Advance Notice about our last Session before the Summer Break

We are going to have our Summer Break after our Session in June, coming back for some more lovely stuff in September. The session in June will be on Saturday morning, the 13th, as usual at Phoenix Gallery, 10.30 to 12.30 in the Green Room and as it's the last before the break, make sure you remember the date and we will be delighted to welcome you. More details will follow, although we will be having Ed Boxall and Kim Pace as our visiting artists, so look out for more on these two talented people when further details are published, both here on the Blog and on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/sussexbookartscollective Put the date in your diary or on your calendar so you don't miss this opportunity. Ed has published lots of great books as well as loads more stuff including wonderful drawings, and Kim has exhibited here and abroad, has curatorial work to her credit, and is thinking about publishing a graphic novel. She is currently Acting Pathway Leader for Sculpture at Wimbledon, University of the Arts, London. These two are bound to give us an inspiring morning, don't you think?!

More News from the Book Arts ...

Next weekend sees the opening of Turn the Page, the Book Arts Fair in Norwich. Some of our members will be showing their work, and it is on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd May at The Forum, Norwich.

Saturday 25 April - Guest Artist JoWOnder

Come and join us for the next session of the Book Arts Collective. Meeting 10.30 to 12.30 at Phoenix Gallery, Brighton in the Green Room and have great pleasure in welcoming JoWOnder who will be our guest. Jo will be sharing some of her interactive book Soup Bowl Stories, and she will talk about her Best of Sail artwork currently on show in Australia. Jo will be looking at how the internet can be used for networking, and she will be telling us about the new developments with BritishWomenArtists.com, which she founded. See more at jowonder.com

March Book Art with Ottilie Hainsworth and Rosie Sherwood

On 14 March 2015 Sussex Book Arts Collective had another inspirational session with two very talented guest book artists Ottilie Hainsworth and Rosie Sherwood.

Image below: Rosie Sherwood, In the Gutter (2013), project in paper, resin, and bronze, 

exploring how the comic book space is used to visualise time.

 

Meeting Introduction:

Dorry Smallman (Sussex Book Art Forum founder) made an announcement that the next Book Arts Collective meeting will take place on the 25th of April 2015. For those on Meetup.com who have joined us, these book art events will now only be advertised on the Meetup Sussex Artists, and the Meetup Creative Arts pages, so please look there for further news. 

Mariya Ustymenko spoke of the upcoming book fair opportunities, making a suggestion for Sussex Book Arts Collective regulars to exhibit collectively at the following events that are coming up in the next few months. These events include:
Alternative Takeover 2015, Saturday 9th of May (London)

In the second event of our Takeover Series, we’ll be taking over 47/49 Tanner Street with a day that champions all radical publishing – from its independent bookshops and publishers to its DIY-ers; the small press, self-publishers, and zinesters.

If you would like to participate in the joint submission for the table at the fair, please, contact Dorry or Mariya by the 20th of March.   

 

 

 

 

DIY Cultures 2015 at Rich Mix, Sunday 24th of May (London)

There will be a FREE communal table for people with one-off zines to sell at the event above. Bring your zines on the day!

Other Book Arts Events Not to Miss

Liverpool Artists Books Fair, 4th of July (Liverpool) submissions open

Turn the Page 2015, 1st and 2nd of May (Norwich) submissions closed

Sheffield International Artist's Book Prize, closing date: 31st May 2015

Also watch out for Press and Release 2016 Artist's Book exhibition submission guidelines to appear soon at www.phoenixbrighton.org

 

Above: Paper theatre project.

Our guest speaker Ottilie Hainsworth (ott216.wix.com/ottilie) was the first to talk about her starting points, working with recycled materials, books as tactile objects, and the challenges of working very small.

Ottilie is currently running drop in drawing and book making Thursday sessions in Brighton and you can now follow the artist on Twitter.

Our next guest speaker Rosie Sherwood talked about her work, which is often photography based,and inspired by comics, as well as her experiences as an independent micropublisher (AYU Publishing) and the editor of the international zine Elbow Room, open to submission in all media.

 

In the Gutter - Limited First Edition of 5, Copyright 2013

The session concluded with the networking time spent perusing the wonderful work brought by our guest speakers.

 

We are on Facebook too - http://www.facebook.com/sussexbookartcollective.  Please 'like' us while you are there!

Great Book Art Session coming up!

Don't forget, it's our Book Art Session on Saturday morning, 14th March 2015.  It's something wonderful to do on a Saturday, and it is bound to be a stimulating session with our two guest visitors coming along to tell us all about their Book Art Work.  It begins at 10.30 am, so don't be late for this forthcoming event.  Only just over a week to go!


Our visitors are Ottilie Hainsworth (ott216.wix.com/ottilie) and Rosie Sherwood (ayupublishing.com), both experienced in the book art processes and ready to wow us with a glimpse into their talented and accomplished arty worlds.  See our previous blog entry for more details, and make sure you BOOK the morning off from the usual stuff to come along and join us.  Everyone is welcome - you might just be curious, you may be good at book art work, you may be a beginner.  We will be pleased to meet you.  Just turn up at The Phoenix Gallery, Waterloo Place, Brighton (www.phoenixarts.org) to sit in and see what is happening, 10.30 to 12.30.


As well, we are going to have a chat about forthcoming ideas for collaborations, selling stuff, being in shows and other such delights, so ....   especially useful if you want to move forward with your booky/papery art work and be seen out there in other places on the planet.


We are on Facebook too - http://www.facebook.com/sussexbookartcollective.  Please 'like' us while you are there!


By the way, if you are a member of Meetup, look on the Creative Arts in Brighton Meetup page - we have moved to there recently.

Saturday 14th March 2015 - NEWS UPDATE

Come and join us for the next Book Arts session on 14th MARCH 2015, 10.30 to 12.30 at the usual place, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton.  (Map at www.phoenixarts.org) and enjoy a pleasurable morning, relaxing in great company and having a chat.


We will be welcoming the accomplished Rosie Sherwood, and the talented Ottilie Hainsworth to talk to us about their work.  Recommended for a stimulating morning, and a chance to see what might influence your own work.  As well as an opportunity to network!  Here's a bit about them -


Ottilie
Ottilie studied illustration at Glasgow School of Art and the Royal College of Art.  She makes very limited editions of handmade books, etchings and cards.  She is really interested in finding ways of telling 'picture stories', particularly through comics or graphic novels.


Recently, she worked on "Brighton, The Graphic Novel".  She teaches a drawing group called "Come Draw With Me" at Bombane's café in Brighton.


Her website is at http://ott216.wix.com/ottilie


Rosie
Rosie Sherwood's work is driven by storeytelling and an exploration of narrative construction.  Book Art lies at the heart of Sherwood's interdisciplinary practice, with sequence, structure and language, both visual and written, playing important roles.  It is Sherwood's intention to make art that tells stories: emotionally, conceptually and physically.


Sherwood founded AYUpublishing (http://ayupublishing.com) in 2012, a micro-press through which she produces her own work and publishes Elbow Room, a series of art journals and live events.  She graduated from Camberwell College of Art with an MA in Book Arts in 2013.  She has delivered papers on the comic book as book art, and her work can be found in various collections, including The Poetry Library, Tate Library and Archive, and the National Galleries of Scotland.


Everyone welcome!  All abilities, the curious, and those seeking inspiration and a reasonably good cuppa. Grab your place at 10.30 sharp.  See you there....

Latest News on the Collective's activities

Sussex Book Art Collective Meeting Saturday 17 January by Alice Lunt, Guest Blogger today

Starting from basics: our first meeting of 2015 began with a workshop led by Clare Nias, facilitator of flying books (www.flyingbooks.net) on a cold Saturday morning. We started slightly earlier than usual at 10.15. (Normally we meet Saturdays between 10.30 and 12.30 in the Green Room, Phoenix Studios, Brighton every 2 months. New members always welcome!)

This was the first practical workshop our Collective had organised and we started right from the beginning, learning about Concertina Books (also known as Zig-zag books). Clare showed us examples of this type of book from her collection, often small and made by her students, one fitting inside a matchbox, another even smaller one bought from a supermarket in Chinatown, London.

She showed us that from this very simple structure it was possible to elaborate in different directions: adding end boards to form covers, and how the concertina structure could evolve into dos-a-dos books (where two or more books are bound together within the concertina). There were different types of papers and card for us to experiment with during the workshop, as well as stencils and stamps. We saw how it was possible to add 3D details with foam card and how the subject matter could inform the shape of the book, for example St. Bartholomew Church, Brighton. There was also an example of a double Zig-zag book for us to look at. In this structure the pages are slit so that a second concertina can be threaded through.

Clare then took us through the practical basics: making the fold. We were each given about 12 inches of till roll paper and shown the folding sequence starting in the middle and then making a series of “valleys and mountains”. Then we were left to experiment and play.

Dorry (Smallman) showed us a book: “Magic books & Paper Toys” by Esther K.Smith, published by the fantastically named Purgatory Pie Press in New York City, a book brim full of ways to manipulate paper and card to make mind-boggling paper structures that I could happily use myself and with my daughters (who attended the meeting and by this time were having a great time collaging, folding and sticking with all the interesting scraps of paper provided.)

Dorry also introduced us to the Hougie board (www.hougiecrafts.com) a “double sided plastic scoring board that gives you accurate measuring in centimetre and inch increments” and seems like an important tool for crafters working with card and thicker paper, “as it really helps to get a good clean fold exactly where you need it”. By this time I was deep into the activity, Paddington Bear style, so there was nothing neat or clean about my folds. But I’m sure that with time and less frantic behaviour (looking through books, finding paper/card/tools, photographing other people’s work, writing notes for the blog, keeping my girls away from the biscuits) I too would master the Hougie board and the concertina book structure. I already have an idea for a piece inspired by the concertina/Dos-a-dos structure brewing in my head as I write this blog.

Here are some images of work-in-progress created by members of the Collective:-

The workshop was followed by a talk by Vanessa Marr, a Graphic Designer, who has completed the MA in Sequential Design and Illustration at the University of Brighton and previously worked for the publishers Dorling Kindersley. She talked us through her work, her interest in sewing and fairy-tales, poetry and domesticity.

She showed us pieces that she had made during her MA, her work based around Cinderella evolving into her latest project, a series of yellow dusters with text embroidered on to them by herself and members of the public. The piece is called “Women & Domesticity: what’s your perspective?” and will be shown in a pop-up space in Eastbourne to coincide with International Women’s Day, on 28th February.

Alice Lunt is a practising interdisciplinary Artist working across Live Art and Installation boundaries using anything that fits her vision including text, image, film and objects. She studied at Brighton and Chelsea and is a keen member of the Book Art Collective, sporadically making books, sometimes to document her performances.

www.walkintomyparlour.com

www.aliceluntteaandsympathy.com