Happy Bookbinding at Unit Twelve and a trip to Glasgow

 Sophie (my daughter) and I had a lovely treat over the Bank Holiday Weekend - a two day bookbinding course at Unit Twelve in Staffordshire, with the talented Alix Swan.  We own a couple of her 'books', although I hesitate to just call them books as they are exquisite paper creations accompanied by elements from the story eg 'Rapunzel' is a tiny accordion book within a castle shaped box, and 'The Elves and the Shoemaker' comes complete with a teeny pair of shoes!

Although I've made books in the past I'd never had a go at making hardbacked books of this nature.

Bookmaking is a very precise craft but I was very happy with the results, and even considered leaving one of the books with an open spine!

We used lots of found papers in the studio to make two more books in addition to the plain workshop one.  I intend to fill the blank one with snippets from the story 'The Elves and the Shoemaker', one of my very favourite stories, but the others will become journals.

They are only tiny but now I know how I'll be binding my own journals with a mixture of papers and to the landscape A4 size that I love!

Then it was off to Scotland for a short break.  Whilst up there we were able to visit Glasgow, a city that's long been on my list of places to visit.  I will definitely be going back!  We took a tour of the Glasgow School of Art but it was limited to just the outside of the building and the furniture gallery because of student exams.  It was still really interesting though.  I love the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and he designed so much more than just the building.

As an art student himself he realised the need for wide corridors (for carrying canvases) and doors clearly labelled as 'out' and 'in' so you could manage your bulky artwork without colliding with anyone.

It's not clear on this photo (but how ace is that lamp-post?!) but the roses he positioned across the top windows start off as buds on the left of the building and as you move across, open up to blossoming roses on the window on the furthest right!

And I just LoVe how they validate your ticket...

....by stamping a moustache on the man himself!

a gallery crawl (no pubs involved, unfortunately ;) )

 I took my daughter (nearly sixteen) and my two nieces (nearly fifteen, and ten) on a bit of a gallery crawl the other day.  We started off at Unit Twelve Gallery near Stafford, run by the very talented Jennifer Collier.  The current exhibition is called 'Traditional Twisted' and features work by one of mine and Sophie's (Grammar?) favourite artists, Alix Swan as well as work by someone we know from our home town, Leah Fletcher.

Alix's work is based on traditional tales and I have a couple of her tiny books.  For this exhibition she had created wooden boxes containing elements from the stories, with a handle on the side to turn (which played music) and a book tucked in the back with a padded label stating 'pull me'.

 I love the way she reduces the stories to single words or snippets of sentences.

 And that long, thin book for 'Rapunzel' is just fab!  Sophie and I are already booked on her two day workshop at the end of May where we'll spend a whole weekend making a little hard back book and, I assume, putting some content in it.

 I'm struggling to decide which story, if any, to do as 'The Elves and the Shoemaker' is my very, very favourite, alongside 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'!  But Sophie is doing 'Little Red Riding Hood' for her GCSE project and I'm loving the references to trees, the snippets of red for the girl and grey for the wolf; plus 'The Princess and the Pea' would give great castle imagery and snippets of fabric for the mattresses, and would really suit a long thin book. Hmmm.

 Other work in the exhibition included these lovely paper/cloth quilts by Maria Thomas.  Look carefully and you can see regular packaging for biscuits and cakes and other sweet goodies.

Leah Fletcher's work is a beautiful combination of vintage fabric, memories and porcelain.

From Unit Twelve Gallery we travelled West, just a few minutes down the road to Stafford where we saw the 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen' exhibition by Lauren Van Helmond at the Shire Hall Gallery (Sue, you'd love this!)

Lauren creates amazing metal sculptures of dogs and combines them with blokes!

I love how, with a simple bit of carving, wooden spoons can have such character!

The gallery shop is fabulous, full of way too many goodies.  There's a cafe too but we didn't have time for cake unfortunately!

Off on the road again we headed for the market town of Eccleshall, where a group of artists have got together and run a gallery called 'gallery at 12'.

It's a proper English town and the photo really doesn't do the main street justice, but how fab is that old fire station!

It was great to see work by Jo Hill in particular as I love her textile designs.

A quick trip to the old fashioned sweet shop completed our trip as my youngest niece had to get back to go bowling with a friend.  Cake would have been nice, but never mind, and there are lots of little boutique shops in Eccleshall which looked fabulous through the windows.

the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair 2012

I had all good intentions to keep making and blogging whilst back at work but I've just been sooooooooo tired!    Today though, my daughter, niece and I took a trip into Manchester to the great northern contemporary craft fair, a veritable feast of gorgeousness!

I AdOrE fifites designs so these modern takes were a purchase must!  (I also LoVe toadstools!)  It took me ages to choose which pieces to have but eventually went for the toadstool mug and plate, the leaf jug and the green bowl and dinner plate.  I'll certainly be adding to the collection of pottery by Sarah Heaton.  The grey pieces are gorgeous too...

There's so much to see at this show.  These paper birds were delightful..

..this wooden pendulum clock a masterpiece, and mesmerising to watch...

...and this ceramic work by Claire Baker is such fun!  (Check out that 'cup handle' made from a spoon!)

Liz Cooksey's beautiful textiles are tiny and intricate and just stunning!  I love how they look like miniature quilts..

... and they're such a contrast to Holly Levell's equally amazing textile pieces which re-create retro food and sweets!

I made a number of purchases (oops!), which I'll share tomorrow, some of which came from the very talented Julia Jowett who, it turns out, recently joined Unit Twelve, a favourite gallery of mine :)  Isn't this wire work stunning?

... and the girl's dress in the above piccie is all hand embroidered!  I'm DeFiNiTeLY signing up for her workshop in February 2012 :)

There's sooooooo much to see at this show, and I didn't get pics of everything I loved, but we did have a fantastic day, and snapped some pics of some of the fabulous Manchester architecture on the way back to the tram :)

life after...

applying for a job, getting it, ofsted and tonsillitis!  I sooooooooooo needed this two week half-term holiday!

In between ofsted (that's school inspectors) and tonsillitis my daughter and I went on a one day course down in Stafford with the lovely Emily Notman.

It was a gorgeous, sunny day and we spent the morning dying and bleaching a variety of simple fabrics, including lace.

The afternoon involved putting all our pieces together to create a wall hanging.

 Mine is still a work in progress, but a nice one. I can take it out and add stitching or beading to it according to my mood!  Sophie's is lovely and it was great to do something like this together!

One of the great things about doing a workshop at Unit Twelve Gallery, Stafford is the gorgeous exhibition space which is always filled with delightful things.

clever wire work by Louise Wilson

 love these floral collages by Heather Burgess

 Katie Almond's ceramics are always fabulous

Well out of my price range but absolutely stunning work by Lauren van Helmond

 and I so wanted one of these landscapes by Sarah Jane Brown but the one I liked was sold

fabulous textual pictures by Rachel Hazell

This current exhibition, entitled 'word play', runs until 28th July 2012 and I can highly recommend it if you live near enough!

My great friend Julie Murray is hosting a huge celebration, with giveaways, as she's now been blogging for three years.  Check out her blog here, it's so worth it :)