ever wondered how these books are made? Now's your chance to find out.

I was invited to Guest Blog on The Collation, the Foger Shakespeare Library's blog, about how I created the book "Storming Shakespeare".

This came about because the Folger ordered a book, but there was rather a delay because of family illness, so the book wasn't actually made, and it was suggested that I take some photos of it 'under construction' . This I did, and put together a narrative to describe the various steps in its creation. It was published here, just before Christmas.

Alcuin Wayzgoose - 2013

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 16:28:14 -0700

Vancouver Book Fair - Sat 28th & Sun 29th Sept

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 11:50:50 -0700

Bookbinding & Book Arts Exhibit - in Music! - Montreal

Sun, 22 Sep 2013 09:24:20 -0700

An exhibition of book bindings and artists' books will open in Montreal at La Chappelle Historique du Bon-Pasteur, in the music building, at 100 rue Sherbrooke Est, Montreal. Information 514-872-5338. It opens on Thursday 3rd October, and runs to 3rd November, on the following days: Wed, Thurs, 1pm - 8pm, Fri, Sat 1pm - 5pm, Sundays 1pm-3pm

The books exhibited all have a musical connection, and "Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine" was accepted as part of this, as the text of this book comprises the lyrics of an a cappella choral work, written by Charles Anthony Silvestri, and music by Eric Whitacre.

Playing with Pastepaper

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 17:23:31 -0800

I never really imagined that I would have to decorate my own endpapers. I mean, there are lots of artists out there making squadillions of patterns, and you are bound to find what you want if you look. Aren’t you?
Wrong, Goldilocks. Guess what, folks retire. Yup. Without even letting you know. No warning, just up and finish. And sometimes, no matter how beautiful the papers for sale are, they are not quite what you want. So that is how I came to make my own pastepaper for the endpapers of “Storming Shakespeare”.

I had taken a course on pastepaper about 3 years ago with Martha Cole but hadn't actually made anything since. Like many things it went on the back burner.

Pastepapers have been made for centuries, and very simply put, a thin layer of paste + colour is applied to a sheet of paper and various tools are used to make patterns in the paste mixture. The tools can be anything at all. I made a fine-toothed comb from a piece of a plastic ice cream tub, and also used a narrow strip of card.

Goldilocks and the "Storming Shakespeare" paper

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 11:13:50 -0800

The choice of paper is one of the most important when making a book. This time I needed a whiter paper, for both letterpress, monotype and intaglio drypoint printing.

There are lots of white papers, and quite a few are suitable for letterpress, but would they also work for the illustration processes?Only one way to find out. I was a bit like Goldilocks with the porridge, some were too textured, some too transparent, some didn't like being dunked in a water bath, and some just plain boring.

After many experiments I found the perfect paper for this book, a mouldmade from the Magnani paper mill in Italy, 100% cotton, two-sided, with an agreeably smooth but not too smooth surface and a nice drape. It also damps and dries well, and comes in different weights.

You might know there would be a snag, it is not stocked by any North American retailer. So I turned to that wonderful company John Purcell Paper, in London England, and they cut it in half and shipped it over the ocean to the west coast of Canada, it arrived safely and was perfect for the job. It worked well for the drypoint/monotypes, printed on my Ettan intaglio press and on the Craftsmen letterpress. Some pages in parts of the book have both monotype and letterpress, and it stood up well to multiple printings - yay!

Jane Austen at The Bowler Press

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 16:30:42 -0700

A new Fine Press edition of Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' is in preparation, with Jarrett Morrison printing and illustrating and Alanna Simenson binding the edition. It promises to be a great project.

Jane Austen by her sister Cassandra.
They have a fund-raising campaign (with rewards!) and this is where you can see Jarrett's video and details of the project and the campaign: The campaign home is at IndieGoGo.com/BowlerPress (there is a video!) and details are also at thebowlerpress.ca

So fans of Jane Austen, go see it and help get this project off the ground!

King Lear Illuminated

Sat, 05 May 2012 15:14:13 -0700

I decided to use gold leaf to make the lightning in my drypoint print of King Lear.

I had to experiment a bit with this. When I added gold leaf to the Leonardo prints, I was working on paper that was not printed under the gilding. With this image I was gilding on top of paper that was underprinted and the oils in the ink made a difference to how the 'glair' took. I actually used PVA for glair (as I did with the gilding in my Leonardo book) as a medium for adhering the gold leaf, and transfer gold. You can add layers of gold to make it more solid. I burnished with a haematite burnisher and that makes the gold bright. (Poor photo - either I can get the gold to show up, or the colour of the image - seemingly not both!)

And now for an exhibition announcement. I just received an invitation to the opening reception of "Brush Up Your Shakespeare", an exhibition of Miniature Designer Bindings from the collection of Neale M Albert. 29 June - 27 July at the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England. Some of my Shakespeare books will be in this exhibit. Neale has built this collection over a number of years and there are some exquisite bindings by some of the world's most accomplished binders, and it will be well worth a visit. Unfortunately "Storming Shakespeare" is unlikely to be ready in time for this exhibition, as there is just too much remaining to be done.

Happy Birthday, Shakespeare!

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 10:23:26 -0700

April 23 is William Shakespeare's birthday, and to celebrate this I'm joining the 'Blog for Shakespeare's Birthday Project' .

I'm posting today about my latest project, "Storming Shakespeare". This will be my sixth Shakespeare-related book. The series began in 1998 with the publication of "Shakespeare's Flowers", the idea for which came to me while watching a production of The Herbal Bed by Peter Whelan, at the Malvern Festival Theatre. There was a scene where Susanna Hall (Shakespeare's elder daughter) was gathering herbs in the garden, and I had a 'light bulb' moment, thinking of all the herbal and floral references in Shakespeare's writings. It brought together two of my great enthusiasms, Shakespeare and flowers/herbs/plants, and I loved making that book.

"Storming Shakespeare" is about Shakespeare's dramatic use of storms in his plays. I have had to trim my original thoughts to make it workable in a miniature book, as many of the plays are liberally sprinkled with stormy episodes. When you see them staged, the sheer physicality of the storm event is charged with excitement, noise and flashing lights, and it is quite difficult to convey the drama in an illustration. The plays I have chosen to specifically comment on and illustrate are Julius Caesar, King Lear, and The Tempest.