under the weather...

My boy child is home today eeeeeel. This is such a rare occasion - Sass is in his third year at school and only been absent 2 days since starting school.... and even then he wasn't totally, yucky eeeeeeel.... Boots, the big cat, decided he needed a bit of feline support and has tucked himself up under my Sassie boy's chin (well I like to think that Boots offering feline support - rather than imagine that the fat cat is trying to smother my child!)

ahhhh poor boyo - hopefully a day in bed (under the care of the cat) will do the trick...


In and around kiddie care I'm still fiddling with booky things (mostly reading and attempting to do some more writing at this stage) - and still playing with circular coptic-bound beasties.... here is the latest......

created from pages of 'the green kingdom' volume of the Childcraft set....


Completing the tiny coptic circle in the centre was AGGHHHH!!!! (much swearing required to get this one to come together - the inner diameter is only about 15mm).... I've mostly been using the making of these as a form of meditation - I've often said that I do most of my thinking with my fingers...... (I'm very much a process-oriented arteeest) and making these has been a nice antidote to all the high-falluting reading and writing I'm currently in the thick of.....


Time to get a drink of water for the eeeeel child - and make sure that he hasn't been smothered by his nurse-cat (sick kiddies certainly put art and study and life into sharp perspective!)

another infinite book...

Yesterday I completed a second 'infinite' book - bound from another world book encyclopaedia 1984 year book. This time it is bound as a simple circle - but as I was playing with it I found I liked the look of  it when displayed like this....

and in my mind was the simple idiom - 'what goes around comes around'....



as I was finishing this piece off I received a note in my inbox from my bloggy friend amanda - that she has passed on a bloggy 'happiness' award to myself and all the other book*art*object participants...

well and I must say I was a little stumped for a moment - but as I've come to realise over the past year, my bloggy and online friendships have brought me a big slice of happiness too... as I'm sure it has many folk who value friendships however they are formed and maintained.


righto now according to what amanda has posted I'm supposed to do something like this....


- Thank the person that awarded you this in the new post. (tick)

- Name 10 things that make me happy.

- Pass this award onto other bloggers and inform the winners


but of course I've never been one to follow rules and guidelines to the letter - so here's my reply

so many things make me happy - from the mundane (rain-on-the-roof) to the profound (the-miracle-of-life) - that I'm scared if I start listing them I'll never stop! In the end, everything I would list would point out one simple truth - it is my connection to family, friends and place that constantly brings me  joy. I'm a lucky person.


thanks amanda, your kindness has reminded me of this....


and to share the happiness around I'm sending this to julie and gemma - two wonderfully creative calligraphic friends who survived my arm twisting to co-author calligraffia and still remain on friendly terms!

and although this will sound terribly corny - I hope that the little bit of happiness I'm passing on from amanda continues on its infinite journey....

a book of hours of sorts...

I've just finished another booky object – this time it's a simple concertina arrangement (with 12 pages)

well simple in form does not necessarily mean simple in the making... this one had me tearing my hair out!

The idea was simple enough – 12 pages for 12 photos taken of my work Ex libris (installed on the property on the site of a vanished school – just a few hundreds metres from the house and studio here at sams creek)

Ex Libris (9am)

I took a picture of the work on the hour – every hour - from dawn to dusk... and decided I would create a book from the photos of my books - as a sort of secular book of hours (in fact I'm titling the piece 'hora libri' which can be interpreted as 'hour book' or 'book of hours')

for the uninitiated – Books of Hours were personal prayerbooks of the devout and status-conscious society of the late medieval/early renaissance era – the most stunning examples included lavishly painted miniatures, exquisite calligraphy with illuminated capitals executed on vellum – the covers of some had precious gems embedded – all very bling bling!

(A great resource to read/see more about them is the John Hartman volume 'Books of Hours')


I played around with quite a few ideas for my 'book of hours' but concertina offered the best solution – this format offered a linear arrangement for my photos – and by choosing robust materials I envisaged that the piece may be displayed open – and upright – without support

and so off I set to making the piece

I've utilised old encyclopaedia covers (left over from making serpens volumen) to give the piece rigidity, covered with waxed buckram (all one piece – the hinges are integrated) – getting the very long single piece of buckram attached and smooth and lovely was EEEEEKKKK – and of course I forgot to put the internal buckram pieces on for the hinges before I attached the external cover (of course!) EEEEEEKKKK!! (note to reader – this is NOT the actual words uttered at the time.... I've given you the cleaned up family version of what was uttered) - so of course I had to gingerly remove the turn-over, quickly paste in the inner buckram hinges, then re-paste the covers and re-work.... (those corners were hard enough the first time around!)

finally it was looking good





On the inside of the structure I've used some of last years 'network' ink drawings – which work surprisingly well with the content and colours – and on top of these are the individual photos.


The piece stands wonderfully well without support (success!)





I like it arranged as a star – so that the circularity as opposed to linear nature of time is hinted at.


I'm planning on making another 2 concertina 'hora libri' – so that there's an edition of 3 - but I suspect each in the edition will be a bit different...