Spring exhibitions

One & Another

I have some work in One & Another at Northern Print on Stepney Bank, Newcastle upon Tyne.

This exhibition shows work by fifteen artists, each showing one print and another artwork, showing the connection between their printmaking and other art.

I have a selection of little books, three with covers that use parts of my older prints, one using decorative paper produced by Cambridge Imprint. All the book covers reference the inks I used to create the Small pleasures 1.0 print – yellow, magenta and cyan.

One & Another is open (see Northern Print website for gallery opening hours) from 28th April to 24th June 2023.

Coptic stitch bound book with cyan screen print cover and yellow linen thread.

Coptic stitch bound book with cover of Cambridge Imprint Persephone design in yellow shocking pink book cloth, and yellow linen thread.

Two folding books, left hand with pink (magenta) screen print covers, and right hand one with cyan screen print covers.

20:20 Touring exhibitions

Through Northern Print, I took part again in HotBed Studios’ 20:20 print exchange in 2022. The entire collection of prints is starting its tour at Hazlehurst Studios in Cheshire, and will be going on to the Print Club at Wolverhampton University before finishing at The Art House in Wakefield later in the year.

I’m thinking about taking part in the 2023 20:20 print exchange. The call for it has come earlier this year so I hadn’t yet thought about what to do. It’s quite likely I’ll take part, though it costs me an administration fee, materials and studio fees but it’s fun to give prints as presents.

11th June 2011, screen print in black and pale sky blue, 2022.

Considering the Deconstruction of Spiller’s Mill

In 2011, I took a series of photographs of the demolition of Spiller’s Tyne Mill at the eastern end of Newcastle upon Tyne Quayside. I was sad to see it go although it had been lying empty for a few years, and I had realised that it would be too expensive to convert into anything else.

It was a monumental 1930s site with a grain silo that could store 34,000 tons of grain, and with a mill building that contained a flour mill, animal feed mill and warehouse. It had been the tallest flour mill in the world at the time it was built (completed in 1938), and provided employment for 500 people when in full production.

Spiller’s Tyne Mill in 1939, the year after it was completed. This aerial view shows the enormous scale of the buildings. This photograph is from the Britain Above website (link to Spiller’s Mill photo page) and is used here in accordance with their terms and conditions.

I took photographs of its demolition over a period of six months, though they had probably been working inside to remove asbestos elements of the buildings before I started photographing it. Surprisingly, the process of demolition appeared to be a careful dismantling, especially of the silo, rather than a brutal and rapid assault to level the site.

It was fascinating to watch this delicate unpicking of the structures and to see the mountain of rubble grow. I took a lot of photos in various kinds of weather and each time I went there, I found it almost addictive watching. A lot of other people went to watch it. The men from the nearby engineering works would come out at lunchtimes with their sandwiches and flasks. There were others besides me taking photographs, of course. One time, I arrived to find a group of people being photographed against the heap of rubble, apparently a fashion shoot with permission to be there.

While I took my photos, I knew I wanted to do something with them, to print them as a series in a book and/or a print edition. I took a lot of photos, and spent some time thinking about them every year afterwards but hadn’t found the answer.

Being awarded an a-n TimeSpaceMoney Bursary for 2022, I was able to take bookbinding courses by Yvette Ja: Introduction to Bookbinding (including bookbinding techniques from around the world) and a Coptic and Secret Belgian Binding. As I was learning and making books, I was thinking how I could use the different types in my work. By the time I was halfway through my first Coptic binding, I had an idea of how I could use my Spiller’s Mill photographs.

I am intending to try creating prints based on my photos, screenprinted onto fine, semi-translucent Japanese Kozo, and then window-mount those images in a thicker paper (probably my favourite Somerset paper) which can be laser-cut to create a customised window for each image and possibly printed with text or textures (the temptation to use letterpress is quite strong but photopolymer plates might work better if I feel the need to swirl text).

I would create prints for the covers and for the clamshell box in which the book would be kept. Unfortunately, I don’t think I ever captured the most poignant image after the site was cleared: gulls sitting on the footprint of the building on which they were probably hatched and had nested themselves. They apparently missed their ‘cliffs.’

Serendipitous covering matters

While I was at Northern Print to do some work, the studio printmaker mentioned that a local pottery company had donated some vintage printing blocks which I might find interesting. Having a quick look, I could see that they needed cleaning so volunteered to start this task. A few years ago, I was one of the volunteers who cleaned cases of letterpress type which I’d found satisfying.

First, I tried doing some online research about how one should clean vintage or antique printing blocks. They appeared to be Indian in style and I found an article about how traditional printing blocks are made which was helpful. I came to the conclusion that I should avoid soaking them in water if possible. I decided to try unscented baby wipes for sensitive skin and a scalpel.
Some blocks had last been used with clay and needed gentle wiping. A couple of blocks seemed to be gummed up with a some kind of glue, paint or ink. As I cleaned one, I came to the conclusion that it had sat for a long time on a shelf of a workshop in India, gathering fibres from the fabric being processed and ochre-coloured dust blown in from outside during dry weather.

I soon got the feel of how the scalpel can remove old glue or paint layers with a cautious and delicate touch. I only managed to clean a few of them and hope to finish the task if nobody else has in the meantime.

I am still thinking about how I might use them. I had an interesting discussion with my mentor for 2022, the wonderful Sumi Perera. These are single blocks from different multi-block patterns so are just one element of the pattern. My finest stage after cleaning will be to do a rubbing of each block so I can work out how I might create new blocks (lino or woodcut) to work with them or add a design to the rubbing and digitise the image to change or add elements and possibly the digital image for screenprinting.

Printing block before cleaning.

Printing block during cleaning..

Printing block after cleaning, with details of pattern uncovered.

Printing block before cleaning.

Printing block after cleaning.

Activities supported by a bursary from a-n The Artists Information Company.

Covering matters

The first pamphlet stitched booklet, with rather raggedly cut pages (approx A7 size).

The second pamphlet stitched book, using a piece of card I bought years ago as a simple soft cover.

A blue pamphlet stitch book.

Showing the stitching inside the third pamphlet stitch booklet.

The bobbly copper exterior of the third pamphlet stitch booklet.

I tried out some pattern ideas by drawing with a matte white pen on painted paper (a few years ago, I’d started to use up my end of painting day acrylic paint on paper suitable for paint so had quite a few suitable for soft covers).

My original intention for covers had been to reuse prints that weren’t quite good enough to sell as part of an edition or had been experimental prints that I no longer felt I needed (some were made when practising a new technique). I used those printed on thicker paper as soft covers for pamphlet or stab stitch books, and have tried sticking those printed on kozo to a thicker paper for soft covers or board for hard covers.

Stab stitch book cover made in 2022 from part of a colour proof of a Dancers rehearsing print from 2017.

Pamphlet books covered in a screen print on kozo stuck onto Somerset paper.

I started trying to design some patterns to print. I realised this needed a lot of thinking about the size of pattern I needed for what size and type of book cover. I have got as far as developing an image, based on a linocut I did a few years ago, for a cover with a spine.

Image for printing in white on black bookcloth, based on a lino print.

After spending quite a lot of time measuring out grids, I haven’t got very far with sketching out ideas for repeat patterns, although I have a list of possible themes in my head. I want to do some patterns based on plants, some on marine life, and a series based on the Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle upon Tyne. Perhaps I just need to concentrate on drawing just patterns for a week, with enough audiobooks, music and coffee? Perhaps I need to work on larger pieces of paper?

Stylised floral design sketch.

Activities supported by a bursary from a-n The Artists Information Company.

Folding structures

About a decade ago, I had learned to make a basic folded book during a thunderstormy summer’s afternoon with Theresa Easton in a drop-in workshop she was running. She had a stock of items we could use to collage onto the paper including pieces of text and images from magazines. It was a very different way of making for me and I was quite surprised how into it I got that afternoon. I did try a few times after that, using the same folded structure but never felt I had everything together to make that structure work in a way that satisfied me. Lurking in the back of my mind remained a desire to create books of some sort.

I didn’t think I had a great desire to make folded paper books. When I started on the Introduction to Bookbinding course by Yvette Ja, I was keen to work my way through the course but didn’t think I’d find a use for the folded structures in the first part of the course. That was what I thought – until I started to fold the squares and then glued them together – and added hard covers. I realised that these little folded books are addictive to make and that there’s something satisfying and fun about opening and shutting them.

I had initially intended just to develop some ideas for prints to turn into small editions of small folded artist’s books. People liked them and seemed reluctant to hand back my first example ones. As I was folding piles of squares, it occurred to me that they could be used instead of greetings cards for special occasions, with people adding in their own photos and messages, or they could be used to record a specific event or walk or day out. One could have a set with different covers to record essential details about branches of a family tree. They could be used to record the colours of paint or wallpaper found when redecorating a room in an old house.
These small square books will be useful for using up offcuts of prints, especially those printed on thinner paper. I was pleased with how a screenprint on Japanese Kozo worked when pasted onto mountboard.

The triangular books are more of a challenge to cover and to write in, but they are such a nice shape and pleasing in the way they open.

I tried a round folded structure, starting with a square one and cutting off the corners, stitching together. Cutting a sufficiently accurate and smooth curve seemed to be beyond me, so I need to consider laser-cutting.

Of course I had to try the Turkish map fold.

Learning to fold the Turkish map fold led me to finding a variation on that which someone named ‘Hungarian map fold’ but I think I’ve also seen it referred to as a water lily fold. Experimenting with sticking together a few of these, I found that three made a 3D star-like shape.

There will be more experiments. I will offer blanks for sale at Ouseburn Open Studios (and eventually online) – blank cartridge paper folded with hard covers covered in a decorative printed paper.
Some books will be unique or very small edition artist’s books with handwritten or drawn, handprinted or collaged contents. A few may have hand-stitched elements. My next steps will include designing my own patterned paper, and developing a small edition of printed books (content and covers).
Finally, if you want to see the most exquisitely handprinted little books, quite different in structure, which are a delight to handle and helped inspire me to make little books, I recommend looking at (and preferably buying so you can handle them) Stef Mitchell’s little books. Other artists whose different kinds of book structures I’ve found inspiring are Yvette Ja (whose courses I followed during 2022, thanks to the a-n bursary) and Alice Fox whom I first met and watched make a series of little books during the Fifth Size Books project at the City Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, in 2017.