Guildford Book Festival 2013

As I'm not studying any more and only have a wedding to organise, I thought I might fill some of my spare time by volunteering at the Guildford Book Festival this year - 17 -27 October.  First job, hand out festival programmes round where I live - something to keep me busy on Saturday. 
I'm quite looking forward to meeting everyone next week and finding out what we will be up to, although working full time is going to get in the way a bit.

Septembers writers group

I can't believe we were defeated by a door!  
Because the room was locked, we couldn't find a key and there was no where else to meet we couldn't run the meeting.  How annoying is that!  I will be having words with the department who look after that room.

However I did still get to give homework out:
Imagine you can hear a voice in your head.  What would it say to you?

I look forward to next months meeting with trepidation.

Paper portfolio

Having made all that paper at the summer school, I suddenly realised I had nowhere safe to store it.  Ideally I needed some folders of acid free paper to put my sheets in, but it would also be good if they could be kept under a little pressure too.
After a little thought I decided to put my book binding skills to good use and make myself a portfolio.  
The end result was an A3 portfolio which I am very pleased with; it holds all the paper I made and has plenty of room for more later.  There are a couple of things I could improve on, but over all it does exactly what I need it to and means I can now take my paper with me to show people without having to worry about crumpling any.

Twitter

After resisting for as long as I could I've finally joined twitter.  And what an amazing place it is.  I've already found so many amazing things, which I would never have seen without it.
For instance Anastassia Elias Toilet Roll Tube Sculptures or Cardboard Heaven by Nina Lindgren.  I can't wait to see what other gems I can find out there.

Origami butterfly

While looking for wedding things I came across these origami butterflies on the Go Origami! site.  Although I love paper I haven't done much origami and thought they looked like a good place to start.
They were so easy it was hard to stop at only 2.  I look forward to exploring the Go Origami! site for more pretty things to make.

John Browning Kites

I have been a member of the National Trust for years, first with my Mum and now with 'im outdoors.  I'm always meaning to visit more properties than I actually do, but on Monday we manage to visit one - Mottisfont in Hampshire.  

It had been recommenced by a friend because of its lovely gardens and its small art gallery in the house and I thoroughly enjoyed the walk by the river and round the walled garden, even if we were a bit late for the roses.

But it was the art gallery that really got my interest.  They have a selection of Winnie-the-Pooh illustration on display at the moment which are great, and in the next room they have a selection of mechanical art from the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre which were really fun to watch but it was the kites in the stairwell that got all my attention.

Kites by John Browning, made from handmade paper and leaves in very none kite shapes but which apparently fly beautifully.  They were all works of art in themselves and I spent ages fascinated by the near translucent leaves.

My big question - How did he do it?!  My only thought - I want to do that!

Writers Group - August meeting

This months writers group was a pretty small affair as many people were on holiday.  This meant we got to listen to everyones pieces and do a quick writing exercise.  For our exercise I gave the line ‘I told you I’ve not got anything for you, so why are you following me?’ she asked, her voice trembling as a starting point and then gave everyone 10 minutes to write something.  As always the variety if ideas amazed me.

Homework: While reading our local paper a couple of weeks ago I came across the headline ‘Thieves and saboteurs sought’.  I was most disappointed to find this wasn’t a request for people to join a local theatre group, but a story of a real robbery.  Look in your local newspaper and see if you can find a headline which could be read in several different ways and use this as the inspiration for your story.  Do not use the original story as your inspiration.

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...