Crossing Paths - a walking collaboration and artist's book

Sometime ago I promised to post an image of the final book I made for the walking collaboration with painter friend Judith Cockram .

Finished book - Crossing Paths

I finished making one book for Judith's degree show in June and am now busy making another 2. One for myself and another for Mandy Beall who has inspired me by ordering a copy. Thank you so much Mandy for your support and encouragement.

page of book - collagraph Rosie Kearton

We have (Judith and myself) now decided to make it a limited edition of 20. I have put the details on my Etsy shop and there is a link on the sidebar to the right if you'd like to know more or even buy a copy!

End pages of book 

I am really going to make a concerted effort to promote my work more. I sometimes lack confidence in what I do so when other artists and bloggers comment positively about my work it makes such a big difference! Love getting all your comments!

Day 4 - Design school

The final day was with Sofia Stevi who makes amazing book structures like this these 

We divided into pairs and on the theme of Plymouth we researched an image for a section of the book - I worked with Anne-Marie Culhane and we each drew a section of Drakes Circus 

It is a pretty hideous shopping centre but iconic in the region! 

It was then cut into 7 sections each side (14 in total) for each inner spine - I think it will work really well but unfortunately we weren't able to complete the mock up and must wait to see the final book in a few weeks time - frustrating..... 

So that is the end of the summer school - it was very different to what I expected, much more fun and playfulness and virtually no technology! It was fantastic and I have lots of ideas I want to develop - every day was different and exciting - thank you to all involved, the tutors, L.I.E. and Plymouth Arts Centre 

Day 3 - Design School

Another playful and challenging day with Ken Kirton who set us the task of cooking a meal based on plums (his research on Plymouth and the old English meaning 'plum mouth').

We started with a shared breakfast of bread with Ken's home made plum jam - ken is on the right 

Then we got down to work placing all the utensils we had brought in, on a very large sheet of paper 

This was the final result - you could really tell that the majority of the group came from a design background! I thought it looked like something out of a Sunday magazine glossy supplement! We then drew around them all, leaving a simple graphic outline! 

We were divided into pairs and allocated tasks for the lunch - me and Emily got this sheet of paper and had to decide what to do with it - I suggested drawing around all the food ingredients as they arrived (the prawns were fun as they started to melt) and each person writing there name around the border - we would then use it as a table cloth and see the design spoilt as food was dropped on it! I always embrace the chance element whenever I can!

We took all the food and drink up to Plymouth Hoe and had a barbecue - plum and shrimp kebabs with feta cheese salad followed by plum, peach and pineapple kebabs with creme fraiche - washed down with plum sangria!

P

It was a PLUM day

Day 2 at Design School

another full day at Plymouth Arts Centre - we focused on typography. Harry Blackett from An Endless Supply led the day and gave us lots of tips about fonts etc. We started off by designing our own font for our initials 

First attempt

then it started walking - perfect!

In the afternoon we played Bananagrams - a bit like scrabble without the board - it comes in a banana shaped bag which I don't have a picture of but you can see one HERE

 then we designed a page for a joint book - I used rubbings from the tiles I'd been playing with and some of the words that I'd made up

I haven't got an image of the finished book but will post one soon. I am beginning to feel very tired after 2 very full on days - and there's still another 2 to go - I have so many ideas buzzing around in my head for future projects as well.....

L.I.E. - Library of Independent Exchange workshop

An inspiring first day (of 4 days) on the design school workshop at Plymouth Arts Centre run by L.I.E.

We spent the morning playing visual games like the one below where one person was shown an image for 5 secs and then drawing it by memory for 2 mins - this image was then shown to the next person etc. a visual chinese whispers! 

We also did quick drawings from moving images - I used water color paint and really enjoyed myself - the painting led on to the afternoon exercise - we were each given a topic - mine was 'Above the stars' and were asked to produce 8 drawings which formed a narrative - these were then photocopied and folded into A4 booklets - the final task was to make a rubber stamp (something I've been meaning to do for ages!) for the front cover

Finished booklets with rubber stamped covers 

Some open pages 

One of my pages 'Above the stars'

The session leaders Holly Wales and Stephen Smith 

It was a splendid day and I've come away with lots of ideas for my bookmaking - many thanks to Holly Wales and Stephen Smith for making it a full, creative and fun day.

I'm now looking forward to tomorrow's session - more to follow about this!