A little creativity!

 Today is a beautiful warm sunny day, the long johns have gone from my everyday attire and most days I do not need a hat or scarf and have now traded down to a light weight jacket which is more of a windbreaker.  Over the last week or so I have been fighting flu symptons and still battling headache issues which is why I have been a little quite on the blog front.

Firstly big birthday wishes to Ross, number 3 child who celebrates his 26th birthday today. This is the last birthday he has before embarking on a new role as a father...not long to go now, only about 4 weeks.

Mmm...I need to take some better photos of him.

Whilst I have been recuperating there has been plenty of time for knitting, my skills are slowly improving and I have completed a little cardigan and hat for Henry and have also started a baby blanket, as you can see I am not much into traditional colours and somehow always tend to veer towards the more subdued earthy tones.

I intend to knit a pair of britches (now that is an old fashioned word) to go with the cardigan and hat, perhaps in the chocolate brown used in some of the design.  I have also started this baby blanket in similar colours it is a half log cabin where you flip and rotate your work picking up a new lot of stitches as you go.  The name of the blanket sold me, an Ombre Blanket for the new little man who will soon be part of my life.

 

On a previous post I mentioned that I was doing a hand printing workshop at the local community centre, whilst that evening was quite poorly attended, those that did see what I was doing were very interested and as with most things I have found doors open from one event to another in life.  I have since been asked by Hús Fritímans to participate in their summer program for children to provide 4 day workshops per week over the 8 week summer holidays to two groups of children 5-8 years and 9-12 years each day.  Maximum number of participants for each workshop will be 10 but I am provided with a helper for the duration, the actual number of weeks I do will be determined by the number of participants that sign up.

So yesterday I wracked my brain for a project that could be spread over 4 sessions and include a variety of things so they would not get too bored but still go home with something they had created and was personal to them at the end of the workshop.  What I came up with was a book which I spent yesterday creating a protoype.  The front and back covers are prints from the handprinting demonstration I did.  The children will print their own covers for the book.

 Front cover

 Back cover

This book has a Japanese stab binding and I will probably simplify this and the content for the younger children and everything will be pre cut.  I will make a couple more versions to work out the best style and type of printing for each age group.   I thought everyone could start off in the first session creating rubbings from things within the immediate environment and I would bring a box of objects to get them started. Rubbings are a very basic form of printmaking....taking an impression from one surface and transferring to another.  The next session would be spent creating the prints via monoprinting for the front and back cover of the book and the final two sessions spent constructing and putting together the actual book. So I took a stroll around the house looking for anything that I could take a graphite rubbing of, here are a few examples.

Graphite pencil rubbing of a metal teapot stand.

 

Graphite pencil rubbing of a fancy brass stopper lid.

Graphite pencil rubbing of a fancy cut glass bottle.

Graphite pencil rubbings of a small selection of fossils I have.

 Graphite pencil rubbings of old Aussie coins

At the moment I have bookbinding on the brain as I am in the process of restoring an old early 20th century book press which I bought with me from Australia and I welcome any opportunity to explore the book making process further.

Part of my long term plan once I have the studio set up is too offer more art workshops to the community.

"Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow."~ Thornton Wilder

If you have read this blog for a while you will know that I every now and then follow and support Kickstarter projects, I don't give a lot of money but there are always pledge amounts that suit my budget.  I have just backed a couple of projects, one, purely for the reason of one artist supporting another, especially one (Aubrey Hayes) who wants to participate in an artists residency in Iceland....I couldn't not back this one.

As I was perusing the huge range of projects on offer I came across one that has left quite an impression on me.  An artist book project that I feel is so worthwhile and one that I am sure will make a difference to the lives of many, especially the authors.   These are personal stories, journals and images put together by returned soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan and their families. The stories they share all express a palpable intensity, often brutally honest with an authenticity that reveals the truths as they experienced them.   At the moment this project is for USA veterans and their families but I do hope this idea travels across oceans and continents and other veterans groups around the world source funding and set up similar workshops.

The Veterans book project website provides access to the stories where you can read them freely online, or from here you can purchase the printed bound soft cover copies or download to your computer a PDF version for free.

 source

These very personal and intimate narratives have touched me deeply and I thank all the authors for  having the courage to share their thoughts, experiences and insights.   I urge you to read a couple of the books and make your own mind up whether you feel this is a worthwhile project to back, if you feel the same as I, then click on their Kickstarter link in my sidebar.