and more good news …
Two lovely things happened this weekend, first the Yellow Teapot Cafe was another successful event. Then, for me on Sunday the Wayzgoose, an annual event at St Brides Foundation was the best!
The St Bride Foundation, a self funded charity that is devoted to to the history of printing and allied crafts. This Sunday, by way of a promotion and celebration of their work, they invite printers to exhibit their books, posters, paper & board, printing equipment etc. and provide workshops and refreshments.
I was sure I knew what to expect, but it all surpassed my expectations. As well as meeting many people for the first time, I met people I had only come in contact with on-line, others I knew from my workplace in the library at the University of Reading and some who are acquainted with others I know from Typography also at the the university. So from a personal level it was comforting having these connections, the world of printing seemed not so vast and alien.Soon, I was able to make positive links with further meetings and even meet the printer I am going to work with next week in Leicester!
This was a real boost to my career as an artist and illustrator of books which is growing slowing and had some setbacks lately.
So happy to begin a week with good news in the realm of nelabligh and the Yellow Teapot Cafe.
Silent Sunday …
… more thoughts
Before worrying about whether people are pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, let’s make sure everyone has boots. A pervasive myth at the core of our society is the idea of “pulling yourself up by the bootstraps,” the idea that anybody can become rich and successful if they just work hard enough. This is a […]
http://spencerfernando.com/2016/05/14/confronting-the-pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps-myth/
Playlist: Music as a Political Protest
Thinking about Brazil …
Music and politics have long had a intimate connection. On the week Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff was removed from her office, The Brazil Curator have compiled a playlist of music that has been used as political protest in the country.
http://thebrazilcurator.com/2016/05/14/playlist-music-as-a-political-protest/
A snapshot from the Library …
I cannot quite remember the name of the book … it was elderly and beautiful … and in the Cole Library
From the Cole Museum
Friday’s library snapshot (s)
Here at Special Collections and its raining I need some cheer !
It was quiet in the Reading Room on Wednesday afternoon it was half term and there were a few children enjoying the break in the weather and running around the garden after visiting the museum. Inside there were a couple of students doing what they needed to; perhaps making finishing touches to end of term essays. There were some people looking at books about land tax and hearth tax; they too didn’t need me. So I did something I had been meaning to do for ages. I took a couple of pictures of the tiles that surround the two fire places in the Reading Room. Although they are tucked away in the reading room they do attract a bit of attention.
And you can see why:
These tiles in the fireplace were designed by William de Morgan (1839-1917) who was the most important ceramic artist of the Arts and Crafts…
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The world … Weekly Photo Challenge
The world like the last century is my oyster. I oscillate throughout the day between the hemispheres and celebrate that I was born in the middle of the last century. My youngest child lives in Brazil and we chat most days sharing intimate details (within reason) of her comings and goings and I in return relate the bits and bobs that happen here in my back garden!
I reflect on my life as child in post war Britain and enjoy the wonders of science when I help undergraduates in the library at work.
The enormity of this never ceases to amaze me!
Long before we considered that our child would go to University, we went on holiday to what seemed so far flung … Portugal … late last century!
The little girl, tired of sightseeing and learning of the bloodless coup as recent as 1974 and the devastation of the earthquake of centuries back, was weeping.
Nearby, a team of men were repairing the pavement damaged more recently and less dramatically by a traffic. On man was carefully chipping pieces of white and black stone to lay in an intricate design so admired in Lisbon and later taken to Rio de Janeiro. He appeared to be oblivious to our family disorder; locked in his little world in a shady corner of the street. He looked up and beckoned to our sad child who looked back at us for the reassuring nod that he was not too ‘strange.’ He reached out from his squatting position on her level and handed her a little piece of rock carved into a heart shape. That action and the ice cream which followed made the world a better place. Now fast forward she in the southern hemisphere and us in the north zooming already into the next century … the rock (which mislaid at time of post) or more the memory of it has an uncanny knack of dragging us to the here and now.
Book Making …
For the last few weeks, more, months I have agonised over my next step (s) as an artist and in particular as an illustrator/writer. It has been very trying and there have been some sleepless nights and subsequent wasted days.
However, while the outcome is not yet decided I have made some small breakthroughs ….
I sigh thankfully; although this is not without help from other quarters. More gratitude!
I began writing and illustrating a book with no knowledge about the implications of such an endeavour even the most simple tasks have to be carefully thought through … some say backwards so that every aspect is considered
I muddled through like the proverbial bull with the finished article in sight I had no idea or vision that it should be reproduced; it was to be one book.
Although I did scan each page for no particular reason.
When it was finished and after all that effort I did want to share it. This is when the other decisions came into play and the obstructions caused by my lack of planning in the beginning.
Then there were the aesthetic qualities that had been my main reasons for the one book. They would be lost in reproduction. Its handmade-ness was what I loved and wanted to keep. Then there were the handmade flaws that could not be corrected with ‘electronica’ and would remain like unsightly carbuncles in horrible heap of unwanted books.
So I did have the book copied and’ it’ remains lovely the copies are flawed but OK.
So some decisions beg to be made before I begin another book. However, not before I explore the possibilities of making multiple copies using manual tools or rather using a printing press. By using my type high wood blocks, letterpress and lino cuts adapted to type high in a frame I can make pages and bind them myself. Thus each page has the right degree of handmade-ness and and correctness in balance … if that is possible?
So with that it mind I have experimented with sheet of paper printed with some letterpress that I had previously discarded from a another project; making a simple origami binding. After a couple of hours I had a very nice poetry book …
And since train tickets to Leicester in hand for another part of my wondrous journey.
So until the fat lady sings … no decisions just some more tentative steps.
Silent Sunday
Wednesday’s Wise Woman …
Beginning to look forward to my next trip to Brazil … what more can I say
Tia Ciata and Little Africa in Rio de Janeiro Roberto Moura
This weeks post does not venture far from the Brazilian music theme I have recently adopted. However we do go back in time to the late 19th century; To Rio in the hillside favelas where the modern samba emerged among the black and mixed-race peoples. It was during the time that slavery was abolished, the monarchy had ended and the first republic was being formed.
The question of citizenship was the topic of debate in literary and political circles. The Brazilian elite discussed the role of former slaves,immigrants and others who until now had been socially and politically excluded. According to some studies it was when the European dances such as the polka and Brazilian musical practices intertwined that the mediation began. It was a long slow process but it did give rise to Brazil’s first distinctly national urban…
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Coat Hanger Doll's House 