My new studio!!!

The first prints being created in studio down....studio up is upstairs where technology is based....!

Pronto plate inked ready to be printed on Japanese  paper for the 'dream' book

Little shell book....we are thinking about titles ......

Litho printed Japanese paper with typed inserts on onion skin paper.

A maquette of book using the plaster cast paper shell

Plaster cast shells and Japanese paper

So we have  now tried three different kinds of Japanese paper on the casts

Two on the left with mulberry paper

Two in the middle with gampi paper

Two on the right with bib tengujo paper 

They each have their own qualities

I might try to varnish one and see if that increases the translucency......

Black and white prints

I had one of those black and white disposable cameras tucked away in a drawer, really old, and thought it would be a good idea to take it with us to Findhorn.  I am blown away with the results ...beyond any expectations they are stunning.  Just going to try and work out how to use them, they are so wonderful  it will be quite tricky.  The quality of them is so beautiful it has made me consider reviving my old Olympus SLR.  This is just a quick digital photo of the B & W photo, a taster as it were

Razor clam book

Another book reaches completion today, really pleased with this one as well...it is lovely to hold and flip through reading the beach haiku as you go

The pages ready, folded and typed ( on my old eastern block type writer) on Japanese paper

The cover and beautiful spine....

Some pages

The cover is mulitple layers litho printed 

Paper casting

During in our collaboration last year we went paper casting and made some fabulous casts with Stephanie Spindler and Alison Newman of PULP in Glasgow.  Yesterday we had a go at casting some Japanese paper in the plaster shells with great success ...I am really excited with the results especially the thinner more transluscent shell

This one is two layers of paper

This one is three layers of paper

When placed on a printed background the detail of the shell is more pronounced.

We are aiming to adhere the cast shells to the front and back of this book  ...

mussel book

Having had a fraught day yesterday with technology we drove to Dinas  Dinlle beach  and collected some shore debris for our project.

Today we are finishing off the first book from Findhorn...the mussel book

Looking at the entire page collection we have drawn to get an idea of what we want to work with

We divided the collection into two piles  each working from dark to light and stitched them....

The book with the pages

Madeleine suggested a black cover which worked beautifully with the shell/spine...

however we ended up using a litho print from our last collaboration of beach work, incorporating black and blue which echoes the mussels colours.

And here the finished book....really pleased with this