Visit to London - part 3

My last day in London was spent at the magnificent British Museum. Well, actually, it wasn't a full day, so a lot of things I didn't have time to revisit (like the section that has a crazy amount of Egyptian sarcophagi). It was just as well that a royal visit was expected in another area that was closed off, as I didn't have time for it anyway!

My favourite parts of the museum include the rooms that have the Celtic, Norse, and Anglo Saxon treasures (especially the items from the Sutton Hoo find). Other favourites are the Assyrian statues and the rooms of relief carvings.

Though the royal lion hunt looks barbaric, the carvings are amazing.

The Assyrians were incredibly adept at portraying lions in agony.

It is interesting that the figures look so emotionally cold while the animals are so lifelike and detailed in their wounded demeanor.

A view of another mural, that had a large amount of cuneiform writing. Perhaps I just missed it, but I was surprised that there was no translation of all the writing (even if just a synopsis of the story).

The "man bags" were an item of curiosity! Apparently they are part of rituals of purification  and/or fertility as magical objects.

Again, it is the detailed lifelike forms of the animals which intrigue me the most.

I also spent a fair bit of time in the money room, which contained a whole history of barter, historical coins, etc. As a long time Dr Who fan, I was drawn to the fake ten pound note that was created for a specific episode; the display also contained a looped video of the relevant scene of that episode/

Visit to London - part 2

My daughter absolutely loves The Science Museum, so it was a must-do on our London city itinerary and we wanted to get there before the school rush. I loved this fascinating optical sculpture

 and the accompanying photo by Berenice Abbott which inspired it's re-creation.

My daughter's hoodie had a galaxy pattern, so we attempted to envisage the infinite!

After an early lunch, we headed to the Victoria and Albert Museum. So much to see there! The Chihuly chandelier at the entrance signifies the start of the afternoon of exploration.

I didn't remember seeing this huge Burne-Jones painting on previous visits, so perhaps I had never been in this stairwell before? The V&A is a large museum, it is easy enough to get (happily) lost!

I was excited to see an advert about a Winnie-ther-Pooh exhibition, then disappointed when the dates didn't coincide with my trip to London. So when I came across the hallway of original illustrations, including several by EH Shepard I was quite delighted.

I thought I recognised the work of Edmund Dulac, one of my favourite golden age illustrators but I was wrong. This 1911 watercolour of King Mark and La Belle Isoud from Malory's Morte D'Arthur is by William  Russell Flint.

There was a Dulac nearby, however. It is difficult to take pictures of these illustrations, because they are behind glass, but the image is from Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen. The snow queen's carriage is brightening the left of the picture.

I was curious about this illustration by John Everett Millais. I have recently seen the film Effie Gray, who romantically became his wife after an unconsummated first marriage to John Ruskin.

There was a whole section of the museum devoted to performance and theatre which was delightful, and again, a section I had not explored on previous visits. This circus poster is (most obviously!) the inspiration for The Beatles' song Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.

There is so much to see at the V&A that repeated visits are a must. Exit through the gift shop is always interesting...A plethora of ceramic buttons caught my attention.

Visit to London - part 1

I was in London for a few days, just over a week ago. First I spent a couple of days in Surbiton (just outside London) with my cousin and her partner. Back in 1981, my cousin was visiting Toronto (where I originate) and I gave her a couple of monoprints before she returned home to Ireland.

My cousin moved to England in the late 1980s and took the prints with her. I am happy to say that she got them framed and they have been hanging in her home ever since. I remember that these monoprints were part of a series of abstracted flower prints, but I am pretty sure they are the only ones left in existence now, thanks to my cousin who really liked them.

While in Surbiton, we took a cab to Kingston-on-Thames to enjoy a bbq dinner and evening of live music at the Ram Jam blues club. It was an excellent night, and I was especially impressed by the young double bass player - she was amazing!

Last Monday we took the train into the city. It was a very roundabout route as there had been a train derailment the night before that was still causing schedule disruptions. Despite this, we got to our hotel near Earlscourt in good time and walked over to the Natural History Museum. When we had been there a few years ago, a lot of the museum was closed for renovation, so it was delightful to walk around in the late afternoon, and revisit the beautiful halls.

The architecture in the great hall is stunning!

Actually, the architectural details in the whole museum is quite breathtaking. Both the old sections and the contemporary sections have amazing details. Though I have no pictures of the contemporary areas, I do recommend the environmental display areas, and my favourite -- the big earth ball installation near the side entrance that an escalator will facilitate a journey through.

It was dark when we left the museum, and all the trees were decorated with fairy lights - showing off nature's architecture!

Sticks - accordion book

I conceived of "Sticks" as a simple accordion book for a single, long format intaglio print with ceramic covers. The print is a horizontal image of sticks based on some sketches I had done of wood debris floating in the Glencullen River in Knocksink Wood.

I had created a unique protype, "Shinrinyoku", of this image as an accordion book in June. I made the prototype to figure out how an accordion book could work, using handmade paper for the drawing and for the covers.

Because I wanted the front cover of the "Sticks" book to have some relationship to the future intaglio print, I created a bark stamp that could be pressed into the clay slabs that would be my book's front covers

The stamp itself was simply made from some scrap wood and the bark affixed to the front of the stamp with pva glue.

Although I coated the entire stamp to seal it, when using it on the clay it worked better to have a layer of cling film (Saran wrap) between the stamp and the clay slab. For the back covers, I simply used a rubber stamp kit to press my name in the clay slabs.

I was doing an edition of ten books, so needed 10 final intaglio prints of the image. I have detailed how I converted a pasta machine into a flatbed press in a previous blog (here). The small prints created using this press are only limited in size in one direction (in this case the length is shorter than the width). The prints are on Khadi 100% acid free handmade Indian rag paper.

When the prints were ready I did a general layout of how I would like the completely open book to appear, with both the front and back covers visible. This would give me an idea of how to fold the book.

Or rather, giving my trusty assistant the idea of how to make the folds (I fully recognise that my husband tends to measure more accurately than I!).

The prints were affixed to the background of Fabriano with pva, along the top only, prior to making the folds.

Components ready to be turned into books!

A view of the back of the accordion book.

A view of the front of "Sticks".

Ghost - accordion book

I conceived of the book Ghost as a complex accordion book vehicle for a series of  prints that utilised the blind embossing print technique (i.e., embossing with no ink or colour added). I have shown images of this technique and the prints on a previous blog a few weeks ago (Oct 4 2017) and full details of how to convert a pasta machine to a small printing press on Sept 20 2017. The main  thing was to methodically go through all the steps in creating the book once I had the prints done. I started with the cover, which is made from heavy weight 100% acid free blotting paper with the title stitched using white embroidery thread (6 strand cotton).

After designing the lettering I used a heavy card template, first poking the holes in it, and then poking through those holes to the blotting paper cover below. Pre-holing the covers made for easy stitching.

Here are several of the covers prior to stitching.

As there were five prints to accommodate, my book required a long background page for folding. I realised I needed to glue two pieces of the Fabriano paper together to create the required length.

Lots of measuring and use of my trusty bone folder!

An accordion page.

I made a clear general layout before going near any pva glue!

I had already glued (pva) squares of thin acid free paper to the front and back covers and weighted them overnight so that they were affixed firmly. I wasn't taking any chances with trying to glue my accordion page to blotting paper covers. The half ends of the accordion page were firmly affixed to the covers via the paper already on the cover.

The Fabriano paper has a front and a back, so where the company sticker was already on the back I left it and marked other pages lightly with a soft pencil. When the book was complete I removed all stickers and gently erased all markings.

Here the books are all together, with the blind embossed prints waiting to be affixed to their ordered part of the accordion.

The finished book with all the prints affixed to their pages.