Lino Printing

At the beginning of the summer I was taking the rubbish out when the front door slammed shut behind me.  I didn't have a key and my phone was inside.  Doh!  'im outdoors has just left on an errand and I wasn't sure when he would be back.  So what to do?  There isn't any side access to the house, but I wondered if I could get into the garden from next door?  I rang their bell and hoped someone was in.
June answered.  Of course I could try her back gate.  But that didn't work.  Maybe her husband could help but he was out walking the dog.  While we waited for him to get back we chatted and she ended up showing me her sheds.
June was a fabric artist who was also a printer.  She doesn't do so much now but she showed me all her stuff and I was quite jealous. 
(her husband was able to get me back into my garden and so into the house.)

I'd told June about my paper making, so a couple of weeks later I put some of my paper through her door as she'd sounded interested.  She thought it was amazing and asked if I'd like to try some printing.  I jumped at the chance.
We finally found a date that worked for us both and she told me to bring some simple line drawings that we could turn into a print.

As it was my Mum's birthday that week and she lives by the sea, I was inspired to try and make a print for a birthday card featuring a seagull.

We went down to Junes shed and she showed me her equipment and what to do.  Her shed is perfect.  It smells like an art shop, full of ink and paper and tools and odds and ends.  I have a room that is trying to be like this but I have a way to go before it is as good as June's shed.

We started by preparing the lino square with a light sanding.  I then drew my design on in pencil.  This requires some thought as you have to think hard about what you want to show in black (or whatever colour you are using) and what should be white.  Also any lettering has to be the wrong way round to come out right in the print.

With the lino all cut away then came the messy part - printing.
First we had to decide which ink to use.  Damp and heat and cold can all change how an ink behaves so it's a bit trial and error.
We also had to decide how to press the print.  We could use a big press or hand burnish it.  Both have their pros and cons.
After a couple of test prints we got the combination right and printed my square.

First we used a piece of plain white paper.  Then we tried some of my garlic paper, lastly a piece of paper with a different texture.
I can't believe how well it came out.  The letters read fine, the bird looks great and the textured background puts me in mind of sea and wind.  Its such a clear print, I keep having to look at it again and remind myself - I made that.  
Once the ink was dry I cut the paper down and stuck it to a bigger piece of card to make a birthday card.  My Mum loved it.
I'm really inspired now and I'm starting to think about what else I could do like this.  Christmas cards maybe?  (but not this year!)

Garlic Paper part 2

In 2015 I made my first batch of paper using garlic skins.  I loved it so much I started collecting them again straight away so I could make some more at some point - garlic skins being very small and fine you need a lot of them to make paper and collecting that amount takes some time. So some 3 1/2 years later, with a big bag full, I decided it was time to try again.

It really is beautiful stuff.  I love the look and feel. I made a good batch this time and just need to press it flat before I can use it.  I made a mixture of A4, A5 and A6 sheets, so I should be able to find some uses for it.

Tree fern paper

 

What better use for a Bank Holiday weekend than to make a little paper? 

 I haven't done any paper making for ages, but 'im outdoors had collected some fronds from the tree fern in our garden last year and I thought I'd have a go using these.

They turned out to be a lot tougher than I'd thought they'd be (even after boiling for a couple of hours) and so the fibers didn't really break down in the way I had hoped.  But it still made some pretty paper with little bits of the fronds still being visible. 

 I didn't have time to make as much as normal, but its still good to keep your hand in and I quite like the result.

Paper money

A while ago a friend at work gave me about £20,000 in mostly £20 notes.  The only problem being that it was old notes which had been shredded.  He'd bought the bag years ago and still hadn't found a use for it, but knowing my interest in book binding and paper making thought I might be able to do something with it.

So this week I finally got out my paper making kit and had a go.  I think the end result was pretty good.  Its not obvious at first what its made from, it just has a nice texture and colour, but when you start to look more closely you can see little bits of print which give it away.

I've still got about £18,000 left so I guess I'll be making more at some point.

Garlic paper

A couple of years ago I attended a week of paper making at Central Saint Martins art college.  I can't remember now if I started collecting my garlic skins before this or after, but I finally decided that this Easter I would try making paper out of them.

I do use a lot of garlic in my cooking but in two years I had only managed to collect about 2 1/2 oz.

They were all stuck in a saucepan with some water and washing soda and boiled for a bit - this removes all the waxes and oils and organic stuff which would affect my paper.

At the end of the process you have something that looks like this.  Very appetising!  But once it is mixed with some cotton fibre then you can see how beautiful it really is.  I love that you can see all the fibres.  'im outdoors said it looked like hair.
Sadly I didn't have much so couldn't make very much paper, but I've already started collecting my next batch, so give it another couple of years and I'll have another go.

Above you can see the difference between paper made from onion skins, leaves of an ornamental thistle and the garlic skins.

Public Speaking

Last year I attended the UX Intensive conference in Dublin, and since then I have been trying to learn as much about UX (User Experience) as possible.  This has involved reading lots of books and stuff on the internet, a slight change to my role at work and attending UX talks and workshops in London each month.

Last night I didn't just attend the Ladies That UX event, but actually spoke at it too!  

The idea was to give ladies who don't get to speak in public very often the chance to practice in a safe environment.  We had 5 mins to speak about anything we wanted, so of course I chose bookbinding and paper making.

I was a bit worried that no one would be interested in what I had to say, but the organisers where very encouraging.

So I got there in good time with a bag of books to display.  I'd practiced my talk, but still needed my print off!  Chatting with people was great, but then we all sat down to start listening to the talks.  Now I'm feeling ill.  As we get closer to my talk I'm starting to wonder how on earth I will be able to stand up and speak.  I feel faint and I've forgotten how to speak!  But then my name is called and I'm up on stage with a microphone in my hand.  

'Hello, I'm Penny and I work in the Digital Team at the University of Surrey...'

It went really well.  People looked interested, they laughed in the right places and there was clapping at the end!  We had a break and lots of people came up to talk to me about my books and paper.  Even at the end of the evening when I was trying to leave people were still asking me about my books.  I had no idea that people would be so interested!

So I'm not sure I would deliberately go out of my way to speak in public again, but it was a positive experience and I've learn a lot, from doing it and watching the other speakers.

Thanks to all the Ladies That UX for being so lovely.

Making more paper

Last autumn while cutting plants back in the garden in our annual tidy up I deliberately kept some bundles and hung them in the garage to dry in the hope I would be able to use them to make paper with later.
Finally I have some more time for things like this so I had a go with the first lot - a bundle of Echinops ritro (globe thistles).

It's all very experimental at the moment so I wasn't sure what to expect.  My first learning curve was to find that the storks were just too hard to use.  Hours and hours of boiling did nothing so I settled for just using the leaves.  But I was pleasantly surprised by the out come.  A fine green paper with lots of small detail.  I used more cotton too which gave me lovely thick paper.  I can feel another book coming on.

Compared with the onion paper you can see its a totally different colour, but the texture and feel is different too.  I look forward to seeing that other garden fibres produce.

Using my own handmade paper

This week I've been book binding again.  A normal A5 book, but covered with my own handmade paper.  This is something I've been working towards for so long now, so to finally arrived at this point is really exciting.
The paper is one of the sheets of onion paper I made in February and not only does it look great, but also feels really soft.  It's probably a bit thin really, I'm not sure it will stand the test of time, but it proves the process works.
My head is now full of ideas and things I want to try out.  Such a shame I have to work too.

Onion paper

Finally with everything collected together and a day off work I had my first go at making paper by myself at home.  The set up seemed to take forever but once I had everything in place the paper making its self went very well.  The smaller sheets worked really well while the bigger sheets were harder to control.  I think I need to add more cotton fibre next time.  This set were all using onion fibres  but I've a good collection of other plant material to play with in the future. 
Its really satisfying to do something like this and now that I know that I can make my own paper I can start thinking about projects to use it in.

Mould and deckle

After completing the paper making course at Central St Martins last summer all I've wanted to do is make my own paper at home.  But a little preparation is needed along with the collection of some equipment and materials so I've had to wait.
Today we finished the homemade mould and deckles which are the main piece of equipment needed.  'i'm outdoors kindly made me a set, ranging from a tiny one to make samples and then A6 and A5 ones and one for making paper to cover A6 books and one to cover A5 books.  (I already have an A4 one)  Thanks love.
I can not wait to use them!

Papermaking - day 5

Plain kozo paper

Purple and green layered kozo

Today was the last day of the Papermaking for Artists and Designers at Central Saint Martin's.  I've had a fab week and learnt tons!  But even with everything we covered I know there is still so much that I don't know.  I look forward to experimenting and maybe finding a more advanced class in the future.
Today we were free to concentrate on what interested us, so I spent my time playing with more kozo.  I dyed two separate groups of the fibre - one purple and one green and layered them to see what would happen.  I was very please with the end result (above).
And then it was time to go home with a bag full of damp towels and damp paper samples.
And the question on everyone's lips 'what are you going to do with it?'  My intention all along was to incorporate the papermaking with my book making.  I'm not 100% sure how yet, but I've got a few ideas brewing.  Keep an eye on the blog to see what happens next...

Papermaking - day 4

Beating it to a pulp

Today we started using kozo to make japanese paper.  You might know this as mulberry paper - very fine with the fibres showing.  To use kozo it has to be soaked and cooked which Mandy did last night, then it has to be cleaned of any little bits of left over bark and then beaten with a wooden mallet or rock.  This took all morning.
However Mandy was right - it was worth it.  It is the most amazing paper and by adding tororo-aoi to the pulp suddenly we could dip our moulds and deckles more than once to make thicker paper or to add more colour.
I can totally understand why we started with the western style paper.  While we are pulling the japanese paper in the same way, it is much harder to pull a good sheet straight away and the previous three days of pulling sisal, cotton and abaca sheets have at least given us all a reasonable technique.
One of the best parts of each day is when I first arrive and I can see how yesterdays papers have dried.  Often the colours are quite different and you can really feel the texture of the paper.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how my kozo paper has turned out tomorrow.

Papermaking - day 3

Onion paper

Back to London today for day 3 of the Papermaking course.  This is my kind of holiday.  I might be exhausted by the end of each day but my sense of achievement and excitement with what I have learnt makes it all worth while.
Over the last month or so I have been collecting the skins from the onions I cook with.  Last night I boiled them with washing soda for a couple of hours and this morning I mashed them up in a blender and made beautiful paper with them.  As everyone had used a different plant fibre I got to try out all sorts including green tea and rushes.

Layering colours

The whole day was spent playing with textures and colour.  I love the combination of purple and green layered above.
I also made my first A4 sheets using my own mould and deckle.  Sadly its too big to fit in my vats (washing up bowls) so I will have to get bigger vats and smaller mould and deckles. I feel a list coming on.
Tomorrow we start to look at Japanese papers, so learn a new technique.  I can't wait.

Papernaking - day 2

Cotton with bits of postage stamp

Day 2 of the Papermaking for artists course and wow my feet hurt now.  Not only am I walking to and from the college every day but we are also on our feet all day and it starts to take its toll when you are used to sitting at a desk all day.  
But who cares when I am creating my own paper!  Above are my new favourite items - a round mould and deckle which makes round paper.  I probably hogged this more than I should have today and 'im outdoors is going to have an order for one and several different sizes of normal rectangular mould and deckle when this is over.  I am in love.
It probably helps that along with a really great tutor we've got a lovely group of 8 who are happy to share materials and help each other out as we go along.  Of course working in a group of any sizes does mean that sometimes the pulp gets contaminated, but as we are learning and playing its not a big deal.
Not only did we make round paper but we also played with pigments too, making coloured paper with little hints of other colours in.  I can't wait to see the dried papers tomorrow.
The other thing I leant today is the need to use hand cream.  Spending all day with your hands in water really drys them out.
Now I am boiling onion skins that I have been collecting for the past month ready for tomorrow.  I wonder what onion skin paper looks like?  Guess I'll have to wait till tomorrow to find out.

Papermaking - day 1

This morning I got an early train into London with a huge bag of stuff for the Papermaking for artists and designers, but I made it to the Bank Hill campus of Central Saint Martins in good time without loosing anything and had a brilliant day making paper pulp and turning this into small sheets of paper.
I have wanted to make my own paper for a long as I can remember, my first attempt was using algae from the garden pond when I was small, so to be doing it for real was amazing.
We used cotton and sisal as our base and then added other papers to them, the above are a green and purple version.  The fact that by the end of day one I had 8 different A5 sheets to take home (once dry) made me very happy.
Our tutor Mandy Brannan obviously knew her stuff and it was a great first day.  I can't wait to go back tomorrow.