Book Sale

I have an urgent glass commission and need to raise some cash to purchase the glass so I am having a Book Sale. All of these books are in great condition and are described below. All prices INCLUDE postage in the UK. If you wish to buy a book please contact me by Email HERE and I will give you the Paypal details. I hope you find something you like. 

Letts Contemporary Crafts - Papier Mache

This book is a fantastic resource for papier mache and features to work of Julie Arkell, Marion Elliot and Deborah Schneebeli-Morrell. It has 12 projects and I once made the doll house. There are slight marks on the hard cover corners.  £6.00 includes UK postage

Paper Engineering and Pop-Ups for Dummies

Really simple instructions to create quite complex paper engineering including pop-ups, tabs, slides, sculptures, animation and making your own designs. £8.00 includes UK Postage

Linoleum Block Printing by Francis J Kafka

A Dover Crafts book exploring the craft of lino printing including a selection of projects, printing on textiles, colour mixing and alphabets. £8.00 includes UK Postage

Cut and Assemble Paper Dragons that Fly

8 full colour models that come with instructions - all you need are scissors and glue. Photocopy the pages before you cut out the dragons so that you can make them again. The edges of the pages are slightly yellowed.  £4.00 includes UK Postage

Art Nouveau Designs by Ed Sibbett, Jr

A great resource for designers and artists, this copyright free book is packed with black and white line drawings taken from the art of Mucha. This book smells faintly of cigarette smoke.  £6.00 includes UK Postage

159 Celtic Designs by Amy Lusebrink

Ooh, I love this one! Black and white copyright free line drawings with celtic knots, lettering, borders, zoomorphics and plaits.  £8.00 includes UK Postage

How to design and make Banners by Gisela Banbury and Angela Dewar

Beautiful full colour photos accompanying instructions, designs and lettering to make banners for sacred and secular festivals.  £5.00 includes UK Postage 

SOLD

A gorgeous book in perfect condition - step by step guidance by leading textile artist Mandy Southan showing 18 projects including Arashi, kanoko, Karamatsu and Sekka wrapping and binding to create a myriad of fantastic patterns on silk, cotton and velvet.  £9.00 includes UK Postage

Myths and Legends of the Haida Indians

A great mixture of black and white illustrations and fascinating stories. Can be used as a child's colouring book or a resource for artists and designers.   The edges of the pages are slightly yellowed.  £4.00 includes UK Postage

American Indian Design and Decoration by Leroy H Appleton

A thick book packed with information, stories and over 700 illustrations of American Indian design and artefects.  The edges of the pages are slightly yellowed.  £8.00 includes UK Postage

Lamination Glass Handbooks

The ultimate book on glass installation, showing how to make panels that create an architectural impact  The edges of the soft cover are slightly curled.  £6.00 includes UK Postage

Colouring Clay by Jo Connell

A compact ceramics handbook written for the serious ceramicist. Book contains instructions and recipes on adding colour to clay, blending and glazing, making Agateware and Egyptian paste. In brand new condition - RRP £14.99   £8.00 includes UK Postage

Kiln formed Bracelets 

A must-have for the glass artist. This book is packed with designs, instructions, equipment and design gallery that show you how to make the most amazing glass bracelets and watch bands. Read it and drool! £8.00 includes UK Postage 

SOLD

This is a British Museum Pattern Book and is quite a heavy tome. It is a brilliant resource for textile artists, illustrators, graphic designers, ceramicists, jewellers, printmakers and anyone interested in surface decoration. This book smells faintly of cigarette smoke.  £8.00 includes UK Postage 

SOLD

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Another Dover, copyright free book with beautiful hand drawn illustrations of whaling, spinning, fishing, hunting and gathering - showing the lives and culture of the NorthWest Coast Indians. Slight mark on cover.  £4.00 includes UK Postage 

A Colouring Book of Ancient Africa

Mostly hand drawn black and white illustrations of the ancient people of Benin, this book has great motifs and patterns from Ancient Africa. Use it as  resource and a colouring book. The cover of this book is green and not red.   £3.00 includes UK Postage

Please note: not all these books are new but they are in very good condition. Some may be old but the pages are clean. If you are not satisfied with your book please email me within 3 days of receipt and return it within 7 days and I will refund your Paypal account.  Many thank for looking. 

Always wanted to be an artist....

.... ever since my oldest sister went to study foundation art and brought home a signed first edition of her tutor's new book "Mr Benn - red knight".  David McKee's child like drawing and attention to detail had me hooked. 

Book illustrator Pauline Baynes became one of my heroes after I read "The Dictionary of Chivalry" by Grant Uden.  Her beautiful imagery gives Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham a run for their money (love them too).  

Although I can fill a sketchbook with spidery drawing I have never been as good at drawing as my sister, who studied illustration, but I have always had a keen interest in repeat pattern and textiles.  So, after foundation, I studied textile design as surface decoration.  In the early 1980s there were some great emerging designers coming out of the post-punk era who had a strong influence on my own work.  One of my favourites is the very graphic-based Timney Fowler with their stark black and white reworkings of classical design and also Candace Bahouth's tapestries.  

A couple of years back I was asked to reproduce some pictures by children's book illustrators onto a library wall in a local school.  It was great fun researching different illustrators and even more fun trying to reinterpret their work using acrylic paint.  Of course, I could never match their skill but copying someone else's work is a good exercise in learning how they create.  You can see how fast Quentin Blake draws with his pen and where his pen has rested before he starts quickly moving the pen across the paper. It was a joy to paint every square in Kipper's blanket (by Mick Inkpen) and also Little Bear's striped pyjamas (by Jane Hissey). 

Here is Little Bear but I don't want to show too much of this project as I don't want to fall foul of an artist's copyright. Suffice to say, the library mural was painted to encourage children to read. 

Book illustrators have always had a huge influence on my art, probably because they help to tell a story and yet they stand up as art in their own right. Although I can't remember the last time I painted on a stretched canvas (it wasn't good art) I really enjoy painting on loose canvas, such as banners, and on walls.  Here is a banner I painted for the ceiling of a primary school.

As I recently posted a tutorial on making accordian books here are a few of the books I have made. They have all been shown in exhibitions.



"My Son Tom" is an accordian book made from brown paper and plant fibre paper with a wooden toggle as a fastener. It measures 3" (8cm) square. The pages are a long strip of plant fibre paper that has been folded three times to form pockets. I made this book when Tom was nine and each pocket contains an item that means something to him.



The first pocket contained 3 coloring pencils but they were pinched when I took the book into a school where I was teaching book making workshops (!) The text reads, Tom likes to draw. The next pocket contains a rusty washer from his collection - He likes to collect things. Then I made a minitaure version of his favorite book, Shadowmancer - Tom likes to read. I illustrated a cartoon of the cat - and he loves our cat. I made two miniature playing cards - Tom enjoys card games and finally popped in a photo of him with a cheeky face - He hates peas!



It was fun to make although, now he's older, I don't think he's too impressed now!



RATS is a passage from Robert Browning's Pied Piper of Hamelin, a poem I learned at school. The paper is standard cartridge that I dyed with inks on wet paper before cutting and gluing the pages together.




I printed the word RATS with wooden block lettering and made the illustrations in relief by sticking the cut out shapes with sticky fixers. The roofs of the houses are pages from an old book that I dyed with ink. The book was so old that the paper began to disintegrate when wet!




The layout for the lettering took a long time as I had to space it correctly. I attached the pages together with wire so that, if the book is not handled correctly, it scratches you - like rats!





The book below is about walking my dog. We take a long, strenuous walk on the moors every day as he needs a lot of exercise.



I started with an old ordnance survey map that I bought in a charity shop and cut out "windows" for each page. The paper is again dyed but this time I dripped acrylic inks onto the wet dyes. Acrylic inks are wonderful - the colors are so vibrant and, being heavier in body than the dyes, will repel the dyes to leave fuzzy edged bright colors.

As this was about a walk in the autumn I took my camera and got shots of the moors, when the heather is very deep purple and the bracken begins to turn gold. I used these images as thumbnails throughout the book. The silver line running along each page represents the path we took, I created it by sponging silver acrylic paint between two torn strips of masking tape, using a damp sponge.

The book pages are stitched together using silk thread that I dyed and then sponged randomly with silver paint. On the cover I made a tiny book with ordnance survey pages. The book measures 5" (13cm) square.

Accordian Books

I really enjoy making small books such as notebooks, matchbooks, stitched books and books with small pockets and pop-ups. From making the first proto-type the possibilities are endless and you need very few tools either.
There is such a great range of papers and cardstock available today to make hand made books with. I have used pre-printed gift wrap and good quality cartridge paper to make this small accordian folded book but I also like to dye my own paper and use batik papers too.



You will need:
1 sheet A3 cartridge paper
1 piece of card stock
1 sheet fancy paper (for your book cover)
pencil
scalpel or similar cutting knife
ruler
bradawl
cutting mat or board
good quality paper glue
thin ribbon (not shown)
sharp scissors (not shown)



First, cut 3 pieces of card stock, using a ruler and scalpel. Accurate cutting is key here. 2 x 3" square (8cm) and 1 x 1" x 3" (3cm x 8cm). Next cut a piece of your fancy paper 7.5" x 3.5" (19cm x 9cm).



Cover each piece of card stock with an even coating of glue. I have used a gel glue but, if your paper glue is a particularly thick kind, leave it for 30 seconds to dry slightly before placing it on the fancy paper. I position the card stock on the paper "by eye" but you may want to measure the position and mark lightly with a pencil on the back of the fancy paper.
Make sure you leave a tiny space between each piece of card so that folding the book cover will not overstretch your paper.



To avoid smudging the glue onto the paper it is advisable to make your book in stages. I place the book cover under a heavy weight (such as a book or the cutting mat) and allow it to dry for 30 minutes. If you do not press your book flat the thin glue will cause it to warp and become misshapen.
Once the glue is thoroughly dry, use sharp pointed scissors to carefully snip the edges of the fancy paper, as shown above. You should also make a small vertical cut at each end of the book's spine. as shown below. This will prevent the paper from bunching around the spine.



Carefully fold down and glue the paper edges over the card stock, taking care not to over-wet the paper with glue. Resist the urge to fold the book yet, instead place it under a weight for another 30 minutes.



Once dry, cut two lengths of thin ribbon and glue these onto the inside of the book, back and front, as shown above. Leave to dry whilst you make the book pages.



Constructing the pages. You will need to measure and cut two strips of cartridge paper 2 3/4" (7cm) x the length of an A3 piece of paper. Draw a guide line on the back of each paper 2 3/4" in from the edge and score your pencil line with a bradawl. Take care not to press too hard with the bradawl or you will tear the cartridge paper.
Now fold the paper along the scored line. Your first fold will be a mountain fold (as shown above) and the pencil mark will be at the back of the paper. This pencil mark won't be visible when the book is finished.

This is how you fold accordian-style pages. If your first fold was a mountain fold then your next one will be a valley fold (the shape of the fold is self-explanatory). You won't need to measure and mark each fold with a pencil and bradawl as long as you fold CAREFULLY and accurately. Fold both strips of paper in this way until you get to the end.

You should have a small strip of surplus paper at the end. I call this piece the "tail". Cut the tail from only ONE strip of paper, you will need the other one.

One strip of paper won't give you enough pages for your accordian book so you need to join two strips together. Take the "tail" from one strip of paper and glue it to the second strip. Make sure that you glue a valley folded piece to a mountain folded piece and that the tail is at the back of your paper (you don't want the tail to be seen when the book is finished). As shown below.

Once dry, fold all the pages together. They should spring apart as you let go to form an accordian.

Nearly finished! Glue the back of the first page to the inside of the front book cover. The first fold facing upwards should be a valley fold. Make sure that your page covers the edge of the ribbon. Press it firmly and leave to dry. (Don't place it under a weight or you will squish the book cover).

Repeat the process by gluing the back page to the inside back cover and leave the book open to to dry.

When dry, carefully fold the pages up and tie the ribbons together to hold them in place.

Voila! You have just made a delightful book that you can fill with drawings, notes, photos or collage. Here are some sites you can buy handmade books.

Kupokiley

Staceyhandmade

Giftshed

Inspiration is all around

My two previous blogs about Sources of Inspiration looked at becoming "ideas-rich" and ways of presenting ideas for design (sketch books, design boards, scrap books etc).

Even the most mundane items can become a source of inspiration, you don't need to search the net for good design ideas, you are living with them. Here I have taken my camera to record a few ideas from around the home, focussing on color, texture and pattern. Textiles and tableware are both a great source for ideas and take a look in the fruit bowl too!

Any of these images will be useful to the glass artist, textile designer or graphic illustrator.

I am also addicted to glossy magazines and catalogues from shops such as The Pier which are packed full of color, texture and pattern. I keep a small note book with themed pages and, when I am stuck for inspiration, I take a few minutes to look through this book. Below are some example pages.

Colors of Provence, France

Natural color and texture

Black, cream and white

Why not browse Etsy and buy yourself a note book to keep your ideas? To view more pages from this notebook visit my Flickr.